Diane Vanna

 Let me introduce you to Diane Vanna.  Diane  is the Principle Realtor of The Vanna Group with Baird & Warner.  She is the main contact and oversees marketing, budgeting, business planning, and sales.  Diane has teamed up with her husband, Bob.  The Vanna Group proudly serves the First Responder & Military community through their First Responder and Military on the Move program and won have been the #1 First Responder Sales Team at Baird & Warner since the inception of the program three years ago.

Diane graduated from Illinois State University in with a Political Science degree.  At the time she wasn’t sure what to major in but listened to her parents when they suggested Political Science.  After college, Diane went to work in the insurance industry and quickly rose in the ranks.  In her last role as a Claims Manager, Diane was traveling a lot for work as well as managing a large 60 person claims department.  During this time her husband obtained his real estate license to begin investing in real estate.  Diane served the Corporate world as a leader for 25 years and was beginning to look for new opportunities.   With her husband’s career taking off and him needing help running their Real Estate business, they decided this would be a perfect time to switch careers.

Diane has experience in both residential and commercial real estate.  Real Estate can be very rewarding; Diane especially loves to see the smiles on first time homeowners faces after a closing.  Knowing you have helped your clients find, and negotiate one of the biggest purchases of their lives is fulfilling.  However, as this is a 100% commission based career, you have to constantly work to ensure you keep engaging with new clients.   The commercial side of real estate can be tough to break through as well.

To obtain your real estate license you must complete a program of 75 hours of class work.  On your own you must learn how the process works. Real Estate classes teach Real Estate concepts but not necessarily the nuts and bolts of running a Real Estate business, including how to write and negotiate a sales contract.  In the beginning of your career, you will find different situations that will pop up that were not discussed in class.  It is your responsibility to seek out the answers for those situations.  Developing mentorships within the field is very important to have for those situations.

Real Estate can be more challenging than most people realize.  There is a lot of behind-the-scenes activity with back-and-forth negotiations, paperwork that needs to be completed and filed in certain period of time, as well as keeping clients calm during a variety of unexpected situations that could arise.  If you decide to pursue a career in real estate prepare yourself for a lot of hard and long days.  But with it is also a great and rewarding way to make a living.

Diane has been successful by not giving up.  She will work her deals sales from start to finish and is with her clients every step of the way.  She excels at setting up the process and working to constantly improve the process for her clients.  She has also learned a lot from her various transactions and interactions with her clients and has learned when to “tweak” an approach when needed.  Since she and her husband own their company there were a couple of struggles of balancing their work life and personal life when they first started.  Since then, they have learned to block time off and try to have only one of them work nights/weekends.  However, blocking off time for the both of them for their “alone time” is also important and keeps their business and personal relationship thriving.