Tell us about your background
I grew up wanting to be a teacher, I loved helping people and I wanted my job to feel like it had a purpose. I loved math and I despised the thought of having a desk job, so teaching seemed like the only route I could take. I did just that, and after graduating with my credentials I began teaching High School math at age 23. Around this time I met and got engaged to my now husband who is an active duty marine. After teaching in CA we moved to FL and then NC, all the while I’m teaching math trying to keep up with moving my credentials state to state and coping with the fact that I was pretty miserable teaching. I realized I needed a career change and I left teaching after only 3 years. I definitely felt like a failure. That was my identity for a long time.. everyone knew I wanted to teach and then I failed at it.  

Then what happened?!
Desperate for a change, and with very little options with teaching credentials, I decided to get my real estate license in January 2020 (now stationed in Camp Lejeune, NC) just to give it a try. I passed my exams in March, the day before testing centers shut down for COVID, had my first sale in June, and since then I’ve closed 10 deals and 2.6 million in sales in a market with $220,000 average sale price.  

Wow! We’re listening…
I won Rookie of the Year at my brokerage! I LOVE this job and after being so unhappy for 3 years it is such an incredible feeling day after day to not be miserable with my career. Of course there are hard days, but I am still helping people just like I wanted, and I get to do math sometimes 😉

What is your favorite part about being a realtor? 
Probably my favorite part and where I feel the most successful is that I recently got my MRP cert (Military Relocation Professional), and I am honored to get to help military families with the stressful PCS life of CONSTANT moves. I moved 3 times in one year, I bought a house without ever seeing it. So I really get it, I get what military families go through. I created my social media page to connect with military families and to be that understanding person who can help them with a complicated move (@CampLejueneConnection).  

What’s your secret sauce on social?
My word for 2021 is “authenticity”. It’s easy to paint a certain picture on social media, but I want my followers to gain information from my page. I post the good AND the bad stories about real estate, because let’s be honest, there is ALWAYS going to be some sort of issue in a transaction. I am fully myself on my page and I think that’s what gets the most interactions, and the information I put out there educates clients on the real estate world!

How has Coffee & Contracts influenced your social media game?
C&C has enormously helped my business because of the TIME I have! Before C&C, I was making everything in Canva and honestly was very comfortable with it, and I think I was making solid content. The problem is, I was spending WAY too long on templates and captions and trying to think of creative things to post. I was losing time I could have been prospecting, and when my deals got busy my social media lacked. C&C allows me to keep my business going smoothly AND have a beautiful, interactive, informational, and authentic social media page.

 

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written by

Claudia Bell

Claudia is C&C's Marketing Director with a background in retail, commercial, hotel and residential real estate.

A Florida Native, Claudia loves being outdoors and on the water. Find her exploring homes in historic neighborhoods, squeezing a lime on something, or planning a trip somewhere off the beaten path.

Simple pleasures: a made bed and a hot baguette.