Conversations with Lori Valenti Webb

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Valenti Webb. 

Hi Lori, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My journey in real estate began when I took some of my savings and purchased property in Raleigh and Austin as Investments. I became bit by the real estate bug and never looked back! After moving to Raleigh in 2007, I worked in Multifamily, I worked my way up, to become a Director of Marketing and oversaw 100+ communities nationwide. I was responsible for the marketing and leasing on these multi-million-dollar assets and the speed and rent growth on these deals. My experience of owning my personal properties helped me know how to market and sell very well in my job. The success of my investments was directly dependent on how well I promoted my homes, vetted tenants, and maintained the properties and that stayed with me as I worked in my corporate field. 

Fast forward a few years and my husband and I continued buying Investment properties. We honed in on certain areas in Raleigh submarkets and worked very hard to save every dime to apply to the next property. As we gained experience, we began to manage properties for neighbors and friends that trusted us to help them target properties and achieve highest rents. I had attained my Broker license so that we could buy and sell our own properties and ones that we would purchase for friends. Word and reputation spread, and we began our venture to start a firm. 

Property Specific Realty was established in 2015. The firm consisted of Chris and myself and we were experiencing a lot of velocity, word of mouth, referrals, and success. We continued to reach out of our comfort zone and bought an undervalued property to renovate and flip and loved the process. We jumped right into another one at the beach that we filmed with HGTV, which became another jumping-off point for us with more clients. The beach house became a home that we marketed as VRBO and although that took a lot of work, it was a very profitable venture. 

Property Specific took on more shape because I recognized the pain points of our main clients- Investors- and that allowed us to build out a platform that made our services a one-stop-shop. Offering Investors, the ability to buy, manage, renovate and flip homes was a strong foundation and that was allowing me enough residual income where I could now leave my corporate world. It’s been 2.5 years that I’ve been in Real Estate full time and I’ve become saturated in working on the Buyer and Seller side of transactions. The firm has grown to 20 real estate agents, a management division of almost 200 homes managed, the Flipping Awesome renovation division and we expect to do 60 million in brokerage transactions for 2021. My personal growth has been exponential, and this year I will do close to 15 million in sales of my own. Needless to say, I am proud of the hard work and growth, and I am thankful for the community support. I’ve always been a risk-taker, and that has truly given me an advantage in this field. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always struggles. I think one of the hardest obstacles was giving up being in the corporate world and taking the leap to be an entrepreneur. That decision was not one I took lightly; I had worked hard in my Industry for 12 years and I was giving up a very good salary and benefits. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My background in marketing gives me an advantage in Real Estate. I am an extremely creative person and owning my own firm allows me to take creative risks. 

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up I was very personable, extroverted, and energetic. I’ve always been a strong listener and have always cared about people’s goals and dreams. I definitely had a desire to be a high achiever and always had a very big work ethic. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.propspecific.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lorivalentiwebb
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lorivalentiwebb
• Other: www.facebook.com/groups/movingtoandexploringraleigh/

Image Credits
Jeannene Matthews Audrey Priel