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Valrico Realtor Ranks No. 1 Yet Again

Photo from Steve Moran

Steve and Rhonda Moran, shown with their children, Connor and Courtney, visit top referral clients each November to say thanks and deliver a gift of Publix pilgrim salt and pepper shakers.

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By LAURA FRAZIER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 11, 2009

VALRICO - Since the real estate bubble burst four years ago, Realtors across the country have struggled to stay busy — and in business. Steve Moran, who joined Keller Williams Realty in Valrico as an agent and partner during the downturn, said there is enough business out there to go around, but agents have to work harder to get it.

"The reality is, now you have to work twice as much to make half the money," he said.

Moran should know. For the fifth consecutive year — from 2004-08 — he earned the distinction of top individual agent among more than 500 of his colleagues in Brandon and Valrico. He will take the stage at the company's annual convention in Orlando on Feb. 23 with a group of agents honored as top dogs in their areas.

Moran said client referrals, which account for more than 80 percent of his business, are the key to his success.

A Brandon-area resident since 1980, Moran launched his real estate career in 1993 with Re/Max Realty Unlimited on Brandon Boulevard. His first order of business was to mail 500 postcards to people he knew, letting them know he was in business.

"I went to Brandon High School and USF, so I have a lot of friends and contacts," he said.
He affixed a quarter to each card with a note that read, "Call me if you or anyone you know is interested in buying or selling real estate."

The promotion set his referral network in motion. At the end of his first year in business, Moran was voted top rookie with Re/Max, thanks in part, he said, to many of his high school and college classmates who were buying first homes at the time.

"Now they're buying their second or third homes, and that generates even more referrals," he said.

He makes it a priority to touch base with former clients who continue to send new customers his way.
Every November he and his wife, Rhonda, visit their top 100 referral clients to say thanks and deliver a gift of Publix pilgrim salt and pepper shakers.

And when he dines out several times a week, Moran makes it a point to pick up the tab for any former clients he runs into.

"Fifty percent of the time Rhonda and I go out to eat, I'm picking up someone else's tab," he said.
The gesture is at times expensive, he said — especially one year when the couple dined every Wednesday at Outback Steakhouse on Brandon Boulevard.

"I saw a client there one Wednesday, so I picked up his tab," he said. "He was there again the next week, and the next. This went on, on and off, for about a year."

Moran said some of his colleagues shake their heads when he shares the Outback story. They comment about how much he must have spent that year at the restaurant.

"Over the years that guy personally bought and sold four houses through me, and my investment has come back tenfold," he said. "For the price of a couple Bloomin' Onions, the guy has given me $80,000 worth of referrals."

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523.

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