Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosanne Dorfman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Real Estate is my world and helping people find a place they can call home is one of my callings. Even when I was a little girl, playing house was my favorite, from building “rooms”, making it feel homey to fixing things that broke. As a child, starting my own business was really all I knew. My parents started their own general contracting business and worked together for almost 30+ years before retiring. Being around my parents and their business, I became very familiar with construction. I learned the lingo, how to use tools, what to look for when trying to repair something, and I loved it, it made sense to me.
I started my career in real estate in 2012. My family and I started buying properties, we would renovate some and keep them as rental properties, which I currently manage. We renovated and sold others, making money to then go do it all again. I was loving every minute of it so I decided to get my real estate license in 2013 and start helping others.
I loved it, but it wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows and money raining down. It was hard, and frankly I wasn’t prepared for what it entailed. The real estate side was the easy part, the prospecting and time management was the hard part. I am a fairly shy person, and putting myself out there to get clients was a challenge. A challenge that I overcame. I found a mentor who pushed me out of my comfort zone and truly changed my life. I had a plan and a goal and I really started to build a business and make it my career.
Since then, I have brought my husband on board, then my best friend, and now we have a team of 14 awesome humans who also have a passion for real estate and helping others.
Our motto is “humans helping humans” and that is what we do. I am not afraid to get in an attic or a tight crawl space to check out what is going on with the house. I like to know everything about it so I can be the best advocate for my clients, ensuring they have all the knowledge they can get about a property before they buy or sell. Every agent on our team is the same way.
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?
Definitely not a smooth road. After I got my license and started working with clients, I started out in the dark. I had no clue how to make it a business, how to keep getting more clients. I didn’t like making phone calls and the idea of calling my friends and family out of the blue to ask them if they knew anyone wanting to buy, sell, or invest in real estate made me so anxious. Reluctantly, I did it though, and it worked! I had the knowledge I needed about real estate, I just needed to get the courage to put myself out there. Once I overcame that obstacle, it changed my world.
Another struggle I still manage to have is time management. It is easy to let this job consume you, as ‘time is of the essence” on all matters, meaning everything feels urgent. Continuing to educate myself on time management, setting rocks, and making time for my family is something that will probably always be a struggle but one I am constantly striving to be better at.
We’ve been impressed with Roots Real Estate, 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?
We are in the business of helping people: “humans helping humans™” is our ethos. We help people in all aspects of real estate. We are a full-time, hands-on real estate company. We are there every step of the way. We help buyers (lots of first-time buyers), sellers, investors, estates, all through the process. We explain every step and always advocate the best for our clients. Roots Real Estate takes pride in being a diverse team! We have team members from all walks of life, and all of us truly care about our clients. We keep in touch with our clients and aim to build friendships, not just client relationships. We have a dedicated social club for this purpose called #rootsinatl and host quarterly events and sponsor give-back initiatives around the city. This helps our clients get involved in their neighborhoods and meet new people.
There are a lot of Realtors here in Atlanta. A LOT. And some really good ones, too. We are different in the sense that we are truly full service for our clients. We have a lot of services in-house so it’s easier for us to save our clients money and have a quicker turnaround when selling their homes. As an example, our team has 11 people right now and if I’m not available to meet a contractor or electrician at your house for repairs, I can ask any of the other agents or support staff on our team to go help and we will find someone so that things don’t get delayed. We have an in-house stager, too! She does complimentary staging walkthroughs with every seller client, sources staging furniture and utilize our own staging inventory to make their house shine. We have a dedicated in-house marketer, office manager and contract coordinator to keep everything running smoothly. We have a strong online presence and network of Realtors here in ATL to help our clients get the most out of their investment and to help our buyer clients find the right home at the right time.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite childhood memory is simple and happened on more than one occasion. My mom made dinner every night, she was a wonderful cook. We always had music playing in the background (who wants to hear other people chew, lol). Oftentimes the music would be so enticing we couldn’t stay still in our seats. The four of us would all get up and dance around the Sunroom (where our dining room table was), laughing and singing.
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@rootsatlanta.com
- Website: rootsatlanta.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/rootsatlanta
- Facebook: facebook.com/rootsatlanta
Image Credits:
Headshot and top photo: Virginia Reese Photography
