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Anthony Lamacchia – June 15th, 2018
Anthony: Hi, everybody. I’m here to do an interview with Angela Harkins who is our top agent in the company with cool sales year to date. I’ve been wanting to do interviews on different agents in the company and I thought, “Why not start with you?”
[00:00:12] Angela: Sure.
[00:00:13] Anthony: Here we are in our Westford office, talking business. You’ve closed almost 20 homes sold this year so far, and you have almost 20 more scheduled to close in the next six weeks.
[00:00:24] Angela: I do.
[00:00:25] Anthony: You’re off to a really good start, really good start. What percentage of your business is more around here, Westford, Northern Mass towns and what percentage is Southern New Hampshire?
[00:00:35] Angela: It’s really hard to gauge that. Right now, I would say it’s probably 60% Northern Mass and then 40% Southern New Hampshire. That changes as the year goes by. Sometimes more in New Hampshire, sometimes more way more in Mass. It just depends because most of my business is referrals so, it’s where the referrals are coming from.
[00:00:53] Anthony: For the viewers, can you maybe name top five or eight towns that you’re doing business in with Southern New Hampshire and here?
[00:01:01] Angela: Yes, I would say definitely Nauset, Ipswich, [unintelligible 00:01:03] I would say Acton, Westford. Bedford, Mass, I’ve had a lot in Bedford, Mass and so they end always well. [unintelligible 00:01:13] really Dudley, Manchester. I think I have four in Manchester.
[00:01:16] Anthony: Wenham.
[00:01:16] Angela: Wenham. Yes, it’s all around.
[00:01:19] Anthony: I haven’t checked so, I do want to know. Year to date, is most of your business been buyers, been sellers because obviously, working on buyers has been harder with the tight inventory?
[00:01:28] Angela: Right. I’ve been very fortunate and most of it has been sellers. I’d probably say 75% sellers, 25% buyers.
[00:01:35] Anthony: Right now, that’s an exciting thing now.
[00:01:36] Angela: It is an exciting thing. With buyers. It is really tough. It’s a very competitive market. You have to know how to structure an offer to get them to be the winner of the house. I think I’ve been very successful in doing that as well.
[00:01:47] Anthony: You certainly have, leading the company here today. Some of the clients you’ve helped, and I know one of them is a friend of my dad’s that you’re helping relocate from Watertown. We’re selling this house down there and you’re selling them a place in New Hampshire. You’ve had several sell-buy clients like that. Can you talk for a minute about some of those difficulties with some buy clients from making sure the dates are right and–?
[00:02:11] Angela: Yes, that can be really tricky because some people don’t want to put their house in the market because they’re afraid, “Where am I going to go?” It’s subject to them finding suitable housing. Then, once they find a suitable housing, making that all work together can be tricky, but it can it can definitely be done. We’ve been doing it.
[00:02:28] Anthony: Obviously, you know this because you were in on helping us create a lot of the content that created for this, but there are a lot of sellers that are legitimately scared to list their homes for sale because they’re worried about where they’re going to go. What are some of the things that you do to alleviate their concerns?
[00:02:42] Angela: Some of the times, we have buyers, that are so excited about getting your house they’re willing to wait 90 days to get in. That helps a lot. It gives a lot of flexibility if the seller is willing to rent maybe. Sometimes, that’s an option because that puts them in a fantastic spot to be able to go out and purchase themselves. They have the money, there’s no contingencies because even if you have a buyer on your house, it’s still a contingency until it closes.
Sometimes, we can go right from selling to buying smooth, no interim housing. Sometimes, we have two interim housing, depends on what towns you’re looking in, what their price point is, and how competitive that market is.
[00:03:19] Anthony: Would you agree that more often than not, they don’t have to do interim housing and they usually are able to line it up correctly?
[00:03:24] Angela: I haven’t had to have any interim housing so far [laughs].
[00:03:25] Anthony: There you go. I want to mention that because some sellers that are buyers, they think that that’s going to happen. They think they have to move twice.
[00:03:31] Angela: It just works. It’s starting just in this market, it’s over the 18 years in my experience. It always just happens to work. People will say, “I don’t know where I’m going to go. I don’t want to be rushed into something.” It always works out. They find a house that they want.
[00:03:45] Anthony: You’re doing a really good job.
[00:03:47] Angela: I just want to say, as long as they are motivated to do that. They have to be motivated to do that.
[00:03:48] Anthony: Of course. That’s the key. That’s the key. You’re doing a really good job. If anyone wants to contact you in any of these towns around here, Westford, Southern New Hampshire, how should they do that?
[00:03:57] Angela: 9789303300. That’s my cell.
[00:04:00] Anthony: Okay. You’re email?
[00:04:02] Angela: Angela@harkinsteam.com.
[00:04:04] Anthony: Perfect. I just want tell you, your approaching three years here at the company.
[00:04:09] Angela: With Lamacchia, right.
[00:04:10] Anthony: Yes, and you’ve been an awesome addition and you’ve done fantastic.
[00:04:12] Angela: Thank you. I love it.
[00:04:14] Anthony: Thank you. I appreciate that.
[00:04:15] Angela: I would not have done as much business as I’ve done already this year without the resources that I get from Lamacchia. When I had my own company it was great but I did not have the resources that you have. That’s helped me tremendously and it’s helped my clients.
[00:04:27] Anthony: Thank you for saying that. I certainly appreciate it. I got to be on camera with you more often. Thank you.
[00:04:32] Angela: You’re welcome.
[00:04:33] Anthony: All right. Bye, everyone.
[00:04:34] Angela: See you.
[00:04:34] Anthony: Call in.