Dava Davin on growing a brokerage through homebuyer consultations and ancillary services

In this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with Portside Real Estate Group CEO Dava Davin to discuss the importance of buyer consultations, brokerage leadership styles and ancillary solutions for brokerage growth in 2025. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

After a brief icebreaker segment, Velt and Davin dive into the latter’s background in athletics and how it informs her approach to business and leadership. 

Tracey Velt: You’re an endurance athlete. Tell me a little bit about how your athletic pursuits informed your business.

Dava Davin: Once you can tap into your mind, you can achieve anything. And, I think that’s where that translates into business, glass ceilings and taking it to the next level. My MO is not being naturally athletic yet finishing four Ironmans and several marathons. It’s not being particularly intelligent or coming from real estate, but being able to run a pretty great brokerage.

Velt: What do you find as the biggest challenge in the industry or with your business today?

Davin: The biggest challenge is my drive for growth, to achieve and to keep moving things forward. So that’s important, while also trying to stay true to Portside’s core and keeping everything authentic. As we expand, it’s just so important to me that every decision reflects our integrity, culture and our community focus.

Velt: How has the transition been post-settlement for you and your agents? 

Davin: We were fortunate to have already been executing buyer agreements since the inception of the company. Our company policy has always been to have a buyer consultation and have them understand how you’re compensated. That’s been very empowering and it just allowed us to rise as professionals in our area.

Velt: What would be your best practices for the buyer consultation?

Davin: It’s almost like you’re volunteering. They don’t really understand how you were getting paid. And so I think having that opportunity to be like, ‘I’m so glad you referred to me. I just want to have an opportunity to sit down and chat with you about how the process works and how I’m compensated. So, let’s go ahead and get that scheduled.’

Velt: You are the sole owner of the brokerage. Tell me about your leadership style, and have you seen it evolve over the years? 

Davin: It’s that combination of the visionary and the integrator. You need both to do great things. And, you learn so much from people who have different skills than you do. 

To end the conversation, Davin looks toward the future and dives into her vision for the real estate industry and Portside’s growth in 2025. 

Davin: I’m part of a couple CEO groups, and we always talk about where there is opportunity.  The answer is usually ancillary services. You must add title and mortgage and insurance, you got to get your brokerage to be more profitable.

We’re the second largest brokerage in Maine. We are gonna continue to grow our foundation. We’re more fired up about that than ever, just with things changing in our country. We’re gonna become a top player in New Hampshire, as we’ve done in Maine. We have some fun things coming down the pike for 2025.