All You Need Is Love: Meet Sally Love Real Estate, Inc.

Michael Jordan. Tom Brady. Wayne Gretzky.

Toss out any of those names, and most people will immediately know who you're talking about. Better yet, they'll know exactly what those names did in their respective fields. Take it a step further, and call any of them the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time)? Sure, you might get some debate about who deserves the moniker most, but few will argue just how influential those names have been over the last few decades.

And while it's easy to highlight the heroes of recent sports history, it might be even easier to shine a spotlight on the real estate G.O.A.T. serving the nearly 130,000 people in America's premier 55+ community in Central Florida.

With over a decade and a half of experience as a REALTOR® working in The Villages®, Sally Love has topped the list of go-to real estate stars.

Less than two years ago, Sally decided to open her own brokerage. Since opening the doors of Sally Love Real Estate, Inc. in November 2019, the company has grown exponentially as Love's philosophy of "putting customers first" took center stage. In 18 months, co-owner Jeff Beatty says Sally Love Real Estate has "gone from six agents to about 70 agents, and is doing about a quarter of a billion dollars a year in transactions and growing every month."

"[Sally Love] really is the G.O.A.T.," Beatty adds. "The company is less than two years old but has had tremendous growth, and we attribute that to Sally and everything she did in the preceding years."

Sally says, "Let me share a metric I am extremely proud of. If you look at the list of the top 25 agencies selling real estate in The Villages®, we have 16 Sally Love agents who, on the basis of their own production, would earn a spot as a top 25 agency in January through May of 2021."

*Data Extracted from Stellar MLS 01/01/2021 - 5/31/2021

An Overnight Success, 15 Years in the Making

Sally Love began working exclusively as a REALTOR® in The Villages in 2006. For over 15 years, she achieved No. 1 agent status of all MLS companies in The Villages and, while working at Realty Executives, built what Beatty calls "a really great team around her," with Cindy Wise as her business partner. The pair worked together for eight years, recording even more growth, and, in 2013, Love created her own support team of assistants to help continue her work.

Then, about two and a half years ago, Love and Beatty crossed paths. The pair began discussing the industry, working in The Villages, and how, for years, people had encouraged Love to open her own agency. Suddenly, it seemed like the perfect time to do just that, and Sally Love Real Estate, Inc. was born.

Of course, starting a business is never easy. Even with Love's reputation in The Villages, Sally Love Real Estate started with only a handful of agents and, on opening day, sat last in production among the 140-plus companies doing business in The Villages community.

It didn't take long for that to change.

Buoyed by Love's experience and her already strong relationships with those in The Villages and the surrounding areas, the company hit the fast-forward button on its growth. In less than two years, Sally Love Real Estate is ranked No. 2 among companies doing business in The Villages. This year, the company expects to record transactions on approximately 1,000 units.

"[Sally Love Real Estate] has a reputation as a very agent-friendly place," Beatty says. "There's been a migration of excellent agents who decided that they had enjoyed working with Sally before and would like to work with her in her agency. And while Sally's name was the initial draw, what has impressed people and helped hold them here and created a buzz about getting more people to come, are the people that are part of...our leadership team."

With so many great agents looking to jumpstart their careers at Sally Love, it's no surprise that the company's reputation for success has only continued to grow, particularly when selling homes. After all, the numbers don't lie.

In 2020, Sally Love Real Estate, Inc. boasted the highest average sales price, nearly $30,000 higher than the next closest competitor, and the fewest days on the market at 36. How long did homes sold by the number two sit on the market? Forty-five, more than a full week longer.

*Data Extracted from Stellar MLS 01/01/2020 - 12/31/2020

Establishing a Mindset of Success

Helping the community within The Villages and beyond find their forever homes is what Sally Love Real Estate is all about, and while the growth has skyrocketed, the focus hasn't simply been on numbers. As Beatty says, "growth that happens too quickly, without adequate support can fail." That's why Sally Love Real Estate has also worked to establish a strong foundation, full of knowledgeable agents and a leadership team whose goal is to make sure those same agents can do their jobs to the best of their ability.

"We put the plumbing in place, if you will, first," Sally explains, "We hired the support team, and we went through the machinations about hiring the right people. We also experimented with promising technologies. We had two previous web and CRM providers before we found and locked into Delta Media Group. We needed to make sure that when those migrating or new agents arrived, they were going to have outstanding support. That's a big factor for the success of balancing the growth without a big stumble."

Assistant General Manager Julie Gordon, an experienced agent before joining Sally Love, also runs the Jumpstart Program, a five-class program to provide agents insights on the best ways of working in The Villages.

Gordon adds that making sure agents are knowledgeable about not only the market, but what it takes to be successful in it, is one of the biggest undertakings for Sally Love. By keeping agents informed, up-to-date, and ready to help customers, Sally Love is living up to its promise of being "The Smarter Choice" in the Central Florida real estate world.

"Training is incredibly important, for us as agents, but also for us as management and the support staff," Gordon says. "We have to constantly learn. It takes a village to make everybody successful, and it all starts from the top and works down.

"We've built our brokerage around an amazing person and an amazing name," Gordon continues. "And that comes ahead of everything else, that everybody knows that reputation. It's up to us to continue that."

Sally says, "We've had great people who were brokers in Illinois, brokers in Massachusetts, or elsewhere, who are now here, and our 'Jumpstart Program' and other training, helps them get spun up very quickly on how to do business in this particular micro-market."

That internal support and constant drive to be better makes Sally Love one of the most appealing destinations for agents. From extra training courses to celebrating every career victory and advancement, Sally Love offers a camaraderie not often found at other agencies.

"We add that personal touch with an agent," Gordon says. "We know their kids' names; we know their dog's names. [Manager of Digital Operations] Taylor [Morgan] spends time helping them navigate the technology and supports them that way. [Assistant Manager of Digital Operations] Madison [Guinn] supports them on the social media side. It's adding that little extra."

"They know they can call us at any time," Morgan adds. "When a Sally Love Agent gets a listing and needs help with advertising or marketing, they can call us. We'll sit down with them, walk them through some things and help them market, advertise, and make sure they're up to date with all the technology."

When Sally Love first began mulling over the idea of opening her agency, she opted to do so as an independent MLS agency. With no connections to any national franchises, Sally Love agents aren't required to pay annual fees to a national organization. That means they're able to focus that money on advertising clients' homes and, as Sally Love's philosophy says, "putting customers first." Instead of being beholden to big-name brokerages, Sally Love can focus, quite literally, on its own name and, by extension, its reputation, especially in a community as close-knit as The Villages. Sally says, "I don't rule anything out in the future, but if we ever associate with a national brand, it will have to be because that brand brings the ability to significantly add to the bottom line for our agents."

Gordon explains: "Everybody around the world knows some of those name brands. But once you step into the small individual market, that is The Villages, I don't know that anybody's reputation is better than Sally Love. It becomes personal. We pride ourselves on being more personal instead of just a number or another check box. We build personal relationships with the people that we work with."

Welcome to The Villages

Maintaining those personal relationships with clients has become part and parcel of the Sally Love experience and separates the company from the rest of the pack in one of the country's most interesting markets. A collection of retirement neighborhoods in the heart of Florida, The Villages is one of the fastest-growing master-planned communities in the country. Home to one of the highest concentrations of veterans in the United States, The Villages boasts more than 20 veteran groups and organizations. Over 50 golf courses, plenty of shopping and dining options, and recreation events also make The Villages one of the most bustling communities in the state. And while Sally Love Real Estate doesn't work exclusively in The Villages, relating to those who live, or want to live, within the area is crucial to the company's continued success.

It's also required a bit of evolution over the last few years.

"I used to work in other places where it was important for you to mirror the demographic of the population you serve to be more effective in serving them," Beatty says. "Here, we're dealing with the 55+ community. So we started with a population that almost mirrored that in terms of agents. Since then, though, we've brought in a tremendous cadre of younger agents and are covering the waterfront.

"We have numerous agents in their twenties who are just kicking it," Beatty continues. "They're doing great, but I think we started with a core, and we built out from there. We started with the No. 1 and No. 4 Realtors of all time in The Villages; they were among our first six agents at Sally Love. So, people flock to that."

Working in The Villages means understanding the community. As the real estate industry has gone predominantly digital, Sally Love has kept pace while still finding a balance between the old and new. That means weekly newspaper ads are just as normal as social media campaigns to drive people to Sally Love's website.

"We don't want to be a one-trick pony," Sally says. "You have to be able to reach folks who use all different types of media. With the team we have, we're able to do that."

Of course, it's not all work for Sally Love. Building meaningful relationships requires meaningful action, and Sally Love isn't interested in one-and-done real estate transactions. So, whether it's supporting local soup kitchens or food drives or sponsoring Team America, which captured a championship its very first year in The Villages softball league, Sally Love is a major part of turning the neighborhood into something more than simply homes and well-manicured front lawns. Even the Sally Love office plays host to community events, and this summer, they plan to hold an adopt-a-pet day.

"We're a soft-touch, really," Sally adds, "when the community comes to us and says, 'Can you support something?' We do."

Sally Love and Delta Media Group

As Sally Love continues to expand its real estate footprint, one of the most important factors is having a dependable tech partner, and they've found it in Delta Media Group. After working with two other providers in the early days of the company, it didn't take Sally Love long to realize Delta provided, not only the most bang for its buck, but a platform agents thrive on.

"When we bring potential new agents through, and Madison and Taylor give them a technology orientation, sometimes I've said to Taylor, 'Okay, demonstrate to them how responsive Delta Media's help desk is,'" Beatty says. "It's just seconds when Delta Media's support team has popped up and said, 'How can we help you?' And we say, 'Don't need anything, this was just a test.' But that means a lot to the agents to know that not only in here but also on our Delta Media platform, they have great access to really responsive support."

Utilizing the industry-leading tools within the DeltaNET® 6, Beatty adds that Sally Love agents have been quick to praise everything the CRM offers. In fact, he says, "probably one-third of the agency came on board, in part, because, even if they didn't know Sally that well, they learned what kind of support we had. That's what Delta Media provides us."

Tech tools and a powerful CRM aren't all Delta and Sally Love have teamed up on recently. After Guinn geo-fenced the 105-plus neighborhoods within The Villages, Delta worked to provide a game-changing search function for the company's website, giving would-be clients the ability to search by location. If they want to live only in the village of Duval? Easy, they simply have to click on it.

Morgan lauded Josh Endres, Delta Media Project Manager and Tech Support Specialist, in particular for his work on the project, calling him "patient and able to work with us to get exactly what we needed. It was fantastic working with him and Delta."

Sally Love has also integrated third-party technologies, including lead generation, directly into their CRM thanks to Delta's tech know-how. And in a market as competitive as The Villages, being able to depend on their tech has helped Sally Love grab leads quickly, effectively turning them into profit and, more importantly, another jump in success.

"The Delta platform makes it easy for us to post social media ads from our website to Facebook, to direct customers back to us, resulting in more leads," Guinn says. "And the lead quality is measurably better."

What's Next for Sally Love

Soaring to the top of the real estate market is no simple feat; that's why Sally Love is far from satisfied. Despite everything the company has accomplished in its first few years, the push to be better is felt from top to bottom.

For Sally Love, success is borne from a willingness to change. To know what works and what doesn't, and embrace the market as your own. Turning to the future, it's those things that Sally Love believes will help continue to make all the difference and ensure the company continues to be "The Smarter Choice."

"We have to reinforce what works. We have to discontinue what doesn't work," Beatty says. "And we have to constantly anticipate the environment. Not just be ready for what's there today, but be ready to dominate in this marketplace a month, six months, six years from now. That means staying abreast of technology, staying abreast of trends, continuing to educate ourselves. And you just can't rest. That's the bottom line."

To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.