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Artist of Real-Estate, Gainesville, FL Artist of Real-Estate
AT TIMES, Craig McCall is a painter, potter, mediator and educator as well. A former customer service manager with the U.S. Postal Service who worked his way up from mail carrier, since 2001 McCall, 44, has been a real estate agent with Watson Realty in Gainesville. Last year, he was their number two seller.
With good reason: Craig McCall listens. “Communication is the most important tool in our business,” he said, “and communication starts with good listening.” He listens intently to his customers, to their needs and interests, to their desires and personal goals.
He calls himself a problem solver and relationship-builder and has even taken courses in mediation. “I don’t care if my customers are first-time home buyers or have a house and need to expand because their family has gotten larger,” he said. “I dissect what they say and try to get to the core of what’s going on in their lives. As a realtor, I’m going to become part of the fabric of their lives, and I’ll always be part of that family.” In building relationships with his customers, McCall says that he “plants deep” to be a positive influence in their lives. “By treating people the way I’d like to be treated,” he said. “I know that I’ll have these people as customers from now on, I’ll have their kids, and maybe,” he laughed, “if I live long enough, even their grandkids.”
His quiet, low-stress approach to real estate transactions makes him a standout among other realtors and a favorite among customers. When McCall gets together with potential buyers, for example, he sits down with them for a 30-to-45-minute interview. “It’s like an educational process,” he said. “Everybody who comes in has their own parameters, their own expectations, and those are very important. Basically,” he continued, “we begin painting a portrait. Everything a customer says is a brush stroke. When I educate them about our market conditions, that adds another brush stroke. We work through all of this and build a rapport.” A lifelong student of human nature, McCall reads books on communication, psychology and self-help, preferring books that offer encouragement. “The way I thought 15 years ago is not the way I think today,” he said. “I listen and read and try to understand people. Everything is not just black and white all the time. “We’re like clay,” he observed. “What we learn forms us. But we can always get back on the potter’s table and get reshaped a little bit, too.” G
Visit Craig McCall at Watson Realty, 4516 N.W. 23d Avenue, or on the Internet at www.craigmccallhomes.com.Call him at 352-494- 3039.
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