In this edition of Inside Scoop, we sat with Linda Muldoon, the CEO of The Urban Nest Real Estate. As the winner of the Bayut dubizzle Stronger Together Agency of the Year (Boutique), she shares her insights about running a successful brokerage in Dubai. We discuss what ‘quality’ in real estate looks like, and the elements that make an agent successful in this competitive industry.
Check out the video below or keep reading to find out the highlights of this eye-opening conversation.
Understanding “Quality” In Real Estate
Linda defined ‘quality’ as a measure of excellence, which in real estate can be translated into multiple aspects. For agents, it is being experienced, well-versed in an area and its property prices and able to educate and guide clients. For listings, it must have proper descriptions and pictures and boosted with tools like TruCheck™, Signature or Hot.
Quality in customer service, according to her, starts from the very first interaction with the client, to taking them through properties, informing them about the market and ensuring that you stay in touch, informing them about contract signings and other updates.
Wanting to understand the idea of ‘quality’ agents further, we asked Linda about The Urban Nest’s hiring process. Linda said that she looks out for agents that are passionate about real estate and want to succeed in their careers. After these individuals are recruited, the team regularly reviews their achievements and shares best practices with them – such as listening to client needs, understanding their expectations and offering advice to help them improve their services,
The Urban Nest’s Success Recipe
Linda stated that The Urban Nest is a boutique brokerage – of around 15 agents, and specialises in Dubai’s villa communities. In her opinion, the most significant advantage of a boutique brokerage is that each agent has a voice, that their perspectives are heard and can interact openly with the rest of the team.
On the other hand, she stated that fewer agents mean fewer listings – which is not desirable for an agency to run successfully. However, owing to The Urban Nest being a household name in the communities they work with, they have a consistent flow of properties that they work with exclusively. A testament to the quote ‘your network is your net worth’, Linda said that her team ensures that each property in their inventory is advertised as a high-quality listing online, adequately boosted (with Signature, Hot, TruCheck™, etc.), with the USP’s properly displayed, leading to the properties being take sold quickly.
Linda opined that this efficiency had led them to have a higher sales volume than, perhaps, an agency with more listings than theirs but lower attention to detail.
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She stated that having a lower number of agents does pose a challenge when compared to bigger brokerages that have enough employees to call and prospect every day. Another challenge is that since they are focused on villa communities, coming across clients that show interest in other areas requires their team to work with other agents in their network.
Talkin’ Training and Bayut Academy
Agents from The Urban Nest are familiar faces at Bayut Academy, our in-house workshops for real estate professionals in the UAE. Linda affirmed her belief in the importance of training to be successful in the industry. She shared that since Bayut Academy’s training covers all aspects of real estate – including area specialisation, customer service, time management, negotiation and social media – her agents come back from each prepared for the challenges in the industry.
Linda stated that she holds Bayut’s products and services in high regard, as all of them are client focused and offers value to agents. Her favourite of these is the TruCheck™ badge, for allowing realtors to showcase their listings’ authenticity and availability to property seekers in the country. Along with this, she mentions her top favourite features – Dubai Transactions for offering Dubai past sold transaction data, Search 2.0 and MapView for finding properties based on distances, and TruValue™ for a better understanding of property prices. A user-friendly portal perfect for both property seekers and real estate agents, she concluded.
About Linda Muldoon
Hailing from Scotland, Linda Muldoon moved to Dubai in 2004 and began her career in real estate. She has built an extensive knowledge of the Dubai real estate market from her range of experiences in various brokerages. Linda specialises primarily in Victory Heights, Arabian Ranches and Jumeirah Golf Estates, where she has helped many achieve their real estate goals.
Linda is the Director of The Urban Nest Real Estate, a real estate brokerage in Dubai. Her excellent leadership skills and client-first approach has led The Urban Nest to one victory after the other. Linda was also awarded the Women Influencers in Real Estate 2022 award from Bayut and dubizzle.
About The Urban Nest Real Estate
The Urban Nest Real Estate is an award-winning boutique real estate agency in Dubai. Integrity and trust are their core values, which lead the work they do as they ensure their client’s needs are met.
The Urban Nest’s team provides consultations to guide clients through the sales or rental journey, right from inquiry to handover. They off their in-depth knowledge of the market to help clients rent, sell, buy or invest property in Dubai. The Urban Nest Real Estate took first place at the Bayut dubizzle Stronger Together Awards 2022 Agency of the Year (Boutique)