Successful Real Estate Innovator Viola Schritter Offers Us Tips, Do’s & Don’ts
Have supreme confidence in what you do, do the best you can, and be yourself — open, honest and ethical.
By way of introduction, those key words sum up who I am and what motivates me — Viola Schritter, the female founder of VS Homes GmbH, one of the top emerging real estate companies in Austria.
As an ambitious teenager, it was always on my mind to start a real estate business, but I became an entrepreneur who founded Luxele, an online swimwear brand. All I really had, and needed as it turned out, were the basics — creativity, persistence and desire to learn from the school of hard knocks. I designed, and sourced the swimwear products myself, and then after two years, I profitably sold my first company to a Hong Kong-based fund. Then, with those proceeds, I was able to realize my dream to start up a female-driven real estate company in a male-dominated market.
Today, five years later, VS Homes stands out from our competition because of an ingenious game plan, including: a unique strategy for real estate acquisition of flats/apartments; a program of home staging for enhanced buying experience for the customer; and, our in-house renovation team, which cost-effectively carries out quality work and after-sales service for the buyers. So far, VS Homes’ vital statistics include — 92 projects completed involving 8,500 square meters; and, 67M (Euros) revenue since inception.
Finding the right people to collaborate with
But, for more context, let me back up a little. I’ve heard it said that women dominate real estate in the US, making up 65% of industry, today. But, when I founded VS Homes, I found out first-hand that being a woman in Austria, meant I encountered a lot of obstacles. First, there were doubts from several bankers in my initial stage of securing fundings to buy the first few apartments. With very little background in real estate and having no family relations in the real estate businesses, it was difficult to convince people to get funded. I had to go through many banks and apply everywhere I could to find the right institution that would support my new company. At the end, there were a few enterprising banks who agreed, and I’ve been with them ever since.
And, this brings up the importance for any new entrepreneurs in finding the right collaborations, not only with suppliers and financial institutions/investors, but also with customers.
Indeed, I am most proud of my customers, my suppliers, and my team. My team is the building block of our company and the reason why I continue to maintain our growth — they have grown from team players with little to no experience, to those who know the intricacies of running a real estate business like ours. In addition, we have a group of happy and loyal customers who love our company and the experience we give them during their whole process. I strongly feel that for any business, relationships with suppliers and bankers are of utmost importance. I am proud that we have strong relationships with all of them who have continuously helped our success throughout these past years.
Using “empathy” to productively understand one’s team and customers
I feel “empathy” is one of the strongest natural traits that women entrepreneurs can have, where they can connect with their team and run them more effectively and efficiently because they not only care about the bottom line but also about all the people connected to the business in many different ways. For example, there’s also having empathy for one’s customers, which is also essential. Let me explain.
VS Homes clients are generally first-time real estate buyers, so they are very new to the whole process and sometimes don’t even know what they want. At VS Homes, we support them from the beginning to make them understand the whole process, including helping them: to learn and understand what they want to buy as their dream home; to find similar homes that may already be in our portfolio; and, to find other new opportunities for them.
Additionally, we also help them build relationships with banks to get their first credit and help them deeply through the renovation and after-sales service and associated processes.
On the cutting edge of being environmentally responsible
Energy certification to buy products that consume less power is at the core of the Austrian economy. Without it, we can’t even obtain permits for renovation let alone do anything else. But VS Homes takes the extra step — we consciously make sure that we buy materials with low carbon footprint, plus energy efficient appliances and environment-friendly products. And, for us, creating a conscious company starts from within. It’s important that we, as a company and community of people, first take care of ourselves, be it my employees or suppliers or workers/contractors. Their health and mental well-being is of utmost importance. Only when we are achieving this at “home,” can we make a positive impact in everyone else’s life that we touch, be they first-time customers or well-established real estate buyers. Personally, I think in life that food, water, clothes and then shelter/owning a home is the very least every human being deserves. As a company we are just bringing and helping our customers and people associated with us to have these most basic needs.
Some helpful “do’s and don’ts” for entrepreneurship
Please try to “do” these actions: stay confident, believe in yourself, stay strong, stay humble, and do be open-minded, and learn to analyze criticism and feedback. Also, don’t believe everything everyone says or promises; don’t overestimate yourself — learn to know your own boundaries; don’t give up; don’t lose trust in yourself; and, don’t lose one’s excitement for this industry — as you are helping others to live their dream.
The power of being an independent female today
It’s exciting to be the female leader of an emerging real estate company. We see a rise in single female homeownership in Austria. But, this trend reflects broader social and economic changes in Austria and worldwide, where women are increasingly achieving financial independence and prioritizing real estate as a key investment.
Check out what unique tools VS Homes offers, and watch Viola Schritter’s Forbes interview on YouTube.
