Real Estate Agent Magazine Publisher Judith Dickson sat with Faina Shapiro of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Page Realty to discuss her career, and mentors who helps her along her career.
REAM: Why did you decide to follow a career in real estate?
FS: My family from a young age instilled the importance of home ownership, equity, and property maintenance. My dad taught me the importance of being handy and my husband encourages developing my skills from installing flooring to everything in between. I work really hard to always put my clients first, and in my industry because we are paid on commission that can be rare to find. As an investor that was my challenge when I was looking for a Real Estate agent, so I made a vow to myself to be different. I want to change the way people think about investing and being a landlord. Investing does not mean having to be rich, in fact some of the best opportunities are the least expensive and often agents don’t talk about that because it is not worth their time. I want my career to be about helping everyone on any budget because we all deserve to build wealth and financial freedom.
REAM: As a young professional, what is one of the challenges you face in the industry? How do you overcome them?
FS: I find people sometimes underestimate my knowledge of the industry, but I use that to fuel my drive to become more educated and do better than my competition. My experience as a landlord, real estate investor, property manager, stager, and teacher allow me to evolve and better help my clients by also putting myself in their shoes.
REAM: Who are your real estate mentors? How do you seek to emulate them?
FS: My real estate mentors are David Knox and Jimmy Burgess. They are world renowned trainers for Real estate agents and I seek to emulate their professionalism and dedication. Last year I helped to create the Home inspection training series for David Knox and recently I just did a podcast with Jimmy Burgess about my success as an agent. I appreciate their passion to make other agents be the best they can be because I feel that we owe that to our clients.
REAM: What perspective does the younger generation bring to real estate? How can clients benefit?
FS: My perspective is to always focus on building equity and wealth in your home purchase. It is also important to not be greedy when it comes to Real estate, and I work hard to make sure whether I am working with the seller or buyer that both parties are happy in the end.
REAM: What career goals do you have for the next five years? The next 10? Where do you see the peak of your career?
FS: I hope to continue to teach, and most importantly strive to educate myself to provide value and exceed my client’s expectations. I would like to own my own Real Estate company one day and continue to be known for putting my clients first.
REAM: Are there any changes coming in the future that you’re excited to announce?
FS: I just purchased another rental and will be expanding the RE classes I teach to more towns. I also just received my RE license in RI and will be listing my first listing over 1 million this month.
