Move Smarter to Tampa Bay: Relocation Tips from a Sotheby’s Real Estate Advisor

Brittany Ranew (00:00)
Yeah, I think, you know, it’s the eighty twenty rule. Like there’s definitely very few things that are making the biggest impact in your business in your life. So the better idea is just to hone in and focus on what those are because that’s really gonna drive all that momentum forward and simplify it. I mean, I think people want to make it more complicated than what it is, but you know, it takes time to sit down, really think through, okay, what are my goals and you know, what are the things I need to be doing to get me there and try to

you know, shorten that list to like about three to five things that you want to focus on,

Dylan Silver (02:06)
Folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Brittany Ranew, a Global Real Estate Advisor with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty, serving buyers and sellers throughout St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, and Florida’s Gulf Coast communities. In addition to specializing in residential and relocation real estate, she’s also a published author and host of the Be Your Own Hero podcast. Brittany, thanks for joining us today.

Brittany Ranew (02:33)
Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Dylan Silver (02:35)
Now you’ve built a career that blends real estate, storytelling, personal growth, and community building. Was this done intentionally or did this happen through opportunity?

Brittany Ranew (02:49)
I think that’s such a great question because I think often like the biggest leaps that we make with ourselves, you know, it it is things that kind of happen a little bit by chance, ⁓ and also by a blending of hard work too.

So I think it’s a little bit of both. I like I always knew that I wanted to like build a business and kind of ⁓ bring a lot of the different aspects of myself into my business and not just be like this, you know, transactional real estate agent. I I, you know, I wanted to be a real human that has passions and just kind of like shares those with the world around me. So I think naturally as I, you know, got into building a business, I I’ve found ways to kind of put more of myself into it. And I

found that you know I think it’s like when you humanize yourself, it does attract like the right people to you. And I will give a shout out to my business coach as well because I think he helped me really unlock that too. I started working with him in the fall of 2019 and that’s when I really started to get into like, okay, who am I as a person and like what’s important to me? What are my values? And how can I like just, you know, you know, just think about what’s synergy, like bring that all all in. So

Dylan Silver (04:04)
Now, here’s a granular question about the market that you’re in. Are are most folks who are looking for a a home out there, are they looking for a traditional single family home? Are they also considering condos? Is it a mix of both?

Brittany Ranew (04:17)
Yeah, it really is a mix of both because we we do have such a mix of both in our community. And we have ⁓ a su like such a wide range of demographics too that are looking for houses because in Tampa Bay, you know, we do have, you know, young professionals that are working. You’ve got, you know, families, all that kind of stuff. Plus, you’ve got the people who are looking for their vacation homes that are or the snowbirds that are only here six months out of the year. So that means that you’ve just got a bunch of different type of people that are looking for a bunch of different

houses. So we’ve got our, you know, luxury waterfront homes. You’ve got your high rise condos that are downtown. You got the condos that are at the beach. And then you’ve got like your, you know, your cute little nineteen twenties bungalow in the walkable neighborhood of historic Kenwood. So yeah, it’s it’s all over the place in the best way.

Dylan Silver (05:53)
I imagine one of the challenges is that because there’s options, people may have some degree of uncertainty exactly what their ideal home looks like.

Brittany Ranew (06:03)
Yeah, and I think, you know, asking the right questions is definitely key. ⁓ I I do work with a lot of people who relocate. That’s kind of become a niche of mine because that was my experience. I’m originally from Mobile, Alabama. So when we moved here, I had to start our lives over. And so I kind of, you know, have ⁓ empathy for that experience. And what I have found is trying to encourage people to go out there and explore, that’s really the way to do it because it does take time to try to understand.

what you’re looking for in the neighborhood, in the home. And I can ask a lot of great questions, but I think also the best thing is just to get out there and explore so you could really uncover what what you’re looking for.

Dylan Silver (06:45)
Now for folks who are considering relocation, I’m imagining one of the challenging components of this is, you know, until you’re physically there, it’s hard to compare, you know, a a waterfront property to, you know, different options that they have. So how is that consultation happening?

Brittany Ranew (07:05)
Yeah, ⁓ I think it does go back to questions because I really what I wanna hone in is what’s the lifestyle that they’re looking for. So by me trying to understand what that lifestyle is, I can help guide them and say, Okay, hey, it sounds like this might be what you’re looking for. And then that way they can start to really dive into that and then they’ll know for sure, okay, you know, once once we have that first like home buying trip down here and we

we start to focus on something, they’re gonna know right away because we’ve already talked through what what it is they’re looking for with those lifestyle, you know, aspects. ⁓ you know, like walkability. Is it important to you to be able to walk to restaurants? Or are you really wanting that laid back beach vibe? You know, those are all the things that we really need to need to know. yeah, it’s definitely a process. You know, it doesn’t it’s doesn’t happen at the snap of a fingers. You know, it does take ⁓ you know, a lot of

Does take some time time to figure out. And I think also, you know, I’m there to help be a guide as well. Like I will go video properties and be on FaceTime with you and and try to give you my like commentary on what I’m seeing to to help when they’re not here too.

Dylan Silver (08:13)
Now, how common is it as well that people are looking for maybe a situation where they’re snowbirding or renting it out part of the time? Is that common or uncommon?

Brittany Ranew (08:23)
Yeah, we definitely have a lot of snowbirds here for sure. ⁓ so it is people that are looking for something that might have that rentability, like ease of rentability factor, because they are gonna, you know, only be here for like three months. So that’s definitely a thing. I would say, you know, some other some other markets like down in Sarasota, Naples, Longboat Key, you might have ⁓ a bit more of a seasonality to those markets with more snowbirds.

⁓ Tampa Bay does have a blend because we do, you know, just like I said earlier, have those demographics of like working professionals on top of having the snowbirds. but yeah, it’s it’s it’s an interesting place to live because of that too. I think, you know, it’s a it’s definitely a a cool blending of of people that you get to meet.

Dylan Silver (09:08)
Yeah, you’ve got to be a Swiss Army knife of a realtor in a sense, because you’ve got to be working with people who may have an investor mindset, relocation, you know, potentially spending a portion of the year there, and balancing, you know, multiple different asset classes really, from condos to homes to waterfront properties. But pivoting here, ⁓ if someone is considering moving to Tampa Bay for the first time or the greater Tampa Metro, right?

Brittany Ranew (09:10)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Dylan Silver (09:37)
What advice immediately comes to mind, something that they should be looking into or considering?

Brittany Ranew (10:16)
Yeah, I think ⁓ usually my first questions are related to like work, you know, what are they doing for work and what is your appetite for commute as well? Because, you know, we have bridges around here. So it does depend on how long you want to sit in traffic related to where you work. ⁓ also like so you know, sets definitely gonna be big big factor of it. And I would say also like how close do you want to live to the beach? Cause that can be very important to people. Well, if

Living, you know, close to the beach is important to you, then you probably you may not want to live in like downtown Tampa because that’s gonna take you like 30, 45 plus minutes to an hour, depending on which which beach you wanna go to. But if you live in central part of St. Pete, then you could be the beach in 15 minutes. So, you know, it’s it’s definitely, you know, yes, like you said earlier, have to be a Swiss Army knife. Yes, there’s a lot, there’s a lot of different things to work through.

But I think if you you know, if you ask those clarifying questions, you can definitely direct people in the right way.

Dylan Silver (11:17)
I ⁓ ask everybody who is a realtor in the St. Petersburg area this question because I get different responses, but what’s the, you know, demographic makeup of St. Petersburg right now? What’s the vibe like? Does it feel like a young town? Does it feel like an old town? Does it feel like it’s emerging? What’s it feel like?

Brittany Ranew (11:35)
Yeah, that’s a good question. It has definitely changed. ⁓ we moved here in 2015, and I think that was a a big start of seeing a lot of the younger people move in. And that shift has definitely continued. You know, there’s a joke like way back in the day that people used to say St. Pete Woods called like heaven’s, you know, God’s waiting room or something because of all of the snowbirds that lived here. ⁓

But I think just with the economic growth that the Tampa Bay area has seen, we have drawn we’ve drawn industries here. There’s been corporations that have moved here from other states. So we we have had a lot of job growth, which has brought in the young demographic. Plus, I think with COVID, we saw such a big shift with remote work and some of that has stayed. So when people have said, well, I can live anywhere in the world now, well, I’m gonna I’m gonna pick a cool place like St. Petersburg, you know, or or downtown Tampa.

So it it’s definitely shifted the demographics to a lot of young young people, but it’s it’s still a mix ’cause we still have still have a lot of our snowbirds. So yeah, it’s very cool.

Dylan Silver (12:44)
Now Sotheby’s is of course a tremendous name in real estate. ⁓ how many of your clients, you know, if you had to estimate or or just give rough numbers, are looking at moving to Tampa, maybe even from out of the the country?

Brittany Ranew (13:01)
Yeah, I mean it we do have that brand recognition. So we most definitely get those calls in purely because they know the the quality of working with the Setheby’s International Realty Agent. And that also really ⁓ I think that also plays into our referral netw network within our agents. So, you know, agents that are

Up in the northeast, well, they know that they can refer an ⁓ a client that’s trying to be a snowbird, you know, or buy that vacation home and know that they’re gonna get taken care of in the same way. And that client knows that too. So the the power of of the brand is definitely a a real thing. And I think we definitely see that even more so with, you know, the the network of our agents and how we can like s you know, refer business back and forth to each other.

Dylan Silver (13:48)
I remember eating ⁓ lunch or was brunch in downtown Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and I saw Sotheby’s International ⁓ right across the street in this very, very upscale area. And I said, wow, I wonder how those agents are doing, you know? And one of the interesting things is you see so much, you know, cultural meshing in places like where you’re at and where I was at.

Brittany Ranew (14:00)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (14:12)
But that you you still want to rely on something that feels close to home, right? So when I saw Sotheby’s, I was Well, I wouldn’t trust them with my real estate transaction, right?

Brittany Ranew (14:16)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly. See that’s it. It’s it’s the power of the brand. Absolutely.

Dylan Silver (14:26)
Now ⁓ social media has become such a huge part of every realtor’s marketing. ⁓ and I saw that you’re active and I even saw a listing, I believe it was ⁓ Seahorse Drive, which looked very beautiful. ⁓ how do you approach your social media marketing and deciding, you know, what type of content to to put out?

Brittany Ranew (14:40)
Yeah.

Yeah, ⁓ I definitely have I like to focus on local content as well. ⁓ of course I’m promoting my listings, of course I’m sharing success stories with other clients. You know, again, like I kind of said earlier, just like, you know, humanizing, you know, yourself. I think that’s really important. ⁓ it can’t all just be, you know, only listings. I really want to do a blend of all of that.

But I definitely try to focus on local content as well and showcasing the area. And so it’s like, you know, my husband and I, we loved love to go out to eat.

we, you know, we call ourselves foodies. So we’re out and about. We’re trying the new restaurants. You know, I’m gonna probably make a post about the new place that I went to or like share of my stories, you know, where we went to grab a glass of wine on a Saturday night. So you’re definitely gonna see me out and about on town if you follow me on social and you’re gonna see my beautiful listings and you know, all of that fun stuff in between.

Dylan Silver (16:27)
If you had to have one type of food, is there any one cuisine that comes to mind?

Brittany Ranew (16:36)
If I had to pick one, I think my answer would be French. ⁓ I love I love all things French, really. French wine, French food. And then Italian would probably be like right there underneath. So yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (16:39)
Nice.

It’s true.

They’ve got a certain je ne sais quoi, right? In the French food.

Now, ⁓ one of the things that I’ve noticed that is somewhat challenging for realtors who are doing multiple ⁓ segments of the business as you are, is that it can be almost a little bit of shiny object syndrome where you’re you’re finding the next new project. How have you managed to to scale across several different segments of the real estate space?

Brittany Ranew (17:17)
Yeah, I think, you know, it’s the eighty twenty rule. Like there’s definitely very few things that are making the biggest impact in your business in your life. So the better idea is just to hone in and focus on what those are because that’s really gonna drive all that momentum forward and simplify it. I mean, I think people want to make it more complicated than what it is, but you know, it takes time to sit down, really think through, okay, what are my goals and you know, what are the things I need to be doing to get me there and try to

you know, shorten that list to like about three to five things that you want to focus on,

maybe for the month, maybe for that quarter, because people just want to naturally add all of these things because it makes you feel like you’re doing more. But the hard work is just staying really disciplined with the very few things and trusting the process that it’s going to move it forward.

Dylan Silver (18:08)
We are coming up on time here, Brittany. Any new projects that you’re working on? And then also anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

Brittany Ranew (18:16)
Yeah, ⁓ I mean, honestly, I just I love I love serving my clients in particular, like I said, the relocation niche. So that would definitely be, you know, the thing that I’m focusing on. ⁓ instead of bringing on a new project, you know, that’s definitely my focus. It’s just continuing to bolster those relationships so I have with the Sotheby’s International Realty Network and serve clients that want to relocate here. So yeah, that’s you know, that’s definitely gonna be my focus for the foreseeable future.

Dylan Silver (18:45)
Brittany, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for joining us.