Case study: Working with professional athletes and team leadership
In 2011, the real estate brokerage I am affiliated with in Florida established a sponsorship with the NFL team in our city. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant, other than our company’s name would be visible on some level at the stadium and perhaps there would be some other perks.
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Apparently, one of the “other perks” is that we would be branded as the official real estate company of the team. This meant potential opportunities to help players and staff with their real estate needs.
I was honored to be one of two agents who were asked to be representatives to support the team on behalf of the brokerage. What would that entail? I wasn’t sure. There was no formal training or preparation for working with athletes, coaches, staff and executives, so I channeled my relocation training as a baseline to rely on.
To me, this meant being professional, responsive and a resource. I would need to understand the inventory, be able to provide orientation and direction, and lean on my ability to quickly “big picture” things in order to give the very best advice and guidance possible.
Starting out
My first interaction entailed meeting with the head of team security at a downtown condo building close to the stadium, where he gave me a brief overview of housing needs for football players relocating to the area. He wanted rental options that would be close to the stadium in secure buildings.
I researched, I previewed and I delivered options. I passed the test. My next assignment? Show the team’s owner around the area, along with a few luxury properties. At the time, my market was very much a sleeper luxury market that had lower price points and had not yet come into its own yet (it since has). That meant that many of the homes were dated and lacked modern features and amenities.
The owner’s wife had a few listings she wanted him to see and was initially defining “luxury” based on the name of the brokerage that had the listing. The next thing I knew, I was exchanging listings with the owner’s personal assistant, and a link was sent to me of his wife’s favorites.
I set up an area tour along with appointments to see the selected properties. I had to keep things on the down-low as much as possible as to who the buyer was, but the listing agents were certainly asking qualifying questions when I was setting up the showings. That was not unusual in the price range that we were looking in.
The head of security was going to be driving the team’s owner and following me in my car. No pressure. Even though the properties were in the small beach community in which I resided, I did a dry run of the route ahead of time so I could be as prepared as possible and note any nuances I needed to be aware of.
Tour day
Flash forward to tour day where I met the team owner in person. I had studied his background ahead of time, and I knew he graduated from a Big Ten University, as did I. In fact, our respective schools were about an hour from each other.
I was hoping to have a chance to discuss that connection when we met. As it turns out, he had researched me, too, because the first thing he mentioned when we were introduced was our schools, and I said, “Go Big Ten!” That helped break the ice, and I went over the itinerary, complete with a folder for him and the head of team security with the listings, driving route, maps and additional information.
Identifying security concerns
As we went on the tour, listening to the head of the team security’s analysis of each property was a significant learning experience. He pointed out where each property had security deficiencies or where homes may be too close together for safety and protection, and determined what would have to happen to rectify that.
The team’s owner had not seen much of the area before and was asking all sorts of questions about luxury restaurants, where to go and what to do in this quaint coastal community. I got the sense he was yearning for more than he initially saw, and he was likely comparing it to the part of Florida where he had bought a luxury property a few months prior, as well as to the large city he was based in. The luxury listings his wife wanted him to see did not match up to expectations, no matter how high the price.
I knew that they likely wouldn’t, but as this was an exploratory trip, we had to go take a look. (Had this same search taken place in 2025, the properties and available options would have been much more sophisticated as this area has dramatically transformed.)
Word travels fast
I was concerned that once he was seen looking at properties with listing agents, who were present for all the showings, the news would spread like wildfire that he was scouting properties in the area. Sure enough, my phone started blowing up with calls from people who I didn’t know who had heard through the grapevine that I was working with the team’s owner.
People who owned luxury properties were coming out of the woodwork, offering their homes as potential options to buy. None of these people were on the market, but they saw this as an opportunity to find a buyer who might pay their price. Agents started pinging me as well.
In the end, the owner did not buy, in part because he had already purchased a luxury property in another part of Florida, and he candidly shared that he had done that right before the opportunity to buy the team came together.
I appreciated his honesty and totally understood where he came from. Welcome to the world of athlete and celebrity real estate, where circumstances shape deals and the best-laid plans can turn on a dime.
Although the tour did not result in a sale, it did pave the way for a slew of referrals that resulted in many sales and rentals for team executives, coaching staff and players who relocated to the area.
This was my first foray into the high-stakes world of celebrity clientele, and it was a great introduction. I’ve put together 10 essential things to know, whether you’re new to the world of luxury real estate or you’re an established luxury broker who’s looking to work with more high-profile clients.
In this five-part series, Cara Ameer breaks down the ins and outs of working with high-profile, high-stakes clients in the worlds of sports and entertainment. In the next part of Ameer’s series, find out what it takes to see past the glamour and provide discreet, confidential service to your high-profile clients. Come back every day this week for new ideas and strategies to help you make the most of every opportunity.
Cara Ameer is a bi-coastal agent licensed in California and Florida with Coldwell Banker. You can follow her on Facebook or on X, formerly known as Twitter.
