Stephanie Janiga

A Business Built on Authenticity

By Robbyn Moore

Photos by Sasha Marceta with Skyview Experts

Photos taken at Cranbrook Custom Homes — Montcaret in Northville

For years, Stephanie Janiga modeled her real estate business based on the desires of what other agents wanted for themselves. When she came to the realization that she needed to shift her mindset and go after what she wanted and what made her happy, all of her dreams had come true.

“After a series of events, I decided to focus on building my business in a way that made me much happier, and as a result, I am a much stronger and more confident person,” Stephanie shared. “My strengths include solid negotiation skills and finding solutions to tough problems. I understand how to work with an array of different personalities, and I thrive on building lifelong relationships with my clients.”

Stephanie’s keen objectivity to business and elite professionalism is credited to years of watching her parents run various businesses. “As a young girl, I would pay close attention to how my parents handled customer service issues and sales negotiations as well as all the hard work they put into their professions,” she said. “Their influence played an enormous part in my different career paths.”

Stephanie is the CEO and broker of Janiga Estates and associate broker with Keller Williams Advantage. For 16 years, Stephanie has been a top-producing real estate agent, earning accolades such as Hour Detroit Real Estate All-Star, a Double Platinum Award from Keller Williams and ranked in the top 5% of Metro Detroit REALTORS®.

However, prior to launching her real estate career, Stephanie owned a scuba diving shop in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. “We sold and repaired dive gear, certified people to become scuba divers and escorted divers on various dive trips all around the Caribbean and the eastern coast of the U.S., including Florida and the Great Lakes,” she said.

Along with her scuba business, Stephanie also sold Arbonne — a multi-level marketing group specializing in skincare — and was struggling to make her way. “I was 24 years old with acne and trying to sell expensive anti-aging cream to older women, and it wasn’t working for me,” she recalled. “I had to get out of the scuba business due to a declining economy, and I needed something more promising than selling Arbonne.” At the time, a good friend of Stephanie’s had started selling real estate. Stephanie closely watched her friend’s real estate career and admired the opportunities he found to schedule his own hours, grow his business and change his lifestyle. Moreover, Stephanie’s dad also got into real estate after he retired, which further piqued her enthusiasm.

Because she was good at working with people and could effortlessly work a sales job, Stephanie knew a profession in real estate would be a great fit. As she launched her career in October 2006, she found herself immersed in the middle of a real estate market crash, but that didn’t stop her efforts. “I am hardwired to push my way to the top,” Stephanie explained. “As a kid, I placed first at a national competition for competitive roller skating. I mastered a skill that required hard work and dedication — all prerequisites to having a successful career. I’ve also trained for a marathon, which takes incredible determination, drive and strength.”

During Stephanie’s first five years in the business, she absorbed all the training and education she could find. She helped build up teams, she survived the fallout of divided teams and grew from her failures as well as her achievements. She also surrounded herself with flourishing agents who championed her success. “The owner of my KW office, Wendy Patton, has always been a huge supporter of me,” Stephanie said. “It’s awesome to have someone so close to me be a great example of what powerful women can accomplish.”

Currently, Stephanie is most passionate about building relationships. “Somewhere along the way, I stopped staying in touch with my sphere,” she explained. “I had a ‘transactional business’ for a handful of years and realized that I wasn’t getting the same joy out of my day-to-day anymore. For the past four years, I’ve focused on getting back in touch and staying in relationships with my clients. My referral business is thriving, and I am so much happier helping the friends of my friends versus always competing on an appointment.”

Stephanie has one other agent on her team — Drew McNeil, who is also a full-time firefighter — so she is positioned to focus solely on doing what she loves to do, which is helping people buy and sell real estate. “It’s so much more than that, though,” she said with a laugh. “I’m a problem solver and work hard to navigate through different challenges by finding creative solutions. I’ve experienced a lot in the last 16 years of real estate that has allowed me to anticipate challenges before they happen and circumvent any foreseen issues.”

In her free time, Stephanie enjoys being out on the water as much as possible. She also takes time to ride her bike, practice yoga, camp, travel, garden and scuba dive.

Beyond her leisure activities, Stephanie started doing a video series to focus on and support local businesses. “This started with me supporting the restaurants because they were hurting so bad from the COVID shutdown,” Stephanie said. “I was giving away $100 gift cards each week to a different restaurant and promoting them all over social media. After the restaurants opened up, we moved on to helping other struggling businesses.”

Stephanie’s strong allegiance to her clients and her community is what makes her unique. What’s even more impressive is Stephanie’s steadfast commitment to being honest to herself and her business. “My advice to new agents is that success doesn’t happen overnight,” she said. “Be willing to work harder than you’ve ever worked before, be willing to do the things that others are not willing to do and eventually the hard work will pay off. Most importantly, take responsibility to build a dream that is true to yourself.”

Stephanie Janiga - Agent Spotlight