In just 17 months, Realtor María Brown went from obtaining, for the first time, her real estate broker’s license to being recognized by Stellar MLS as one of the most productive individual agents in Puerto Rico in 2024, with more than $30 million in sales.
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“This was not a gift. I dedicated 110% of my focus to it,” Brown, who focuses on the Palmas del Mar resort community market in Humacao, where she has lived for seven years, told En pies cuadrados.
A native of Ecuador, Brown said that she met her husband there, who is from Germany, and from there they embarked on a nomadic life, with stays that have included Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Nevada and California.
“There we met some friends who moved to Puerto Rico. We said ‘well, let’s see how it goes’. My husband came first on a scouting trip, and within a month, we moved here with our son,” she said.
“I love it”
That was seven years ago and, along the way, they welcomed their second child. “It’s the longest we’ve ever been in one place and I love it.”
Reflecting on what made them select and stay in Palmas del Mar, Brown expressed that “we’ve never had this community experience. It’s one of the keys. There is a lot of diversity in culture and we also have doctors, lawyers, contractors, a lot of entrepreneurial people, investors, fashion designers, you name it.”
“I also like that I have my children in school (The Palmas Academy) and we are raising them with three languages: I speak Spanish, my husband speaks German and they have English in school,” she said about her 5 and 10 year old offspring.
The entry of her youngest child into school marked the moment when Brown decided it was time to return to work outside the home. As she considered ideas compatible with her corporate marketing experience, she realized that a traditional job, “where you only have two weeks of vacation,” would limit the time available for family travel.
With her knowledge of the neighborhoods within Palmas del Mar, the network of contacts she had cultivated as an active member of the community, Brown recognized that she was in the best position to excel in that market once she obtained her real estate license.
“I had the mental barrier that there were a lot of realtors here,” she confessed about the Puerto Rico market, where some 2,000 people hold real estate licenses. “But I told myself I can add value and focus on service.”
The formula
License in hand, she dusted off her marketing background, activated her “secret weapon,” her husband, who works in digital marketing, and launched Palmas Dream Homes.
Like any new agent who decides to start independently, she had no listings of her own, so she began by offering information to people in the relocation process and solidifying her personal brand: “Your bilingual realtor and Palmas Connector”.
For the different needs, she prepared a free guide of information about the community and Puerto Rico in general, as well as resources such as home services, restaurants and, of course, her own as a realtor.
She complemented her efforts with printed material, such as postcards and brochures, as well as by sponsoring community events, either with money or volunteer work.
“I invested quite a bit in paid advertising and building the list of people interested in receiving information. I invested in continuing education and attending networking events. Our business is pretty much about relationships. It’s easier to get someone to answer the phone, give you the lock box code or give you the keys if they already know you,” she said.
Months later, she said she decided to join the eXp Realty network “because of its global presence” and its strategy of collaboration between agents. She is also part of eXp’s luxury division, which amplifies listings on international platforms in that niche.
She added that, “being new, one of the advantages is that I wasn’t afraid to try new things. I am very creative and innovative. There are things that have never been done before and I have done them with my experience in other industries”.
Among the productive experiments, she organized a luxury caravan, for colleagues to enjoy a guided tour of properties for sale from $1.5 million to $5 million, with the space to record their own content.
“About 60 agents came, and then we did a pickleball game with a coach for those who didn’t know how to play,” she recounted. “That helped me get other agents to come later with their clients.”
“2023 was difficult for most because of the increase in interest rates, but for me it was pretty much sowing, sowing. Already 2024 was the year of the harvest,” she celebrated. “Palmas del Mar is already being linked to María Brown.
Three questions
Where do your customers come from?
“Forty-two percent have been Hispanic, people from Puerto Rico or there are quite a few returning. The rest are foreign”.
How do you see the markets within Palmas del Mar at present, compared to when you started a year and a half ago?
“The market is quite cyclical (...) I was told that in 2021, the properties would sell themselves. Now, this year, there is a bit of uncertainty to see how the new policies are going to be, which are affecting us and will affect us. But here we have a lot of people who come with Law 60 (the Incentives Code), who generally rent and have two years to buy. That helps because it’s supply and demand”.
What is your favorite aspect of being a Realtor?
“My favorite aspect is connecting with people. One day I came to school to pick up my son. One of the girls says to me ‘Miss Maria, I love my new house so much’ and three more kids said the same thing and I said to myself ‘this is a magical moment.’ When a child says it to you, it’s more precious, it’s without a filter.”
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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.
