Standing in one of her most luxurious home listings, Jade Mills says in a video on her website, “There is no difference in selling a $5 million house or a $25 million house. You always want to do the best job for your clients.”
Mills, a luxury real estate agent in the Beverly Hills market and Coldwell Banker Global Luxury ambassador, ranked No. 38 in the Realtrends + Tom Ferry The Thousand individuals by sales volume category in 2022. This year, Mills, who is co-chair of the International Luxury Alliance network, also ranked No. 17 on RealTrends + Tom Ferry America’s Best Real Estate Professionals in California in the Individuals by sales volume category.
She has consistently maintained her rank as a top agent since 2006. Achieving this type of consistent high-level production through the Great Recession and a constantly shifting market is not easy. But, Mills can boil it down to one thing — relationships.
“I love my clients. They become friends. They refer me. They trust me,” she says. She operates in comparatively wealthy neighborhoods like Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, and the Hollywood Hills.
For agents trying to navigate a slow real estate market, Mills can offer advice based on her experience. Find out her go-to mantras for success in the field, how she tackled the economic turmoil in 2007-2008 and what plans she has to maintain success in coming years.
RealTrends: What are some of the lessons you’ve learned over the past several years that have helped you maintain your success?
Jade Mills: One of the most important things that we can do in our business is keep in touch with our clients and customers. A lot of people think this is a very easy business. It’s not. You have to work very hard in this business and stay focused.
I love people. I love meeting new people. This is truly a people business. If you don’t like people, and if you don’t like meeting people, this is not the business for you. I love people and I think that that has helped me enormously.
RT: How do you keep in touch with your clients and customers and how frequently do you usually speak with them?
Mills: We send a Christmas card every year. And that is my main source of communication with everyone. We send of Christmas cards, and I send it to everyone that we have sold a house to, and sold the house for.
During the year, sometimes if I’m driving to Malibu or if I’m in the car for an extended period of time, I start calling people that I have not spoken with in a while. It’s so critical to check in on people if someone’s older, if someone has been ill, show them that you care.
RT: You also mentioned that this is not an easy business. What do you mean by that?
Mills: [Selling real estate is more than just] going on the internet, seeing what’s on the market and showing a house. You need a lot of knowledge; you need to study your craft. If you’re going door to door selling something, you need to know everything about it.
In real estate, you need to know neighborhoods, how much everything sold for, and who lived there previously.
Knowledge is king in our business. The more you know, the more information you can give your buyers and sellers, the better off you’ll be.
RT: The housing market is slowing down. How do you stay positive and encourage your team to stay positive?
Mills: I grew up with a mother who was very positive, and that definitely does help. If you always look at the good side of things, and not the negative, it helps a lot. Every morning when I wake up, I give gratitude for where I live, for having four fabulous children and my grandchildren.
If we try to stay positive ourselves, everyone around us stays positive. There are times that everybody feels a little bit down, and that’s okay. It’s okay to have those days. But it’s more important to bounce back and feel blessed to be in the position that you’re in.
RT: What are some of the positive and negative things in the industry that you have encountered in the recent past?
Mills: I have the most amazing friends through real estate.The friends and connections that I have in real estate are my life now. We celebrate each other’s birthdays. There are so many wonderful agents in our business, and you have to find those people that you connect with — you’ll stay friends with them forever.
I want to work with agents who are also very knowledgeable, and don’t speak for their clients. When you have an offer or when you’re going to write an offer, and the agent is speaking for their clients, that doesn’t help anyone. If something is $10 million, and they say, ‘Don’t write an offer of $9 million, they won’t take it.’ That’s always an issue in our business.
RT: You have been through several economic cycles — from the economic turmoil of 2008-2009 to the post-pandemic run-up in housing to this year’s slow down. What are some of the similarities in the ways you’ve navigated through these times?
Mills: One of the most important things is to keep in touch with your fellow agents. Also, know your business inside and out [so you can] advise your clients on what the interest rates are and what the stock market is doing. This is a great time to study your business when things aren’t quite as fast and furious.
During COVID-19, we had a series of town hall meetings with other agents across the United States. I brought in my mayor, Lili Bosse [Mayor of Beverly Hills]. I’m on the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, and I brought in its president. We had zoom calls with 2,000 to 2,500 people attending these calls, because everyone wanted information. The more you can focus on giving your clients information; the better off you are.
RT: You said it’s important to study your business. What are some resources you find the most useful to study your business?
Mills: If you go to a multiple listing service (MLS) and pull up neighborhoods and houses, you can look up the public record to see who’s lived there before.
When you go to a listing appointment and you’re going up against another top agent, the more you know, the better off you are and the better chance you have of getting that listing.
RT: What advice would you give to industry professionals who are now struggling?
Mills: Study, study, study. Know as much as you can about your market. A lot of new agents come to Beverly Hills and want to work in Beverly Hills — maybe they’re from Westwood or Culver City. I always say you need to work where you feel comfortable.
If you feel more comfortable working in Westwood, that’s where you should focus. A lot of people just jump in and say, ‘I want to sell more expensive homes. So I’m gonna go to Beverly Hills or Bel Air.’
But they’re not comfortable there. Wherever you’re the most comfortable, that’s where you should start.
Stay positive, work hard. If you sit at a Sunday open house every single Sunday, you [will build relationships and meet buyers and sellers]. It’s just like throwing spaghetti on the wall and having something stick. The more you do; the more chances you have of selling a house or becoming successful. Go out and see inventory, sit at open houses, make a big effort to work on your craft and be successful.
A lot of newer agents don’t have a lot of money for advertising and marketing. The very best thing you can do is sit open houses.
Open houses are the best way to meet people. And they’re right in front of you. It’s your job when they walk in to try to get them as a client. I’ve seen so many agents sit open houses on a Sunday, and people walk right by the agent. The agent just looks at their phones. You have to make the effort.
Start a conversation, ask them what they’re looking for and how you can help them. If you’re kind to people, they’re kind back.
RT: What would you say is the source of this comfort in a particular neighborhood?
Mills: Years ago, I lived on a street called Tyrone in Sherman Oaks. That’s where I first started door knocking many years ago. I’m not saying that every experience was pleasant, but I was very comfortable there.
I didn’t work for many years because I was married. When my husband passed away, my children were going to El Rodeo, a Beverly Hills school. Then, I started working with the parents at my children’s school. That was also very comfortable for me because I knew a lot of those parents very well. It’s a place where I know people and feel like a part of an organization.
RT: Based on your observations, what are some of the technological advances that have helped you over the last several years that weren’t available in earlier downturns?
Mills: Google! Now, before we even show a house or take a listing, we Google people.
I have a beautiful website that was designed especially for me. We put all of our listings on that website. That’s huge in our business. When you’re sitting with the client, or going for a listing, or if you’re in the car with a client showing them a property, you can go to your website on your iPad and show them your website.
I did not start my business with all of this technology. We used to have to go to someone’s house to get a listing signed or an offer signed. It’s so much easier today because everything can be done via DocuSign or on the computer.
The truth is, says Mills, there is not secret to real estate success. Everyone has a different style and path, but consistency, constant prospecting and building true and deep relationships with people in your community will deliver results no matter where we are in the housing market cycle.
