If only Google had been around when William M. Raveis Jr. came into the business.
Raveis was 27 years old and working for Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. when he decided he wanted out of corporate America.
A quick glance at the Fortune 100 told him all he needed to know: “Ninety percent were in real estate, so I said, why don”™t I get into real estate?”
There was just one hold-up.
“I didn”™t know how to do real estate, so I went to the library looking for, well, how do you run a real estate company? What forms do you use?”
Sitting opposite Raveis in the auditorium at 3 Corporate Drive in Shelton was Robert D. Scinto, who entered the real estate community as an underdog and an unassuming, hard-working plumber from Bridgeport.
The realization hit Scinto one day while at work on a coal-encrusted boiler. “I looked down into that furnace, and I said, I”™ve got to use my imagination. I”™ve got to do something different with my life. I can”™t do this any longer.”
Today, Raveis and Scinto own, respectively, the largest family-owned residential real estate firm in the Northeast and one of Fairfield County”™s largest commercial development firms.
William Raveis Real Estate Inc. is a full-service real estate, mortgage and insurance brokerage, based in Shelton, with more than 3,000 associates and 90 offices throughout the Northeast. The company has annual real estate sales of nearly $5.6 billion and a total mortgage volume of $9 billion.
While Raveis was selling homes, Scinto went the commercial route. R.D. Scinto Inc., also in Shelton, owns 32 commercial and industrial buildings in Fairfield County comprising more than 2.5 million square feet, with the company boasting a 98 percent occupancy rate and $250 million in annual revenues.
The two friends, who became acquainted years ago while both were attending city of Bridgeport zoning board meetings, regaled 200 people in attendance at an April 9 event presented by the Business Journal and Wag Magazine with stories of how they got into real estate.
The event was moderated by William E. Purcell, president of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, and hosted by R.D. Scinto.
Building on sound principles
Both stressed that a resounding faith in their principles was the key to their subsequent successes ”” and their ability to be resilient in the face of economic hardship.
“The bottom line is this: When you consider your business your tenants”™ (business), when you don”™t consider them your tenants but you consider them your friends and your business partners … your job is to grow them, to make them successful,” Scinto said.
Scinto said being a landlord is about “always looking out for your tenants or your business partners, for their benefit. Remember, I”™m here to serve you … I need you to succeed. In fact, when I rent space and a guy wants to take more space than he needs, I tell him ”˜No. Please don”™t take more than you need. Take what you need ”” I need you to pay rent, I don”™t need you to go broke.”™”
Scinto described a tenant who once called on him to examine a crack in the marble floor of their leased office space.
“It was 1990 ”” the worst year of my life,” Scinto said. “I woke up one day and I owed the bank $62.5 million personally. I owed vendors about $7 million … I had 365,000 square feet of empty space and I was losing $500,000 a month in cash, and my real estate was 50 percent underwater.
“That”™s the hole I was in,” he said.
While the tenant was likely at fault, Scinto said he paid for the repairs to the flooring at the tenant”™s behest.
“Three years later, (he) signed a lease for 87,000 square feet. He never looked up from the paper as he said, ”˜I always remember that floor, Bob.”™ So that sense of service ”” you never know when it”™s going to come back and help you,” Scinto said.
Raveis credited his success to a belief that empowering one”™s employees and recognizing them for their successes and failures is key to growth.
“The public is usually perceived as the customer of the real estate agent, of the company. We reversed that a little bit: our agent is our customer,” Raveis said. “My job is to build their business and to help them become successful with their customers.”
Early in the process of building up William Raveis Real Estate, the company worked to support each of its agents with the infrastructure and resources they needed, Raveis said.
“At the end of the day … everybody”™s connected,” he said. “There”™s no one person who”™s really important. Everybody”™s connected. And without the people who work for you, you have nothing ”” you basically have furniture.”
