Iliana Abella is the co-owner of Great Miami Investments in Coral Gables.
Every week, we ask a Miami real estate professional for their thoughts on the top three stories from the week before.
This week, we talked with Iliana Abella, the co-owner of Greater Miami Investments in Coral Gables. Iliana has been working in real estate since 1988, and has owned GMI since 1990, building it from a two-person operation to today’s brokerage, which features 58 sales associates.
Miami Agent (MA): Say an agent is starting out, and he or she wants to become a top producer; what would your two biggest tips be for them to reach that status?
Iliana Abella (IA): Answer your phone. I have Realtors that get in trouble because they don’t answer their phone; they don’t return phone calls. The number one rule in real estate is service – the service that you provide your clients and whoever calls you. This is part of being successful. If you don’t answer your phone and you don’t answer your emails, you can never be a top producer.
You also have to follow through, you have to be responsible, you have to know your market and you need to be able to answer questions for your clients.
MA: What kinds of amenities/styles of homes appear to be garnering the most among your buyer clients?
IA: If we’re talking about single-family homes, they would prefer the house be electrically updated and plumbing updated; in the Gables, there are quite a few older, Spanish-style homes from the ’50s, and people are concerned with the mechanical aspects of the property.
On the condo side, a lot of people are looking for a good view; we sell a lot on Brickell Avenue and on the beach. And whether the water or the city, people are looking for a good view.
MA: Finally, can you explain the value of good real estate photography for listings?
IA: Some Realtors want to save money on photography, but that is the best money that you can spend, when you’re talking about marketing. Your pictures are everything. Since we now have the ability to upload our listings to many different websites, when you have good pictures, you pretty much have everything, so the quality of your pictures should be good.
When Realtors only place one photo, that’s not good. So you should have at least 15 to 16 photos; if you can put up 25, great. But the more pictures you can put, the better.