Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Price.
Hi Victoria, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in New York and made my way to Florida, via Miami in 2014. I had worked primarily with startup and small companies in NY, and felt like I was living that NYC dream. I had a great job, was making a great living, and by all accounts had “made it”. A very big change from life growing up. Growing up we had times where it was rough, and we weren’t quite sure how bills were going to be paid, or what bill we might try to prioritize this month – it wasn’t glamorous, but it taught me to focus and hustle harder than everyone around me. I was on the ladder of success that I had always dreamt of, and then my mom got sick with cancer. I finished grad school and took a new job in Miami to be closer to her in Kissimmee. I quickly learned that Miami to Kissimmee was too far and made my way to Orlando to be closer. Did I mention that a prior marriage fell apart during all of this? It was quite the different world here than in NY, wow! In 2017, just after my mom lost her battle with cancer, I left an executive role to get back to my roots in the startup realm by venturing into Real Estate. I now oversee a real estate team out of Keller Williams and have a balance between building a business I am proud of, and supporting the community in ways meaningful to me and my husband. I still have that NY hustle in me, but I’ve learned to balance it with life experiences and happiness at home.
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?
Was it a smooth road? Absolutely not! But, has it been worth it? 100%
Growing up we struggled a bit financially. We didn’t live in the best part of town, we didn’t always make the electric bill on time, and, for a short bit, I called a Super8 home. I’m so grateful for that time. It was so hard in the moment, but it gave me a work ethic, focus and fear of failure that has propelled me so much further in life than I would be otherwise.
In a very short amount of time I gave up my dream job, the only place I ever called home, saw a marriage fall apart (and incurred an insane amount of debt from it), lost my mother, and discovered some unfortunately unkind people.
I had to deal with my own resentment of giving up what I felt I worked so hard on to make the move to Florida. I left my friends behind, some of whom didn’t understand and cut ties. It felt very lonely at first. I had been married when I first moved here, but that marriage quickly fell apart. While that was the absolute right choice for both of us, it still feels embarrassing, sad, dumbfounding, etc in the moment. And I walked away from it saddled with insane debt – I was terrified and angry.
And then I watched my mother fight cancer, and lose. I have so much admiration for those who have gone through it, because it was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced. My mom, a Jersey firecracker of a lady, in more pain and fear than I could ever understand. Cancer stole her from my father, my sister and myself – but only after it pushed her through hell and back.
I left an unsupportive job after her passing and that moment led me to a lot of positive change (through some more struggle) that has brought me here today.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am the Director of Operations for The Ray Lopez Team at Keller Williams. I oversee the day-to-day operations for the team; everything from staffing, onboarding, accountability, vendor management, transaction management, office management, coaching – I do it! I was lucky to get into business with Ray Lopez, who has a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge in the field, and have been able to grow and lead under his leadership at Keller Williams.
Our team is consistently ranked as top performers. We specialize in Residential Real Estate in Central Florida. We are known for delivering above and beyond to our clients. Need help finding a plumber, electrician, pool company, etc? We have a guy. We want to be sure people felt taken care of and do what we can to remove stress. Having been in business for 18 years, Ray has developed strong ties with people in Central Florida – making it easy to connect our clients with the best.
I am proud to be a part of a team that cares for people more than they care for the paycheck. I am proud of the level of integrity our agents have. They value being experts in the market, and staying on the up-and-up to new laws, regulations, market conditions, etc. During everything that has happened over the last few years, the team has continued to show up, evolve and deliver top service – in spite of fear, in spite of turmoil, in spite of access – I think that is pretty amazing.
What’s next?
I sure hope so!
For business, we saw significant growth last year and we are looking to repeat that and then some in 2022. We have plans to bring on new agents to build their business inside of our business and I would love to make it into the top 1% nationally in the next few years. We hit top 1.5%, so we are close – and our combination of systems, tools and partnering with some amazing agents should take us there.
In community outreach, I want to ramp up my partnerships more. Waterford Can is a local organization that has been fabulous to work with in helping our local area, and I hope to build that effort tremendously this year. I also want to make specific efforts to drive female empowerment in our local area. And a big dream I have had for our local area is doing more to bring certain experiences to our youth. Most families cannot afford to visit the local museums, exhibits or experiences and I’d love to build something to help drive access for EVERYONE.
Personally, I would love to start investing in real estate, again, and build passive wealth for my family. My husband and I are also looking to travel as much as we can – something made a bit harder with Covid, but we are hoping to get a few, safe, trips in.
And I am hopeful that 2022 will see me diversifying my business ownership. I would love to end 2022 with a new entity under my umbrella.
Contact Info:
- Email: VictoriaPrice@kw.com
- Website: www.raylopezteam.com
- Instagram: @v.b.730 @vprice.realtor
Image Credits
Eastside Branding You Have Real Estate
