By Tyler R. Morrissey
As the month of December draws to a close, it’s time to look back at the many successes the firm has experienced over the last 12 months. Real estate is an ever-changing industry and in 2017, William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty experienced many positive changes and growth opportunities that will help guide the company into the coming year. Today we look back at just a few of the achievements we were celebrating in 2017.
In 2017 we secured the headlining billboard ad position at the very top of The New York Times Real Estate section homepage, showcasing our company and listings to the Times’ tremendous readership based in New York City as well as regionally, nationally and internationally. Our prominently positioned ad appeared throughout March, April, June and October this year at a minimum of one of every four times a user visited the page. The ad came complete with our own exclusive property search engine, allowing users to search all company listings—and only our company’s listings—right from the top of NYTimes.com/realestate.
As the digital age continues to shape our world and how we communicate on a daily basis, William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty has responded to this change with the launch in July of a new platform, Client Connect. The company has responded to an industry need with an exclusive program designed just for our agents.
Client Connect is a centralized one-stop shop for generating and handling leads and client relationships. The program acts as a personal assistant, integrating three distinct, user-friendly platforms designed to work together in tandem. Buyside helps our agents use real-time data to increase buyer and seller leads. Contactually helps our agents stay in touch with new and existing connections, ensuring that the relationships they’ve worked so hard to establish stay long lasting, and Spacio helps build future business by providing a superior solution for capturing leads at open houses.
The following month, William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty announced that the company was honored with several awards for its website design and layout by the trusted real estate news source REAL Trends, including No. 1 Best Design in the country, No. 2 Best Overall Website and No. 2 in Property Detail Pages. This is the second time in three years that the firm has been honored by REAL Trends after the company took home a handful of honors in 2015.
This summer also saw the sale of one of the firm’s most notable listings. The property was the former summer home of one of the Nutmeg State’s most famous residents, Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn. William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty Essex agent Colette Harron listed the property, which closed in August for $11.5 million. News of the sale spread far and wide resulting in hundreds of press stories around the globe.
As the calendar page turned from August to September, the fall brought many exciting events for the firm, including the annual Global Networking Event in Las Vegas, Nevada. The convention was hosted at the famous Wynn Las Vegas Resort and was attended by 2,600 people from 155 affiliates in 34 countries. In a sizable presence of 43 brokers, managers and executives from William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, the Northeast was well represented during the much-anticipated event. The official function spanned three days from September 25th-27th, giving all those who attended the opportunity to connect with the world’s most talented real estate professionals at an event like no other.
Also this past autumn, the company unveiled its new platform to help make targeted ad campaigns on social media easier to implement. In partnership with Lumentus Social, a New York City based social media consulting firm, the company announced its new ad builder to help agents create Facebook and Instagram ads for listings. By advertising real estate listings through Facebook and Instagram, there are some major benefits you can’t always reap through traditional advertising avenues. Compared to print and television ads, social media advertising is incredibly cost effective and allows you to target specific audiences in certain geographical areas as well as through specific income levels.
As we close the chapter on 2017, the firm looks forward to what’s ahead in 2018. In the coming months of the new year, William Pitt and Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty will undertake many new projects on multiple platforms to maintain its position as a leader in the real estate industry.
