JUPITER, FL - As northern Palm Beach County’s top producer in 2014, Rob Thomson and his team had more than $136 million in closed and pending sales in 2014 alone. The team of six real estate professionals are dedicated to listing and helping buyers find dream homes in the luxury waterfront areas of Jupiter, including Admirals Cove, the Intracoastal and Loxahatchee River.
For team leader Rob Thomson, who is also the company’s managing partner, it’s about giving his team not only essential tools, but also all the extras. Five years ago, while working at another real estate firm, Brewster Kump witnessed just that. He reached out to Rob to help sell one of Brewster’s listings on the Loxahatchee River that had been on the market for an extended period of time. While sitting alongside Rob in his Jupiter office, Brewster saw firsthand the strength of Rob and Waterfront Properties’ marketing.
“Rob just did a short email blast that talked about this property to a couple thousand potential buyers on his website looking for properties on the river,” Brewster recalls. “As we’re sitting there, there were about 20 to 30 replies to that email. I was watching it all happen live and couldn’t believe the rapid interest that he was generating from one email.
“And then within about two weeks, we had that property under contract. I couldn’t believe how quickly that transaction happened, and then I thought, ‘I’d rather be a part of it than competing with it,’ and that’s what prompted me to join Waterfront Properties.”
Brewster came on to Rob’s team soon after and saw that incident was not a fluke. Impressed with Waterfront Properties’ advanced lead system that matched the targeted interests of potential buyers with newly listed properties that were available even before it reached MLS, Brewster became part of a team with cutting-edge tools to help both buyers and sellers.
Even more impressive to Brewster is Rob’s reach with other premier brokers. As part of the invitation-only Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate organization – a global collection of 130,000 luxury real estate professionals – Rob and Waterfront Properties are connected to the finest brokers in the world who represent exclusive properties in more than 60 countries, collectively selling in excess of $128 billion of real estate annually.
“I know of no other broker who has anything even close to what Rob has with his global reach,” Brewster says. “This gives his clients an edge above everyone else in this market.”
Meghan Barry, president of Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate, states that Rob, as a member of the organization’s prestigious Board of Regents, attends the quarterly conferences that take place around the globe to connect with his fellow luxury brokers.
“Cultivating relationships has really become a part of Rob’s business model,” Meghan says. “When you know brokers in global markets like Rob Thomson does, you have powerful knowledge that helps your clients. You are now a broker of the world, not just a local one.”
Rob’s worldwide connections have resulted in him becoming a trusted ally to those colleagues in various points on the globe.
“Brokers know they can trust Rob with their clients,” Meghan says. “Everyone in Who’s Who knows if they have clients who are looking to buy or sell property in the Jupiter area they can trust Rob to take care of them.”
But, as Meghan notes, it’s not just Rob’s high level of professionalism that make a difference. It’s also his willingness to help others.
“Rob’s constantly having other brokers from other areas come to his office to see how he and his team operate,” Meghan says. “These Realtors, who are already some of the best in the business, come back with such a wealth of information that they are able to apply in their markets.”
The Waterfront team’s international reach does not just lie with Who’s Who. Waterfront created a partnership with London-based Mayfair International, which connects northern Palm Beach County sellers to buyers in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Beth Bourque, a member of Rob’s team, says she now consistently works with both local and foreign buyers to find their homes. “With our northern county properties listed with Mayfair’s various websites, we’re able to reach buyers not just in Florida but also around the world,” Beth says.
But as connected as Rob and his team are to the global market, it’s their ability to connect with buyers and sellers that have made them the area’s top producers.
“Rob wants us to create a lifetime relationship, not just a business transaction,” says Collette Henderson, another member of Rob’s team. “What I’ve learned from him is that it’s not just about the deal, it’s about the experience. Everyone can go through the formality of getting a listing, but he goes beyond. It’s the little things. Once, when a seller was sick, I wanted to be sure to take care of her and get her medicine when she was unable to go to the pharmacy. We’ve created a relationship with this seller, so it was important to us to not just make sure her home was taken care of, but that she was as well.”
And while many of Rob’s traits have impressed Marcie Kipper since she joined his team 14 years ago, she admits the one that stands out is his strong negotiation skills. “So many times it’s happened where you think a deal is going to break up, but then somehow Rob manages to put it all back together,” Marcie says. “He does it with compassion and makes sure that both sides walk away as winners. There’s no one better in this business at negotiating than Rob.”
Sheri Carter, who has known Rob for more than 40 years and has been a part of the team for 15 of those years, is the first to point out that Rob is perhaps the hardest-working person that she knows. He starts his day before 5:00 a.m. each day and is still sending emails well into the evening. “With communication being such an important part of the business, Rob and our team are all about responding to the brokers, sellers and buyers each day,” Sheri says.
For more information, please visit www.waterfront-properties.com.