Failing Forward with Valerie Torelli

FAILING FORWARD: A SUCCESS STORY WITH VALERIE TORELLI

You can almost  count on two hands the amount of female-owned real estate businesses in California. So, how did Valerie Torelli get there? Valerie  has been in the business of real estate for a long time now. It is through her steadfast commitment to reinvesting into her community, specifically the Costa Mesa segment, that has allowed Torelli Realty to become the #1 firm in Costa Mesa.  And Valerie the number one agent for the past 30 years. Working as an accountant in a property management firm, keeping history of transactions just wasn’t as powerful a draw as being part of the action.  That combined with having all of these creative ideas in a profession that isn’t conducive to that mindset was a huge driver to make the change. With a background in finance and a real estate license already secured, Valerie decided to get into the business. After 6 months  as an assistant, she was able to glean the intricacies of the industry. She sold her first house for a little over $200,000 with a buyer who just handed her a  cashier's check at the open house. Valerie has never forgotten the feeling she had in that moment. The feeling that someone trusted her so intimately to secure a home for their family and start a new chapter in the city she had come to love. That first year working for a local broker,  Torelli sold 24 houses. The second? Torelli became the #1 real estate agent in the city of Costa Mesa. And she has maintained that #1 spot for the past 30 years. With her success, she’s reinvested 5% of her earnings every year back to Costa Mesa through community wide events and initiatives you can see here, along with donations to local schools/programs, like her most recent donation helping to offer coding classes to 4th - 6th graders at Adams Elementary - the goal to bring it to every school in Costa Mesa.The biggest reward from her business? Helping people. The best advice she can give to young realtors looking to go out on their own? Get out of your comfort zone, be curious, ask questions and do what you are afraid to do. Don’t be afraid to fail. Every time you fail, you fail forward. Sometimes your biggest failures are your biggest success stories.

Just ask Valerie.