Karen Rodriguez
Associate Broker –
Dorsey Alston Realtors
Director of Sales –
The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Atlanta
Top Realtor Karen Rodriguez doesn’t depend on luck. She’s a self-starter, driven by tenacity, and it’s her passion and her willingness to take risks that helped her successfully sell out her first luxury Buckhead high rise project by age 27, the same way it’s elevated her to industry leader status.
The powerful sales and marketing force assembled by Rodriguez, as part of her own Karen Rodriguez Group, is making waves in the Atlanta industry, overseeing 10 luxury condo developments and, since 2010, listing and further closing more than $150 million in Buckhead high-rise condo sales.
As a testament to her success, Rodriquez was recruited in late 2013 to exclusively list and manage all sales and marketing for the high-profile Mandarin Oriental project.
“I decided early on that I would focus on the Buckhead luxury condo segment,” Rodriguez says. “After 11-plus years working exclusively in this market, I know what buyers look for and how to help them get it. Developers like the fact that I do more than just list and sell their beautiful properties. I also provide PR strategy, design and negotiations consulting.”
Rodriguez led her team and sold out the 125-unit Ritz-Carlton development, worth $100 million, in just two and a half years during the housing crisis.
Because of her success with the Ritz-Carlton and her past realty success, Rodriguez was asked to take over the Mandarin Oriental Residences, formerly listed with a competing firm. Through determination and the benefit of her team’s extensive network, Rodriguez was able to sell more units in her first 90 days than the preceding firm had in four years. In six months, she had sold upwards of $18 million.
Though Rodriguez’s primary focus is top developers, she leverages the same proven techniques when working with all her clients.
“Every year I think I have reached the pinnacle of my career, and yet, I continue to top my previous achievements,” she says. “Such is the result of striving for the best, even if that means trying to top myself to achieve better for my clients.”
Rodriguez currently has about $50 million in active and quiet listings. She is also working with the owners of a listing on the design and finishes for a 5,100 square foot single-floor home in the sky that has 800 square feet of balcony space. Once it is completed next year, it will be listed in the $4 million price range.
Rodriguez and her team are currently in the process of building out an additional 15 luxury condos, one of which was chosen as the new HGTV Urban Oasis Dream Home. She hopes to carry her success into 2015 and beyond.