Gavin Heintz was Century 21’s bestselling realtor in Canada in 2018.
So what did he do for an encore? Try becoming the company’s bestselling realtor in the world.
Of Century 21’s 139,000 realtors, no one sold more units last year than Heintz, who turned the keys over to buyers 263 times.
“From little ol’ Red Deer, Alberta. Pretty spectacular, right?” said Heintz, who almost seemed a little surprised himself at the achievement, which was recognized by Century 21 in a special ceremony in Los Angeles on Monday.
Perhaps most impressive is that Heintz, who is with Red Deer’s Century 21 Advantage, was able to be so successful at a time when central Alberta’s real estate industry has faced several years of challenging times.
“The secret to the business, I think, is just drive and ambition, organization and that trust from the consumer. We’ve built a good reputation with the consumer and that’s worked well for us,” said Heintz, on the phone from Los Angeles.
Making sales when times are tough means looking at new ways of doing things, said the 36-year-old realtor.
“I do definitely think you need to do more. You need to try to do something different than the next guy to help attract customers to your properties. Outside-the-box thinking never hurts.”
To drum up sales, Heintz has mined the potential of social media.
While Alberta house sales generally have been slow, Heintz is optimistic business will bounce back.
“I do believe, obviously, that consumer confidence in the market is down, but we’ve started to see signs of life in the real estate industry as of late, which is a positive for all of us.
“Eventually, it should recover, and hopefully, prosperous times are on the horizon for us.”
While he does referral business throughout Western Canada, central Alberta home sales are his bread and butter.
Real estate has been his one and only career since the father of an eight-year-old son and two-year-old daughter left high school 17 years ago.
“I got out of school and I decided what am I going to do with my life, and real estate seemed like a good job. I think it’s exciting to work with people every day and it drove me into the business.”
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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