Real is happy to announce that the Barocio Group of Bay Area Realtors has joined the Real family. This team, led by Silvano Barocio, Real is happy to announce that the Barocio Group of Bay Area Realtors has joined the Real family. This team, led by Silvano Barocio, closed $60 million in volume, $1.3 million in revenue, and helped find properties for 117 families in 2021. We sat down with Barocio to learn more about his real estate journey, his team, their strategy, and what it means for the Barocio Group to join Real.
Q: What brought you to Real? Why join now?
I'm really excited to be joining Real. I have been in the real estate business for a little over three years now and have already tried out some of the bigger brokerages. Now, I am leading a team of eleven agents, and I’m excited to bring the Real brand to the Bay Area.
Our team is growing rapidly, and this is a major market in California that presents a lot of growth opportunities. As a team, we find our success comes from being bolder than others, and Real offers a great business model that will allow our team to grow significantly. We’re also excited to collaborate with quality agents and a strong leadership team.
Q: What are you seeing in your market right now?
Our team covers the entire Bay Area. We have San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and East Bay. What we’re seeing across all three of these areas is what I call “the great migration.” The Silicon Valley and San Francisco tech money is moving to the East Bay because a lot of clients are coming from those areas as they transition to working from home indefinitely. Clients want to move to the East Bay where they can buy a bigger home, have a bigger backyard, and everything is fully renovated at a more reasonable price. A lot of families are coming to the East Bay because many can't afford Silicon Valley, or they just don't want to spend that amount of money for what they're getting. This has resulted in tremendous growth in the East Bay market. The value of homes is increasing, and prices are catching up to the San Francisco and Silicon Valley markets. I anticipate this is something we will continue to see for a while due to the supply and demand issue that we’re seeing in the Bay Area and throughout the United States. I anticipate that prices will continue to increase.
Q: What do you think your team is doing differently?
Our team has built our entire business through social media, specifically Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Google, and Tik Tok. We take advantage of all the channels. I have about 45,000 followers on Tiktok and Instagram, and my entire team is the exact same way. From a networking standpoint, there are so many amazing content creators at Real who we look forward to connecting with. We’re excited to learn from them, and we anticipate those relationships bringing more exposure for the Bay Area, which is a tremendous upside.
Q: Why invest in social media marketing?
I never cold called, never went door to door, and I never sent out postcards. While those more traditional techniques may work, with social media you can reach such a larger audience faster. We think about it this way: if you were to host a workshop, whether it be for homebuyers or homesellers, a 100 person turnout would be a success. But imagine if you could do the same thing through social media and reach a couple thousand people that are all hearing you speak simultaneously. You expand your reach exponentially, you increase exposure, and you make yourself more accessible to potential new clients. I would say 80% of our deals come from social media and 20% come from referrals. So the majority of our business is from social media. We are a young team and see ourselves as part of this new wave of real estate agents taking advantage of available technology to build our business and appeal to younger generations.
Q: What are one or two of the biggest mistakes you're seeing agents and brokers make?
The biggest mistake I see agents making from a social media and video standpoint are those who are making content to impress other agents and not to impress a seller or a buyer. That is a huge mistake. I tell my clients and my agents this all the time, what you put out is what you're going to get. So if you want to show that you can sell a luxury home, you need to know what it is that luxury clients want to see: How do they think? Where are they shopping? What is the lifestyle they live? Then you replicate that style to attract that kind of client. A lot of agents that come into the business are so caught up in textbook real estate, and they're not really storytelling; they're trying to impress other agents. So my whole approach is to tell the story of a client, their successes, their wants and their vision.
On my channels, I try to educate my clients and walk them through the process of selling or buying a home or mistakes first time buyers should avoid. One pillar that I use in my social media is that real estate is my lifestyle, and I bring my clients into my lifestyle, which I love, and I get to showcase that experience.
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