03/13/2009

In the tough real estate year of 2008, broker Beverly Testa of Prestige Real Estate Group closed 65 homes...$19 million in sales...the top few percentage points of her entire industry. However, that doesn’t mean she isn’t hoping to do better this year...much better.

“Just like everyone else, I’ve had bigger years than 2008,” Testa says. “But a Realtor needs to be very focused during a year like that one, and that’s the same way I’m handling my buyers and sellers now.”

Testa, who is celebrating her fifth year at Prestige just as the company marks its own tenth anniversary, is seeing a sizable increase in traffic and sales as the spring season gets under way. “It feels as if the market in Denver has been seeded,” she says. “It’s ready to take off.”

Whether or not that’s the case, Testa says the secret to success in any market is “working your tail off.” And she has some very specific techniques for applying that during difficult market conditions.

...Starting with service to her potential customers. “There’s a temptation to minimize service in a market like this, but that’s when I increase what I’m offering,” Testa says. “I provide my sellers an even more thorough market presentation of their homes, and I put extra emphasis on providing trusted advocacy for my buyers.”

One ways she increases her services is via the Internet. Testa and broker Heather J. Matthews, who manages Testa’s team at Prestige’s Highlands Ranch office, have created one of the nation’s most successful agent web marketing programs on behalf of her clients. BeverlyTesta.com records around 50,000 hits a month, remarkable for a single agent, and links to 5,000 real estate office web sites and to sites of 3,800 agents.

Included on that site are “Testa-monials” from more than 30 former clients who have provided statements attesting to her work on their behalf.

Meanwhile, Testa maximizes her outreach to potential buyers transferring to Colorado by way of Prestige’s network ties with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World^, a global network of that reaches 700 premier real estate firms with 5,500 offices and 170,000 sales associates in 38 countries. “Relocation is already becoming a big part of Colorado’s returning market,” Testa notes. “Agents need to be making that connection.”

Testa, who like many Prestige agents is a “broker-owner” in the company, also stays at the cutting edge of her industry’s rapidly changing technical knowledge base through continuing graduate education. In addition to her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Business Administration, she holds special designations with the Graduate Realtor Institute, and as a Certified Residential Specialist, Accredited Buyer Representative, and “e-Pro” Certified Internet Specialist. Last month she was awarded a Metrolist Certified Professional designation for a course of study on metro listings.

“Beverly Testa has the work ethic that creates success in any market, and that will be particularly successful in the brighter market we’re heading into here in Colorado,” said Leeann Iacino, President of Prestige Real Estate Group, in marking Testa’s fifth anniversary with the company.

Testa works from Prestige’s Highlands Ranch office, 1745 Shea Center Drive, Suite 100, off the Lucent Boulevard exit from C-470 in Highlands Ranch, and can be reached at 303-995-1183. Or visit the web at BeverlyTesta.com