Real EstatePress

November 19, 2021

AS FEATURED ON VOYAGEPHOENIX.COM
NOVEMBER 18, 2021

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dominic Labriola.

Hi Dominic, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

Born and raised in Arizona, I have always been around real estate and construction as the son of a home builder. I began working with my dad when I was 10 years old, learning how to design and build homes from the ground up. I became the project manager for our family owned real estate company and became a real estate licensee at age 19 to sell the houses that we were building in Flagstaff and Lake Havasu City. I became very successful with my website and had a steady business of home buyers and sellers. In 2007 the Lake Havasu market began to dip (it’s a very secondary and tertiary home market) and we experienced a downturn before the rest of the world caught up to us in 2008. At the time I was working with the #1 agent in Lake Havasu City – Joanna Pellerito at Joanna & Associates Realty. We had over 100 homes for sale and nothing was selling. AT the same time, my dad was diagnosed with Lymphoma and I had to take over another family business – an Italian restaurant he was opening in Flagstaff. Dad has always had a restaurant in addition to investing in real estate – it’s a business he learned from my grandfather who had a pizza place in Chicago in the 1940s. I had worked in that business since 5th grade so I took over the shop until he was able to recover from cancer.

When I re-entered the real estate industry after a couple year hiatus to help with the restaurant, I knew I had to do something different. I learned about a new program which was a client relationship management software, lead generation platform and website all rolled into one. I started a new real estate team and I moved to Los Angeles California. I joined a Beverly Hills brokerage called Partners Trust and learned from my second mentor Nick Segal. Here I learned the importance of bringing my gratitude and greatness to every meeting I have. My gratitude and goodness statement “I am so grateful for my life, my health and my good fortune, and I am my lion heart, my passion and my stability” is my guiding light to every interaction I have.

I was recruited to help start a real estate company and helped found a brokerage which grew to 55 agents and did over $1B in sales. Sadly, that company was owned by a man who did not have the same values that we did, so we ended up leaving. I joined a big brokerage and just didn’t feel at home or fulfilled by the work that I was doing. Around the end of 2018, my good friend Max Fitzgerald and I connected for lunch and ended up spending the day talking about what it would be like to create a company where agents, staff and clients felt valued. We decided to embark upon the journey to build our own real estate company.

I am so proud to have co-founded Craft & Bauer Real Estate Co. We now have offices in Southern California, Northern California and have recently expanded into my home state of Arizona. I am ecstatic to help the 32 agents who have joined us to achieve their own dreams and feel really fulfilled by the work that I am doing. In addition to guiding the team and serving as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, I still sell homes and partner with a number of the agents within the brokerage to guide our clients through all of the moving parts of buying and selling a home. My father and I co-own our construction company DPL Development and we build inspiring spaces from which people can live their best life.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?

It has not! I have had a number of setbacks including my dad’s lymphoma, heart attack and complications from type 2 diabetes. My mom is also diabetic and suffers from Macular degeneration.

In addition to the health problems that I help my family through, the financial stresses of the economic downturn of 2008 which nearly bankrupted so many were a very hard road to work through.

I personally have struggled with my weight for much of my life, yo-yoing up and down.

I’ve persevered through health challenges and am proud of the progress I’ve made, having run a number of both full and half marathons, trained in pilates and weight lifting. I now really enjoy weight lifting as my primary exercise mode and while I still struggle with my weight and body image, I feel like I am much stronger and healthier than I have been in the past.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I was often asked how I turned my life around through hardship. I started a podcast where I interviewed people who had inspired me and helped mentor me through the hard times that I experienced.

Through this, I also created a day planner called the Whole Life Planner which I use daily to help guide me on a path of fulfillment of my Personal, Professional and Financial goals. It started quite organically for me – first printing out a sheet of paper to help me check off my goals daily. Eventually it morphed into a full planner which now helps me to imagine the life that I want to lead, work through my heart’s desire, and set goals for my personal, professional and financial life which can be achieved in bite-size steps.

“I know what sets me apart is truly the heart and soul that I bring to everything I do.”

— Dominic Labriola

I am a fiercely loyal person and I try to bring my best to every meeting or situation. I am a strong communicator, I bring great strategies to the table with experiences I can draw upon, and I am a strong ambassador and negotiator for my clients.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?

I think that bad luck has forced me to be more adaptive and work through the hardships. It’s also helped me to be more cognizant of the periods of time where I experience the good luck and more appreciative of that good fortune.

Originally published on November 18, 2021 on VoyagePhoenix.com.