Barry Rosa
‘A wonderful team’
Barry Rosa, vice president and director of the New Homes and Land Division at Prudential Connecticut Realty, has managed to merge two distinct career paths into one multifaceted enterprise, embarking on a new road in the industry, both figuratively and literally. “I live less out of the house and more out of a vehicle,” said Rosa. “In New Homes and Land, we have created more than 70 different subdivisions in so many different areas that I’m literally all over the place all the time. I drive roughly 50,000 miles a year and I rarely leave Connecticut.”
Beginning his career as a Realtor at Century 21 in Bridgeport, Rosa had a knack for real estate from early on. “I started selling real estate and did very well and eventually moved into appraisal. After working with Century 21, I opened up an office in Fairfield County for Weichert Realtors, which is based out of New Jersey,” he said. “But I did have a desire to see what else I could do within the business.”
After taking a few years to extend his business resumé into the realm of banking, Rosa has returned to his “first love” of real estate. “I’ve got one of the best real estate backgrounds possible, from selling, to financing, to underwriting, to feasibility,” he said. “All of my experience came together in one place when I was sitting around talking one day with [Prudential Connecticut Realty President] Candace Adams and a few other people at Prudential and pretty much all of a sudden everyone had the same bright idea at the same time.”
Five years ago “a light bulb went off,” said Rosa. “A large part of my banking experience was financing construction. I got to know that area very well. When I spoke with people at Prudential, we decided to begin a New Homes and Land Division.”
Rosa noticed a demand for efficiency in development of new homes and executed a plan with Prudential to create a specialty division within the company for just that. “I was looking for something in real estate that went beyond the structures of what I had,” said Rosa. “As soon as I got to Prudential we developed what we wanted new homes to look like and started immediately to develop the business. We figured out how to do it, but it takes time. Eventually, we created a marketing structure that could effectively price large land parcels.”
The development of homes and land is typically a long process that can involve many different parties. At Prudential, Rosa and his collaborators have designed a process where a company can work with just one team to actualize its goal. “It can take a lot of time to go into the market and find out what people want,” said Rosa.
Rosa attributes much of Prudential’s newfound success in building a strong clientele to its individualized method. “We do have competitors but this is a fairly unique approach,” said Rosa. “What we don’t do is field separate teams of agents that work on separate projects. We build teams for specific developments and projects. We’re big believers in getting the right people to do things. And we have the background and knowledge to help a great person become better. One reason we’re success is we bring others along.”
Rosa acknowledges that the division’s accomplishments come down to its expert staff. “We’ve been more successful than I’d even hoped for. Our staff is very goal- and object-driven and surpassed where we’d planned to go, which is a neat thing to be able to say,” he said. “We’re doing a lot of business but the most important thing is that we’re doing the business the way it needs to be done. Our objective has been to create a professional level of services and that’s what we’re rendering.”
Rosa has found much of his success in recognizing a demand and executing strategies to explore uncharted territories. “About a year ago we realized that we have a significant population in Connecticut who are over the age of 50. We looked at that and created a special services area for active adults within the community, creating a special training program for people within the company in order to have people qualified to perform services for buyers looking into age-restricted housing,” said Rosa. “We always try to anticipate a demand for service and if we don’t have those skills we get those skills. At the end of the day it’s about our customers, not us.”
Granting equal respect to his clients and associates, Rosa has been recognized by his industry peers as a leader at both the Connecticut Association of Realtors and the Home Builders Association of Connecticut. Serving as CAR Region 2 vice president for the year past, Rosa is moving on to service in the next year as vice president and treasurer of the Home Builders Association. “This year I had to make a choice between the two organizations, mostly because there’s only so much time in the day. I’ve done a lot with CAR, so when the Home Builders asked if I’d act as vice president and treasurer, I realized I couldn’t do both at the same time.”
Rosa is looking forward to a challenging year as his work with the Home Builders Association intensifies. “It’s probably going to be more time consuming. Stuff needs to be done all year round and it’s just like any association where different issues are faced in different parts of the state,” he said. “The question is, ‘How do you build a commonality?’ I like tough jobs. It’s just a matter of figuring out what can be helped in the industry.”
Already having surpassed his expectations for success in the New Home and Land Division at Prudential, Rosa recognizes the company’s achievement as a team effort.
“We’ve got a wonderful team and I’m so fortunate to be surrounded by people who are really good at what they do and, in a lot of cases, smarter than I am,” said Rosa. “Something you learn in business is that you never get anywhere by yourself. Everything we do really depends on being surrounded by people who are really good at what they do and I’ve had a lot of good fortune in that area.”
