Katie Benza: Educator to Top Producing Real Estate Agent

In this week’s episode, we have a very special guest, Katie Benza a real estate agent at Keller Williams Realty, Inc. She truly believes that sincerity, good communication, problem-solving skills, building relationships, and listening are essential to this profession. She has a strong background in residential sales, bank-owned properties, relocation, investor opportunities, and rental properties. Before becoming a real estate agent, she was a Special Education teacher with a Master’s in Curriculum and Leadership.

If you’d like to know how Katie went from being an educator to a top-producing real estate agent, this episode is for you!

[00:01 - 10:14] Opening Segment

• Katie shares a little bit of her background and story
• • Growing up in Cincinnati
  • Moving to Florida
  • Going from teaching to real estate
  • Thinking about quitting real estate
  • Being afraid of rejection and phone calls

[10:15 - 31:35]  Katie’s first insights about real estate

• Katie talks about the most important of working in a team

• • Goal setting
  • Achieve a certain number by the end of the year
• Katie's experience getting into the real estate business
• • Starting doing calls
  • Gaining confidence 
  • Following up and building a relationship with customers
• The role of education for agents
• • Educational training
  • Practicing and hearing from other people
  • Shadowing: Watching someone in action
• What Katie should’ve done differently
• • Interviewing brokerages and asking them how they’re going to help her as a new agent

[31:36 - 50:20] Katie Benza: Educator to Top Producing Real Estate Agent

• Katie's go-to person
• • Her driving force is her husband
  • He’s grown in the industry, and she asked for advice, especially on contracts.
• The area where  Katie needs the most improvement on
• • Delegating tasks to other people
  • She would like to do everything on her own
  • Not having a good balance between her job and personal life
• What Katie would say to a new agent
• • Having a loyalty agreement
  • Always pick up the phone
  • Following up with customer
• The importance of building strong relationships
• • You can be positively exposed to many people
  • Getting out and meeting people 
  • Building expectations for customers 

[50:21 - 1:01:01] Closing Segment

• What you know is what sets you apart

• Katie’s Travel Bucket List
• • Destin
• What is the most important thing Katie would like from a loan officer?
• • Communication
  • Knowing what that loan officer is best at
• Connect with Katie
• • See links below

• Final words

Tweetable Quotes:

“Even if you’re down, you´re gonna get back up and you’re gonna keep moving and you will do better.” - Katie Benza

“What makes us set us apart in our worlds is that we wanna do better, so we learn from our mistakes and you wanna do better next time.” - Katie Benza

“I’d say to new agents, Always pick up the phone, don’t be afraid to pick the phone- It’s okay to fail and follow up.” - Katie Benza

Connect with Katie through LinkedIn and Facebook. Make sure to check out Keller Williams Realty, Inc. Your trusted real estate experts in Northeast Florida!

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