A force grows in Bronxville
Leah Caro is on a covert operation in Bronxville.
She pulls her SUV up to the curb in front of a home, the site of an impromptu photo shoot. She dashes to the back of the vehicle and pulls out a “For Sale” sign ”“ banned by village law. She plants it with a feisty grin.
The photo is taken.
Mission accomplished.
Just named Realtor of the Year for 2011 by the Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors Inc., the co-owner of Bronxville-Ley Real Estate in center of the village has cut her teeth in the same industry and on the same block for 18 years.
Caro started in real estate when a placement agency “sent me on bad interview after bad interview” after college in a less-than-stellar job market in 1992.
“They finally called me and said, ”˜Can you be a secretary in a real estate office?”™ and I was like, ”˜Hell yeah.”™ They could have said, ”˜Can you dig a ditch and I would have said, ”˜Hell yeah.”™ They said, ”˜It”™s down in Bronxville”™ and I said, ”˜That”™s excellent. Where”™s that?”™”
A White Plains resident then (Caro now lives in the Crestwood section of Yonkers), interviewed with the five-agent company that would become the modern day Bronxville-Ley Real Estate practice.
She received an offer with an increase by the time she pulled in her driveway later that day.
“Joan Spencer, the deceased owner of this company, she made this (a purchase by Caro and co-owner Jon Posner in 2001) possible,” she said of one of her many career mentors. “I even have an altar to her in my office.”
Besides overseeing a 45-agent office, Caro serves as a director for nonprofit Westchester Residential Opportunities, as a member of the Women”™s Council of Realtors and as a member of the Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors board of directors following an immediate past presidency.
“People ask me, ”˜How can you spend all of this time volunteering?”™ I own a successful company. I have a house. I have a little kid and a 130-pound two-year-old (a Bernese Mountain dog.) But it”™s not completely selfless. You are surrounded by the best and the brightest”¦ I learn something from those folks every day.”
Caro applies that same principle in her own office.
A company is only as strong as its people, she believes.
“A best day (at work) would be getting a letter or phone call or email from a client praising my agents. When I tell my agents, I say, ”˜By the way, I already knew this”™ and maybe it”™s an ego thing, but when my agents go to a seminar or conference, I love when they say, ”˜It was great, but we already knew this.”™ There”™s no point in me having it all for myself. It”™s a transfer of knowledge.”
In a performance-heavy business, Caro”™s office has written performance standards that exclude dollar signs and transaction counts.
Instead, there is an emphasis on ethical behavior, teamwork and productivity.
“It”™s doing the things that will beget the dollars. Being prepared, following through, knowing what”™s happening in the industry”¦ if you do all that every day, the money will take care of itself.”
Wise Words from our “WOW”
On materializing dreams. “All the things that have come to me so far weren”™t because I set out to have them. It”™s a one-day-at-a-time concept. It kind of comes to you.”
On making it in real estate. “Never stop learning. I personally believe in a classroom education, to go sit in a room with people from other companies. It”™s that brain-trust effect.”
On networking. “It”™s key. You have to be out there. Dottie Herman (president of Prudential Douglas Elliman) said that. See? I didn”™t make any of this up. Somebody else said it and I just take it to heart.”