By CASSIE MCKEE, Four Points News
With $62.6 million in sales generated in 2013, local residential real estate agent Gene Arant of the Gene Arant Team, Keller Williams Realty was named a 2014 “Top Realtor” in Austin by the Austin Business Journal for the fourth year in a row.
For the past 15 years, ABJ has invited Austin-area realtors to submit their numbers for the “Top Realtors” survey. Agents are divided into categories, depending on the size of their team, and all are ranked by total sales volume for the prior year.
Arant, whose office is at 4304 N. Quinlan Park Rd., placed first among realtors with four to seven licensed agents. The rankings were unveiled a few weeks ago at a sold-out luncheon.
Gene Arant
Arant said one of the biggest factors of his success is setting aside a specific time each day to maintain relationships with his clients.
“Monday through Friday from 9-12, I am on the phone staying in touch with past, current and future clients, making sure I am clear on any real estate needs and seeing how we can help, whether it’s simply giving advice on interest rates and refinancing a home, to improvements that make sense for resale, to investing for their financial freedom in the future,” Arant said.
“It’s a consultation approach not a press for business. Letting them know I’m thinking about them, taking notes and then following up. There is a great reciprocity to giving first and then receiving,” he added.
While the Austin real estate market was considered a buyer’s market for several years beginning in 2009, Arant said the market shifted quickly and is now a seller’s market.
“With 2.4 months of inventory in Austin, we are a very blessed city with the amount of jobs created and the people that want to live here,” he said.
Typically, when inventory is under 6 months, it’s consider a seller’s market and the United States as a whole is setting at 4.9 months, he added, “so we are not the only ones feeling the swing in the market.”
Arant has lived in Austin for the past 33 years and has worked in real estate for 20 of those. He and his family live in Steiner Ranch.
He said rather than focus on one specific area of town, his agents tend to help clients all over town.
“We are happy to say “Big and Small, we help them all,’” he said. “We meet the client where they are in life, if they are moving up, downsizing, helping a past clients kids as a first time home buyer or buying their dream waterfront home, we do really just enjoy the process.”
He said if he could give one piece of advice to new realtors, it is to find the best training possible.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “There are so many great realtors that have amazing businesses and are willing to share how they did it. Shadow, learn, get a coach, mentor, show up every day to make a difference for your clients.”