As part of our Future of Real Estate series on the Union Street Media YouTube channel, Rachel Allard, Senior Vice President of Strategy, sat down with Adam Dow, Founder and Owner of the Dow Realty Group in New Hampshire. Adam Dow is the top real estate agent in New Hampshire and has consistently found himself in the top 10 since he started his real estate journey in 2003. Dow is known for being a trendsetter in many ways – especially his online and mobile-first mentality. You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button above. 

When Dow got into real estate he decided to focus on Lake Winnipesaukee as a way to set himself apart from other brokers who were focusing primarily on specific towns or neighborhoods. In addition to focusing on a specific part of the Lakes Region, he also wanted to be able to tell his unique story online and truly show that he was the local expert – which was when he decided to build a website that showcased that expertise. 

After seeing success in 2006, Dow was beginning to feel like his online presence was bigger than what only one agent could handle, so he began to work on growing his team. With the growth of his team came the growth of his service area – and he now services the New Hampshire Lakes Region, White Mountains, and Seacoast. Dow notes that he is “on pace to do the best year yet.” He attributes that success to being different from others and his local expertise, something he says you won’t find on aggregator sites like Zillow. 

Dow admits that he used to spend $4,000 a month on Zillow, and while he was getting leads, he noticed that things started to change – the way Zillow handled leads no longer matched the way he liked to do business and he noticed sales starting to taper off which led him to a realization: “why am I basing the way I do business on the way another company does business where one tweak really affects my income and my family’s income?” Dow saw the importance of investing in his brand and building a high-quality website so he wouldn’t have to rely on a third party to deliver leads, he could get them himself.  

One of the reasons Dow says he has a “really nice website” is that “other realtors judge the potential referral partners by their website. I get a lot of referrals because of my website and because they know I’ve invested into it.” While Dow may not be able to call a potential seller and ask when they are going to sell their home, he can call other real estate agents in his feeder market and share a presentation of all of his listings “that their people would be interested in and ask them to share out the info in their next newsletter.”

“It’s relationships that build the business.”

– Adam Dow

Dow says that since COVID-19 hit, the top 10 Keller Williams agents started holding a weekly call to discuss changes in the market and what they’re each doing with their teams. Referrals go back and forth because of these strengthened relationships. 

It’s not just the relationship with other agents Dow relates to success, you have to focus on the customers too. Dow says that pre-COVID he was never a fan of the Matterport tours because he felt that a potential buyer would do a showing online and then he’d never get to talk to them. He says he felt that the user was making decisions on these tours without enough information so he never bought into it. “Once things started shutting down I actually bought a 3D camera because that’s information [buyers] needed because they weren’t able to travel here,” he says. Because of these 3D tours, they’re now able to better qualify the lead as well as whether the house is a good fit for a potential buyer without anyone needing to leave their home. Dow mentions his offices are seeing less “recreational viewings” because of implementing 3D tours and they’re also able to develop relationships with leads because they have to get to know what a person is looking for, where in the past you could go look at an endless number of houses to find what the person is looking for. “There’s no substitute to getting to know the person and making that connection.” 

The Keller Williams model is big on coaching and mentoring, something Dow feels is important to being successful. He also knew that this coaching and mentoring needed to change once COVID hit. Instead of focusing on yearly goals, he started focusing on his team’s daily goals because “we had no idea what was going to happen.” Their focus shifted towards what they could do today – serving the customer. Dow notes that they entered COVID in the best real estate market in history and that being on a team during this time, having the camaraderie, and focusing on short term goals has allowed Dow to be better because of his team, and his team to be better because of him. 

Dow likes to track things that get results rather than focusing entirely on the results themselves. Dow says you should be tracking where people are coming from “instead of creating a market, find where the market already exists and put more money into it.”

Dow believes that in order to be successful at real estate you need to decide what you want to be an expert in and double down on it “become an expert and people will tell their friends about you.” When asked about what advice he would pass along to others, he again stressed the importance of becoming an expert. He notes that some people have a personal and a professional Facebook page, but “if you’re in real estate you’re all in.” He stresses that you should “think about what you enjoy and combine that with real estate – whether it’s a charity or whatever – try and pick one and get into a group with some really good influencers in it, but don’t try and do it all.” Dow continues, “early on I picked the website and I picked golf.” He also notes that if what you’re trying isn’t working, “switch out of it and pick something else. There’s plenty of different ways to be successful in this business and that’s what is great about the industry.”

For more information on Adam Dow and the Dow Realty Group please visit their website at adamdow.com. 

To view more of our Future of Real Estate series, subscribe to the Union Street Media YouTube channel.