ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.
Listen "Why Real Estate Agent Success Is Dependent On Relationships & Connection • Kevin Van Eck"
Episode Synopsis
Kevin Van Eck, the Executive Vice-President of Innovation and Education with @properties and Christie's International Real Estate, talks about his transition from a paramedic to a real-estate agent. Kevin discusses the power of connecting with people and how real estate is a relationship industry. Next, Kevin emphasizes how technology is moving so fast (AI) and why agents should be up to date all the time to be more competitive in the market. Last, Kevin discusses the agents' role in neutralizing and navigating the emotions of their clients.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Kevin Van Eck can be reached at (312) 208-1430 and [email protected]
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00Today we're going to be speaking with somebody who leads 1000s of top real estate agents across the country every single day and find out what he's telling his agents to do. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren't converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I'm your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we're going to be speaking with Kevin Van Eck from add properties and Christie's international real estate before we get to Kevin just wanted to let everyone know if you're not following us on social I really want you to and not because I want to have a big follower count. Although I guess I do want to have a big follower count. But that's not the reason I'm saying this. Because you know, you don't owe me that. But I feel like I owe you more content. So what we've started doing is clipping our episodes, including this one. And what what that means is we're finding short form sick 45 to 62nd clips of bite sized information extracted from the full episode that you guys can absorb every single day we're publishing these daily or every weekday that's not on the weekends. I'm a little too lazy to do that on the weekends, but during the week they were publishing one of these every day and we publish them to all the social media channels including Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, probably a few others on Twitter, that's the other one. Anyway, find us on there. And the easiest way to do that what's the easiest way to go to our website keeping it real pod.com I think I have all of our social links on there if not just whatever social platform you're on. Search for keeping it real hit that subscribe button and then you'll see those daily bite sized videos that will give you just a little bit of wisdom or hope every single day from one of our brilliant guests. Okay, I've made the pitch long enough please follow us on on Instagram, Facebook, etc. We appreciate it and now onto the main event my conversation with Kevin Vanek.
Today, my guest is Kevin Vanek with have properties Christie's international real estate here in Chicago. Let me tell you more about Kevin as executive vice president of innovation for Christie's international real estate Kevin plays a central role in developing and implementing a range of programs to drive growth and success among network affiliates and agents. These include technology agent performance, recruitment, retention, and third party partnerships Kevin's experience as an agent, managing broker and agent performance coach and his role in developing brokerage technology gives him a unique perspective that few in the industry have a native Chicagoland Kevin graduated from the University of Illinois is an Army veteran and a world traveler. Please learn more about the brands that Kevin represents, which is at properties as well as Christie's International to learn [email protected] and Christie's real estate, a Christie's real estate.com Both links to those will be in the show notes. Kevin, welcome to the show.
Kevin Van Eck 4:25Hi, DJ, thanks so much for having me.
D.J. Paris 4:28I'm so excited to have you on I was just at a meeting down at the Chicago Association of Realtors for this for this committee I'm on and your name, believe it or not came up. This is not a surprise as you are very well regarded and respected here in the Chicagoland area. But you now you know represent a brand that has moved beyond just the Chicagoland area, which is really truly impressive. So I'd love to well before we get to that, let's tell I want to learn about your journey. So Tell me a little bit about how you got into real estate, why you got into real estate and how you got to where you are today.
Kevin Van Eck 5:06Sure. And going back to what you started with, you know, I served at the Chicago Association of Realtors for a long time. So they have a very special place in my heart. So that made me really smile when you said that. So thank you. That's very good. I think the when I got into real estate, it wasn't planned. It's really interesting. I've had sort of a career where I've hopped around quite a bit between different industries. Like you mentioned, I served in the army, I was a paramedic, I wanted to be a trauma surgeon. And right before real estate, I was in restaurant franchising, and it was
D.J. Paris 5:41very different from being a trauma surgeon. That's,
Kevin Van Eck 5:44that's it's funny the path that we all take, because I don't think we, you know, anyone ends up where they had predicted if you ask them at 18, right? Right. So for me, it was the beginning of the downturn, and the restaurant group that I was working with, they were starting to feel it, they were based out of California, and the downturn was impacting quite a bit. And I had a friend at the time who was in real estate and said, maybe you try it, I thought my first reaction was the market is crashing is probably not probably not the smartest time to get in. And then I thought about it. And I thought about how you know, during that market would be the time to grab market share, and to actually grow a business because there were so many agents getting out of the business. And, and I saw an opportunity. And I was nervous as anyone would be I was prepared financially, but jumped into real estate. And I didn't, it was interesting. I didn't know what I was doing like most of us when we first get into real estate. And I had to learn very quickly, especially because of what was happening in the market at that time.
D.J. Paris 6:45Yeah, it's interesting, I started as a financial advisor in 2001, after that crash of the financial of the tech market in particular, and the stock market and of course, the events of 911. And it was, in some ways, it was the best time to get started because people were exiting the business, they had been burned by their financial advisors previously, who had put a lot of their assets into technology. And so in some ways, it was both the hardest time to get started. But also really fortuitous time. And I imagine you probably feel the same way when you got into real estate.
Kevin Van Eck 7:24Agreed, I think it was, you know, I didn't know what the good times were what people call the, you know, tooth out early 2000s, when it was almost, I call it the disney world of real estate. And I didn't know that. So all I knew to do was you know, from 8am to 6pm, or longer work connect prospect. And it's funny because I didn't learn, you know, I didn't have a lot of mentorship. And I could share more about that. But I didn't have anyone really teaching me the ropes. So I learned, you probably remember this DJ in a website called active rain. And it was one of the first real estate blog sites and they told, you know, they told agents just to write cards, go out to lunch, dinner, breakfast drinks, and just see your people. And that's exactly what I did. And that's really what what launched my career at the time.
D.J. Paris 8:09Yeah, it's amazing that those same principles have, meet as many people as you can connect with them, interact with them, have some sort of communication strategy so that you're sending something to them of value every so often or having conversations of value is is really sort of the discipline that even still works just as much today as it did that.
Kevin Van Eck 8:33That's right. It's the basics, right, going back to the basics. And because it's always been a relationship industry, and I don't think, you know, you and I are both very involved in tech and trying new things. And but that still hasn't replaced that one to one, that communication relationship, face to face that we have with our clients and other agents and colleagues in the industry, too. I don't think it's you know, there's a lot of been a lot of talk over the years, and especially now with AI about agents being replaced, but nothing replaces that relationship.
D.J. Paris 9:03Yeah,
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Kevin Van Eck can be reached at (312) 208-1430 and [email protected]
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00Today we're going to be speaking with somebody who leads 1000s of top real estate agents across the country every single day and find out what he's telling his agents to do. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren't converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I'm your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we're going to be speaking with Kevin Van Eck from add properties and Christie's international real estate before we get to Kevin just wanted to let everyone know if you're not following us on social I really want you to and not because I want to have a big follower count. Although I guess I do want to have a big follower count. But that's not the reason I'm saying this. Because you know, you don't owe me that. But I feel like I owe you more content. So what we've started doing is clipping our episodes, including this one. And what what that means is we're finding short form sick 45 to 62nd clips of bite sized information extracted from the full episode that you guys can absorb every single day we're publishing these daily or every weekday that's not on the weekends. I'm a little too lazy to do that on the weekends, but during the week they were publishing one of these every day and we publish them to all the social media channels including Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, probably a few others on Twitter, that's the other one. Anyway, find us on there. And the easiest way to do that what's the easiest way to go to our website keeping it real pod.com I think I have all of our social links on there if not just whatever social platform you're on. Search for keeping it real hit that subscribe button and then you'll see those daily bite sized videos that will give you just a little bit of wisdom or hope every single day from one of our brilliant guests. Okay, I've made the pitch long enough please follow us on on Instagram, Facebook, etc. We appreciate it and now onto the main event my conversation with Kevin Vanek.
Today, my guest is Kevin Vanek with have properties Christie's international real estate here in Chicago. Let me tell you more about Kevin as executive vice president of innovation for Christie's international real estate Kevin plays a central role in developing and implementing a range of programs to drive growth and success among network affiliates and agents. These include technology agent performance, recruitment, retention, and third party partnerships Kevin's experience as an agent, managing broker and agent performance coach and his role in developing brokerage technology gives him a unique perspective that few in the industry have a native Chicagoland Kevin graduated from the University of Illinois is an Army veteran and a world traveler. Please learn more about the brands that Kevin represents, which is at properties as well as Christie's International to learn [email protected] and Christie's real estate, a Christie's real estate.com Both links to those will be in the show notes. Kevin, welcome to the show.
Kevin Van Eck 4:25Hi, DJ, thanks so much for having me.
D.J. Paris 4:28I'm so excited to have you on I was just at a meeting down at the Chicago Association of Realtors for this for this committee I'm on and your name, believe it or not came up. This is not a surprise as you are very well regarded and respected here in the Chicagoland area. But you now you know represent a brand that has moved beyond just the Chicagoland area, which is really truly impressive. So I'd love to well before we get to that, let's tell I want to learn about your journey. So Tell me a little bit about how you got into real estate, why you got into real estate and how you got to where you are today.
Kevin Van Eck 5:06Sure. And going back to what you started with, you know, I served at the Chicago Association of Realtors for a long time. So they have a very special place in my heart. So that made me really smile when you said that. So thank you. That's very good. I think the when I got into real estate, it wasn't planned. It's really interesting. I've had sort of a career where I've hopped around quite a bit between different industries. Like you mentioned, I served in the army, I was a paramedic, I wanted to be a trauma surgeon. And right before real estate, I was in restaurant franchising, and it was
D.J. Paris 5:41very different from being a trauma surgeon. That's,
Kevin Van Eck 5:44that's it's funny the path that we all take, because I don't think we, you know, anyone ends up where they had predicted if you ask them at 18, right? Right. So for me, it was the beginning of the downturn, and the restaurant group that I was working with, they were starting to feel it, they were based out of California, and the downturn was impacting quite a bit. And I had a friend at the time who was in real estate and said, maybe you try it, I thought my first reaction was the market is crashing is probably not probably not the smartest time to get in. And then I thought about it. And I thought about how you know, during that market would be the time to grab market share, and to actually grow a business because there were so many agents getting out of the business. And, and I saw an opportunity. And I was nervous as anyone would be I was prepared financially, but jumped into real estate. And I didn't, it was interesting. I didn't know what I was doing like most of us when we first get into real estate. And I had to learn very quickly, especially because of what was happening in the market at that time.
D.J. Paris 6:45Yeah, it's interesting, I started as a financial advisor in 2001, after that crash of the financial of the tech market in particular, and the stock market and of course, the events of 911. And it was, in some ways, it was the best time to get started because people were exiting the business, they had been burned by their financial advisors previously, who had put a lot of their assets into technology. And so in some ways, it was both the hardest time to get started. But also really fortuitous time. And I imagine you probably feel the same way when you got into real estate.
Kevin Van Eck 7:24Agreed, I think it was, you know, I didn't know what the good times were what people call the, you know, tooth out early 2000s, when it was almost, I call it the disney world of real estate. And I didn't know that. So all I knew to do was you know, from 8am to 6pm, or longer work connect prospect. And it's funny because I didn't learn, you know, I didn't have a lot of mentorship. And I could share more about that. But I didn't have anyone really teaching me the ropes. So I learned, you probably remember this DJ in a website called active rain. And it was one of the first real estate blog sites and they told, you know, they told agents just to write cards, go out to lunch, dinner, breakfast drinks, and just see your people. And that's exactly what I did. And that's really what what launched my career at the time.
D.J. Paris 8:09Yeah, it's amazing that those same principles have, meet as many people as you can connect with them, interact with them, have some sort of communication strategy so that you're sending something to them of value every so often or having conversations of value is is really sort of the discipline that even still works just as much today as it did that.
Kevin Van Eck 8:33That's right. It's the basics, right, going back to the basics. And because it's always been a relationship industry, and I don't think, you know, you and I are both very involved in tech and trying new things. And but that still hasn't replaced that one to one, that communication relationship, face to face that we have with our clients and other agents and colleagues in the industry, too. I don't think it's you know, there's a lot of been a lot of talk over the years, and especially now with AI about agents being replaced, but nothing replaces that relationship.
D.J. Paris 9:03Yeah,
In God we trust