The quick answer to the title’s question is “By the grace of God!” but what follows is how He did it. When I first moved from Knoxville to the Gatlinburg area in 1995 to begin a brand new real estate career, I had three huge challenges:
- I had never been involved in real estate marketing of any sort.
- I was an absolute newcomer to the Sevier County area, and knew almost nobody here.
- I had very limited resources to work with.
Those first years were very challenging indeed, with not a single sale for the first 6 months. There was even a time of looking for spare change in the car to pay for a soft drink and the near repossession of an automobile that I could no longer afford. In retrospect, challenging doesn’t even begin to describe those first 2 years…
Then, again by the grace of God, I attended a seminar right here in Gatlinburg (I certainly couldn’t afford to go to any out of town meetings) and one of the speakers discussed this new internet thing and how real estate professionals should focus some of their marketing efforts there. My first career out of college (for about 8 years) was with computers so I felt that I had finally found an area that I had a real competitive advantage in. I quickly created with my own hand a very primitive website but then had a brainstorm. I didn’t need to have listings or buyers, I just needed to somehow insert myself into the middle of that flow. I did this by becoming the preferred source of information regarding Smoky Mountain properties for sale and became the first local agent to use the internet to display other broker’s listings (I still didn’t have many of my own). Things got much better very quickly.
My first website was registered early in 1998 but my primary website which is still GatlinburgHomes.com was created April 1, 1999. The impact that our websites have had on our business has been dramatic:
1998 – Number One RE/MAX Agent, Sevier County, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
1999 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, # of Residential Units Sold.
2000 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2001 – Top Selling Team, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2002 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2003 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2004 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2006 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2008 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2009 – Top Selling Office & Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2010 – Top Selling Office & Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Units Sold.
2012 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Units Sold.
While there has been a lot of hard work by my self, there has been even more work done by my hard working staff! Suzy, Mark, Giulia, Kayla, and Randy have done a great job of supporting me. These folks (and the rest of our agents) are simply the best!!
There are BIG changes coming soon at our Gatlinburg real estate office – Standby for news!!
1999 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, # of Residential Units Sold.
2000 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2001 – Top Selling Team, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2002 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2003 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2004 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2006 – Top Selling Office, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2008 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2009 – Top Selling Office & Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Dollar Volume Sold.
2010 – Top Selling Office & Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Units Sold.
2012 – Number One Agent, Great Smoky Mtn. Board of Realtors, Total Units Sold.
While there has been a lot of hard work by my self, there has been even more work done by my hard working staff! Suzy, Mark, Giulia, Kayla, and Randy have done a great job of supporting me. These folks (and the rest of our agents) are simply the best!!
There are BIG changes coming soon at our Gatlinburg real estate office – Standby for news!!