Hidden Gems: Meet Salvatore and Katty Cavalieri of The Cavalieri Group at RE/MAX

Today we’d like to introduce you to Salvatore and Katty Cavalieri.

Katty was a 25-year-old girl who just got married, full of energy and excited to start a new period of her life. She had already graduated with her master’s degree and was working at corporate America in a job that allowed her to travel to different parts of the world. She felt fulfilled! She felt so successful professionally and was in love! She got married and traveling for work alone was not fun any longer. She missed her husband! Both talked and decided to be independent and not depend on a paycheck and leave corporate America. In 2002, With the support of her husband and very focused on her new goal, Katty got her real estate license in 1 week! She started learning about commercial real estate (not residential) she learned how to really create wealth in real estate and how others were doing it. The learning experience took her a year. She didn’t sell anything during this time, but she and her husband bought their first property as an investment during that time. With all the knowledge she had acquired, she felt confident to help other homeowners achieve their same dream and help them create wealth with their own home, so she decided to change gears and sold over 50 properties on her second year in real estate, and each year that number had increased. As the business kept growing, Salvatore retired from his executive position in Motorola and join Katty in 2004 and they keep growing the business together. Since the year 2002, Katty has been a very successful and passionate real estate professional and coach for her buyers and sellers. She started her real estate career in South Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward and lately Palm Beach county, where she still has an active office. The Cavalieri family moved to Central Florida in 2019, where Katty and Salvatore quickly acquired a solid base of clientele from different parts of the world. The Cavalieris attribute their own created accomplishments to the fact that they are curious in constantly learning about the new market trends, market behavior and new state of the art technologies that could assist their team in offering a “white gloves” customer service. Moreover, Katty belongs to exclusive by-invitation-only groups of Florida’s top-selling agents. The Cavalieri Group production statistics show that 25% of its listings receive multiple offers and its negotiating skills help its clients keep a 5.5% higher sales price than homes sold by other agents in her area. Katty has been a top producer every year for almost two decades. Salvatore is a revenue-driven results-oriented leader. Salvatore possesses a record of business and sales performance with customers from Americas, Europe, and the Asian Pacific, including millions in renovated asset sales and the launch of top-rated energy-efficient processes to enhance property values and improve the quality of life of the residents. Salvatore’s impact in business and sales has been featured in prestigious publications like The Huffington Post and in National TV including CNN and local NBC6 South Florida Today. Salvatore had coached and mentored over 150 real estate agents and brokers for three offices in Palm Beach County, including Wellington, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. Salvatore is credited with the creation of unified processes that make each branch more functional and ready for further expansion into other cities within Florida.

As a real estate investor himself, Salvatore put together strategic alliances which generated more than $10M in total sales from marketing and closing converted apartment and condominium buildings. Salvatore’s condominium projects were recognized by the Mayor of Hallandale Beach in Florida. Here, he promoted nearly 58 properties through affiliations with realtors, a city renewal project award, and strategically placed advertisements, with sales to both U.S. and international buyers. Salvatore earned an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Finance & International Business from Florida International University in Miami. Salvatore loves watching good movies and exploring new restaurants. He also is a member of the Winter Park YMCA. He holds dual U.S. and Italian citizenship and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian. In 2019, Katty got awarded by NAHREP ( National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals) as one of the top 250 Latino agents in the entire United States! Katty’s passion gives her the versatility to clearly understand her clients needs and goals. Katty and Salvatore not only understand the different cultures around all the continents in the world but also speak different languages, including Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, which ad definitively facilitated the process for many families in the area who are from overseas. Katty is also a Luxury Home Marketing graduate and a GRI graduate, which is similar to a post graduate degree in real estate negotiation, marketing, and sales. She is always hungry for ways to improve her professional skills and has been completing a limitless number of certificates every year since 2002. She is also a premier coach member of the #1 real estate coaching firm in the world and also of the most influential upcoming real estate coaching firm for Hispanic real estate professionals in the United States. Katty participates daily in the mornings in top and exclusive real estate professionals mastermind groups to maintain and improve communication skills. Among her many honors, Katty was recognized in 2006, with the RE/MAX Platinum Award only given to distinguished top producers of the RE/MAX worldwide team. The Cavalieri Group has distinguished itself as an advocate.

It generously gives their time to help others, and they champion important causes including Compassion Experience, St Jude Hospital, Caritas Felices, Aldeas Infantiles, among others. Here in Winter Park, Katty immediately got involved at St Peter and Paul Catholic church women’s retreat committee, and every Thursday night, she gives her time strengthening women who speak Spanish and Portuguese. When they travel to other countries, they make sure to dedicate and enjoy at least one full day with their two sons at charitable organizations that shelter children with different hardships. The Cavaliers envision creating a charitable organization, like an entrepreneurship club with an emphasis in financial education, for less fortunate children in Latin America, where they can learn, since very early in life, negotiation skills, cash flow, real estate, investing, how to start a business and other languages to communicate with the world, so they can reach their dreams and live happy lives.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Success is not for free. It came with lots of sacrifices in all aspects of our lives. Our belief is that an obstacle either unifies us more or apart from us from each other, and we always choose the first one to unify us stronger, make us stronger and grow together. We read (or listen) lots of audibles daily, we work a lot in our within ourselves as we believe that we need to feel and be good to better serve. In 2004, just three years after been married, we made our first million dollars! God always challenges you to grow and to learn to have a balance in life or better say ….for you to realize what is important in life. Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional. We were working many hours and hardly slept. Katty got sick and run to the hospital and she had to slow down. We learned time management, we learned to schedule, we learned to prioritize, we learned to delegate. Then in 2008, when the real estate crisis hit, we had to restructure our business completely to work REOs and Short Sales, it was another learning experience which we enjoy with joy as that year we also had our first child and we were so motivated and full of love.

However, we had few sleep hours! We did make mistakes. We also invested in businesses which did not give us the return we expected. We lost a lot of money, a lot of money! Again another educational experience. We learned patience, we learned to breathe, we learned to be frugal! Working as a couple itself also takes skill just by itself. Of course we had rough circumstances, we cried, we stopped talking to each other, but then we learned to, we learned to accept each other with our strengths and weaknesses. Every day is a new opportunity to be better. We have that in mind every morning before we start our day, this had helped us in accepting the challenges every day brings, specially in our industry, and solve them rather than reacting to them. We have to always remember. It’s not the problem we face. It’s our reaction.

We’ve been impressed with The Cavalieri Group at RE/MAX, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Florida has over 180,000 real estate agents. The market has over 180,000 options to choose from! Most people know a real estate agent. However, when they need one, it is hard to choose who is the one who they can really trust for probably one of the most important transactions of their life. We take that very seriously. Think about it! Most families make lots of sacrifices to save for their down payment, the moving, and it is not only the monetary part, but a real estate transaction also involves a big emotional aspect, sometimes it means leaving or being closer to your friends and family, or it means changing environment to move on in your life, or it could be a change of financial position, or a health issue, there are money emotional aspects. The first step when we meet a customer is a private one on one person to learn more about their purpose, their “why,” their reason and we put on the table all the options and then they start scratching out the ones that would work and the ones that won’t work after analyzing their pros and cons. We not only guide them with accurate supportive information to accomplish what they wish, but also we are the calming force to our clients in achieving their long real estate goals. We work on relationships rather than on commissions. Salvatore works with the buyers and investors, and he starts with a dynamic private conversation to learn about their goals. Everyone that had participated in these conversations end by saying “Wow! I really learned today!” There have been situations when it is not convenient for the client to purchase yet, and Salvatore had told them, and not due to lack of money or credit score, but due to the alignment with the client’s long-term plans. Salvatore always wants to make sure that a Buyer’s purchase is exactly what they need now to achieve their plan. If it is not, then he honestly tells them it is not the moment now.

. Katty is fond of working with property owners. After learning their reasons and making sure that selling is the best option for the family, she prepares a customized marketing plan, yes, customized, not a cookie-cutter or all size fits all plan. The plan guarantees the property will sell within the Seller desirable time frame and for the possible money realistically. The plan includes a paid professional stager consultation, paid social media plan for each specific listing targeted to the adequate audience for the property, telemarketing, direct mailing, showing strategies, different film and photo sessions to feature the lifestyle at different times of the day, among other marketing techniques and secrets. Katty participates daily in the mornings in top and exclusive real estate professionals mastermind groups to maintain and improve communication and marketing skills to continually improve the service to the customers. Again, we emphasize relationships and we honor the opportunity a family gives us in their real estate transactions. We take it very seriously.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Have a schedule! Follow your schedule! The mornings are the most important hours of the day.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TheCavalieriGroup.com
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/TheCavalieriGroup
• Other: MoreWealthWithYourHome.com