JADE MILLS | IARP Journey to the Top
It’s one of those beautiful California springtime mornings where the faint scent of flower blossoms lay lazily in the air, and the sun gently warms your face. We begin to walk up the driveway as the large white gates to the Beverly Hills home start to open as if it’s yawning itself awake slowly. We are greeted midway to the house by a dapper young man, smartly dressed, with a warm smile and friendly disposition. He helpfully gathers some of our equipment bags as he leads us up and into the house. We are offered water and coffee as we begin to unpack and set-up for our interview. The background noise is that of faint laughter coming from one of the rooms in the back of the house. Suddenly, the sound of high-heels on the wood floors grow as we hear someone enter the room from behind us. We turn as a beautiful blonde, perfectly put together with a gentle smile, walks in. She stretches out her hand and with a soft, angelic-like voice, introduces herself as Jade Mills.
For anyone who has met Jade, they will agree that she has an uncanny ability to make someone instantly feel comfortable in her presence. With her matriarchal gentility and advice governed words, it’s clear why she’s the go-to real estate professional in Southern California. She has been working full time in real estate since the ’90s and has had a long and impressive career since. With 5 Billion plus in career sales, ranking as the #2 real estate agent in the nation, and distinguished as the #1 agent in the Nation for Coldwell Banker. Jade is an expert in luxury properties, serving the needs of real estate buyers and sellers throughout Los Angeles. She was named the International Ambassador for Coldwell Banker in recognition of her established alliances and global relationships with International markets and her development of Jade Mills Worldwide. Jade also holds the title of Co-Chairman of the International Luxury Alliance, which is an elite network of professionals focused on the highest level of client service and business integrity.
It’s evident from the start of our interview that Jade values her family and loves her profession as she proudly reveals, “I love real estate. It’s the best job you can have, but it’s still a lot of work. I also have three of my four children working with me now. I think that one day they’ll take over for me. Not soon, but in the future.” She laughs slightly, knowing she is not ready to hang up her hat anytime soon. With as much passion and dedication to her legacy, as when she first started, she explains, “Real Estate is 22 hours a day, I even do deals in my sleep.” She laughs and explains that occasionally she will even wake up in the morning questioning if whether the deal she just made was real or just a dream. It truly shows how much she cares about her work. She lives, breathes, and even dreams it!
The part about Jade the truly stands out the most, aside from family values, is her integrity. She touches base on what it means to be successful, which is always doing the right thing for your clients. “I think that integrity plays the biggest part of being successful in any business. When you do the right thing, you are honest with your clients, and you are not just looking at the money you are going to make, you will always be successful if you work hard.” Jade will even discourage her clients not to buy properties if she doesn’t think they will be happy there. Jade explains, “There have been many times when my clients have wanted to buy next to a freeway or to a busy street, and I discourage them from that purchase. Also, there have been times when the market wasn’t right, and I would tell my clients isn’t the right time; you should wait a year, two years, three years. And they waited, and their properties were worth way more money.” Also, in order to do the right thing by your clients, you must be knowledgeable about the neighborhoods you are working in. “Knowledge is everything when you’re selling because you really need to know everything about a neighborhood. You need to be out there every day working, so you know exactly which clients are looking for what. The right agent is going to tune in to who their clients are and what they want.”
Jade also shared with us her advice to those starting in the business, “Your own database is the best place to start. You really have to take advantage of every situation; your children’s schools, your church, your charities, the grocery store, share with everyone that you are in real estate. Even when you’re going to the market no matter where you are, you need to talk about real estate. Somebody in line at the market might be talking about real estate and if your nice and friendly people don’t mind talking with you about it. I got a listing at the grocery store, so you have to really listen and pay attention when people are talking about real estate. I mean there was somebody that I was talking about real estate at lunch one day, and the table next to me said oh you sell real estate I’m going to be selling my house. And so I went for that listing. So you have always to be listening.”
Also, self-promotion was something she was never keen for until her husband went ahead and put an ad on the back of the playbills anyway. “My husband always encouraged me to do personal advertising even though I fought him on it. I would always say I don’t want to do that. I’ll advertise my client’s house, but I don’t want to do self-promotion. But he overrode that, and he started putting my information on the back of the playbill. So when you go to the opera, when you go to the theater, the back page would be something about me. Sometimes it was my picture, or maybe a quote or something. Anyway, it turned out my husband was right! I got so much name recognition. I got so many people contacting me and sold so many more properties because of that. So self-promotion and advertising are essential for your road to success.”
It’s hard not to adore Jade. From the start to the finish of our interview, she showed the utmost respect to our crew. She took the time to ask questions about our lives, and she made us feel not only welcomed but seen. Her closing words to us were those of what it means to be successful to her, “Being successful means you have accomplished something you are proud of. The best compliment I can receive is when a client says I did a good job, that I went above and beyond to do a great job for them.” Even at the end, she continued to inspire us to be our very best and to operate in this world with integrity. Alas, it’s safe to say that when we list a property, she will be the first real estate agent we call.
Follow Jade Mills:
@jademillsestates