Brianna Morant, Realtor
Founder of Oak Street Group of Benchmark Realty
2500 21st Ave. S., Nashville 37212
615-432-2919 (office), 615-484-9994 (mobile)
oakstreetrealestategroup.com
Years in business: Eleven years in the business; three years as Oak Street Group of Benchmark Realty.
Describe the company and explain what makes it unique. How did you become involved in real estate? I was raised in a family of real estate investors and understand how buying and/or selling real estate can involve critical decisions which can positively or negatively affect individuals and families.
In 2005, I became a Realtor shortly after purchasing my first duplex, which netted a nice 40 percent profit when sold in 2007, the same year of the subprime mortgage crisis. My intuition and forward thinking helped me sell before the crash.
However, as a young Realtor, I saw so many families hurt during this nationwide disaster that I became passionate about developing a strategic approach to real estate so my clients would have a more positive outcome and less stress when buying or selling their home.
Over the years, my team and I have perfected this proprietary process, now called the "Oak Street Advantage," that helps families and individuals identify their real estate goals and creates a strategy to achieve them, which utilizes her investor skill set. With more than 11 years of proven success, this process has helped Oak Street Group earn the GNAR award for No. 1 Selling Real Estate Team for 2015.
Oak Street Group is unique in their team approach, which is highly focused and specialized, while ensuring their clients have the best experience and best possible outcome.
Where in the Nashville region are you active? Our team helps people buy and sell homes within an hour in all directions of downtown Nashville. With having a real estate team of highly focused specialists, we are able to bring an unprecedented level of understanding to a variety of areas in and around Nashville.
When selling a home, what can the owner do to maximize its value? Every home is as individual as its owner, so we take a very proactive, hands-on approach with our sellers to ensure a maximized value.
The first thing we do is to take the time to understand our clients' needs, goals and abilities. Then we create a specific plan that always involves hiring an Oak Street-approved, licensed stager. Please be aware that not all stagers are equal, and that is why we can't advise people to just hire any stager.
Together with our approved stager, I help sellers make critical decisions as to what truly needs to be done to improve the marketability of the home so that the sellers will maximize its value within their budget constraints.
There are occasions when work needs to be done. If that is the case, our team works diligently to coordinate quotes and vendors to help ease the stress and to also allow them to benefit financially from the relationships we have established over the years. Once the home is market ready, we then will implement the Oak Street Advantage marketing process that is specifically "tweaked" to match the goals of our sellers and to ensure top dollar for the sale.
What advice do you have for clients who are preparing to buy a home? What steps should they take? The best homebuying decisions happen when a person connects with the right Realtor before they connect with a property. It's important to partner with a professional who truly cares and understands their clients' goals and needs.
I think it is critical to do a full consultation before someone begins the process so the Realtor truly understands what is important to them. The Realtor should guide the buyer through the process and also inform him/her about the market conditions by reviewing specific current data and facts. This is the only way a buyer can be focused, confident and prepared.
I also think its very important to work with full-time Realtors and, if possible, a buyer's agent specialist, so the person considering buying a home knows the agent is focused on just one thing: finding the best home within his/her budget.
How is technology changing the way people buy and sell houses? Technology has sped up the process of buying and selling real estate so much so that buyers and sellers need more than just a Realtor; they need a quality team of committed professionals who will go the extra mile, even finding deals off-market if necessary.
It almost requires being five different people in five different places at one time. With our team, we are able to accomplish this seamlessly, allowing us to be one step ahead of our clients and the internet. Having more manpower means having more time to do the old-fashioned networking and driving around to find homes that are off-market for our buyers.
In regards to working with sellers, we have more time to make calls to other Realtors who may have buyers and pre-market the listing to increase the amount of potential buyers for our listings.
What features are the most popular with today's buyers? Each buyer is different in what they are looking for in a home, but people still love open floor plans and nice fenced yards. The living room, kitchen and master suite are the three most important rooms in a home to most people.
What is the hallmark of the service you provide to your clients? The Oak Street Advantage is a unique, client-focused approach to buying and selling real estate as an investor-consumer and not just as a consumer.
Oak Street clients have a special competitive advantage in this highly desirable Nashville real estate market. While our Oak Street team won the GNAR award for No. 1 Selling Team in 2015, we believe it was just a byproduct of our collective effort in being the best partner in Nashville to sell, purchase or build a real estate portfolio for our clients.