When Charlie and Jessica first got into the business, they earned a top-producing new agent award, and throughout the years, they’ve received multiple production awards for sales volume and total units sold, in addition to being ranked within the top 5% of agents in Metro Detroit by Hour Detroit. Charlie and Jessica are excited for the future of their business and are extremely grateful for the love and support of their family, friends and clients. “We know that 2020 is going to be our best year yet, and we can’t wait to celebrate with the people in our lives,” Jessica said.
What is your secret to working together? There really is no secret — we are best friends, so we love working together! What is the most rewarding part of working together? Charlie: We love spending time together and being
able to talk about our current deals, ask for advice or suggestions, and brainstorm ways to continue growing our business. Jessica: With the number of hours we both work, it’s really convenient that we do it together! When other busy agents ask us how we handle working together, we question how their spouses handle them working 70+ hours a week on their own! The days are long, but it never really feels like work for us because we’re together.
Q&A with Charlie & Jessica Siciliano What advice do you have for a couple looking to go into business together?
Photo Credit: Eugen Muntean Photos taken at Toll Brothers model home in Novi
couples in real estate
CHARLIE &JESSICA SICILIANO Written By: Jane K. Asher, Ph.D.
Couple: Charlie & Jessica Siciliano Years Together (in Life): 7 Years Together (in Real Estate): 6 Business: The Siciliano Group, DOBI Career Volume as a Couple: $35 million+ The Random Virtual Connection that Roused a Real-Life Romance
Charlie and Jessica connected through some mutual friends on Instagram, long before the days of DMs (direct messages). They exchanged email addresses and went on their first date at Mr. B’s in Royal Oak, where they spent the night singing karaoke together. “We both fell in love the first night we met, and the rest is history!” Jessica said. “We always say, ‘when you know, you know!’” Risking Rent Money for a New Beginning in Real Estate
After suffering multiple on-duty injuries and enduring three 36 • February 2020
Photo Credit: Eugen Muntean Photos taken at Toll Brothers model home in Novi
shoulder surgeries, Charlie retired from his career as a Detroit Police Officer. At the time, Jessica was working for a real estate attorney and had a second job in retail. Charlie and Jessica lived in a one-bedroom, 600-square-foot apartment in Birmingham, and they were struggling to make ends meet. One day as they were out walking their dogs through Poppleton Park, they admired the beautiful homes for sale and expressed their desire to live in their own dream home one day. Following their walk, they curiously Googled real estate agents’ average commission and discovered that a career in real estate had the potential to greatly improve their financial circumstances. Instead of paying their rent, they spent their last $1000 to complete the real estate licensing course. “A week later, we were licensed and had no idea that real estate would soon become the best thing that ever happened to us,” Charlie said.
You must be able to define your individual strengths and weaknesses and delegate the different aspects of your business as such. It’s really important to work together as a team but to also bring different things to the table, so you can fill any gaps. Give yourself time to learn, to grow, to make mistakes and to build your book of business. Real estate doesn’t give you instant gratification or make you money overnight. Your success is determined by your daily efforts, by being intentional and by staying consistent. Most importantly, never stop making time for one another and scheduling weekly date nights. What has been your most difficult challenge in business and/or in life? How did you overcome it?
Our biggest challenge in this business, especially when we get overwhelmingly busy with current clients and pending transactions, is being able to continue prospecting for new clients and looking ahead to fill our future business pipeline. This is something most agents would admit they struggle with. We have begun calendaring our daily lead generation and prospecting tasks, as well as any necessary follow-up, so it’s constantly in front of us. Seeing and being reminded of our task list every few hours on our phones and Apple watches really helps us not to fall behind and keep each other accountable.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do for fun?
Spend time with our families and close friends, workout and maintain a healthy lifestyle, spend time with our border collies Vinny and Mocha, and travel. Describe your ideal workday together.
We get to the office by 8 a.m., have a cup of coffee while reviewing our business portfolio together, hammer down our list of appointments for the day and where we need to be, send any follow-up emails and catch up on any text messages or phone calls, and then take off on the road for our off-site meetings. We typically try to meet back up for lunch between noon and 1 p.m., recap and report any updates to each other during lunch and then either head back out on the road or work from the office on any lead generation we have scheduled in the afternoon. Preferably our evening showings or listing appointments begin around 5:30 p.m., we return to the office or our home office by 8 p.m., wrap up any negotiations or paperwork by 10 or 11p.m., and then wind down and spend a little time together relaxing.
happiness are our main priorities, and we take pride in treating every client with the same level of service whether it’s a $100,000 sale or a multi-million-dollar sale. Jessica: We both love going on listing appointments because we enjoy showcasing our talents and showing potential clients what distinguishes us from other agents — it’s exciting to show someone how passionate we are about real estate. What are some things that you do differently from one another? Charlie: I am the numbers guy. I study
the market daily and know all of the new active listings, pendings and solds so that I can educate our clients about any market changes. I am also very well-versed in investment properties and opportunities for clients looking to make a good return on their money. Jessica: I am the social media expert. I’m in charge of running our Facebook business page and Instagram account, and I absolutely love creating content to share and providing value to our viewers. What’s the one thing you admire most about your significant other? Charlie: She has the biggest heart
and is completely selfless. She makes everyone feel like #1 and always puts others’ needs ahead of her own. Jessica: His laid-back personality. He is definitely the Yin to my Yang and always makes me feel a sense of calm when I’m with him.
Describe your ideal date night.
No phones, a delicious steak dinner at one of our favorite steak houses and definitely some sort of chocolate cake for dessert. Then, because we’re homebodies at heart, we like to be back home by 10 p.m., get in our pajamas, cuddle up with our pups and watch a movie. What are some things you both have in common in the industry? Charlie: We both believe cus-
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