Passion for beautiful houses
The newspaper Fet a Tarragona interviews Victòria Martí, soul and engine of Monapart Tarragona.
Monapart is a real estate agency specialised in selling and renting, in a different way, beautiful, charming, special and with possibilities. The visible face of Monapart Tarragona is Victòria Martí, who goes in search of houses and flats where she would live and places them at the disposal of a very specific public, between conventional and luxury agencies.
This June it will be two years since Barcelona architect Victòria Martí decided to turn her life around. She had spent five years on the building site, working for a large construction company (with which she had participated, among many other projects, in the construction of the Mas d'Enric del Catllar penitentiary centre), and in recent times she had realised that "it is not sustainable not to live where you work".. Already settled in the Camp de Tarragona, and tired of going up and down, she decided to respond to an advertisement from the real estate company Monapart, which was looking for franchisees in our territory.
Les meves cases són com els meus fills.
Since then he has embraced the agency's philosophy and has appropriated it, making it fit in with his architectural studio, The White House (specialising in interior refurbishment), so that the two projects feed off each other. In this way, he applies to his day-to-day work els tres mantres de Monapart: excellence, honesty and humourHe is also working to change the bad image that the real estate business, to which he has never dedicated himself, tends to have. "Ara les meves cases són com els meus fills".he assures.
In the case of Tarragona, the agency works with properties in the area from Cambrils to Torredembarra, passing through Reus. In this sense, and returning to the mantra, Victòria is looking for excellence by discriminating very well "in a complicated and old-fashioned market".Monapart, many times following a very personal criterion, selecting those houses or flats where he could live. Moreover, Monapart demands to always work exclusively with the client, the owner and tenant of the flat (who become monaparters), in order to be able to offer a service that meets their needs as closely as possible. As far as honesty is concerned, Victòria assures that, when she is approached to visit a flat, "First of all, he emphasises the negative aspects: "You know what a room without a lift is like", for example.
The good things come later".. They pride themselves on always showing all their cards and being transparent with both clients and buyers. And they put humour in everything they do, with details such as sending a bunch of flowers to the owners when they sold the flat a year ago. In addition, they have a web site where, in addition to showing the flats and houses they have in their portfolio (a maximum of twenty per area), they talk about many other things in the sector: news, decoration trends, architecture, collaborating companies...
On this point, the Victòria insists that when presenting the homes on their website "It is necessary to take good photos, to accompany them with an emotional text, an accurate and detailed description, without any hitches".. And it is that the houses with which it works "They are four walls, but to me they evoke other things and, therefore, when it comes to selling or renting them, it is also necessary to explain what is not seen but what the house gives off". Moreover, many times they go further and, together with the photographs, they also show a render, that is to say, a simulation of what a certain room could look like once it has been renovated, or they attach a proposed plan of a possible renovation to improve the layout of the flat or house.
Thus, those people who find it hard to imagine what the property will be like will find it a little easier once they move in. Even if they have asked for it, Victòria has renovated some of the flats before selling them, although this is not the most common thing to do.
As she herself says, the monapartite dwellings "They are nice because their owners keep them that way". "It is about people who are restless and who are not satisfied with just anything".he explains, "between 25 and 60 years old, and with a lifestyle that begins with feeling at home and continues with a notable interest in travelling, food and the education of their children".. They are people who have lived a lot of things at home and they don't want to sell it to the first person who passes by.
For this reason, in this real estate company they have created the immocions, video capsules in which the owner explains why his house is important from the emotional point of view, looking for "a connection with the potential buyer".. De fet, "moltes vegades comprador i venedor s'assemblen força".says Victòria, "with similar ages, families or professions". Even so, he recognises that "The part of the negotiation between seller and buyer is the one I carry the worst. No dormo!".
Com a tret distintiu, most of Monapart's franchisees are people with a technical profile: decorators, architects, interior designers... "We are not commercial".he remarks. "Come with confidence".and for them "a good recommendation is much more important than a sale".. A més, cap té un local a peu de carrer. "In the past it used to make sense to have an establishment, but now, with the Internet, real estate portals and social networks, it doesn't make sense".he assures. Thus, they carry out their work in coworking spaces such as the one managed by Tarragona Impulsa in Tabacalera, a fact that gives them flexibility and also the possibility of meeting other companies and entrepreneurs.
At Monapart we are not just salesmen, we come with confidence. For us, a good recommendation is much more important than a sale.
In this sense, a local natural cosmetics company has taken photographs of its products in a monapart floor, and Victòria has created content for the agency's website talking about furniture and decoration shops in our area and innovative companies from Tarragona. It has also been involved with entities such as Keyboardsan association of mothers from Tarragona that organises, among other things, the Minipop Festivalwith which the real estate company has collaborated in a children's drawing workshop (Monapart Tarragona at Minipop 2017).
And they attach great importance to offline actions aimed at making themselves known and branding, such as searches in areas where they believe there may be flats that meet the necessary characteristics to enter their portfolio.
It is hard, especially in these times, to find people like Victòria who talk so passionately about their work. She believes blindly in Monapart, a slow-cooked project, and her eyes shine when she explains what makes her agency different from the others. Bearing in mind that they have "fans", diu, she en podria ser la numero u, una monaparter de soca-rel.
