Intro: David Vilomara Vela
In this interview, we chat to David Vilomara Vela, the CEO of Vilomara & Associats. The business, created in 2002, is centred on a comprehensive real estate advisory and business consulting service. As one of our first clients, David has a keen eye for the latest technological advances, keeping ahead of the proptech trends.
With its innovative attitude to the sector, the firm is always looking for new ways to improve its services. Its main goal is to offer a quality service to its clients, with a specialized team of professionals. Its real estate services include the buying, selling and rental of properties and mortgage advice.
With over 15 years’ experience in the sector, David has a broad knowledge of the real estate market and the proptech industry. Today, he shares with us his personal experience of working in the sector, and how it has changed in recent years.
Interview
FLOORFY: Hello, David. To begin, tell us a little bit about you.
David: Good morning! Well, you’ve given me a good introduction, and the truth is that I have always really liked technology. We could say that joining technology and the real estate market mixes my 2 greatest passions.
Looking at the description that you have very aptly done, I felt very old… and I don’t think I’m that old either! I’m 42, although it’s true that I have been immersed in the profession for many years.
I have been an API, a real estate property agent, since 2009, I did a Masters in Real Estate Consultancy at the Universidad de Barcelona in 2007 and I’m always in training, currently at the Universidad de Alcalá, since although real estate transactions in the traditional form date back many years, there’s always a continuous evolution, be it in terms of laws, procedures, and, as is the case here, technology.
On a personal note, I have a fantastic travel companion who is, undoubtedly, a huge support on a daily basis and a great help in disconnecting from a job which is very absorbing. I am a father of 3 wonderful girls, I consider myself a very social person and my passions are sport, photography, technology, food… but above all travelling, as this is the thing I think has enriched my life the most.
My business is in a little town in Alt Penedès, Sant Sadunrní d’Anoia, we are a professional office with 3 different areas, Property Management, Business Consultancy and Real Estate Advising. My role in the business is in its general direction, and more specifically the management of the real estate department.
I try to make work a beautiful part of my life, where the connection with people, customers, being able to help a person achieve something as important as their property is one of my main motivations.
FLOORFY: Did you always want to work in the real estate sector?
Well, to be honest saying ‘always’ wouldn’t be correct, when I was little I wanted to be an architect but when I studied building and construction design, I had already connected with a world that caught my attention. I suppose that the fact that my paternal and maternal family had a business also awakened something inside me.
When I was 19, I had a period of time when I had finished the 5 years of Delineación, and until the following academic year I couldn’t start university, and it was then, and don’t ask me why, that I enrolled in a Real Estate Law course at the UPC, I guess I was looking for something that would fit in the world of building. There, yes, it was there I became passionate about it, because of what my companions told me, where the youngest ones were 15 years older than me.
FLOORFY: Describe a typical day at work for you.
Hahahaha are you sure? We could say that my day starts the night before, but how? Yes, yes, it is a habit I have to start the day free of emails, I receive a lot throughout the day and with my work it is very difficult to go about responding to them continually, so that, although I go about checking them continually, if something isn’t urgent, I respond to them at night.
I get up at 6 in the morning and study for about one and a half hours… until the family routine begins, the rest of my family get going, breakfast, showers, leaving the house ready and to school! By 9 I’m in the office and I always always always try to keep my day to a schedule, space for calls, space for visits, space for managing documents, even space for doing sport, if I don’t do this and make time for it, I wouldn’t find the time.
Organization is essential in a profession like this, where you spend half the day glued to the telephone and the other half on the street selling- there are lots of inputs, orders, comments and unplanned things that you receive throughout the day and if you don’t organize yourself well it is very easy to miss something.
It’s a beautiful job, but a lot, as you will see, very challenging, mental and physically, so that always, or almost always my day has a space for my family, a square, a park or to go shopping, but those moments for me are super necessary, they are the fresh air that clears my head from the endless number of things I go home with everyday, allowing me to disconnect.
FLOORFY: As our first client, tell us a little bit about your decision to adopt our virtual tours. How have you found it?
What a lovely memory I have of our first meeting! A group of laid-back and uncomplicated guys, with the hope and necessary capacity to execute an idea such as this. I remember that you would always say to me, look David! Now we have implemented this or that, always improving, the progress was very fast!
My decision? I didn’t have any doubts in this respect, I was certain that this was the present. I am also amazed by technology, photography and the world of real estate, and Floorfy joined together all these areas.
To be able to get closer to the quality of a property to be able to imagine how your children would run round the garden, or how you would watch Netflix series from the lounge, this is what we sell, this is what Floorfy brings closer to us, this is the FUTURE.
FLOORFY: What are the challenges facing real estate agents in 2021?
What a year we are expecting! The challenge for me is being in constant progression, intuiting the market, both for the customer and internally, adapting our processes and operations to this new era in which we are living, and, although the pandemic will pass, it will definitely leave us with a lot of changes.
The way we interact between ourselves has changed, we are becoming more technological, we want things to be as easy as possible, our greatest asset is time and everything that brings value to our lives. Many already knew this, others have seen how technology is the key to many things.
FLOORFY: Do you have any new projects planned for the coming year?
Of course! We are going to carry out two important investments to be able to reach our clients more easily, and so our communication and visibility is more fluid and clear. We are going to focus part of our efforts on the other two main departments we have apart from real estate: homeowners’ associations and business consultancy. On the real estate front, we have a surprise prepared for our showcase. Long live technology, you will find out very soon!
