Who knew that pitching the benefits of leg lifts, pumping iron and swimming laps would eventually lead to a career helping others score their dream home?
Arizona native Ryan Dowell grew up playing sports until a busted knee ended his bid to play at the college level. That’s about the time he began working at Lifetime Fitness in Tempe. At 19, he was promoted from greeting guests at the front door of the expansive facility to selling memberships.
“Jasson was there and kind of took me under his wing,” Dowell said of his buddy and business partner Jasson Dellacroce. The two met 15 years ago at the upscale gym and last month, celebrated the grand opening of The Synergy Team’s Real Estate and More at Warner and McClintock.
“I helped mentor him at Lifetime and then we got into real estate about five years ago,” Dellacroce said. The jump from selling gym memberships to selling homes is not such a stretch after all, the two said. It’s about relationships. And trust.
“It’s about making those connections with people,” Dellacroce said. He had to build new connections after moving here from his home state of Alaska in 2002. “It rains 300 days out of the year—the polar opposite of here,” Dellacroce of his former digs. “One summer it rained 66 days in a row.”
Both Dellacroce and Dowell branched into real estate after years in the fitness industry. Dowell made the move first and Jasson eventually followed.
“The guys I was working with, we all had different visions about real estate and that’s when I called Jasson up,” Dowell said. Over coffee, they discovered they had the same notion of a new concept.
“We want to bring it back to people,” Dowell said. “In real estate they say, ‘Location, location, location.’ We preach, ‘Relationship, relationship, relationship.’ And that’s where it started.”
“It really is all about the relationships,” Dellacroce agreed. “This office helps us gain and build those relationships.”
This is no maze of airless cubicles either. The Synergy Team’s office in the McClintock Fountains plaza is an open space where 15 partners come and go throughout the day. From an interior designer, a carpet and flooring specialist and People’s Mortgage, Synergy Team aims to be a community hub. They’ve also become an authorized dealer for cabinetry.
“We see ourselves as facilitators. It’s not just about selling the home,” Dellacroce said. Clients may not be ready for a new house—but they may be in the market for refinancing, a remodel or interior design. Synergy is also aiming to build a reliable network of other partners specializing in areas like pool maintenance or plumbing, each vetted by Dellacroce and Dowell.
Dowell and Dellacroce seem to have hit their stride in the real estate business but they still have a hand in helping others achieve fitness. Uniquely, Synergy offers those who buy or sell a home through its offices a $500 gift card for Lifetime Fitness. A banner advertising Synergy is on prominent display at the club. Both men still work out at the expansive gym on Ruby Drive in Tempe, just a hop, skip and a jump from Synergy Team headquarters.
‘We want people to know the Synergy Team is in the area and to be that hub in the community,” Dellacroce said.
