Three hundred fifty of the country’s most brilliant and finest luxury real estate professionals gathered together February 9th through 11th at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa for the 2015 Coldwell Banker Previews International annual retreat and conference.
This two-day event allowed real estate professionals across the States to network, learn practices from one another, and hear from the top luxury specialists in various industries.
One of its participants was Darrell Done, Preview Estates Director and Architectural Properties Specialist from Pasadena. While he has taken part in the retreat for many years now, his passion for connecting with other realtors and learning has never waned. He has also become proud of what the retreat has grown into.
“I’ve been going to this retreat for many years and it’s grown from just a California centric event to now a much more global event as the estates division has grown,” says Done.
“The benefit of this event was you had the opportunity to get information and trends from California agents as well as agents from other states and other countries,” continues Done.
Done points out that the recently event was mainly about finding out the expectations of the consumer in the luxury market—which was why speakers from the consulting groups invited players from other luxury specialists like Bentley Motor Cars, Buccellati Silver, and Bottega Veneta leather goods.
“What the general theme, I think, from all of these people was, it’s not just about the fact that you’re selling a luxury commodity but that you’re creating a relationship and that I think it’s not specific to the luxury consumer. It’s really about giving genuine interest to them as a person—really caring about their needs and being interested in their families, remembering birthdays,” Done says. The retreat, he says, emphasized going beyond expectations and creating long-lasting relationships.
Another key take away from the event was that “each market is unique and different but there are still some interesting similarities that are always helpful when we come back from these events that we share with our clients.”
Done also appreciates the number of networking opportunities offered to the realtors, and strongly feels the relationships he created there will help create opportunities in the future.
For Done, he can’t wait to apply all his new knowledge to his everyday work.
Darrell Done’s office is located at 388 South Lake Avenue Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 354-3551 or visit www.darrelldone.com.
