Women Leaders Of Real Estate: Bianca D’Alessio On The 5 Things You Need To Succeed In The Real Estate Industry

An Interview With Jason Hartman

Share your Success — Nobody will be more proud of your success than you are, so own it and share it. It can feel uncomfortable initially, but success breeds more success, and if no one else knows your accomplishments, the only person you are hurting is you. I regularly share and announce my numbers, closed deals, success stories, and challenges. With each post or announcement, I hope to motivate and inspire others. My social media presence is intended to reach friends and clients and capture a wider audience. If I stayed silent, my business would be a fraction of the size it is now.

As a part of my series about strong women leaders of the Real Estate industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bianca D’Alessio.

Bianca D’Alessio is a New York Real Estate Broker who manages $10B in pipeline and active new development sales inventory for Nest Seekers Development Marketing. Before her career in Real Estate, Bianca was traveling the world. She later transitioned into a non-profit position, focusing on leadership development, communication, and behavioral training workshops for women across the United States.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the Real Estate industry?

My first job after graduating from business school was working in a non-profit. I traveled the country conducting leadership, communication, and behavioral training workshops for women. While traveling, I learned a tremendous amount about people and myself. I realized that being an entrepreneur was my future, and I would use my skills to educate, train and inspire people. I desired to build a team of goal-oriented individuals who would hustle and want to make a difference. I had no idea what industry I would be in or how to achieve my dream, but I knew that my home, New York, was where this process would unfold. I was approached to join one of the top real estate teams in the city, and the adventure began. In the beginning, I ran around seven days a week doing all of the things no one else wanted to do. I was always the first one into the office and the last one out. I listened to every single phone call my teammates participated in, and I started to take note of best practices. In the beginning, I was a sponge, and yet it was tough to secure my first deal. I have learned that the real estate business comes in waves, and managing the emotional rollercoaster of sales is challenging. The most important thing is to keep showing up. In the early days, I put my head down, and I forged through. After building an incredible resale business in condos and coops across Manhattan, I focused on New Development and switched companies. I took on the largest project of my career at the time, Austin Nichols House — a 338 unit new development conversion — and turned it into one of the best-selling buildings in New York City three years in a row. It broke tremendous sales records and changed the trajectory of my career. I have since managed the sales and marketing for over thirty new development projects across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, and the Hamptons, including a pipeline of $10B of new development inventory for Nest Seekers International.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

One of my favorite stories was the first deal I did when I moved to my current company, Nest Seekers International. I just took over the marketing for a new development building on the Upper East Side, and we converted the building from a condo project to a rental building. This is a tough decision for any developer to make, and the stakes were very high. We needed to rent for top-dollar immediately. I put the first unit in the building on the market and was contacted by someone who needed to move immediately within hours. The building was brand new and had never been lived in before. This client wanted the apartment to be fully furnished in under a week. I quickly engaged a staging company specializing in custom-built furniture, and with a $100,000 budget, we were able to get furniture for immediate delivery. We spent $40,000 on California Closet build-outs, $30,000 in motorized shades, and $25,000 on state-of-the-art audio and visual package. I needed to hire a private chef, driver, and housekeeper as services offered within the rent. To organize all of this in under a week was an enormous undertaking, and frankly, it was pretty exhilarating. It was probably one of the most creative and most chaotic deals that I’ve ever worked on. I put together an unprecedented luxury package that no one else in the market was offering and created a niche. I rented this apartment for $85,000/mo, one of the most expensive rentals at the time in New York City. With this model, I ended up leasing the remainder of the building within 60 days at record-breaking prices and achieved a 3x multiple on the projected rent roll for my client. What I learned from that deal is that anything is possible with a lot of creativity. Most brokers would have thrown their hands up and said it was impossible or too much work or could never happen on such a tight timeline. You have to be a dealmaker in this city and always find an answer to everything. My main objective is always to identify my client’s goals and configure a strategy and solution to achieve them and make them part of the process. Identify, communicate, execute. This is how I approach every obstacle, deal, client, and project.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I am juggling more projects now than ever, and I love it. Beyond my active pipeline of new development, my team is working on some very exciting marketing initiatives to take our business to the next level. Real estate is cutting edge and incredibly unique. We are not only a sales team; we are a marketing and branding agency — we study the market data and trends, live and breathe design, and boots on the ground across multiple markets. We are constantly analyzing the flow and moment of people. Data and trends are powerful. It gives us the tools we need to guide every decision in New Development. We have redefined the home buying process and offer an unmatched service level because every detail matters. I have this incredible powerhouse team of some of the most creative agents. They understand the mission and the market. We are all focused on empowering one another through collaborative thinking, learning, and sharing to all grow as a team. In such a competitive industry, we believe in transparency and share our knowledge to empower team success and foster individual and team growth. I believe everyone should leave their ego at the door and work together. I believe my success comes from this model of hard work and transparency, which makes me a businesswoman that people want to work with.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

My team’s “Success Board” is my favorite part of our office and daily routine. The Success Board is an oversized whiteboard that lists all of our new development projects, clients, listings, and stages of deal negotiations. It shows what contracts we have out, what offers are pending, and of course, prospects. My team has closed 273 deals in the first nine months of 2021, there are a lot of apartment numbers listed on our board, and it is incredibly exciting. My favorite part is our Good Vibes Section. Every single day, the team gathers around the board and lists our good vibes. It helps us focus, and it holds us accountable. It gets everyone excited to watch and cheer on each other’s successes. We have these conversations every day. What prospects are we feeling good about? What apartments are we feeling good about? What are we targeting this week? What are we doing as a team and as an individual? How will we set the bar for ourselves to continue to be better and push to challenge ourselves? We have made a very competitive, cutthroat business feel collaborative and unified, and that encourages everyone to be their best self.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Many people have guided and helped me along the way, and for them, I am incredibly grateful. I have had a handful of mentors who took the time to teach and guide my business growth. I try to embody that same kindness and generosity with my team because I want to make a difference. I am most appreciative and grateful for my parents. They taught me at a very young age the importance of hard work and perseverance. They gave me the confidence to chase my dreams and taught me how to cope with and learn from failure. We discussed over dinner how easy it is to win but mastering the losses takes grace. My mom holds very true to her values and always told me that I could be a successful businesswoman, and it should never come at the expense of being a good person. Having the ability to grow and scale would not be possible without my incredible team and partners. We all have the same collaborative spirit and the same vested mutual interest in everyone’s success and achieving our true potential. My team has given me the courage and confidence to continue expanding and growing.

Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Like the Veterinarian, Nursing, and Public Relations fields, the Real Estate industry is a women-dominated industry. Yet despite this, less than 20 percent of senior positions in Real Estate companies are held by women. In your opinion or experience, what do you think is the cause of this imbalance?

The real estate industry in New York City is very male-dominated. I hope to inspire more women and give them more opportunities in real estate. I believe that a woman’s confidence might hold her back in this male-dominated field, so I encourage free thinking without being critical. It took me a while to gain such confidence. Walking into a room with twenty or thirty years more senior men and learning how to be assertive is tough. Now, almost a decade later, I can do that, and I am confident that I can “work the room” and help other women achieve this feeling so we can pivot to changing this imbalance.

What 3 things can be done by a) individuals b )companies and/or c) society to support greater gender balance going forward?

For individuals, I would encourage them to ask difficult questions when deciding where they seek employment. For example, what is your maternity leave? Do you offer virtual work? What training is available at my level? Some companies are handling gender imbalance and providing the resources for training. I would hope these questions become part of the individual’s decision-making process.

I would say the same for companies — an investment in training and a commitment to inclusive hiring practice will go a long way in recruiting top-tier talent and will increase retention.

For society, we should continue to have conversations, panels, workshops, and training to create gender balance in the industry. The more we talk about it, the quicker companies will enforce policies and change corporate culture for a more inclusive and equitable environment.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

The perception is that real estate is a masculine industry — construction, development, financial analysis, underwriting, etc. While all of those components are dominated by men, a woman’s focus and knowledge are invaluable. The steel and concrete are just as important as the finish selection, amenity space design, the sensory experience, the psychology behind sales and so much more. It is tough to get a seat at the table in the first place, but that is not enough. Having a seat is one thing and using your voice is another. I found I over-prepare, over-analyze, study more and practice longer and harder than most of my male counterparts because I know everything I say must be intentional, insightful, and compelling. Women who exude confidence and speak with conviction and authority will make waves in this industry.

Can you share three things that most excite you about the Real Estate industry?

What excites me most about the real estate industry is how fast-paced it is. The market is constantly changing. What has happened in New York City and the different neighborhoods in New York is pretty phenomenal. How these markets have shifted so dramatically, and how the concept of homeownership, space, purpose, and design play into our lives.

I am blessed that my primary business, new development, shapes the NYC skyline. I get to sell new buildings that can be seen in photos of NYC worldwide. I love to be a part of the New York City skyline and create a legacy by physically selling and designing buildings.

I also love the creative aspect. I get to change my approach and my strategy every single day. I never stop coming up with new ideas or initiatives. I pride myself on being cutting-edge. Social media is a great way to highlight our work. Operating as a marketing and branding agency, our creative content is assembled to gain the most exposure for our clients.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

• Low barrier to entry — There is an incredibly low entry barrier to becoming a real estate agent. After a seventy-five-hour course, a small fee, and a state exam, you can have your license. I believe there are somewhere around 3 million licensed real estate agents in the United States. The perception of being a broker is that it is easy money because there is a low barrier to entry, and you can have a flexible work schedule. The reality is that most brokers do not make it past their first year in the business because it takes time to develop and build a book of business. By enhancing the licensing, educational, and training requirements, expectations, and best practices, more brokers will be set up for success, and the industry will be better served.
• Increasing construction and land costs — Between 2020 and 2021, the construction costs have become highly inflated and created a tremendous market disparity. Over the past year, material costs have increased by 20–30%; this is an incredible challenge that will face our country and the real estate market. If we continue this trajectory, we will encounter an affordability crisis because homebuyers will be priced out of purchasing newer homes or even doing projects themselves because of increasing labor, material, and shipping costs. In addition, lumber, steel, and copper have seen as much as 200%+ increases year over year, paired with supply chain issues and labor shortages, a recipe for disaster that needs to be dealt with.
• Paid Features on Listing Syndications — Over the past few years, we have seen some of the main listing syndications — Zillow, Trulia, Streeteasy, Realtor.com — roll out a handful of different marketing tools and resources to agents. While most have been beneficial, probably one of the most lucrative and dangerous tools that have been rolled out is the use of different “Premier” and/or buyer agent features in which an agent in any region can buy various zip codes and listings to take the place of the exclusive sales agent. This feature connects unrepresented buyers with a buyer’s agent rather than the broker representing the property. This becomes problematic because most buyers do not know that they are associated with someone not representing the property. Additionally, most brokers do not have the proper ability to convert the leads. This results in false information being shared because the brokers are uneducated about the client’s property. This service does a tremendous disservice to buyers, sellers, and exclusive agents. There should be more transparency around this service, and buyers should be given the option of connecting to a buyer’s agent or working directly with the exclusive agent.

What advice would you give to other leaders to help their team to thrive?

Identify, communicate and share your goals. Involve your whole team in the vision and process. When people feel invested, their productivity, commitment, and engagement increase. Sharing your goals also helps hold leaders and teammates accountable and prevents the group from losing sight of essential information.

One size does not fit all. In addition, different people have different motivations, ways of handling stress, communications styles, conflict resolution skills, etc. Therefore, it is essential to always take an individualized approach with each person on your team.

Ok, here is the main question of our interview. You are a “Real Estate Insider.” What would you say if you had to advise someone about five non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the Real Estate industry? Can you please give a story or an example for each?

1. Be centered — Working in sales is an emotional rollercoaster. Some days are outstanding, and others are tough. Don’t answer emails, take calls, or attend meetings when you are in the heat of the moment. Instead, take a deep breath, think before you react, and remember that this is the nature of this business.
2. Be authentic — People want to work with a friend, not a salesman/woman. Be original, Be kind. Be confident and in control. People sense authenticity and want to work with genuine people. You need to build trust, and this starts with being authentic.
3. Fight for the deal — The key to being an excellent real estate broker is a good deal maker. Sounds intuitive, right? But to be a good deal maker, you must work with other brokers, not against them. You must work with your clients, not just for them. That means opening up lines of communications and figuring out how everyone works together to reach the goal and end outcome. I see so many brokers take a combative approach when negotiating. You do not need to fight to be a strong negotiator. I always get the best deals for my clients when I work with the other side, not against them.
4. Share your Success — Nobody will be more proud of your success than you are, so own it and share it. It can feel uncomfortable initially, but success breeds more success, and if no one else knows your accomplishments, the only person you are hurting is you. I regularly share and announce my numbers, closed deals, success stories, and challenges. With each post or announcement, I hope to motivate and inspire others. My social media presence is intended to reach friends and clients and capture a wider audience. If I stayed silent, my business would be a fraction of the size it is now.
5. Flood yourself with Positivity — People want to surround themselves with positive people. My team has the saying “Everything’s Amazing” written on the wall in our office because whenever people ask me how things are going, that is always my response. Even when things aren’t amazing, I always radiate positivity because I fully believe that a positive mindset is responsible for my success.

Because of your position, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I can look at one singular experience that has impacted my worldview, it would be my time traveling abroad. Everyone has a different perception of travel, and I think with Instagram and other social media platforms, travel bloggers and influencers have glamorized international travel. That is not what I am talking about. I am not referring to five-star hotel stays and eating in Michelin restaurants. I am talking about immersive cultural experiences — becoming comfortable with living uncomfortably. I have lived, studied, and worked in seven different countries and have traveled to forty-nine. When I was twelve, I got my first job to save for my study abroad plans. When I was fifteen, I had my first opportunity and travel to Sevilla, Spain, and lived with a host family. At sixteen, I studied art and architecture in Florence. I spent a semester in New Zealand in college and enrolled at the Business School at the University of Auckland. I also traveled for a second semester in a program designed to study emerging markets, political and business environments in China, Russia, and India. I was also fortunate to have a great experience doing consulting work in a tech incubator in Israel. I became obsessed with Gert Hofstede’s study on cultural dimensions. I spent just as much time analyzing and self-reflecting on every experience and interaction as I did living them. The two most significant things that hold people back from traveling are money and comfort. And while there is undoubtedly a cost associated with travel, I will say my best experiences were at $20/night hostels. As for comfort, if you are traveling someplace and feel too comfortable, well, you are just doing it wrong. There is nothing comfortable about traveling. That is the beauty of it, and I think that lesson has come back to me in spades because there is nothing comfortable about growing a business, building a team, or chasing after your dreams. There will be failure, there will be insecurity, and there will be times when it just doesn’t work. You must be vulnerable and uncomfortable. You must force yourself to interact with people you might not get along with. You will be forced to say goodbye to things that you love. Travel, travel alone, travel inexpensively, travel wholeheartedly, travel unapologetically. Just travel, learn, and reflect and immerse yourself in other cultures and that is the movement that will change this world.

How can our readers follow you online?

Instagram, of course! @biancadalessio You can also subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date on biancadalessionyc.com. You will also find me on a new TV show soon, but you will need to follow along to hear more about that!

Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights!