Newport real estate team names top agent

Paul Benec won the title of Top Agent this month for the McMonigle Group in Newport Beach — and as rides to the top go, it was a dizzying one.

Benec, a Laguna Niguel resident, entered the real estate world last year after being laid off from his job as leadership coach for a mortgage company. A little more than a year into his new career, he learned the McMonigle Group, which the Wall Street Journal recently ranked as the nation’s best-selling residential real estate team, was holding a competition for a spot on its roster.

Benec had barely a year of experience selling homes with Coldwell Banker Previews International, McMonigle’s parent company, but he applied for the Top Agent race regardless. Two interviews and four grueling weeks of training later, the Pennsylvania native emerged as the newest member of McMonigle’s team.

“I thought I had a great chance,” Benec, 40, said Thursday midway through his first day at the office. “My whole career led up to this.”

It took that kind of confidence to get through McMonigle’s first-ever Top Agent competition, in which the firm’s leaders selected five finalists out of more than 100 applicants and tested them intensely throughout a month. Benec and the other finalists gave home tours to real customers, joined in simulated exercises at the McMonigle office, submitted book reports and raced to educate themselves on local residential neighborhoods.

Benec worked seven days a week throughout the training, often setting his alarm for 5 a.m. so he could catch up with the reading material.

“It was definitely boot camp,” he said.

Throughout the competition, the McMonigle judging team — principal John McMonigle, publicist Carrie Williams, client services director Kate Savitch, trainer Bob Braun and other members of the firm — kept point scores on each candidate’s progress before McMonigle reviewed their findings and selected the winner. Benec learned about his victory Nov. 12 when the judges called the contestants back to the office.

Williams said Benec stood out from the crowd because of his charisma, his ability to field tough questions and his preparation.

Before his first interview, he had thoroughly researched McMonigle’s properties online, which many others had not.

“We went through each candidate and they were all very strong,” Williams said. “We came to Paul and I asked Bob, ‘Are there any areas of improvement?’ And Bob said, ‘I can’t think of one.’”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].