Ep 11 – Glen Primak: Increase your real estate sales by using a CRM, powerful analytics, and creating engaging content

In this episode, Carlos talks with Glen Primak, a top-producing real estate professional with extensive knowledge in negotiating and selling luxury products. As a child, he had an entrepreneurial spirit that led him to his love for sales. His drive and dedication led him to a multi-million dollar year upon being newly licensed in real estate. Following a strong start, Glen continued to break records year after year. Originally from Philadelphia, Glen relocated to South Florida in 2021 to pursue the luxury market in South Florida. His ability to observe clients’ needs and listen to their desires has made him an instant success and a client favorite.

Video full transcription

Carlos: Hi, welcome to another episode of The Pipeline. Today I couldn’t be more excited to record this show because my friend Glen Primak is joining us today in the studio. It’s such a pleasure to have you here Glen! Glen is a business owner and director of agent FTL, a brand in the real estate that has focused on the luxury waterfront and real estate market. We couldn’t be more excited to hear from you today, Glen, welcome. Tell us a little bit more about you and what made you go into the real estate industry.

Glen: Yes, so thank you first and foremost, I’m excited to be here. I actually got into real estate in 2007. It was kind of crazy actually, I opened up a mortgage company out of my parents’ garage. I was 18 years old at the time, it was crazy. Everybody was trying to get a piece of the American Dream, I guess you could say, but I was in the mortgage business until 2009, 2010. After that, I got into real estate in 2013, on the real estate retail side.

I’ve always been into sales, always loved being able to get people from Point A to point B whichever way that was, you know, in any type of vehicle. So I just recently got down to Fort Lauderdale a couple of years back and always wanted to sell luxury real estate. For me, the lifestyle is super important, love the climate, love the type of homes that we have here and there’s nothing better than waking up to your own 100 ft dock and being able to take your boat out on the water and go cruising, go fishing and just having an incredible life. 

Carlos: Definitely benefits of the luxury market that you’re in. As a top producer there now, and based on what you’re telling me, how was that transition when you came into the luxury market? What were your first impression of that luxury market and your perspective and how did you decide to go about it to grow your own business? What was the initial thought process there?

Glen: It was a little intimidating at first, just because coming from Philadelphia where you don’t have many sales over a million and a half, 2 million, it’s rare right here, it’s like almost everything you’re selling is between a million to 5 million. It was a little intimidating, but then I kind of had to get myself back together and realize we’re all the same people who put our pants on the same way in the morning. It was a little bit different of a hurdle in the aspect where I have basically no breach, my area of influence here is very small, I didn’t know anybody when I got here. So it was a little bit more challenging, but you just gotta put yourself out there and that’s the biggest aspect of any type of sales business. You’ve really got to put yourself in front of your potential clients.

Carlos: I know you started as a single agent and you grew up to have your own team. All this is happening so fast… How did you decide, what was the best course, how to grow, what to look for, and potentially to put yourself out there?

What are some of those tools that you’re using for your business that helps you be in front of more buyers and sellers, and generate more transactions?

Glen: You guys have been very influential when it comes to the business. From a marketing aspect,  being able to get all the proper ads to our prospective buyers and get that in front of them, and to be able to deliver that message properly has been a huge key to our success.

Carlos: For those who are joining us right now, we haven’t talked much about how we do on our side, because our main priority is to display you and put you in front of the industry.

We do believe in creating that digital ecosystem for you as your brand and generating a lot of content to put you in front of the right market. We want to help you dominate your market the same way you do it physically, on the digital side. We always try to recommend what we see that works in others in other parts of the country and what other agents are doing. We provide that type of advice, but on your journey as a business owner now, let’s talk about real estate marketing for Lauderdale. Where do you see those opportunities? How do you see the market behaving today? How do you compare with last year, and how do you see it moving forward?

Glen: I’ve always kind of been saying that I got a piece of this back in Philadelphia. On the upside of Covid we saw the same thing kind of flush into Florida. During covid, this entire market, in my opinion, was fake. This isn’t a real market. There was a two-year period where everything was just crazy. 

Carlos: The whole industry realized it. Everybody saw it. 

Glen: It was a two-year period for people, especially agents in this business, to just make a crazy amount of money, and sellers made out crazy, but it wasn’t real. So if we look back at the statistics, obviously the real estate market has ups and downs just like any other market. What we’re seeing right now is that homes sell faster than they did right before pre covid conditions, but we are seeing a huge buyer advantage.

Carlos: So less time on the market, but fewer buyers coming to the market.

Glen: Exactly. So we are seeing there are definitely fewer buyers in the pool, but homes are still selling slightly faster than they were in 2020.

Carlos: How do you see that market adjusting moving forward? What are good opportunities that you recommend other agents or buyers to be looking at?

Glen: 60/65% of our transactions, especially in our office, are cash. Those buyers in particular don’t need to worry about financing or rates, but if we’re talking about just your typical 20/25% down buyer, they have some short-term pain ahead of themselves. Today we’re looking at like 7% fix for 30 years. That’s crazy, we haven’t seen that since 2006. 

Carlos: Where do you see that those people that are buying are coming from?

Glen: We’re still seeing a lot of New Yorkers, we’re still seeing a lot of people from California. I talk to at least one person a day that’s from a different state that’s looking potentially, maybe not today but long term, to fall back into Florida. Definitely building that pipeline up to the point where you’re nurturing these leads and getting the transactions is part of the process.

Carlos: That’s so amazing to hear from your perspective Glen, because it puts it out there for those who are looking at the Fort Lauderdale market right now. We also want to make this interview valuable for those agents that are just starting in the industry. If you were starting today in the real estate industry, what would you be focusing your time in? How would you be acting in this market?

Glen: Today everything is video: Instagram reels, Tiktok. Even though I’m not a big fan of Tiktok, I do like Instagram reels. Today, the majority of businesses are going toward all video. People want to see that you’re busy or at a very minimum that you’re hustling. At the end of the day, that’s gonna translate to “hey, listen, if this person’s hustling, he’s gonna hustle for me”. If I could give newer agents coming in some advice, I would tell them to not chase the deals, they’ll fall into place. Focus on doing a good job ensuring that what you’re doing is beneficial for your clients or anybody that you’re working with because at the end of the day if you do a good job, the money is a byproduct that’s gonna come. I’ve talked with some of our partners and friends and we believe that you can’t force anybody to buy, but if you’re investing in yourself and you’re investing in your brand, the transaction will come.

Carlos: Where can people find you?

Glen: On Instagram as Agent FTL, or come have a look of what we have on www.agentftl.com Carlos: Awesome, thank you so much for today. I know it’s a short video, but it’s intended to bring light into what real estate business owners are doing today to bring new transactions, to increase their pipeline and ultimately to let more people in the industry. Thank you so much, Glenn, for being part of today’s show.