Waterfront Properties

Waterfront History

Rob Thomson’s family moved to Jupiter in 1962 when it was a small town, and as he recounts, the population could fit on one sheet in a phone book. His father built the First Baptist Church on Tequesta Drive, home to a few dozen parishioners, including the Thomson family of seven. The boys fished, camped, snorkeled, dove and water skied.

In his teens, Thomson made money detailing cars, and then he opened his first car waxing shop on Cypress Drive in Tequesta. The business expanded to two stores, and in 1986, he followed in his mother’s footsteps and got his real estate license at 23.

Thomson started working with his mother, at first selling rentals in Jupiter and Tequesta, and eventually moving into waterfront properties. As more calls from their listing signs came in for him, Thomson’s mom decided to change the name of the company to “Waterfront Properties” in 1987. She led the charge until about 2010, when she handed over the reins to her youngest son and he bought out her part in the company.

“She’s brilliant,” he says. “[She said] let’s be highly focused on what we do, and when we hire people, let’s commit everything to a system, and get everybody to be extremely focused, not just be that jack of all trades. That simple yet stroke of genius was absolutely, totally born by her.”

Joan Thomson has also received global recognition as a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Luxury Real Estate network. She began her career in 1969 with Rob following in her footsteps in 1986. Waterfront Properties was founded in 1988 and has been the premier broker of luxury real estate in the area for more than 3 decades. Joan continues to provide strong leadership at Waterfront Properties and to her community thru her many public service contributions.

Unique approach to selling Real Estate

One aspect of Rob Thomson’s success is credited to a philosophy that started with his mother, but still drives the system that continues to lead Waterfront Properties toward success – each agent is a specialist. Whether their specialty is a certain geographic area, a niche property type, or a specific group of individuals, each real estate agent is dedicated expert in their particular field. Rob Thomson refers to this system as “agent specializing”, which has developed into an industry-leading standard business model. This system allows Thomson and his professionals to find clients the exact match to fit their needs – whether it is finding a buyer their dream property or finding a seller a match for a quick, easy selling process. By optimizing each agent’s strengths, Waterfront is able to offer clients the best service in all segments of the luxury property market.

Today, the long-time Jupiter resident is the managing partner of Waterfront Properties and Club Communities, a mainstay in Palm Beach County luxury real estate. The company recently opened its fourth office in Palm Beach, and in recent years, he has ventured into yacht sales and manufacturing. In 2012, he was the youngest agent to be inducted into Luxury Real Estate’s Billionaires Club.

Today, the company has more than 80 agents and brokers, buying and selling homes from $250,000 to more than $50 million. In search of a niche, Thomson brought his love for boating together with his real estate business to create the sister company Waterfront Yacht Brokerage with his boat captain, Joe Kelly, in 2015. Now, clients can sell or buy their home and boat through experts in both arenas.

Web & Technology

Waterfront Properties has come so far since it was established 30 years ago. Within those three decades, mother and son duo, Joan and Rob Thomson were able to create a South Florida real estate empire. With the help of our sophisticated web presence and effective internet marketing strategies, we have successfully brought the real estate world closer by providing a tool that connects clients from all over the world.

Most home searches are done over the internet. Rob Thomson took advantage of this fact and used it to build what is now known as one of the best real estate websites all over the globe. Once the Waterfront website was established, its success came almost overnight. With high website traffic volume clients from all over the world are able to see Palm Beach County’s most luxurious real estate all in one place.

His efforts towards improving his websites earned him multiple awards and exposure. In 2012, Waterfront Properties was granted the International Best Website Award during the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate’s 22nd Annual Fall Conference that was held in Toronto, Canada.

Another key to Rob Thomson and Waterfront Properties’ success is the vast amount of resources and proprietary technology available and used to enable each agent to provide services for clients across the globe. These resources include award-winning, innovation-based marketing technology systems and IT teams that provide top-of-the-line buyer and selling services for their (often high-profile) clients. From properties in some of the most sought-after private communities to water-front, secluded private paradises, Waterfront Properties and Rob Thomson always can find their clients a match.

It’s true that the internet, indeed, can do wonders for a business, and Rob Thomson knew that. One of his beliefs was to keep up with the latest trends. Even when online marketing was still in its early phases and people weren’t that keen on establishing an online presence, Thomson took the opportunity to grow his business and built the earliest version of his now established Waterfront websites.

David Abernathy, Waterfront’s manager, led the establishment of Waterfront’s first website that will attract visitors looking for properties. True enough, thousands of them visited the website and looked at the listings. Primarily, they focused on clients looking for properties within Florida and its neighboring cities and eventually, they were able to establish online presence worldwide. The visits eventually turned into real estate sales and overtime, the Waterfront website became a powerful tool in generating leads.

An internet-based lead generation is a powerful tool for Thomson’s agents since it leads prospective buyers to them, instead of the other way around. For Thomson, the Waterfront website was a way to save his agents from the tiring task of hunting down prospective buyers. Time saved means that his agents can focus more on marketing the seller’s properties to anyone interested in buying it.

Agents & The Company

There is a reason why Waterfront Properties and Club Communities remains on top. Rob Thomson continues to serve as the perfect model of how a real estate agent should be. His principles and ideals have widely influenced not just his agents but also the people in his surrounding communities. Through his guidance, hundreds of real estate agents have been able to achieve success at the highest level.

Realtors who transferred from the old real estate company to Waterfront Properties said that their decision to switch was easy. Waterfront offered great deals and the work environment was lax and non-competitive. Everyone was easy-going, supportive, and Rob Thomson made it easier for all of them. Once you get into Waterfront Properties, Rob Thomson will set you up and groom you for success.

Agents working in Waterfront Properties have their area of specialization. When they’re assigned to a specific community, they study every detail of it like the boat docking space, water depth, and other vital information about the area. By placing agents in charge of different communities, competition is eliminated and the brokers will get their equal share of leads.

The support in Waterfront Properties is also one of a kind. It’s something that an agent immediately notices once they start working at the company. The agents are united and are willing to get out of their way to help each other out.

Closing out 2018, Waterfront Properties Owner Rob Thomson had the best 12 months of sales in his 30-year career. As of this writing, he’s sold, or currently has pending, almost $200 million in Jupiter/Tequesta/North County real estate. This places him at over $2 billion in lifetime sales. The youngest agent inducted into Luxury Real Estate’s Billionaires Club, no single agent has reached one billion dollars in sales faster. Rob hit that mark almost a decade ago.

Now with five offices from Delray to Stuart—including Waterfront’s Palm Beach office at 333 Peruvian Avenue—Rob spoke enthusiastically about his company’s continual evolution. “Early on we invested heavily in the Internet. Back then, most brokerages operated exclusively under the old idea that sales came down to who you know. Some still think that way.” With nine out of every ten real estate sales today beginning as an Internet search, it’s impossible to know enough people. Many brokerages have come around to the reality of Internet marketing’s outsized role in selling real estate; they are playing catch up with Thomson and Waterfront’s moving target.

“Complacency is not in our company DNA,” Rob said. “We’ve invested more heavily in training and technology over the last three years than ever before. With our properties featured on 6,000 local, national global property exposure websites, that’s now paying big dividends for every agent in our firm.”

Longtime client George McMahon said, “Rob and his team are a very knowledgeable, professional group. Working with them is easy and efficient. I have nothing but good things to say.”

“It’s supposed to feel easy for our sellers and buyers,” Rob explained. “We have a team of people that works phenomenally hard behind the scenes to get our sellers’ homes sold. Our agents are incredibly entrepreneurial professionals.” Speaking of the company Rob said, “This has always been about ‘us.’ I love it when agents say they feel like family. I’m working to see just how far the Waterfront family can go, together.”

As a result of the success that Waterfront Properties has boasted over the years, the awards and recognition keep piling in for Thomson and his teams. In 2012, Rob Thomson became the youngest member welcomed into the Luxury Real Estate’s Billionaire’s Club. Thomson currently ranks #1 in Total Real Estate Sales in Palm Beach and Martin Counties and #26 in Total Sales in the Unites States, according to the Wall Street Journal.

With his vast and profound background in real estate, Rob Thomson knows the ins and outs of the real estate industry like the back of his hand. The majority of Rob’s luxury clients keep coming back when it’s time to buy or sell a property again. To them, there is no comparison to the expertise of Rob Thomson when it comes to real estate.

With over three decades of experience and 1 billion dollars in sales within the industry, it’s no wonder why Rob Thomson is ranked as one of the top-performing real estate brokers in the country. Through aggressive growth, Waterfront Properties and Club Communities have dominated the real estate sales from Treasure Cove to Palm Beach. With the help of his state-of-the-art internet marketing strategies and wide global presence, Rob Thomson created a firm that delivers results surpassing the expectations of his clients.