Although his name is today synonymous with premier luxury real estate in the Western United States, Paul Benson was not always an elite real estate advisor.
Benson spent many years in the automotive retail industry before venturing into the world of luxury mansions and picturesque mountain towns.
Paul Benson | Engel & Volkers Gestalt Group
“I was running one of the largest dealerships in the country,” Benson told Inman. “Then my dealership was sold to AutoNation. I had a friend at the time who was a real estate broker in Newport Beach, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come with me one weekend and get a feel for this? Let’s see how it goes.'”
That Saturday, Benson watched a friend doorknock on three properties, two of which already had buyers in place.
“Basically, he made $100,000 in a few hours that afternoon, and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I’m going to go get my real estate license,'” Benson said.
It has been very helpful for Benson to take the skills he first learned while selling cars and expand on them while applying them to real estate. He is consistently the number one agent in the Engel & Völkers network worldwide and one of the top paid agents in his home state of Utah. He is also co-founder and CEO of Engel & Völkers Gestalt Group, a network of approximately 50 offices and nearly 1,500 advisors spanning Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Washington, and Idaho.
How does Mr. Benson so consistently remain at the top of the market while leading a strong multi-state agency group? Relentless marketing, extremely responsiveness and maintaining deep knowledge of the local market, Mr. Inman said.
relentless marketing
Benson landed his first sales job in Park City by being in the right place at the right time. While on vacation, he stumbles upon a new development project in Deer Valley that requires the help of an agent. The next thing Benson realized was that he had volunteered to join the project and had immigrated from Vermont to make the state his permanent home.
For the first six months, all he did was work.
“I was literally doing open houses morning, noon, night, every day, seven days a week,” Benson said. “I have a client that I’m still working with in those six months. I made over $1 million doing open houses my first winter in Park City.”
He also confirmed that he was the first real estate person people encountered when visiting the city on vacation. how? By investing heavily in prime magazine real estate at local airports. This was around 2004 to 2005, when print media was still healthy.
“Back then, every newsstand in every airport had the same magazine,” Bensons said. “Unique Homes, Robb Report, duPont Registry, and they were always next to each other. And I said, what if I were on the cover of those three? And it was a big, huge investment. But I thought everyone would get off the plane and see those ads, so I did it. That was my first really, really big investment in Park City, over $100 million a year. That was in 2007. It was in 2010.
But as much of the world transitioned to digital marketing, Benson also adapted his marketing strategy.
“Then the world of websites came along, and I invested in that because I wanted my website to be found everywhere,” he said. “And then the social media world came along. I put a lot of time and energy into building it, and I just looked at it this week. Look at some of these posts, and the posts are getting 30,000, 50,000 attention in a week. And that’s before anyone shares it. Frankly, this is bigger than a lot of the magazines I was spending all this money on and using.”
At least quarterly, Benson said he and his team re-evaluate their digital marketing strategy and think about how they can improve it. With such rapid changes happening with AI today, Benson said optimizing your website’s marketing to include AI results is critical to maintaining visibility.
quick response and generosity
Luxury home buyers and sellers can expect answers to their requests today, Benson said. As such, he said one of his top priorities is to have his phone and Apple Watch on hand so he can respond to requests as quickly as possible.
“I believe that the most powerful thing you can do is be responsive and agile. That’s why I work hard to differentiate between what’s important and what’s not. And anything that’s task-related, detail-related, or repetitive, ends up being handled by someone on the team,” the senior advisor said. “And what I’m left with is the ability to be present, take calls, communicate with clients, and respond quickly.”
Mr. Benson and his team were also able to win business from other agents by being attentive and responsive. That’s simply because they can answer calls faster, he added.
“People now expect instant reactions,” Benson said. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s from an Instagram direct message, a text message, or an email, they expect it.”
In addition to remaining responsive, Benson said maintaining a kind of generosity of spirit, or what he called “non-transactional,” can also go a long way in dealing with customers.
“Let’s say a client fires me because the product doesn’t sell,” Benson said as an example.
“And instead of getting angry or frustrated, I continue to help them. Ultimately, I can’t sell yet, but I give helpful advice to the new broker, and I continue to help them until the new broker can sell. That client will still remember that and come back later.”
“Or sometimes you just help someone in a random way, or help other agents in a random way, knowing there’s no commission involved. What I’ve found over the years is that that’s a powerful thing to get people to understand: You just really love what you do, love the industry, and want to help.”
In-depth knowledge of local market
Benson said agents who want to succeed in the market need to be local experts, and this is especially true in Park City. The city is home to an interesting mix of luxury travelers, second-home owners, and locals, and has one of the highest concentrations of expensive properties within a single zip code in the country. Properties in one area sell for $500,000, and a few minutes away there are $20 million mansions.
“And each of these small, micro-markets is completely different in terms of their circumstances, how interest rates are affecting them, how this year’s snow, or lack of snow is a better way to put it,” Benson said.
“You absolutely need to know all the statistics and facts and figures for these areas, like what sold, why it sold, who built it, who the architect was, what made it unique, how much they think it cost to build that house and the house next door. You need to know as much detail as possible because that’s the most valuable thing you can do for your client.
“Clients come to town without knowing about Park City. The best thing about Park City is, generally speaking, they don’t have relationships with other agents yet. They’re tourists. They come to ski. And they fall in love with Park City for the first time. And as a brand new agent, it gives them a level playing field with all the other agents.”
With the proliferation of portals like Zillow and new tools like ChatGPT, consumers have access to more information about real estate than ever before, Benson said. That’s why it’s so important for agents to immediately share with their clients insider information and insights that aren’t available on Zillow or ChatGPT to show them why they’re valuable.
“And the only way to arm yourself with that information and put it at risk is to take every minute and second to learn that market, no matter who comes in and what they ask,” Benson said.
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