“I Love What I Do”

Beverly Sonnier, Broker/Owner of Help-U-Sell Southeast Rita Ranch Realty, has been serving the Tucson, Arizona area with her brokerage office since 2003. She and her husband, Jimmie, received their real estate licenses in the early 90s. What makes Beverly a standout from other Help-U-Sell broker/owners is that she is part of an elite club of people in real estate who have only ever worked within the Help-U-Sell system.

Beverly got her start as a mortgage banker. She met one of our long-term pillars of the Help-U-Sell community, John Powell, back when he was running his own office. It was through John that she became interested in real estate. “I was running a little Cajun restaurant at the time, because I like to try different things. I was already intrigued by the prospect of real estate, but John talked me into it. I decided to close the restaurant and learn something different,” Beverly said. After working with John’s office for a number of years, Beverly wanted to open her own office. Jimmie was a government retiree from both the military and the United States Postal Service. He wanted to stay active, so it was an easy post-retirement transition for him to make.

Beverly’s office appeared on a recent edition of our Top Producers list, noting that she has a goal of 25 to 30 closings for this year. The median price for a home in her market is about $190,000. She shared, “Right now we are experiencing a shortage of inventory. There are roughly 5,000 homes in my market area and as of this minute there are just 26 listings on the MLS. Homes don’t stay on the market very long – about 24 days. I have an advantage over my competitors when the consumer is educated. My goal is to give sellers knowledge of the savings conveyed by selling your home with us.”

When it comes to getting the word out, Beverly has learned diversification is key. “We are lucky to be in a very active market, but I’m always looking for ways to beef up advertising. We’ve tried many methods to find the most effective outcome, and we’ve been taking more risks to find that surprise result that will grab the right attention. My most recent endeavor is handing out the cloth reusable grocery bags, because people now must pay for the plastic bags from the grocery store. We’ve been getting a lot of positive traction off those bags, and of course we add some extra goodies in there to make it interesting for people,” Beverly explained. “I tried advertising on the sanitation station at the grocery store. We advertise in our local newspaper; which has a circulation of about 12,000. I’ve been running ads there for about a year-and-a-half.”

She continued, “We do the ‘Arounds’ postcards once a month. One of the things I learned early on, is that I don’t like postcards with a lot of verbiage on them. White space is valuable, because people don’t have the time to read a lot of fine print. If you can’t get your message across quickly and efficiently, the cumbersome language is a turn-off for them.” Her advertising message centers on: “Stop paying 6% to sell your home. Pay $3,950 instead.”

She added, “Everything has a learning curve in terms of discovering what will or won’t work. We try a little bit of everything and see what takes off. The reusable grocery bags did really well for us, and we got a listing and leads off that. However, the corresponding sanitation station hasn’t done as well for a variety of reasons, primarily poor location and visibility. Our concerns are being addressed and we expect to get the contract extended since it was a substantial investment. It’s all a part of the learning process.”

Being personal gets a lot of mileage for lasting impressions as well. Beverly sends out handwritten cards, but also enjoys cooking and baking. She is known for making candy, especially around the holidays, and makes a habit of handing it out to old and new clients which is always well received.

Jim and Beverly’s strategy for working together starts with collaborating in the morning to get the details of the day in order. “I do all the listing, selling and administrative duties. I send Jim out with buyers because he has a special touch with them. He puts up all of our signage and goes out on inspections. He’s great at filling in the gaps where is necessary,” she said appreciatively.

Beverly is still learning and has no plans on stopping. “I have many friends in this industry, my relationships with them help keep me apprised of how the market is fluctuating. I work to stay on top of our market so that I can provide expertise to our clients. I’m not a person who is driven by money, real estate is my passion. I’ve been doing this for so long now I don’t know anything else. That’s why at 75, I’m still working. I love what I do.”

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April 2019 Top Producers

Welcome to the April edition of Help-U-Sell Top Producers. Spring is continuing to be a strong showing for several of our top offices and yet we still have room for a few different names, too!

Mario Ferrante of Help-U-Sell Metropolitan in Woodhaven, Michigan, remains in first place for 2019, with 25 sides.

Jack Bailey of Help-U-Sell Greensboro comes in second with 15 sides. Jack’s team  continually illustrates that smaller teams can produce mighty results.

Richard Cricchio from Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties very nearly tied for second, coming in with 14 sides.

Several people that have been interviewed for broker profiles in recent months continue to show up in our Top Producers list; Perhaps talking to me is good luck! Shine on, Help-U-Sell rock stars.

OfficeBuyerSellerTotal Sides
Help-U-Sell
Metropolitan
121325
Help-U-Sell
Greensboro
7815
Help-U-Sell
Honolulu
Properties
6814
Help-U-Sell
Federal City
Realty
3710
Help-U-Sell
Mike Bowling
549
Help-U-Sell
Direct Savings
Real Estate
347
Help-U-Sell
Legacy
437
Help-U-Sell
Central
Properties
426
Help-U-Sell
Keystone Realty
246
Help-U-Sell
Peoples Real
Estate
156

On the Gross Sales Volume list, April showed strength in savings.  

We normally find Richard Cricchio from Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties at the top of this list, and his April performance is no exception.  Gross sales volume for Richard’s team was $7.4 million.

Marc Dosik of Help-U-Sell Federal City Realty clinched 2nd place, closing $3.2 million in sales.  Mark’s team serves the tri-state area of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.

In a very close third place is Danny Kettle and his team at Help-U-Sell Legacy in Layton, Utah. His team closed $3.1 million in sales.

The total sales volume for our top ten is $28,554,097. A traditional six percent commision would have been $1.7 million dollars, so there are a “boatload” of happy Help-U-Sell clients who banked a whole lot of savings last month. Thanks to our hard working broker offices for making people happy and saving them money, too.

Office Gross Sales volume
Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties $7,456,000
Help-U-Sell Federal City Realty $3,294,189
Help-U-Sell Legacy $3,129,808
Help-U-Sell Greensboro $3,015,400
Help-U-Sell Metropolitan $2,571,900
Help-U-Sell Silicon Valley Properties $2,030,000
Help-U-Sell 951 Realty $1,978,900
Help-U-Sell Select Real Estate $1,805,000
Help-U-Sell  Direct Savings Real Estate $1,641,000
Help-U-Sell Central Properties $1,631,900
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