PBN 2021 Business Women Awards
Achievement Honoree: Rita Danielle Steele, Steele Realty Consultants International LLC
RITA DANIELLE STEELE has had to make some adjustments in how her company, Steele Realty Consultants International LLC, does business in response to COVID-19. But with the technological tools that have come into the real estate industry over the years, these adjustments have been manageable.
The 6-year-old Providence company and its 10 employees serve international buyers. So Steele and her team had already been showing and selling properties remotely using video tours and other methods. The COVID-19 pandemic expanded the need for those remote services.
In-person property showings during the pandemic meant it became more crucial to think beyond the staging of houses, including deep cleaning them, Steele said. “Sanitation levels have certainly been more at the forefront” of properties being sold, she said.
Reduced work hours for an office administration staffer was the only other real change Steele Realty Consultants International saw from COVID-19. As the state started to reopen, Steele has let local buyers and agents take the lead in how they handle things, depending on their own individual comfort levels.
“Some have wanted masks and booties. Others are fine without them. It just varies. A lot of buyers do initial viewings virtually and then a lot will do it all remote,” Steele said.
The creation of Steele Realty Consultants International was an effort to “shift us into a broader range,” with more-unique real estate needs, such as clients who seek to build tiny houses as accessory units on existing land, for example, Steele said.
Even as principal of a real estate consultancy with services that include foreclosures, relocations and investments, Steele’s passion for activism continues. As board vice president of the Providence Preservation Society, Steele said her interests are evolving yet again.
“My motivation has shifted from preserving for property beauty into showing how that property contributes to its surrounding environment” as mindful city planning, she said.
Steele is treasurer and president-elect of the Greater Providence Board of Realtors as well, which gave her its Realtor of the Year Award in 2018. “So I’m involved in the political side … and working with the Rhode Island political leaders to develop legislation that relates to the real estate industry,” she said.
