Dear friends,

Hello from a mountainous village near Chania, Crete where I’m celebrating my 3rd wedding anniversary! I’m sitting at a table outside the café under some much-appreciated shade, sipping a strong iced coffee and a fresh orange juice, wondering how I am going to make up for five missed monthly blogs in one!
Instinctively, I know that none of you are counting but me. And you also don’t care about excuses. So, I’ll just skip them and get straight to the point – it’s been a monumental five months, hitting major milestones! Stay till the end for a big announcement ;)

To catch you up:

1. In January, I finally hired a full-time assistant, Anusha! After 11 years as a wearing-all-hats entrepreneur who understood the value of delegation and un-bottlenecking but couldn’t “justify it” or “make it work.” I am so happy that I decided to take the plunge and found such a wonderful teammate in doing so. It’s been truly life-changing to have the help and humbling to learn how to lead, how to foster growth, and when to step back. Thank you, Anusha! And a belated welcome!

2. In February and March, I traveled to Florida and completed my first deal in Miami! I have been going to Miami for 15 years (junior year spring break woohoo!). In the past four years, I’ve toured developments, met with developers and top agents, and cross-checked market intel. In an overheated market where headline projects require a 20-25% deposit before the site has even been cleared (let alone financing secured or construction started), and where many projects stall or stop, I took my time to painstakingly establish a system and assemble a local team to help my clients discern opportunities from hype. I’m proud to have helped my long-term clients snatch a water-front residence in a nearly sold-out new development just one block from the white sands of South Beach, where similar units would have cost 3 to 4 times more. My clients are thrilled, and I can’t wait to visit them in their vibey beach club!

Continued below…

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3. This spring, I was awarded the Gold Award at Douglas Elliman as among the top 15% of our 6000 agents nation-wide for 2025. I am particularly proud of this because 2025 was the first full year out on my own, building my own numbers, having left another team in the fall of 2024.

4. In the first six months of 2026, I have already exceeded my entire 12 months of sales volume in 2025 by 6%. In deal volume terms, I’m on track to exceed last year by 27%. But these numbers are never just numbers. They are the culmination of 19,000-step days, blisters and shoe soles with holes, midnight emails and texts scheduled to be sent out at 8:02 AM, missed Broadway shows, skipped lunches, missed subway stops (getting too into offer drafting), and hefty Uber bills where I squeezed in all the calls that had to be made during business hours as I went between showings and appointments. It’s been an intense 6 months, and though it’s no excuse, I had to make sure I delivered for my clients day and night before sitting down to reflect and write my next blog.

NOW THE NEXT BIG NEWS:

I have decided to start the search for my first junior agent!

Do you know anyone who is dedicated to learning the craft of real estate, who feels no task is beneath them because they want a job done right, who is passionate about human connections and making a difference in someone’s life by helping them with one of the biggest and emotionally fraught decisions in their lives?

Forward them this email and send them my way!

No real estate experience or license needed (yet)!

See you soon(er than last time),
Judy

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