“If you’re afraid to invest in your community, you won’t be able to convince anyone else to,” real estate broker Tammy Valente said.
Valente Real Estate has invested in a new location along Main Street within Picayune.
Owner and broker Valente, said she got her start in real estate in 2007, working with other local real estate professionals.
About four years later she secured her own broker’s license allowing her to start her own agency in the dining room of her home and employ her own agents.
Within that same year, she moved the business to a 600-square-foot office space, which had two offices.
Last year, she purchased a much larger building located at 109 North Main Street in Picayune and began extensive renovations to make it her own. The additional room provides office space for all six of her current agents.
Since the new location has plenty of charm, Valente is implementing her hobby of interior design to make it unique.
Services offered at Valente Real Estate include buying and selling residential and commercial properties.
She prides herself on customer service, saying that she doesn’t have clients; instead she considers them as friends. She enjoys the aspect of helping people make the largest investment of their lives, especially those uninitiated with the process.
“I still love first-time home buyers,” Valente said.
She said it’s that level of service that has brought previous clients back to her agency when their family has grown, prompting them to look for a more suitable home.
“It’s great because you get to see the different stages of people’s lives,” Valente said.
Selling a home can be a process, but Valente said she also offers tips homeowners can use to make selling it a bit easier, such as adding curb appeal or other simple changes that can make it more marketable. Those suggestions could entail adjustments to the landscaping, or a simple rearranging of furniture to make rooms look larger.
In the nine years she’s been working in the industry, she’s seen the importance of working with technology. Valente said a strong website is important, not just for her agency, but for the city as a whole as well. For prospective homebuyers from out-of-town, a realtor’s website could very well be their first impression of a city.
All of these tips and more she has shared with her staff of six. She said she handpicked each one due to their unique skill set and has helped them bloom in the real estate business.
Valente is also on the Pearl River County Board of Realtors, currently serving as president elect, and was named the top seller in Pearl River County for 2015.