Today we’d like to introduce you to Davina Potratz.
Davina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born and raised in Germany and attended the International School in Hamburg, which was English speaking. I travelled a lot with my parents growing up, mostly throughout Europe, North and South America. My mother is half Native American so we frequently visited family in the US. After high school, I decided to attend Pepperdine University in Malibu where I studied Advertising. In many of my graphic design classes I would create real estate magazine covers but to get the images, I would drive around Malibu and door knock asking homeowners if I could photograph their property. To my fortune, many delighted at the idea so I got great images to work with on my assignments. Seeing these incredible homes lead to a passion and fascination with real estate. I would always get curious and excited about a new house. After college and several years of successful fashion modeling with Ford Models, I decided to settle down and again became interested in houses.
In order to truly understand the process, even for myself, I needed to become an agent so, I got my real estate license in January of 2006. After my first year with a boutique brokerage, a close friend was looking at buying a condo in Marina del Rey. He was also an agent and told me how this property was new construction and the agents worked for a developer. One thing lead to another and somehow, he and I landed on the sales team at Azzura in Marina del Rey. I loved the experience and met so many incredible people every day. After we sold out the property I was recruited to another property and one year later was asked to join the legendary Ritz-Carlton Residences at LA Live team for AEG. I was there for almost four years, experienced some really special times and in the middle of a crumbling economy, in December 2008, made a record sale for residential condo sold in downtown LA for $9M. I am very proud of that accomplishment. Next, I joined several other properties including The Residences at W Hollywood, Terranea, The Carlyle on Wilshire, Sunset Silverlake Lofts, Eastern Columbia and most recently 432 N Oakhurst and 460 N Palm Drive both in Beverly Hills, where I broke several records in condo sales per square foot prices for the area. Always with the vision of having my own company, I finally took time to establish The Davina Group in 2015. Developers seek out my sales and marketing expertise that will not only service their needs but deliver solutions. I have an extended network of contacts including agents and investors that I have built over the years. Unlike many other new development brokerages, I focus all of my attention on one project at a time and use my proprietary tech and data to target the buyer demographic, create a marketing plan and budget and help the seller price his homes. I am passionate about real estate and love working with buyers, sellers and developers.
For my individual, private clients, I focus on their unique needs and am able to offer pocket listings and extensive research to make the best decision through my network of contacts. I am an expert in offering solutions and finding the exact match to what a client is looking for. I take great pride in servicing my clients.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The economy, plain bad luck or unusual challenges with a property such as for example structural issues have all come up and I am happy to say that while there were struggles, when you do the right thing, the issues resolve themselves. I am a big believer in manifesting and thinking outside the box. Sometimes you just have to change your perspective and then you find a solution.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Davina Group – what should we know?
Attention to detail.
Focusing on one project at a time.
I am most proud of creating this company from the ground up.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Perseverance.
Creative/Thinking outside the box.
Being grateful, humble and kind.
Being open and flexible.
Continuing to learn.
Being the best that you can be and always working to improve, in all ways at all times.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thedavinagroup.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @planetdavina
- Facebook: Davina Potratz
- Yelp: The Davina Group, West Hollywood
- Other: Google, The Davina Group
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