AUSTIN, Texas — One of the first things you notice about Jonathan and Yvette Boatwright is how genuinely cool they are. Owners of the fast-emerging luxury residential marketing organization Realty Austin, the Boatwrights are quintessential Austin A-listers, affable, intelligent, entrepreneurial and passionate about the business they run.
They are clearly well matched, he is personable and extremely tech-savvy, an avid problem solver who’s managed big product rollouts for companies such as Microsoft. She is soft-spoken, stylish and keenly intelligent, her calm and warm temperament ideally suited for leading a team of dynamic individuals. They share a clear vision about the company they are building together; one they started shaping when they first met in 1999.
Jonathan and Yvette Boatwright are seriously creating a new kind of real estate company, a high-performance, technology-savvy organization that exponentially builds on its success by staying on the leading edge of technology and cultivating both its people and its clients in a unique and enlightened manner.
Realty Austin, the Boatwright’s 21-member real estate team, is a fast-track Austin success story; one in which inspiration, intelligence and innovation were coupled with an imaginative application of technology to change the way luxury homes are sold.
Their strategic plan is clearly paying off; Realty Austin has doubled in size every year since its inception in 2004. In 2006, the team closed over $73 million in residential sales; projections for 2007 put the company on track to achieve over $120 million in sales.
When the couple met in 1999, Jonathan was leading local marketing efforts for Microsoft, overseeing the rollout of major products in Texas. Yvette was launching a career in real estate following a long held passion for beautiful homes that began when she was a girl in San Antonio, never missing the annual Parade of Homes there. Her early fascination with interior design and luxurious homes would destine her for a career in luxury real estate.
As Jonathan was promoted to the top of his game at Microsoft, he found himself more and more drawn toward real estate. As he began thinking seriously about developing Yvette’s business, he realized that his expertise in Internet marketing was a strategic advantage they just couldn’t ignore.
On a June 2004 sailing vacation in St. Maarten the busy pair found time to map out a dynamic, new company they would build together.
By the trip’s end they had a visionary business plan for their new company-one that would incorporate servant leadership principals based on heightened respect for employee and client alike; and one that would throw out the rule book and create an entirely new residential brokerage business model.
Yvette would lead the company as broker/owner. Her highly developed people skills, penchant for details and deep real estate knowledge were perfectly complemented by Jonathan’s pioneering entrepreneurial spirit and technology savvy. In September 2004, the couple launched the company they sketched out in those inspired days on the sailboat; one focused on the luxury markets west of Austin, and validated by Jonathan’s near immediate sale of a $650,000 waterfront home.
Three months later, Realty Austin had five agents; the owners hired a sales director to hand match every client with the perfect agent and serve as a team coach, holding agents accountable for their goals.
The Boatwrights soon opened the West Lake Hills office that now houses the company’s corporate headquarters and virtual offices for their 17 handpicked agents, each a specialist in Austin’s most upscale and desirable neighborhoods. The company’s ad agency developed an expansive marketing campaign inspired by Realty Austin’s genuinely unique market expertise – as Austin’s savviest specialists in lake, loft and luxury residential.
The enlightened management principles that first excited the Boatwrights are firmly in place in their company today. In just 3 years, they’ve built a long list of discriminating, well-satisfied clients and have invested heavily in the professional evolution of their agents. “We always keep in mind that we set out to build a business where our clients and the people who work for us know they are appreciated and respected absolutely,” concludes Yvette Boatwright. “In an industry with one of the highest attrition rates, we are proud to say that we’ve never lost an agent who we wanted to keep.”
“We hire by invitation only,” explains Jonathan, “we hand-pick our agents, and we put them on a pedestal, you might say.” His partner adds, “Each of our agents is very capable, very ethical, and very hard-working; we invest a lot in them, and we expect a lot in return. We do what it takes to assure their success; they are professionals we can trust with our extremely high net worth clientele.”
“Each Realty Austin agent is required to develop an annual business plan with goals that align with the company, and a strategic plan that supports meeting those goals,” says Yvette Boatwright of her company’s unique forecasting requirements. “It helps all of us stay focused on meeting our objectives.”
Realty Austin has developed a state-of-the-art infrastructure that keeps communications between agents and clients seamless and deals moving along at peak efficiency. From the company’s singularly dedicated client services Director who oversees all closing details, to its paperless virtual office, and advanced web presence, technology, innovation and intelligence are thoughtfully and strategically combined at every turn to make the business of buying and selling homes function at top levels.
The company’s pervasive web presence powerfully supports the team’s success; www.realtyaustin.com, boasts over 1,000 unique visitors and 20,000 hits per day, and generates a constant flow of new prospects for the company’s agents to engage.
The company works closely with a top ad agency to generate strong brand identity and property marketing collateral. “We work every day to make the business more efficient, more effective, to empower our agents with the latest technology,” says Jonathan. “I know marketing, especially when done right, does tip the scale; and that produces big results for our clients and for the company.”
“Austin is a fast-paced, highly competitive real estate market, and success does not come easy,” says Jonathan Boatwright. “Our clients hire us because they know that we will perform, when and where it counts – without a doubt.”
More information: http://www.realtyaustin.com
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[tags]Jonathan and Yvette Boatwright, Realty Austin, The Austin Business Journal, Texas Residential Real Estate Firms, luxury residential home marketing[/tags]
