Realtor, 20, is fresh face on the market

As his 20th birthday approached, William Feicht had a wish: Close his first home sale before April 24, when he officially reached the two-decade mark. His birthday wish came true last week, when he finalized the sale of a condo in the Moorings at Edgewater for $282,000.

Feicht plans to close on two other home sales by May 1, meaning that, if all goes as planned, he will have helped sell nearly $1 million of real estate nearly one year before he can legally celebrate with a glass of champagne.

But the 20-year-old has multimillion-dollar dreams, which is why on a typical Friday night you’ll find him hunched over his MacBook Pro perusing the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in his bedroom at his parents’ Palm-Aire home.

“I don’t go out with my friends too much lately,” Feicht said. “But they understand. They know I’m working on getting established. I’m doing something important.”

The age-old question

Last October, Feicht earned his real estate license after studying flashcards for weeks. He accepted a position with the Lakewood Ranch branch of Keller Williams Realty Select in November and became the company’s youngest Realtor.

Feicht decided to become a Realtor after years of observing his grandfather, Don Carroll, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, who has been in the business for decades. Feicht remembers how in his teenage years Carroll would point out homes he had sold in The Founders Club in Sarasota and feeling impressed that his grandfather helped people find their homes.

Feicht joined Keller Williams because he knew the company had a training program for new agents.

But when Feicht, a Colorado native who attended the University of Colorado Boulder for a year before moving in 2014 to East County, sought to list a home, a woman was hesitant about meeting with Feicht because of his young age. So, he approached veteran agent Charles Totonis, who, with Beth Barnett had sales of more than $35 million last year, for help. They agreed to meet with the woman together and split the commission if they sold the home.

Barnett was intrigued by Feicht’s “spunk and positive attitude.” Soon, they agreed that he would join their team.

“He’s so young and ambitious,” Barnett said. “He has this smile and is self-driven. We’re making him our poster child.”

Barnett and Totonis now accompany Feicht on meetings with potential home sellers who want to list their homes and also help him finalize and close sales. But he drives his 2003 BMW — which he plans to upgrade eventually — to meet with sellers alone for showings.

So do clients trust an agent who’s barely out of his teens?

“Sometimes I get some shocked faces, but I just smile and ignore it,” Feicht said. “I start telling them about the home’s features and they forget about my age for a while.” 

Clients are often surprised by the young professional “who really knows his stuff,” Barnett said.

“A good handshake helps, too,” Feicht said, laughing.

Instead of disregarding Feicht because of his age, buyers have mostly shown an interest in working with a young Realtor, according to Totonis.

Buyers tell the veteran agent they appreciate Feicht’s professionalism and they “just want to help him,” because he reminds buyers of themselves or their relatives when they were young.

In some cases, Feicht has used his youth to his advantage, such as when a client told him he was young enough to be her grandson.

“I told her how being younger and being computer savvy was an advantage I had,” Feicht said. “Home searches today start on the Internet. I told her she wanted a Realtor who was comfortable with computers, and she started to trust me more.”

Building a career

Will the 20-year-old Realtor still be an agent when he’s 30 or 40?

Perhaps. Although he plans to grow his career as a real estate agent, Feicht isn’t ruling out a career in politics, or going back to school to pursue an engineering degree.

But for now, being a young professional in the real estate business doesn’t faze him. He knows he has to work harder and do more research to compensate for having a baby face and just a few months on the job.

“My family and friends are supportive,” Feicht said. “I think they’re proud of me and are blown away by this whole thing.”