When Jamie Krakofsky retired from the Army in 2014, he had sent out around 90 job applications but hadn’t found the right fit. Jamie was invited to consider real estate by Bryan, the realtor who sold Jamie his own home. Jamie admitted that his first reaction was a strong one against becoming a realtor. “I said I needed a job with a consistent paycheck and benefits. But Bryan offered to buy me some leads to help me get started. I ended up driving around with him for a week and it seemed like something I could do.” Jamie went to school at Kaplan and got his license. He had one home under contract before he even passed the test.

Jamie had a strong start, selling about 38 houses that first year and 48 the second. “I made $98,000 with a 50/50 split in my first seven months. I took that as a sign I was doing the right thing. I had been walking the path of God for 20 years and decided to keep doing what was being presented to me.” 

Jamie has been doing real estate for nine years and has a team of his own now. He loves the excitement that first-time home buyers have when they get their keys. He also enjoys working with military clients. It gives him a sense of joy to help ease their pain of transitioning out of the military. “It’s exciting to help people through the process. Our systems help make the process more seamless for them.”

Jamie believes his military background has helped him be more successful in his current career. “When you’re in the military, you have to put your boots on every day and go out and do it. You develop a ‘never quit, don’t surrender’ mentality. Throughout your military career, you get dealt obstacles everyday. This grunt mentality helps us deal with daily challenges and failures in real estate and contributes to our success.” Jamie believes that failures are just opportunities to learn other ways to do things.

One of his earliest lessons involved learning to work with other agents to put the needs of the clients first. “This isn’t about us. It’s about those that we serve. It resonated with me very early on that it’s not about agent versus agent. It’s about how we can best serve our clients to create a win/win scenario for everybody.”

Jamie has also learned how to work with agents on his own team, too. “I’ve been learning to lead and manage, while still being motivating and supporting. I’m learning new ways to deal with things that come up on the team. It’s important to have the right people in place and know how to navigate it when not everyone fits with the team culture. Overall, it’s been fun building the relationships on my team while also building the culture. We’re very family oriented and do a lot of stuff together. It’s really important to build those relationships so they trust that I’m going to guide them appropriately.” 

Jamie has a number of military personnel on his team and believes they are the best realtors because they have a ‘no quit’ mentality. This common experience they share creates an understanding of how to support each other and how he can push his team without triggering them. “They know how I am and how I operate, which helps them be more successful. They know when I’m pushing them to get more productive, it’s out of love.”

Jamie and his team focus on relationships over transactions. “We build from a focus on long-term relationships, which creates trust, gratitude and awareness. We communicate with our clients regularly and clients know they can contact us for anything - even if they need guidance on how to find a specific vendor or where to go for the best pizza or steak. We do a lot with our clients, hosting 3-4 parties per year and sending birthday and anniversary cards.”

Jamie is proud of growing his team to the level it’s at now without a bunch of leads. Even though he got his own start largely from purchased leads, he has transitioned largely to a relationship and referral model. The shift occurred after he attended a seminar and learned some ideas for how to do it differently. “I shifted from almost 100% leads to almost 100% relational and I’ve made more money doing it the new way. I believe it’s truly the only sustainable way to build this business.” Now he teaches his team how to build their business based on relationships, too. Jamie and his team have seen tremendous success, but it took a little probing for him to talk about it. He’s proud that they are #32 in the state and in the top 10% across the country. 

Jamie believes in giving back and he and his team support a variety of local nonprofits. Jamie is the Vice President of Victory Service Dogs, which helps veterans with PTSD get service dogs. “I love the cause. I had a service dog when I got out of the military. I suffered from PTSD really bad. It took five years of therapy, my service dog, and buckling down in my career to get through it. I chose not to live the path of misery and figured out how to cope with it instead. It wasn’t easy and some days are still a struggle. I chose not to let it weigh me down. My family and my career helped me. I did what I needed to do. I chose not to let it consume me.” 

Jamie and his wife also give back daily after adopting a child who is now three years old. “We have three biological children ages 26, 24 and 20 and I’m very proud of them. Next to the birth of my biological children, being able to voluntarily give back to a life has been one of the greatest joys we’ve ever had. I don’t think we would have been able to do it without the financial successes we’ve had. He’s been a great blessing to our family and it’s one of the greatest gifts we’ve been able to give.”