Frank Nolan, Vanguard

The Impact of Connectivity and Collaboration

Frank Nolan

President Vanguard Properties, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® San Francisco, California www.vanguardproperties.com

Region served: San Francisco Bay Area Years in real estate: 21 Number of offices: 16 Number of agents: 500 Who has most influenced your success? That would be my business partner, James Nunemacher. I’ve learned a lot of what I know about business through him. I’ve enjoyed having his influence in my life, both professionally and personally.

In today’s ever-evolving real estate landscape, how does your company stay flexible and relevant? It’s important to be both of those things, otherwise you’re probably going to sink. In order to stay relevant, you have to be flexible and nimble. You have to stick to your core values, your culture and what your brand wants to be to remain relevant. Keeping culture going is also very important—and along with culture comes values.

How are you preparing your agents for the future of real estate? The definition of Vanguard is being on the forefront. We do our best to filter out the new resources, namely technology, that are constantly being thrown at all of us at any given time to make sure our agents stay efficient and relevant. We also have several training sessions every single week for all levels of agents. It’s important to educate in this world because it’s ever changing.

Describe your commitment to collaboration and how this helps you nurture relationships. In order to be an effective collaborator and leader, you have to listen. Collaboration suggests just that—both parties working together, and you can’t work together unless you’re a good listener. You have to have an open mind in order to understand other perspectives. Talk less, listen more and wait before you respond. If you do that well, it will help you collaborate with your team and your clients. The other side of a healthy collaboration is giving—offering opinions, sharing your ideas, spending time, analyzing and being your true self.

Where do you find inspiration for new business strategies? I like to look at what other independents are doing, like smaller companies that may be emerging and growing. Sometimes they’re younger companies, and sometimes they’re companies that have been around just as long as us. I think it’s important to look at your healthy competitors.

“Being able to work and connect with so many other like-minded brokerages around the world is a big impact.”

-FRANK NOLAN President, Vanguard Properties

What are the biggest benefits of being a member of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) network? The leadership and agent trainings we’ve had from LeadingRE have been spectacular. The connectivity with our fellow members throughout the country and the world is above and beyond what we expected. Being able to work and connect with so many other like-minded brokerages is a big impact compared to what we were previously working with.

How has LeadingRE supported you and your business in connecting with luxury buyers and sellers? We’ve had more referrals come into the company than we’ve ever had in our 35 years of business. That’s what it all comes down to, and it’s what has been supporting the business. Being able to say that we are part of the LeadingRE network is an added layer of impact for our buyers and sellers. It’s a strong talking point that has made our process of capturing both buyers and sellers a whole lot easier. RE

For more information, please visit www.leadingre.com.