By Mike Odom Navarre Press

During a year when the residential market was cooling, one local Realtor was red-hot.
Amin Delawalla closed 18 house or condominium sales in the first seven months of 2006.
As a transaction broker, he handled both sides of the transaction in four of those sales, bringing the total sales price on which he earned a commission to $6,090,500. 
“It was a natural fit from the beginning,” said Bob Evans, owner of Florida Coast Realty, Inc., where Delawalla works. “He has excellent customer-service skills. Amin has proven that there are sales to be made.” 
Delawalla, 42, bought a condominium on Navarre Beach a few years ago and started thinking about moving to the area. 
“You hear people say that all the time,” Evans said. “But Amin did it. He has done more in the past 15 months than anyone I’ve ever worked with.” 
Born in Pakistan in 1964, Delawalla moved to Atlanta with his parents in 1983. He worked in the restaurant business there 22 years before moving to Navarre in 2005. 
When he moved, he was director of operations, managing and supervising all six locations of an upscale steak restaurant. 
He visited Destin the past few years but found Navarre’s lesscrowded environment with potential for growth the place where he wanted to settle and start a new career in real estate. 
“I’m going to take the plunge,” he said that he told himself one day in Atlanta,thinking of Navarre’s beaches and gulf breezes. He got his Florida real estate license in March 2005 and never looked back. 
“I don’t think you can put your finger on one thing,” Delawalla said about his success thus far.“But coming from a career where every single meal can make you or break you, and have 800 people happy with their service or not,” has been a big help, he said. 
He made his first sale when he was at the office on a Sunday,when many real estate offices are closed. 
“I flipped the ‘open’ sign over,” he said.A walk-in customer came in,leading to a few weeks of showing them houses, analyzing the market – and writing that first offer. “It was very exciting,” he said. 
On a recent Sunday, Delawalla was back in the office on a weekend working at the new office on Navarre Beach. He sat down with two walk-ins, who said over their shoulders that they would be back in touch.  “I’ll send you that market analysis tonight,” Delawalla promised them. 
As that couple was leaving, a married couple and their children came in. Delawalla had helped them find two investment properties during the past year. Both properties rented quickly,and they were eager to talk about their experience. 
“From the very start,he was very professional,” Ruthy Srun said. “He was very patient and explained everything. He was at every meeting and inspection.” 
Ruthy’s husband, PK, said that Delawalla kept in touch with them after they bought their first investment house – and they decided to buy one more investment house. Delawalla worked with them,sending them listings and ideas,he said. Then they sat down together to talk about the place they were interested in. 
“All three of us agreed that was the best one for us,” PK Srun said. All smiles about their experiences with their Realtor, he and his wife are clearly two happy clients. 
“PK’s a good negotiator,” Delawalla couldn’t help adding as they sat in the new office overlooking Santa Rosa Sound to the north and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. 
Evans said that one of the secrets to Delawalla’s success is his knowledge of the local real estate market – and how hard he works to stay educated about what local houses and properties are selling for. 
“He knows what the real values and prices are in the area,” Evans said. 
Evans said that some sellers continue to think in terms of prices before the market started cooling. 
“He can bring them back to reality,” he said. “By being able to do that with both sides, he’s better able to bring both sides together. Yes,it’s a buyer’s market,but Amin has shown that’s not a bad thing.” 
Amin’s enthusiasm for his new career is hard to deny. He talks passionately about how the real estate markets affects every aspect of the local economy. He also has an upbeat and positive attitude. 
“I see this as an outstanding time to buy a house,”he said. “We have a lot of inventory. There are just some phenomenal deals.” 
Delawalla serves on the Navarre Beach Beautification Committee and also is a member in the first year’s class of the Navarre Area Board of Realtors’ leadership program. 
Delawalla is hesitant to say what it takes to succeed in the real estate business because he still is new at it, saying he has much to learn. 
But one thing he is not shy about admitting is that hard work pays off – and working hard for each client is a big part of the job. 
“Every time the sale was done, he always sent us a big basket of chocolate, which the kids loved,“ Ruthy Srun said. “That was a nice touch.”