Vision Pros Live Podcast
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What's your vision? Ft. Keren Gonen. Podcast Session 1.
1,703 words · 3 speakers
Welcome back to Vision Pros Live. I'm very pleased to meet Karen Gonen. Karen, would you please introduce yourself and then we'll dive right into your vision?
Absolutely, Sue. My name is Karen Gonen. I'm a real estate broker with Realty Executives in Vernon, New Jersey, Sussex County. I've been an agent, this is my ninth year. Last year, I was the number one agent in Sussex County. I beat out all the other top agents and teams in our county. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that, but I'm very excited to say those are my stats. I love what I do. I love teaching clients how to make better decisions, whether they're sellers or buyers. And I'm also working on raising a new generation of agents that care more about their clients than themselves and their pockets.
That is huge. Well, let's talk about that a little bit more. The vision for those that you serve, and I love this because you're serving, you're seeing this, I think appropriately, where you've got this massive ripple effect that you can cause with the people that you're buying and selling houses with and for, but also these other agents, you know, they have the potential, they could really win from, learning from somebody who knows what they're doing. So, talk a little bit about this, the vision for the people that you're serving.
So, the people that I serve, both my buyers and my sellers, I believe that information is power. And so, when I first meet my buyers, we'll start with buyers because that part is easier. I always tell them, "I will tell you the truth, whether you like it or you don't like it, but I will also teach you how to make better decisions as we're looking through houses and as I'm sending you properties online. I will teach you what to look for, what the pitfalls are. That way, you can make better decisions on the houses that we're going to see. If you're an older person and you don't want stairs and you see stairs in the pictures, let's not go for those houses because we can't remove all those stairs and you're not getting any younger, so your knees are not going to be able to go up and down 40 set of stairs.
And so, I do that with my buyers and with my sellers. What I do is I just show them stats. I tell them houses in the last six months with the same bedrooms and bathrooms have sold in our area for this much. I'm happy to list at whatever price you'd like. However, my recommended price is this. And I actually have them sign a piece of paper that says Karen told me that my price should be X. So when they ask me to list at Y, which is $2,000. Above what I said, they don't complain when people don't come to look at it or they complain about the price. Um, I also feel that I serve my agents. So a lot of agents in the industry.
And I don't know if it's the same in your area, Sue, but in our area, in New Jersey, agents are one step up from car salespeople. And it shouldn't be that way, but every type of stereotype has some type of reasoning behind it. Whether it's some old generational thoughts or if it's current situation. I just try to teach my agents to care more about other people's wellbeing. And them finding a new location that'll make them happy as opposed to their pocket. One of the most important things I teach my agents is to be ethical. Because our profession is based on ethics, but unfortunately, a lot of agents are not.
And so what I teach them is that it's not only important for their clients, whether they're buyers or sellers. It's also important for other people in the industry. Because there isn't one agent out there that has worked with me in over 500 transactions that could say anything about me. Not being ethical, being underhanded, not doing things the proper way. I'm very much by the book. But I also teach them kindness because we don't know what the other agent has been through. Maybe they had a fight with their significant other. Maybe they got up on the wrong side of the bed. Maybe they haven't made any money in the past year and they're just dying to get something. So we always need to take a step back and think about what other people are going through.
That's, that's fantastic. And I love, I mean, you put into words so beautifully what it really means to be a leader in business. And you're serving, you know, as a servant, serving the people who are agents under you and your clients as well. And that's, that's really, really cool.
How would you describe your vision for your business for the long, you know, in the next three to six months, the next year, whatever it is that looks like that for you?
Well, I'm always my biggest competition. I always compete with myself. So every year I have to do better than I did the year prior. This year I was unfortunately stuck in Israel for three and a half weeks during the war. And so I'm kind of backed up in my goals, but that just means it's just like a diamond that's created under pressure. I will do a lot more than I thought I was going to do. I'm also getting married next month, so that should be interesting. Because I wasn't here for three and a half weeks to handle everything, but I'm glad to report I'm almost done with everything. Thankfully, I have plenty of people by my side that are willing to help. As far as my business, my goal this year is to sell 25 million.
Last year my goal was 20 and I sold almost 24. So I'm hoping to exceed my goal again, which is what I normally do, except in the beginning of the year I freak out that my goal is so big. And however will I reach it? But thankfully, I'm blessed enough and very grateful to always reach it. As far as the bigger vision for, for my business, my goal is actually not even real estate related. My goal is to create a location in Sussex County where I can teach women to run their own businesses. A location that'll have not only sales experience and techniques,
but also bookkeeping, also legal work, all of those things that generally speaking, women are not raised with. I was raised in a very entrepreneurial home. My parents were entrepreneurs from the minute I was born. I remember my parents having their own business. And so that's what I've done throughout my career. So that's my goal to help women do better. Specifically because men are raised in a different way. They're expected to be in business and to do better. I feel like women in my area specifically, I'm not talking generally, I'm just talking about my area. Women are not raised the same way. And so I'd like to be that person that pushes women forward and teaches them what to do
and allows them to grow and allow them to maintain their sanity while they're doing that. Because we also are nurturers and we're wives and we're mothers and we're teachers and we're doing all these things all at the same time. So I also want to teach them a little bit about balance between work and life.
That's incredible. And have you started that already? Or is that just?
I haven't.
Kind of the vision stage?
Yeah, I need to work a few more years until I can get that started. And I'm actually going to name it after my mother, who passed away from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma eighteen years ago. So that's, that's my way of thanking her for making me who I am.
That's a wonderful tribute. My goodness.
Thank you.
That's really cool. Her memory will be a blessing then to many.
Yes, yes, it will be. And that's my purpose, because that's who she was. And the funny thing is, my sister and I had no idea. We didn't know that our mother did all these things for all these different women until she unfortunately passed away. And all these women came to the Shiva and said, "Your mom helped me get out of an abusive relationship. Your mom helped me leave a dead-end job and started a new job. She helped me start my own business." We had no idea, because my mom did everything behind closed doors. Those things she didn't share with us, because we were younger. And so I'm sure we wouldn't have grasped the concept. But when that happened, I was twenty-nine, my sister was only twenty-six. So it definitely left a huge impression on both of us.
That's really, really something. I'm excited for you to do this. What has to happen before? Like, you've got a few years. So what is it that you want to accomplish in those few years before you actually do that?
I have to buy a building. I have to have investors. I have to, I do have a few women that I've already picked out to help me. They don't know it yet, but they will not have any other options.
So that's, I just need to have more funds and more investors that will help me see that vision through.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun and we'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.
Page updated November 13, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
