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This week we were lucky enough to speak with Adina Azarian, a top real estate professional and successful entrepreneur who founded and owns her own boutique real estate company, Adina Equities, which specializes in exclusive listings and lead generation through referrals and relationships. She is also Cultural Ambassador at Keller Williams NYC, the Manhattan franchise of Keller Williams, Inc. Keller Williams the second-largest residential real estate company in North America with 75,000 agents and 700 offices.
Adina began her real estate career when she was just 21 years old, after answering a ?Help Wanted . No Experience Necessary? ad. She interviewed with a top Manhattan broker who recognized her potential and hired her on the spot. Armed with a real estate agent?s license, and little else, Adina set off to learn the real estate business. She was a natural, and before long, she became a top producer as well.
Just six years later Adina founded her own company, Adina Equities, which is built on the acclaim of clients, property managers, and landlords.? Her dedication and hard work has earned her the respect, commitment, and recommendations of her clients.? Her office is located on prestigious Irving Place that notably was a gift to her from a landlord who praises her work.
Adina was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Keller Williams NYC in April 2011. She has since stepped into a new role she is passionate about, Cultural Ambassador. The designation ?Cultural Icon? or ?Culture Ambassador? is a lifetime appointment. These are leaders in Keller Williams who are responsible for growing the firm?s culture daily. She is actively involved with the continued business development and growth of Keller Williams NYC by introducing their business model to top talent.
Adina Equities continues to operate as separate company while being affiliated with Keller Williams Inc.? Over the years, she?s been approached by many real estate firms, but when Ilan Bracha, Chairman of Keller Williams NYC, asked her to come aboard she knew she had the opportunity to raise her own profile, lead more agents on a larger platform, keep her brand identity, and grow her business under the Keller Williams? umbrella.
Chosen by Donald Trump to write the second chapter of his bestselling book, The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received, Adina was one of only ten females featured, and the only broker specializing in residential rentals who was invited to include a chapter.? She has appeared on NY Residential TV on WPIX, and taped a webcast for The Real Deal in which she was featured as an expert on the NYC residential rental market.? ??
?Currently, Adina is writing a book honoring mentors she has had in her career path and she has been actively involved in raising awareness for numerous non profits she is passionate about: Tuesday?s Children, ARF, PETA, The Retreat, City Harvest and has recently been appointed the NYC Real Estate Ambassador for the Lemonade Day organization, a national non-profit organization that teaches entrepreneurial skills to children. She is a member of the Real Estate Board of NY. And if that wasn?t enough, she is now in the process of opening a wine bar in New York City. How does she do it all??
Did you picture yourself in a career like this growing up?
Growing up I pictured myself as a Princess in a castle, having a handsome Prince rescue me, elaborate gowns?all the luxuries of royalty living. I have always had a very active imagination. Being a Princess is sort of like being a CEO ?so I suppose in some way I did see myself at the top, so to speak.
How did you end up becoming CEO at such a young age and starting your own company?
When I started my own company,?Adina Equities, at age 27, and became a CEO, the real estate business (and especially my specific area of expertise: apartment rentals) was very different than it is today. Not even cell phones were widely used at the time let alone the internet. There was less transparency of information to our clients via the web and more human contact and interaction during the apartment searching process. The way real estate offices were set up and running at the time was more based on placing print ads and clients calling the office. A lot of these print ads were bogus, meaning false ads, that were placed specifically to get the phone to ring. Agents were often taught by the managers the whole famous ?bait and switch?. I am a very honest person and genuine; it is very difficult for me to lie. To me this business practice was highly uncomfortable; I needed to be more authentic. I bounced around to a few different real estate firms before going off on my own. It took about one year for me to check out a few different size firms with different managers to come to the conclusion that if I wanted to control my enviorment and be associated with a name that is based on my own core values of transparency, honesty, trust and commitment to just doing the right thing it was evident that I had to go do it on my own. That?s when I became an independent broker and put my name on the door.
What did you find most challenging about that? Do you ever receive age discrimination because people don?t think you are experienced enough??
The biggest challenges I found about that at the time was time management. I tended to overwork and not put enough time aside for personal development. ?Looking back on my 20?s and early 30?s there is no doubt I sacrificed ?a lot of my personal life to grow my business and make it successful. I believe it is an ongoing challenge for any entrepreneur to find that balance. Luckily, I don?t feel I encountered age discrimination. If anything I feel that my age worked to my advantage. Business people that I encountered along the way, such as landlords, property managers, and other professionals who were older and more experienced than I was definitely impacted my careeer path by becoming not only my clients but mentors. Their advice and the fact that they cared about seeing me succeed was invaluable on my path and I believe made my age an advantage.
Can you tell us about things you have done you considered to be a failure in your career and how you learned from them?
I once lost a very important account to me because I didn?t follow my instincts and replace the agent I had working for me at the time, who had been handling that account. The agent had been working for me for a long time, and I never have been good at firing people. I always said if I get good at that I should retire. Meaning if my heart hardens that much that firing people is easy, it is time to close up shop. That being said, I hung onto my own agent too long and the client moved on. I knew this and denied my own instincts out of ?feeling bad? for the person working for me. What I should have done was let the person know what needed to be improved and give them a deadline to improve. I let the problems go on too long, and lost business that was important to me. I definitely learned from that important lesson to listen to my instincts and that owning a business has responsibilities that go along with it and some of those may be uncomfortable, like having to let someone go.
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