Ted Silva
Title: President and Founder, QuickSilva Title
Age: 42
Experience: 17 years
Two of Ted Silva’s three brothers (Mark and Pete) work for him; the third brother works in real estate in Michigan. All four Silvas were born in April, are real estate attorneys, own property together, speak English, Spanish and Portuguese, dock their boats together, and their primary and vacation homes are in very close proximity. The sons of Portuguese immigrants to whom they credit their success, they were brought up believing family is the most important thing, and working hard is a very close second.
Q: How did you choose real estate law as a career path?
A: Our parents, Fernando and Maria Silva, immigrated to America from Portugal in 1968. The only English word my father knew was “job.” He walked into the factories in Cambridge – now they’re all condos – he went to the door with that one word. He got a job in the first couple of days. In Portugal, he had been a notary public. He met another guy in the factory and they started selling real estate part-time at night and on weekends. He still didn’t speak English, he just asked people for help and they helped him translate. After a couple of years, he came across Joe and Marilyn Benoit of Century 21 Benoit. They met my dad at a showing and Marilyn saw something in my father and offered him a job.
The only condition was he had to do it full-time. My mom tells us that my dad stayed up many nights tossing and turning, fearful about making the leap. Working at the factory, he had a guaranteed check every Friday and he had a wife and four boys at home, he was an immigrant, had limited English, no education and no support. Selling real estate is strictly commission. Our mom is the backbone of our family. She encouraged all of us and she encouraged my father. She said, “You can do it.”
In the blizzard of ’78 our dad started selling real estate full time and that first year, he was the number one salesperson throughout New England. He was number one every year after that until he retired in 2001. He was also the first inductee from New England into Century 21’s Hall of Fame.
Q: So you learned about real estate at the kitchen table?
A: Definitely. I’m the oldest. Dad made us all get our license to sell real estate as soon as we turned 18. During my senior year in high school, my friends rented a van and drove to Florida for spring break, but I stayed home to study for my real estate license exam. And I passed it.
All my brothers and I have sold houses and done rentals. I did rentals in the summer through college and law school for Century 21 Adams. America, for my parents, was truly the land of opportunity and they worked hard and they taught us to work hard. They truly believe that anything is possible if you work hard. In fifth grade, my teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Other kids said they wanted to be a firefighter or policeman, but I said I want to be a real estate agent just like my dad.
Q: What did you do after law school?
A: I went to law school to practice criminal law. I did that for a summer and it just wasn’t my passion. Then I started buying real estate with my three brothers. Combining the law with the real estate just made sense. We figured since we owned real estate we could help other people as well. And that’s all we do. We help people buy, sell and refinance real estate. We don’t do anything else. My father gave us that advice: don’t be a jack of all trades. In real estate, time is of the essence. You have to be available when people need you. We started the firm and called it QuickSilva because our clients kept telling us how quick we are. We can close on a cash purchase in the same day.
Q: Your company tagline says you can close anywhere, any time. Could you close a deal on the International Space Station?
A: That hasn’t come up yet, but we’d find a way. We have a generator in our building, so we never close, even if we lose power. We never shut down. Never. We close in countries all over the world. The buyer has to go to the local embassy or consulate where there is a notary public. They sign and overnight us the documents. Some people want to close at our office, but more often we close at people’s houses. They love that they don’t have to take a day off from work.
Most of our work is in Massachusetts, but we’re also licensed nationally. A lot of banks we work with locally have people in other states as well. I had a loan officer whose brother bought a home in Weston, Florida. I flew down there, put it on record, got back on the plane and was back in Boston that night.
One of our lawyers had to meet someone on a refinance and the guy signed his papers in the dentist’s chair. I closed one at 4 a.m. in Hyde Park because the couple was worked different shifts and the only time they were going to be together in the house to sign the documents was 4 a.m. So we signed everything at their kitchen table. Once, my brother drove down to Rhode Island in a blizzard in our old, beat-up snow plow to do a closing. He had to plow the borrower’s driveway to get to the front door and do the closing, but he did it.
Silva’s Five Favorite Day Trips:
- In Boston: Walking the Boston Public Market, brunch at Gaslight and walking through the markets at SOWA.
- On the Cape: Walking Cahoon Hollow Beach in Wellfleet and ice cream at Sundae School in Dennis.
- On the South Shore: Fried clams at J.T. Farnham in Essex and walking the rocks on the jetty at Bearskin Neck in Rockport
- In Worcester: Browsing the Crompton Collective followed by the Armsby Abbey for lunch.
- In Northampton: Strolling downtown and watching a concert at Tanglewood in the Berkshires.
