Legacy Realty Partners

a relationship business with proven success based on people

Treating each client as family and getting to the heart of the real estate business is the key to success for Legacy Realty Partners

If there is one thing that seasoned real estate professionals know all too well is that the only thing constant in the housing market is change.

While just a few short years ago, houses across the US were being snatched up by eager buyers with offers that dazzled sellers, the real estate tides have turned lately. Once a buyer’s market, with multiple offers thrown on a single property, often without standard contingencies including house inspections and financing, of late there has been a ‘normalization’ in most major housing markets across the country.

This is not to say that sellers are not still receiving solid offers, but rather that the offers have become what seasoned realtors are accustomed to seeing; at asking or slightly under asking price with conditions to protect the buyer included before a property is sold.

For Maya Galletta, Owner of Legacy Realty Group as well as a top performing and long-time real estate agent in the lucrative Raleigh housing market, the recent changes to the housing market could not be more welcome news.

As a ‘career’ realtor who is both passionate about her work and passionate about helping people, for Galletta, the slight cooling in the Raleigh real estate sector means that she is back in the enviable position of being able to guide her valued clients. She can now ensure that they are both happy and protected when it comes to purchasing what in her words often represents “one of the largest purchases in a lifetime.”

Real estate is a natural choice for Galletta, who has spent the better part of 22 years servicing her clients whom she considers to be ‘family’ through the ups and downs and twists and turns of the Raleigh housing market. Following the economic downturn in 2007 and after working a number of years in the Florida housing market, Galetta made the move to North Carolina where she worked for several years across both of these regional markets.

“I eventually sold my business to my brother and during the downturn, I ran a very successful property management business because a lot of sellers couldn’t sell, and in order to compensate those people whose prosperity values dropped significantly, we rented out those properties for years,” Galletta highlighted.

Galletta then made the choice at first to go into business by herself which then led to her joining a real estate team in 2014.

“We grew that business. We went from doing 70 transactions to, by the time I left, up to almost 300 [transactions].”

After Branching out on her own and running her own team, the unthinkable happened. Galletta was struck down with a severe case of COVID 19 which led to her being in a medically induced coma for a number of months.

With her prospects touch and go in terms of regaining her health, it was nothing short of immense gratitude that Galletta describes how she views the world since her medical ordeal. Reflecting on the name that she had been considering for quite some time before being diagnosed with COVID-19, the term ‘legacy”, she feels, is quite fitting.

“Really, I believe in living your legacy and not necessarily leaving it, so this is what it [legacy] means” Galletta reflects. “A lot of people would look at it and say it means leaving your legacy, but I’m a person that lives my life to the fullest every day and believes in living my legacy and not in leaving it behind,” she remarks.

“Coming back from my COVID situation, it [the name legacy] certainly spoke to me even more,” Galletta adds.

Legacy Realty has gone from strength to strength and continues to lead the Raleigh real estate market. Decades of local housing knowledge and viewing the real estate business as one that rests on ‘people’ have helped to propel Galletta and her team to the top tiers of the local housing market and consistently keep it there.

Hiring family members has also reflected Galletta’s approach to selling houses; treating all her cherished clients as part of her extended family. She firmly believes and bases Legacy Realty on a ‘relationship business’ rather than the standard approach within the industry that boils down to often a purely ‘transactional business’ model.

As with most things tied to real estate the Legacy Realty team’s success has also been attributed to location, location, location. With close proximity to the famed ‘research triangle’, real estate is considered to be prime in the Raleigh market, and Galletta takes her job very seriously when searching with her clients for the perfect house to fit their needs.

“Real estate is always going to be local, “ Galletta states. “We have seen unprecedented gains [in Raleigh] just like everyone else. We have seen a bit of a shift like the rest of the nation starting back in August and September as the mortgage rates started to go up.”

Despite the downward trend over the fall, Galletta is still very optimistic about the housing prospects both in terms of the more ‘normalized’ conditions and the continued speed at which local housing inventory is moving.

“We still only have about one and a half months of inventory which still puts us technically in a seller’s market,” she explains. “What we are seeing is a lot of buyers are on pause. It is kind of acting like a buyer’s market, whereas we are seeing more offers, fewer deposits and we now have something called due diligence.”

This ‘due diligence’ is just what Galletta explains that she needs. As a seasoned broker who cares about her clients, Galletta is now able to take the real estate reins on behalf of her clients and ensure that offers that are put in are in their best interest and truly represent a sound investment.

“I did still have two offers over the past few months that sold with multiple offers with very few contingencies and $50,000 in non-refundable deposits. It is still happening but not happening as often,” Galletta admits.

Putting her clients first and looking at the real estate process in relationship terms has proven to work and is the very reason Galletta says drew her to the field.

“A great realtor cares about people first and foremost. And if you don’t have the compassion, if you don’t care then it just doesn’t work,” she reasons. “My business is more than 90% repeat business. Not only do my clients come back, but their children come back, or their parents come back, or their aunts and uncles and best friends,” she adds. “This type of business is much easier to run and it is built on this kind of relationship.”

Galletta demonstrates her business approach outside her Legacy Realty office doors and sits on a number of community committees and real estate associations.

“I am heavily invested in the board of the Realtor Association here in Raleigh and the triangle and I am also a member of the Board of Directors for the association and a member as well of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee,” Galletta remarks.

In future terms, all the hard work and commitment to her clients and her surrounding community will continue to pay off, Galletta determines. It is precisely her love of the industry that has led to her success.

“It is everything I love. I brought my children in because I truly believe I have a passion for what I do and I am hoping that they will gain that passion as well. I want to continue to serve my clients,” she concludes.

AT A GLANCE

Legacy Realty Partners

What: A leading real estate agency that views the clients as family and real estate as a relationship business

Where: Raleigh, North Carolina

Website: www.lrpnc.com/