Premier`s French, O` Dare nearing $100

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Vero Beach 32963 / November 15, 2012
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REAL ESTATE
Premier’s French, O’ Dare nearing $100-million year
BY STEVEN M. THOMAS
Staff Writer
There is an old saying in business –
“The only ship never meant to float is a
partnership” – that highlights how difficult it can be for two or more people
to consistently make unified decisions
and equitably divide the proceeds of
shared labor.
Broker associates Cindy O’Dare and
Clark French of Premier Estate Properties have proved the saying wrong.
The long-time partners are closing in
fast on a $100-million year, a stunning
accomplishment in a market the size of
Vero Beach, and both say their success
is primarily due to the way they work
with and relate to each other.
“Clark and I have such a unique
friendship and business relationship,”
says O’Dare. “Sometimes, in partnerships, people keep score, but we don’t.”
“We have been the best of friends
for 10 years,” says French. “We understand our success is due primarily to
hard work, and that there is a certain
amount of luck involved, and we don’t
take that for granted. We are appreciative of it. But we are also very appre-
ciative of each other.”
According to a Nov. 7 sales report
provided by Premier Estate Properties,
French and O’Dare earned commissions on $83 million in sales in the first
10 months of the year, including double
commissions on transactions where
they represented both buyer and seller.
They have another $41 million in
pending sales booked. “Those are not
contingent sales,” says French. “They
are deals where the due diligence period has expired and the money that has
been put down is hard. People would
lose millions of dollars if they backed
out. These are sales that will close.”
If the partners’ sales are calculated
by last listing price, which is how some
real estate rankings keep track, they
have already closed $101 million. Add
in pending sales and the cash register
rings up $143 million.
If all the pending sales close this calendar year, French and O’Dare will be
among the top 20 agents and teams
nationwide, according to the Wall
Street Journal’s list of high-dollar real
estate professionals, “The Thousand:
The 2012 Top 1000.”
Most of the others at the top of the
elite list work in much larger markets
in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New
York City and Miami where there are
thousands of luxury listings, not a
small town like Vero Beach.
O’Dare and French pooled their
business interests in 2005.
In 2008 they joined Premier Estate Properties, a Boca Raton-based
luxury brokerage with six Florida offices owned by Joseph G. Liguori, Carmen N. D’Angelo and Gerard P. Liguori. They list and sell $1-million-plus
properties exclusively and share all
profits equally.
The partners say they don’t divide
tasks up rigidly or look over each other’s shoulders to make sure things are
getting done.
“We work in a very organic way,”
says O’Dare. “It is really a function of
timing.”
“On one deal, Cindy might have
most of the day-to-day contact with
the buyer while I have a great connection with the seller,” French says. “Cindy may be the one who makes sure the
contract is perfect, while I make sure
the closing statement is OK. We don’t
really talk about it, necessarily. It happens intuitively.”
“It just flows,” O’Dare agrees. “We
don’t check on each other.”
“It is very rare when one of us will
say to the other, ‘Did you take care of
this?’ We know our jobs and we know
each other,” French says.
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Vero Beach 32963 / November 15, 2012
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REAL ESTATE
Clark French has sold more than $2 billion worth of real estate in his 30-year career.
“Cindy and Clark are the best team I
have ever come across,” says Joe McAuliffe, president of Metamorphosis Consulting, who has advised many Fortune
500 companies and coached some of
the top real estate agents in the country.
“There is amazing synergy there.
“Clark is very intense and fastpaced. His approach is, ‘Let’s get to
Photo by Benjamin Hager
the point and then move on to the next
thing.’ He is very quick to analyze and
prioritize and take action.
“Cindy is relationship management.
Sometimes, where you are too super
focused, you can lose that ability to
build those really strong relationships.
Cindy excels at that.
“That blend of abilities is what gives
Cindy O’Dare says at least 50 percent of her and French’s transactions are repeat business.
them such tremendous potential.
Their numbers are insane.”
Having a strong, trusted partner allowed French to get away for a Vermont
vacation during October. After he came
back, O’Dare took a trip to San Francisco with one of her daughters.
“If I didn’t have Cindy as my partner, I wouldn’t be able to get away for
Photo by Benjamin Hager
more than two or three days, ever,”
French says.
“We are able to live our lives and work
at the same time,” says O’Dare, adding
that “we are always in touch with each
other, no matter where we are.”
Both partners had substantial success in real estate before they teamed
up, O’ Dare selling south Florida estates
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Vero Beach 32963 / November 15, 2012
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to and for celebrity clients, French as a
luxury property broker and developer.
“Cindy had a huge following among
entertainers in Miami,” French says. “I
was a Palm Beach guy. We ended up in
Vero Beach independently, but we met
and sparked and have been working
together for nearly eight years now.”
When they combined their knowledge of high-end buyers, sellers and
markets, it created an intellectual asset greater than the sum of its parts
that gives them a distinct advantage in
cultivating multimillion-dollar deals.
It is one thing to list a $10 million
property, something else to know
where to find a buyer for it. And that
‘something else’ is what Clark and
O’Dare specialize in.
“It is seldom that we don’t walk a
listing the first time and look at each
other and say ‘This is perfect for soand-so.’” French says. “It happens almost every single time and often we
turn out to be right.”
“I’ll bet 50 percent of our transactions are repeat business,” says O’Dare.
“A number of our buyers and sellers
have bought and sold multiple properties with us over the past 10 years.”
That kind of success builds on itself.
People with $10-million homes don’t
tend to list with agents who don’t already have strong track records with
that type of property, and buyers looking for oceanfront estates want agents
who are familiar with all the complex
dimensions and details of multimillion-dollar deals.
Deep rolodexes and what amounts
to muscle memory of how to bring two
high-powered wealthy participants in
a deal to that final mutually beneficial
and money-making handshake are the
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REAL ESTATE
Cindy O’ Dare at the front entryway of a typical $6 million listing on Ocean Drive.
Photo by Benjamin Hager
core of the partners’ success. But they
are not resting on their laurels.
This year they hired associate agent
Richard Boga and a new assistant, Samantha Burns. They brought in McAuliffe as a business coach and part-time
back-end manager and doubled their
advertising budget.
“We have put together a great team
and spent hundreds of thousands on
advertising this year,” says O’Dare.
“Success in real estate today with all
the changes brought about by the Internet and other technology requires
constant improvement,” McAuliffe
says. “Cindy and Clark are continually
evolving and strategizing to provide
the best service to their clients. They
are trusted real estate advisors with a
deep understanding of client’s emotional needs and the ability to bring
relevant data that enable clients to
make real-estate decisions they will be
happy with long-term.
“They don’t have a static marketing
plan for all their properties. Instead
they continually assess and adjust the
strategy for each property.”
French and O’Dare agree that staying abreast of market trends and being
in the forefront of new technologies
is important. But in the end it comes
back to their partnership.
O’Dare says French is a whiz at
complex land deals and transactions
where banks are involved, something
that is not her strong suit.
“Cindy brings looks and brains to
the partnership,” French counters,
getting a laugh from O’Dare. “If I didn’t
have her as my partner, I would be
lucky to do $30 million this year.”
“Clark and I are like peanut butter and
jelly,” O’Dare says. “We go together.” 