Real Estate Magazine - NextHome - Sept. 2019

The Leader in Real Estate Information

www.rismedia.com

– Page 80

HUMANIZING REAL ESTATE How NextHome Bridges Technology and People

SAME GREAT SERVICE. EVEN MORE VALUE.

We’ve already demonstrated how important providing first-rate service is to us. Now, we’re moving the industry forward by offering innovative new services that can bring even more value to you and your clients.

SPRING/FALL

HVAC TUNE-UPS

Rekey Service

HelloTech TV Installation*

Pre-season HVAC Tune-ups

Electronics Plan**

by Asurion®

CONTACT YOUR HSA ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE TO FIND OUT MORE. SM

Limitations and exclusions apply. See contract for details.

Additional services are not included in the seller coverage. For buyer use only. *Only for TVs 60 inches or smaller, to be mounted onto drywall backed by wooden studs. Mounting brackets not included. Additional charges for different surfaces, metal studs, and TVs larger than 60 inches. Not available in all states. **Subject to a $2,000 per Electronics Plan claim limit and a $5,000 aggregate Electronics Plan claim limit. Not available in New York. © 2019 Home Security of America, Inc. All rights reserved.

This is home.

It’s a place called amazement.

Home is a word that signifies so much. You understand what it means for each of your clients, and they rely on you to lead them on their journey there. Our goal is to help your clients truly understand their home, so they can feel good, feel right, and know the miraculous feeling of home.

pillartopost.com Each office independently owned and operated.

{Contents} September 2019/Vol. 35, No. 9 • www.rismedia.com

ON THE COVER 80 Humanizing Real Estate How NextHome Bridges Technology and People In one short year, the NextHome franchise has made a series of impressive accomplishments, from being named the No. 4 franchise in the country by Franchise Business Review to being on track to close more than 20,000 transactions and $5 $6 billion in sales volume in 2019. But for NextHome, it’s not about accolades and achievements. “For us, it’s about creating a professional, collaborative, communitybased organization that truly cares about people,” says CEO James Dwiggins. In this month’s cover story, Dwiggins shares the firm’s unique approach to culture, and explains why NextHome is perfectly poised to withstand the disruptive forces currently shaking the real estate landscape.

HIGHLIGHTS 26

26 Changing the Way Money Moves in Real Estate—and Beyond

This month, take a closer look at how Earnnest is creating a new standard for secure money movement.

30 Productive Agents + Best-in-Class Tech

RE/MAX launches into a new era of everevolving advantages with the rollout of its booj-built technology.

40 Making Innovation Easy Zillow’s 3D home technology is changing the game for real estate pros and their clients.

98 Amazon HQ2 Reshapes Local Markets Before It’s Even Been Built

40

In this exclusive feature, discover how Amazon HQ2 is set to alter the real estate landscape.

HEADLINERS 13 Policy Matters: What’s an Automated Valuation Model, and Why Does It Matter?

14 NAR Power Broker Roundtable: Internal Marketing and Communication: Keeping Up in the Digital Age

20 Executive Appointments 25 REBAC Report: Mastering the Buyer Representation Agreement

45 Real Estate Webmasters to Launch New Branding Agency RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 3

54

56

56 Sprint Offers Solutions for Real Estate Agents, Delivers Savings on Mobile Technology

58 Fewer Foreclosures Nationwide, but Local Market Outliers Surface

72 Blog Spot: 4 Areas of Your Home That Likely Need a Touch-Up

103 Meet the Newsmakers: Anthony Colantuono

110 Webinar Recap: How to Run Your Business Like a MillionDollar Agent

FEATURES 28 Global Spotlight: Living the Lavish Life in Portugal

43 Social Skills: Giving the People What They Want, When and Where They Want It

48 Strategies: ActivePipe; CSRE; Homes.com; HSA Home Warranty; MoxiWorks; Quicken Loans; Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®); Rental Beast

60 The Real Estate Office of the Future

65 Power Broker Perspectives: Rod Messick, Bo Menkiti, Wendi Harrelson

71 ERA’s Culture of Collaboration Fuels the Next Generation of Agents

80 Humanizing Real Estate 104 RISMedia’s Great Spaces

112 Ask the Experts: Combatting Heat Damage, Leadership’s Role in Recruiting and Motivating Agents

Inspections Play a Pivotal Role in New Construction

109 Jason Cheverton – The Potential That Technology Partnerships Hold for REALTORS®

INTERVIEWS 94 Caron Pelletier-Renik, CENTURY

111 Terri Murphy – Do You Really Want More Sales?

21 North East

95 Chris Kelly, Ebby Halliday Companies

96 Rosemary Allison, Coldwell

POWER TEAMS 85 Verl Workman – Be Your Own Best Client

Banker

EXPERTS 36 Darryl Davis – Communication Skills and Commissions

86 Jim Knowlton – Keep More of What You Make

87 Cleve Gaddis – Rinse and Repeat 88 Paul Wheeler – Elevate Your Wealth

38 Desirée Patno – Rent Out of Reach for Many Low- and MiddleIncome Workers

92 Driven to Give: For Ohio Real Estate Team, Charity Equals Success

47 Amy Gorce – Broker Data Management at Your Fingertips

102 Sherri Johnson – Increase Lead Gen With These Easy Social Media Marketing Tips

54 Brian Buffini – 4 Ways to Stand Out From the Competition

69 Realty ONE Group – 5 Reasons You Should Follow Up Every Call With an Email

70 Lauren Maloney – The 4 Best Types of Digital Advertising and When to Use Them

75 Yazir Phelps – How to Attract Young Real Estate Agents to Your Brokerage

76 Allan Dalton – Don’t Retire…

Reconsider

79 Matt Thomas – Agent Success Story: Getting a Bigger Bang for Your Buck With Homesnap

4 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

101 Adam Long – Home

EVERY ISSUE 6

RISMedia Online

9

Publisher’s Desk

16 Real Estate by the Numbers 18 Trending in Real Estate 115 Service Profiles 123 Referrals 128 RE: Real Estate—Helping REALTORS® Maximize Safety, Minimize Risk

X Real Estate

Exchange presented by

Vision 2020:

Building a Future-Focused Real Estate Business

SAVE THE DATE RISMedia’s 2019 Real Estate CEO Exchange September 18 & 19 The Marriott Marquis | New York, N.Y. Contact Cindi Gallucci for more information: cgallucci@rismedia.com Photos by AJ Canaria of PlanOmatic

{Online} Trending on

HAPPENING NOW

View these and more at blog.rismedia.com!

How to Get the Best Price When Selling Your Home

Happy Home Gardener: 5 Tips to Care for Houseplants Having houseplants can be beneficial, but it does require work on your end.

Unlike your lawn where you need to use special equipment to maintain it, houseplants don’t require fancy tools.

But, your plants will still need regular care if they’re going to grow strong.

If you’re selling your home, you’re likely trying to make as much of a profit as possible. Unfortunately, most markets are crowded and it can be difficult to stand out. If you want to get a good price, you should consider following these steps.

Planning to DIY Your Kitchen Floor? Here’s What You Need

Vision 2020: Building a Future-Focused Real Estate Business New York City Sept. 18-19

Redoing your kitchen floor on your own is an ambitious undertaking that can be accomplished with the right supplies, tools and know-how. Whether you want to redo your floor by yourself to save money or simply for a sense of accomplishment, there are several ways to get the job done.

5 Ways You Can Use Your Smartphone to Gain an Edge and Become a Better Agent Hardwood vs. Vinyl Flooring: Which Is Right for My Rental Property?

Replacing the flooring in a property is not only a huge investment, but also a choice that needs to have endurance under pressure. Selecting the right flooring for a rental property is much different than choosing flooring for your home.

If you’re one of the approximately two million people in the United States that holds an active real estate license, you’re probably up against some stiff competition. To stay on top of your game, utilize your smartphone and data plan to effectively reach prospective buyers and promote your listings.

Connect With RISMedia @RISMediaUpdates

@RISMedia

@HousecallBlog

Linkedin.com/company/RISMedia

@RISMedia

Youtube.com/user/RISMediaUpdates

@HousecallBlog

@RISMediaUpdates

Attending? Share using #CEOX2019 Photos by AJ Canaria of PlanOmatic

6 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

KEEP YOUR AGENTS SAFE ON THE JOB YEAR-ROUND

SHARE THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE AT:

NAR.realtor/Safety REALTOR® SAFETY MONTH SPECIAL Give your agents“The Little Red Book: Safety Rules to Live By for REALTORS ®”, a booklet of safety tips collected from REALTORS® for REALTORS®.

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SAFETY RESOURCES ARCHIVED SAFETY WEBINARS SAFETY PRESENTATION MATERIALS OFFICE FORMS VIDEOS AND MONTHLY ARTICLES FLYERS AND WEB BANNER ADS REALTOR® SAFETY NETWORK For questions about NAR’S REALTOR® SAFETY PROGRAM, contact safety@realtors.org

ORDER YOURS AT STORE.REALTOR/LRB WITH CODE LRBRIS

{Publisher’s Desk} Moving the Ball Forward

A

1

s I write this, Keller Williams has just announced their partnership with Offerpad, advancing the brand’s foray into the iBuyer arena through Keller Offers. Just another day in the residential real estate industry, where the playbook seems to change by the hour, and competing is a constant challenge.

To meet that challenge head-on, RE/MAX has brought in the heavy artillery. In this month’s cover story, RE/MAX unveils the engine behind its long-awaited booj platform, an in-house, end-to-end technology solution designed to power RE/MAX brokers and agents with a suite of products that will help them develop and take relationships to the next level.

CEO Adam Contos describes it as a “milestone moment” in the history of the network. “This is a huge step forward into a new era of RE/MAX technology,” he said from the stage at the brand’s Broker Owner Conference in August. “We’re arming super-productive agents with top-shelf, best-in-class technology—it’s a combination unmatched in the industry.” Find out more about just what the booj platform will bring to RE/MAX real estate professionals beginning on page 30.

Adam will also be joining us at RISMedia’s Real Estate CEO Exchange taking place in New York City later this month, where we’ll have the chance to hear how the country’s leading brokerage operators are moving the ball forward at their respective firms. We’ll delve into a variety of issues that are changing the real estate landscape, including iBuyers, new business models, a shifting salesforce and blockchain technology. We hope to see you there, and be sure to follow #CEOX2019 on social media so you don’t miss any highlights.

And mark your calendars for Friday, Nov. 8, where the conversation will continue at RISMedia’s Annual Power Broker Forum at the REALTORS® Conference & Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. We look forward to having you join the discussion and collectively help us continue to stay ahead of change for the betterment of our industry and the consumers we serve.

Wishing you continued success,

John E. Featherston CEO & Publisher

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4 5 6

Automate Your Social Media RISMedia’s ACESocial (Automated Content Engagement) branded content helps you resonate on social media, automatically delivering your expertise to your followers, every day and with every post.

• Consumer-focused real estate and lifestyle posts, including articles, infographics and professionally produced videos • Automated distribution to your social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) and website • Your branding (logo, headshot, URL, and more) on all content landing pages • MLS listings on your landing page, complete with lead generation form

Content distributed through ACESocial includes: 1

Agent/Broker Name

2

Headshot

3

Brokerage Logo

4

Contact Information

5

Website URL

6

Property Listings

For more information, visit rismedia.com/acesocial or contact ace@rismedia.com or (203) 855-1234 ext. 1.

WE DO I T ALL

IN REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL. LUXURY. COMMERCIAL. And we are doing it – WORLDWIDE. We are RE/MAX®.

©2019 RE/MAX, LLC. Each Office Independently Owned and Operated. 19_301755

CEO & Publisher John E. Featherston Executive Vice President Darryl D. MacPherson

EDITORIAL Executive Editor Maria Patterson Online Managing Editor Beth McGuire Managing Editor Paige Tepping Online News Editor Suzanne De Vita Senior Content Editor Zoe Eisenberg Associate Content Editor Liz Dominguez Blog/Social Media Editor Jameson Doris Associate Editor Joe Bebon Contributing Editors Lesley Grand; John Voket; Barbara Pronin; Keith Loria; Andrew King; Deborah Kearns

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Chief Information Officer Edward T. Kingston Web Designer Kevin Kirwan Web Developer Silpa Raghavarapu Web Developer Hema Yemmireddy Director, Client Solutions Peter Di Salvo Information Technology Manager James Jones Research Analyst Jaxson Corsi

DESIGN Creative Director Kelli McKenna Production Manager Susanne Dwyer Senior Designer Christy LaSalle Junior Designer Janet Yung-Balbin Design Interns Tyreak Edwards; Liz Ruggiero

COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC RELATIONS Communications Director Mike Dominguez

CLIENT SERVICES & EVENTS MANAGEMENT Client Services & Events Management Director Cindi Gallucci

SALES Senior Vice President Anne Kraft Senior Vice President Kara T. Stripay Senior Vice President Ralph Gutierrez Senior Director, Business Development Andrew W. MacPherson; Directors, Business Development Brett Johnson; Jack Quinn; Ryan M. Rindom; Scott M. Craigue; Colleen Featherston

HEADQUARTERS 69 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06851 RISMedia: (203) 855-1234 • FAX (203) 852-7208 Top 5 in Real Estate Network®: (203) 853-2167 • FAX (203) 852-7208 www.rismedia.com • www.rismedia.com/acesocial www.top5inrealestate.com

PUBLICATIONS & SERVICES Real Estate magazine Annual Power Broker Report & Survey ACESocial (Automated Content Engagement) www.rismedia.com (Daily e-News) • blog.rismedia.com (Housecall) RISMedia’s Real Estate CEO Exchange Power Broker Forum, Reception & Dinner Real Estate Newsmakers Reception & Dinner Copyright® 2019 by The Relocation Information Service, Incorporated-RISMedia, Norwalk, Connecticut. All rights reserved. Editorial and executive offices at 69 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06851. Telephone: (203) 855-1234. Magazine subscription rate $83.40 per year, including postage ($166.80 for two years); Canadian subscription rate $200.00 (U.S.) per year, including shipping and handling ($400.00 for two years).

All subscription and advertising correspondence call 1-800-724-6000. Material in this publication may not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission. Requests for permission should be directed to Managing Editor, RISMedia, Inc., 69 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06851. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of specific authors and columnists and are not intended to or do not necessarily represent the opinion or views of the publisher, his staff, other authors, advertisers, or subscribers.

{Policy Matters}

What’s an Automated Valuation Model, and Why Does It Matter?

This column is brought to you by the NAR Real Estate Services group.

by Sehar Siddiqi

N

ew technologies are changing the homesale and -purchase processes, including in real property valuation practices. Many appraisals are being aided by the use of automated valuation models, or AVMs, which help assess the market value of a specific property.

AVMs are what provide today’s online real estate portals the ability to provide estimates of home values instantly, and allow some companies to provide instant offers to consumers selling their homes.

AVMs have been around since the 1980s, and in the 1990s became important tools for financial institutions in their evaluation of collateralized mortgage risk. At its base, an AVM is a data-based valuation that utilizes property, market and other relevant information to calculate an estimated value for a subject property through a computer program. The development of AVMs is proprietary; this means that companies do not share exactly what data they use or how much they weigh one dataset over another. AVMs can be “tuned” to the requirements of the end user for which they are

intended, which includes lenders, mortgage investors, servicers and consumers. This is why you will find a variety of AVM products online, with many different values for the same property.

AVMs take information about a particular house from public property records, including tax assessments and deeds. In some cases, AVMs purchase information from Multiple Listing Services (MLSs).

MLS data can provide an AVM with accurate comparable properties, detailed sales terms and information acquired from a prior physical inspection. Depending on the AVM developer, they might have access to prior appraisals on the subject property, which can also be included in that property’s current value assessment.

Lenders may use AVMs for internal quality control purposes when reviewing appraisals, and may use an AVM in place of an appraisal when evaluating a home equity loan or a home loan refinancing—situations where an appraisal is not federally required. A REALTOR®can use an AVM to obtain information on neighborhood home prices when developing a comparable market analysis. Well-developed AVMs can be useful for quickly providing a general idea of a home’s value. One such AVM tool is the Realtors Valuation Model®, or RVM®, an AVM produced

by Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). The RVM incorporates MLS data licensed specifically for this purpose, and is provided at no charge to REALTORS® on the RPR website and mobile apps.

In some cases, an AVM-based valuation process is used in lieu of obtaining a traditional appraisal for a home purchase. Both of the government-sponsored entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have introduced programs that allow a lender

$899,99

9

to use Fannie or Freddie’s proprietary methods to determine the value of a house without the need for an official appraisal. Some lenders are using what are known as hybrid, bifurcated or desktop appraisals in which an appraiser provides the analytical component of the appraisal, but the property information gathering is done with the aid of a third-party inspector. These types of valuations make use of AVMs to support the appraiser’s final opinion of value.

NAR supports and encourages credible, independent valuations of real property under the NAR Responsible Valuation Policy. Recently, NAR convened industry leaders to discuss the best practices and optimal use of AVMs that enable responsible real estate valuation.

NAR will continue to assess the use of AVM growth and development for use by REALTORS® and the impact to the appraisal industry.

For more information about the RVM or RPR, please visit www.narrpr.com. For more information about NAR’s valuation resources, visit nar.realtor/appraisalvaluation. RE

Sehar Siddiqi is NAR’s Federal Policy Representative.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 13

{The NAR Power Broker Roundtable} Internal Marketing and Communication: Keeping Up in the Digital Age MODERATOR:

Jim Imhoff Chairman, First Weber, Madison, Wis., Liaison for Large Firms & Industry Relations, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) PARTICIPANTS:

Joan Docktor President, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS®, Philadelphia

Chris Trapani Founder/CEO, Sereno Group Real Estate, Los Gatos, Calif.

Jim D’Amico President/CEO, CENTURY 21 North East, Boston The Power Broker Roundtable is brought to you by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and Jim Imhoff, NAR’s Liaison for Large Firms & Industry Relations. Watch for this column each month, where we address broker issues, concerns and milestones.

Jim Imhoff: In today’s work environment, with more agents working remotely, sharing news and views via sales meetings and print pieces may be going the way of the Rubik’s cube. Yet, there’s much to be said for cohesive messaging and company culture. How do savvy leaders in the digital age keep everyone on the same (virtual) page? Joan, how do you get your people to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves?

Joan Docktor: For one thing, we try to keep it personal. Every new agent gets a welcome email from everyone on the executive team—and a note whenever they have something to celebrate. This kind of personal touch helps make a big company 14 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

seem smaller. On a larger scale, we like to do video emails to share the scoop on company news and updates—and, of course, Facebook and Instagram. Every office has its own Facebook page, and YouTube is great for sharing.

Chris Trapani: We are pretty selective about group emails. We work very hard to maintain a culture of intention, curiosity and trust. When we show up in their mailbox, our agents know we have meaningful content to share—intentional content. And they are curious. They want to know what we think. Then there’s trust. They trust that we have their long-term interest at heart—that the content we choose to share electronically will help enrich their lives or careers.

Jim D’Amico: Much of our electronic messaging is technically focused— new tools, social media training, etc.

Video conferencing works well, especially for agents who tend to work remotely, and we produce our own training and YouTube videos.

JD: A short, three- or four-minute clip is especially effective for training. You can even embed a link if you need to.

JI: So what goes on at local or regional meetings—or do we still hold them?

JD’A: We don’t do big sales meetings as frequently as we once did—and the content has changed as well. We do smaller lunch-and-learn events, where agents can ask questions face-to-face with panels of top producers—or networking groups or specialized training sessions where agents can learn by doing. We have an event-planning group charged with putting together meetings with content that resonates.

CT: Our meeting patterns have

changed, but we do still have them, both locally and regionally. They’re

meetings with intention, for sharing the kind of valuable content that helps agents grow their business— iBuyer trends, macroeconomics... good, close looks at the pulse of the market.

JI: What about big annual company conventions? Is there still a place for them?

JD: We think so, yes. Like our annual Community Service Day, the annual convention is an opportunity to build brand and team spirit, and to recognize and honor what we do.

JD’A: We still hold an awards

ceremony in the spring, and host a holiday party at the end of the year that brings together about half of our 800 agents.

CT: We host a mid-year, company-

wide meeting, but the awards we give are not production-based. We honor the most inspirational of our agents.

We bring in speakers like economists and social media experts, or wealth managers who can help our people advance their financial positions.

JI: So, it seems there’s still a place for the traditional, even in the digital age we live in.

JD’A: What’s important is keeping

our people onboard and connected in as many ways as possible. As Joan said, a personal email from the boss can go a long way with an agent.

JD: And with a customer. Our sellers get a thank-you from management when they list, and another after the sale to thank them for choosing us.

JI: I think what we’re saying here is, messaging with accessibility. That seems to be the goal, no matter how we choose to go about it. RE For an expanded version of this article and other NAR Power Broker Roundtable topics, please visit www.rismedia.com.

A Local Expert

Jim nailed it! He found us the perfect home in a great school district and backed it up with helpful information! Perfection!!

– Laura C.

Jim Walberg, REALTOR

®

Jim nailed it with local data from RPR

© 2019 Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Realtors Property Resource, LLC® is a member benefit of the National Association of REALTORS®.

Real Estate by the Numbers

$279,600

The median national home price as of last month—a 4.3 percent gain year-over-year. According to the National Association of REALTORS® quarterly report, 91 percent of the largest U.S. markets reported increases due to an absence of inventory in most-needed price ranges.

31%

The percentage of respondents who picked real estate as their favorite long-term investment, putting it back at the top of Bankrate’s annual list of places to invest money they wouldn’t need for 10 years or more. In 2018, real estate was unseated by stocks.

16 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

93.7

The July Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI), a gauge of Americans’ confidence in housing, which marks a new record.

The number of buyers confident in their housing prospects also rose, as well as the number of sellers.

$51,995,000

The listing price of boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard’s home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Designed by architect Richard Landry, the Italian-style villa was built by the Leonards almost 23 years ago. The seven-bedroom, 16,773-square-foot property is nestled in the prestigious Riviera section of the Los Angeles neighborhood, and is listed by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

If challenging the status quo is your status quo, you’ll fit in just fine around here.

JOIN THE RELENTLESS © 2019 Century 21 Real Estate LLC. All rights reserved. CENTURY 21®, the CENTURY 21 Logo and C21® are registered service marks owned by Century 21 Real Estate LLC. Century 21 Real Estate LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each office is independently owned and operated.

Century21.com

Trending in Real Estate

Analysts are eyeing a recession in 2020, but expelling fears of a Great Recession— and, another crisis in the housing market, according to findings from Zillow last month.

When asked to pinpoint the recession’s timing, experts favored Q3 2020, according to the survey, conducted in conjunction with Pulsenomics. More than 100 economists and experts participated in the survey.

Towns in the Midwest rank high in realtor.com®’s 2019 Hottest Zip Codes list: 1. Grand Rapids, Mich. – 49505 List Price (Median): $178,050 2. Omaha, Neb. – 68144 List Price (Median): $238,950 3. Boise, Idaho – 83704 List Price (Median): $289,950 4. Shawnee, Kan. – 66203 (Kansas City Metro) List Price (Median): $220,050 5. Rochester, N.Y. – 14609 List Price (Median): $125,050 6. Livonia, Mich. – 48154 (Detroit Metro) List Price (Median): $254,950 7. Melrose, Mass. – 02176 (Boston Metro) List Price (Median): $629,050 8. Arlington, Texas – 76108 List Price (Median): $215,050 9. Goffstown, N.H. – 03045 (Manchester) List Price (Median): $325,050 10. Colorado Springs, Colo. – 80916 List Price (Median): $245,050

Experts say zero-down programs, through which people can purchase a house without a down payment, have become more popular since the 2008 housing crisis, creating an easier path to homeownership but posing risks if the market takes an unexpected downturn. In April, zerodown payment loans accounted for 3.6 percent of loans nationally, according to data from realtor.com®, compared with 2 percent nationally in 2008 when they hit a low.

That said, they’re nowhere near as popular as they were pre-recession, when they made up 12.7 percent of loans nationally.

Source: The Orlando Sentinel

“Maximalism” is giving the minimalist trend a run for its money in the interior design world. The key to the more adventurous decor style is to utilize no more than three contrasting colors, patterns and finishes to ensure your big look doesn’t feel dated.

18 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Take the long trail home.

"Having a dedicated Quicken Loans Agent Relationship Manager has been wonderful. It allows me to do more with my day, knowing that I will be updated on every part of the transaction.”

Justin Cain REALTOR® Detroit, MI

Live more. Worry less.

Get more time back in your day when you work with us.

RealEstate.QuickenLoans.com Quicken Loans Inc.; NMLS #3030; www.NMLSConsumerAccess.org. Equal Housing Lender. Licensed in 50 states. AL License No. MC 20979, Control No. 100152352. AR, TX: 1050 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48226-1906, (888) 474-0404; AZ: 1 N. Central Ave., Ste. 2000, Phoenix, AZ 85004, Mortgage Banker License #BK-0902939; CA: Licensed by Dept. of Business Oversight, under the CA Residential Mortgage Lending Act and Finance Lenders Law; CO: Regulated by the Division of Real Estate; GA: Residential Mortgage Licensee #11704; IL: Residential Mortgage Licensee #4127 – Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation; KS: Licensed Mortgage Company MC.0025309; MA: Mortgage Lender License #ML 3030; ME: Supervised Lender License; MN: Not an offer for a rate lock agreement; MS: Licensed by the MS Dept. of Banking and Consumer Finance; NH: Licensed by the NH Banking Dept., #6743MB; NV: License #626; NJ: New Jersey – Quicken Loans Inc., 1050 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48226, (888) 474-0404, Licensed by the N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance.; NY: Licensed Mortgage Banker – NYS Banking Dept.; OH: MB 850076; OR: License #ML-1387; PA: Licensed by the Dept. of Banking – License #21430; RI: Licensed Lender; WA: Consumer Loan Company License CL-3030. Conditions may apply.

Quicken Loans, 1050 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48226-1906 ©2000 – 2019 Quicken Loans Inc. All rights reserved. Lending services provided by Quicken Loans Inc., a subsidiary of Rock Holdings Inc. “Quicken Loans” is a registered service mark of Intuit Inc., used under license.

{Executive Appointments}

MoxiWorks recently welcomed two key new hires to their business development team: Kirsten “Kiki” Wanshura and Heather Glass. Wanshura, director of Business Development at MoxiWorks, has a 20plus year career in the industry, including positions as regional VP at Obeo Inc. and regional director at Realtors Property Resource®(a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS®) . Glass, director of Business Development at MoxiWorks, holds more than 18 years of experience in real estate technology and marketing solutions, including email marketing, display advertising, lead generation and SaaS solutions.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services Senior Vice President of Franchising, Mergers & Acquisitions Tom Schoeller has announced the hiring of Denis Faherty as Midwest regional vice president of Franchise Sales.

Faherty joins Howard Hanna with a 20plus year background in real estate and franchising. Based in Columbus, Ohio, he will work with Schoeller to expand the company’s reach throughout the Midwest.

Stephanie Anton,

president of Luxury Portfolio International®, has been selected for Forbes Real Estate Council, an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry. Anton was vetted and selected by a review committee based on the depth and diversity of her experience. As a member of the Council, Anton has access to a variety of exclusive opportunities. She will connect and collaborate with other respected local leaders in a private forum and be able to bring her learnings to members of Luxury Portfolio International.

OJO Labs has announced that two top industry leaders joined their executive team. Real estate industry leader Chris Heller, former CEO of Keller Williams and most recently CEO of mellohome, joined as OJO’s chief real estate officer. Consumer brand trailblazer Karen Starns, who most recently led brand and customer experience at Amazon for Echo, Alexa, FireTV, Kindle and the portfolio of Amazon smart home devices, joined as OJO’s chief marketing officer.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group has announced that three of the firm’s senior managers have been promoted to jointly lead the company. Diane Glass, Mark Pasquesi and Joe Stacy comprise the newly formed strategic leadership team.

Nancy Nagy, chief executive officer, is moving away from day-to-day operations and stepping into an advisory role with the firm. Glass has an expanded role as chief operations officer and is responsible for delivering operational excellence that maximizes agent success. Pasquesi has been named president of Brokerage and will focus on agent experience and strategic expansion initiatives, while Stacy assumes the role of senior vice president and general sales manager and will be dedicated to leading agent sales coaching and professional sales success. RE For more executive happenings, please visit www.rismedia.com.

Relationships Matter

What Matters To You And Your Business?

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2018 LeadingRE Global Symposium | Barcelona, Spain Photo by AJ Canaria, PlanOmatic

LeadingRE.com/OurCompanies

QUALITY CONNECTIONS INDEPENDENCE ÂŽ Delivering the highest quality service to home buyers and sellers is what defines our invitation-only community.

Our members are market leaders with distinctive personalities, deep local knowledge and the agility to address market-specific trends. They come together as Leading Real Estate Companies of the WorldÂŽ to leverage their inherent strength with global connections, industry-leading resources and international business opportunities.

We’ve added another great service option to our plans:

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The plan offers protection for both new and existing electronics that include:

Smart Home Products

LCD, Plasma, and LED TVs

Home Theater Systems

Laptops/ Desktops

Tablets

Gaming Systems

Coverage for defects in materials and/or workmanship, power surges, and normal wear and tear is also included.

Plan covers an unlimited number of new and existing eligible electronics, and no receipts are needed for service.*

To learn more, contact your AHS® Account Executive, or visit www.ahs.com/asurion.

Limitations and exclusions apply. See terms and conditions for details. *Subject to a $2,000 per Electronics Plan claim limit and a $5,000 aggregate Electronics Plan claim limit. Not available in NY. © 2019 American Home Shield Corporation. All rights reserved.

{REBAC Report}

Mastering the Buyer Representation Agreement

by Marc D. Gould

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rokers’ opinions may vary on the best way to use buyer representation agreements. It’s hard to argue, however, against their crucial role in establishing rights and responsibilities between buyer agents and their clients. course, too much confidence can be off-putting to buyers, who want to feel center stage in the agent/client relationship.

The Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®) designation course argues strongly in favor of written agreements, pointing out their significance in establishing mutual expectations, preventing misunderstandings and instilling loyalty.

In some states, agreements are required. Even where they aren’t mandated, some agents believe that language in the REALTOR® Code of Ethics implicitly requires one.

Buyer agreements are also an excellent risk management tool. If your agents have a firm grasp of what they should and shouldn’t do in various situations—and can explain this to clients—they’re less likely to invite complaints or litigation.

COMMON HURDLES While it’s hard to punch holes in the value of buyer representation agreements, it’s easy to understand why many agents resist them. Various human emotions are typically at play, including: Confidence. Agents may feel timid about explaining the benefits buyers gain by working with them. Of

Fear. Buyers and agents alike may experience a fear of commitment.

Buyers think “I don’t want to be locked in,” whereas agents worry about a buyer tying up their time.

Agents also worry that asking for a signed agreement could drive buyers away, especially if agreements aren’t commonly used in their market. (If buyers are reluctant to sign one, agents may opt to offer a short-term agreement, a nonexclusive agreement, a trial basis or employ other strategies.)

Trust. Some agents say they’d rather trust their clients—that the best relationships are built on trust. However, how is trust established? Is it merely a matter of building rapport?

Or does establishing trust also entail demonstrating that you’re professional, knowledgeable and capable of helping buyers achieve their goals? That’s trust built on competence, which is fully supported by buyer representation agreements.

The ABR® designation course tackles each of these obstacles, and others, helping agents gain knowledge and skills in all aspects of buyer representation, including buyer agreements and the initial buyer consultation.

ABR® PERSPECTIVES Each year, we survey ABR® designees to gain their perspectives on multiple topics, including buyer agreements. As a group, they have more industry experience (median of 13 years versus 8 years) and are more successful (median gross income of $76,700 versus $41,800 in 2018) than NAR members, as a whole.

While NAR’s member survey doesn’t ask about buyer representation agreements, anecdotal evidence tells us ABR® designees are much more likely to use one.

When asked about formalizing working relationships with buyers, 75 percent of ABR® designees indicate using some type of buyer representation agreement, predominantly an exclusive right to represent (67 percent).

Among those who don’t use buyer representation agreements, many concede, in verbatim comments, that they should be using one or are heading in that direction.

HELPING YOUR AGENTS If your agents would benefit from honing their buyer representation skills, consider supporting their efforts to earn the ABR® designation, starting with the ABR® designation course. The training is offered across the U.S., Canada, and beyond, as well as online. To learn more, visit REBAC.net/abr/course. RE Marc D. Gould is senior vice president of Member Development for NAR, overseeing a wide range of professional development programs for REALTORS®, including the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC). REBAC is the world’s largest association of real estate professionals focusing specifically on representing the real estate buyer. With more than 30,000 active members, REBAC awards the Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®) designation to REALTORS® who have completed the specialized education and documented experience in working with consumers purchasing a home. To learn more, visit REBAC.net.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 25

Changing the Way Money Moves in Real Estate—and Beyond

by Paige Tepping

Earnnest is on a mission to create a new standard for secure money movement

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n a mission to make electronic payment the norm in real estate within the next five years, Earnnest—a digital platform that allows buyers to securely and electronically deposit funds directly to an escrow holder—is changing the way money moves in real estate.

Created out of necessity, Earnnest was conceptualized around the closing table two short years ago. Built by real estate agents, escrow attorneys and technology veterans, the digital platform was designed to facilitate fast and secure real estate transactions.

And it’s taking the real estate industry by storm.

“Sitting around the attorney’s table on closing day after purchasing our first home, when asked about what I would change about the process, I confided in my agent that I would change everything,” explains Daniel Jeffords, Earnnest CTO and one of two original co-founders.

At the top of his list? The process surrounding paying earnest money.

Seeking to become the standard for a new way to move money within the real estate industry, the team at Earnnest is pushing to make paper checks a thing of the past by promoting transactions through technology.

“This is something that should have been digitized and simplified long ago,” says Rick Altizer, Earnnest CEO, who is leading the charge to bring the earnest money transfer and other frustrating and time-consuming processes into the 21st century.

26 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Committed to building a wholly transparent digital system and removing unnecessary tedium in the busy lives of agents, the team at Earnnest is changing the homebuying process as we know it.

In fact, all it takes is a few simple clicks for agents to invite buyers to use Earnnest and authorize the earnest money transfer. Then once buyer identity is verified as well as a funding source—Earnnest is connected to more than 12,000 banks nationwide—a buyer is ready to complete the transfer. With Earnnest, there are no physical checks required; everything is completely digital.

“We’re intent on taking out the manual parts of the process, while keeping it safe and secure,” says Altizer, of the proprietary business process they’ve built.

Making the lives of real estate agents—and the brokers who help grow their businesses—easier, Earnnest is putting hours back into their busy days and removing unnecessary stress.

“Agents view the time spent tracking down and collecting earnest money as one of their biggest pain points, so any way we can simplify their lives, make them more productive and put time back on their side is a huge benefit,” says Jeffords.

But the benefits associated with using Earnnest to bring a real estate transaction to fruition extend even further, especially when you consider the number of people who need to be kept in the loop regarding the status of a given transaction.

With so many moving parts that must come together in perfect succession for a successful real estate trans-

action, simplifying and streamlining these processes for business days to clear and deposit, less than half of the everyone involved is a huge win for the industry. potential 12 days for checks, which means buyers can Taking the onus off the shoulders of agents and bro- settle faster. kers alike, Earnnest has gone above and beyond in cre“Inside our platform, no one ever shares their account ating a trackable and secure money movement system. information, and more importantly, the information is “We’ve built an entirely transparent and trackable never stored,” says Jeffords, who equates wire transfers transaction process that provides instant notifications to to sending money into a black hole and hoping it works. all parties involved along the way,” explains Altizer.

Keeping buyers at the center of the process also neIn addition to making life simpler for a lot of peo- gates the need for paper checks that contain account, ple, Jeffords explains that the level of security inher- contact and personal information, preventing them from ent in Earnnest’s system keeps buyers in control of being placed in the hands of unknown individuals. the situation.

“We’re working to become an end-to-end solution for Built from the ground up to secure real estate pay- transactions,” says Jeffords, who is looking forward to ments, Earnnest uses the 256-bit AES encryption a bright future of continued growth that will spread far standard chosen by financial institutions and the U.S. beyond the real estate industry. government. By utilizing the most advanced and se“Since we’re platform-agnostic, there’s a huge opportucure encryption algorithm, buyers can fund their mon- nity to transition into other verticals and industries where ey payments while keeping sensitive banking informa- money is moving and needs to be collected in time for tion secure. a transaction to take place,” adds Altizer. Expanding beWith a clear focus on safety, Earnnest has a propri- yond the confines of real estate, Altizer has his sights set etary way of using ACH payment transfers. Additionally, on being able to integrate with any software platform by utilizing ACH transfers instead of wires also helps com- the end of the year. bat the ever-growing issue of wire fraud. Unlike a wire, “We’ve hit our sweet spot,” Altizer says. “And we’re ACH payments require a buyer to be partnered with a truly looking forward to this next year of growth.” RE financial institution; this means he or she must have a verified bank account attached to a legitimate and verified bank. ACH payments also take a maximum of fiveT:7.5”For more information, please visit www.earnnest.com.

A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR YOU AND YOUR AGENTS Leverage the success of the national ad campaign by showcasing who you are and the value you bring to the communities you serve. We built campaign materials that NAR members can utilize.

Download assets like logos, social media messages and images, as well as online banners and print ads you can customize with your own logo at ThatsWhoWeR.realtor.

REALTORS® are members of the National Association of REALTORS®

{Global Spotlight}

Living the Lavish Life in Portugal

by Paige Tepping

With over 30 years of experience in the real estate market, INS Portugal is one of the most renowned companies in the country. Operating out of offices located in Lisbon, Cascais and Oeiras, INS Portugal is a well-known expert when it comes to the worldfamous Estoril Coast. Here, Executive Assistant Rita Ribeiro discusses the current state of the luxury market—and how it’s set to evolve as we head toward the future.

Please describe your current housing market.

Rita Ribeiro: We’re in the midst of a buyer’s market, where houses don’t remain listed for long. As prices continue to rise due to there being more demand than supply, I believe the market will stabilize within the next year before it begins to decline. Average home prices depend on the location of the property, which is consistent with real estate markets across the board. While a small villa in Cascais can range from €300K to €1M, you can find an apartment in Lisbon that’s priced anywhere from €250K all the way up to €2M or €3M. 28 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Tell us about the types of properties in your market and which are most popular.

RR: The most popular and best-selling properties are those located in attractive neighborhoods, with good views of the city, river or sea. Beachfront villas in Estoril and Cascais—as well as properties in private condominiums complete with a swimming pool, gym, spa, Jacuzzi and 24-hour security—are also popular.

What types of buyers do you work with? Are they predominantly local, or mixed from other countries?

RR: The buyers we work with are predominantly from other countries. The real estate sector in Portugal has registered increased investment levels in both the commercial and housing segments, with the majority of capital originating abroad. The evolution of the real estate market has taken place mainly in the last five years, with a noticeable increase in tourism leading to the construction of new projects, thus attracting investors from other countries.

What are some of the most important trends in your market?

RR: The international trend in the real estate market has turned toward smaller cities, and Lisbon has been seeing more notoriety in the international scene due to both its quality of life and safety. Linked to the improved Portuguese economy, Lisbon has been attracting foreign companies and investors with its Golden Visa and Non-Habitual Resident tax regimes.

What are your biggest challenges/opportunities for growth?

RR: The main market for international investors is the luxury segment, which is one of our strengths. While most of the offers in the home-for-sale portfolio will come from this premium segment, the domestic market is also undergoing an economic recovery and focusing on this sector.

How does being part of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® help advance your business?

RR: Being part of LeadingRE gives us access to the largest global network in real estate, which positions us in the international market and provides us with notoriety, visibility and connections with a unique network of real estate agents around the world. As members, we have access to properties all over the world, creating the conditions for our clients to buy or sell across borders. RE For more information, please visit www.ins.pt or www.insfineproperties.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 29

Productive Agents + Best-in-Class Tech RE/MAX launches into a new era of ever-evolving advantages with the rollout of its booj-built technology

by Paige Tepping RE/MAX CEO Adam Contos announces the launch of the booj Platform at last month’s Broker Owner Conference.

I

n February 2018, RE/MAX CEO Adam Contos stood on stage at the RE/MAX R4 Convention in Las Vegas and told the crowd of over 6,000 attendees, “We just acquired a technology company called booj.” The news was a home run, signaling an aggressive, innovative move by the iconic brand.

In early August 2019, at the RE/MAX Broker Owner Conference (BOC), Contos was back on stage, this time launching the booj Platform.

“This is a milestone moment in the history of our network, a huge step forward into a new era of RE/MAX technology,” Contos said at the BOC. “We’re arming super-productive agents with topshelf, best-in-class technology—it’s a combination unmatched in the industry. This is phenomenal, mobile-first technology, designed specifically

30 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

to help RE/MAX agents save time, build their business and elevate the customer experience.”

If the 2018 news was a home run, this was a game-winning grand slam, as it made good on a promise to deliver industry-changing, end-to-end technology built with and for RE/MAX agents.

By design, 18 months had passed since the initial announcement—18 months filled with research, scaling, user feedback, testing, strategic planning and intense product development. The

result: an integrated suite of digital products that helps high-producing agents, teams and brokers establish, manage and grow client relationships.

LAYERED ADVANTAGES The addition of booj technology adds to the many competitive advantages already enjoyed

by RE/MAX agents, who are affiliated with one of the most recognized brands in the industry. The network ended Q2 with over 127,000 agents worldwide—its highest count ever—and a presence in more than 110 countries and territories.

A deep-rooted culture of productivity and high achievement has defined the brand for decades.

In the U.S., RE/MAX agents average 15.1 years of experience and 8.7 years with the brand, although newer agents who are driven and passionate also enjoy successful RE/MAX careers.

In many ways, RE/MAX remains “a home to top producers.” And the stats bear that out.

For instance, in RISMedia’s 2019 Power Broker Report analyzing 2018 sales data from the top 1,000 U.S. brokerages, RE/MAX agents averaged 15.5 transaction sides each. That’s more than double the figure (7.1) for all nonRE/MAX agents in the study.

The RE/MAX community is a great fit for agents who push themselves to reach new heights and deliver more to buyers and sellers.

“I try to improve myself or learn something new every day,” says Alexa Kebalo Hughes, who coleads The Kebalo Group with her mother, Cheryl Kebalo, at RE/MAX Right Choice Real Estate in South Windsor, Conn. “People are counting on me to be the best I can be and to guide them through the largest financial decisions of their lives. I take that responsibility seriously, and so do all my RE/MAX friends.”

AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE A few more highlights of a dynamic, global brand:

1

2

3

4

TECH NINJAS Making great agents even better is the goal driving booj technology, says John Sable, a booj cofounder.

Sable and Ido Zucker established booj (“be original or jealous”) in 2005 and built it into a juggernaut of real estate tech innovation, service and product development. Now senior vice presidents at RE/MAX, the two lead the booj team of over 100 “tech ninjas” devoted to creating a transformative platform designed specifi-

5

The RE/MAX Collection® luxury brand provides agents with elegant marketing materials, business-building education, networking events and a dedicated listing website. The brand’s impact is global— in the first half of 2019, RE/MAX global leaders taught the “Luxury Live” course to agents in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

RE/MAX Commercial® is a network of more than 3,400 practitioners in over 665 commercial offices and divisions across 73 different countries.

In 2018, these agents closed more than 36,500 commercial sides for over $14.6 billion in volume.

RE/MAX agents and brokers help millions of kids each year through their support of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. RE/MAX affiliates contributed $10.3 million USD in 2018, the highest yearly total in the partnership’s 27 years.

RE/MAX actively supports homeownership for all through its involvement with professional groups such as the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA), the National Association of Gay and Lesbian Real Estate Professionals (NAGLREP) and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP).

RE/MAX University® (RU) features over 1,000 videos and offers 70-plus professional designations and certifications on its digital, on-demand platform. More than 15,000 unique users visited the RU platform in the first half of 2019.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 31

MARKETING THAT MOVES THE NEEDLE

Billions of dollars have been spent to promote the RE/MAX brand and its agents, creating a competitive advantage for all RE/MAX affiliates to build upon.

RE/MAX marketing features an aggressive omni-channel strategy that’s targeted, localized, mobile and digital.

“Our approach is to get the right message to the right people at the right time—that means having a huge presence in digital and social,” says James Schwartz, vice president of Marketing and Media Strategies. “We want to help RE/MAX agents connect and build relationships with consumers at every stage of the journey—not just when it’s time to buy or sell a house.”

Schwartz enjoys the game-on environment at RE/MAX headquarters.

“Starting at the top with Adam Contos, RE/MAX senior leadership embraces innovative, creative marketing,” he says. “They’re excited about pushing the envelope and trying new things, which is great news for our agents and anyone who’s thinking of joining us. We’re all-in on modern marketing strategies that connect with consumers in today’s digital world.”

Part of the strategy is enabling agents to leverage brand resources easily. For instance, agents can: • Connect to the national campaign, “The Sign of a RE/MAX Agent,” created by the award-winning Camp + King agency of San Francisco. A wide range of marketing collateral—in virtually every media—enables agents to use the campaign’s messages and images.

• Use RE/MAX digital stickers to enhance their texts and social posts. The colorful, playful images add sizzle and personality to the agent’s digital interactions.

• Customize and post material with their phones. Agents can download an app containing a curated collection of approved videos, photos and graphics to use in their marketing. They can create custom content as well. And they can do it all on the go; taking photos or creating videos to send right after a listing appointment or client meeting.

• Share unique RE/MAX content created in collaboration with BuzzFeed, the online powerhouse. Agents can bolster their social media messaging with quizzes, lists, videos and more.

• Create personalized 15-second commercials using a first-of-its-kind tool for real estate. To date, agents have created over 42,000 custom videos, which feature imagery from the national campaign and are perfect for social sharing.

“The RE/MAX membership understands how crucial it is to push the envelope and engage with consumers wherever they are,” says Abby Lee, SVP of Marketing and Communications.

32 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

cally for RE/MAX agents.

The process is just getting started, Sable says.

“The release of new technology is when the magic really begins,” he says. “Moving forward, user data will help us make smart adjustments and enhancements. We launched on an incredibly strong foundation based on tons of user testing and feedback, but by design, the technology will be even better six months from now, a year from now, and so on.”

The initial booj release—a powerful customer relationship management (CRM) solution at the core of the platform—is systematically rolling out in U.S. RE/MAX company-owned regions this fall. Initial user feedback has been universally positive.

INTUITIVE AND EASY “To me, booj seems intuitive and easy to learn,” says Stephen Baker, broker/owner of RE/MAX Realty Central in Lake Mary, Fla. “I’ve used other CRMs combined with various third-party systems, but booj has put together a complete package of agent productivity and marketing tools. We’re excited about the untapped potential booj has brought to our agents.”

Kristen Jones, broker/owner of RE/MAX Around Atlanta in Georgia, thinks the booj Platform will appeal to agents across the entire spectrum— from tech-savvy to tech-adverse.

“The booj technology is really robust, and it’ll have a big impact helping agents build their business,” says Jones, who spent time in Denver learning the platform ahead of launch. “I’m most excited that booj is ours— and we’ll be able to decide how it evolves from here. I’m in for the long haul, and this is about positioning RE/MAX for a very bright future.”

Nate Martinez of RE/MAX Professionals in Arizona was an alpha tester for the product. He saw how feedback earlier in the year resulted in adjustments and shaped a better launch version.

“I honestly believe RE/MAX will have the best CRM on the market,” Martinez says. “I’m excited about the feel and functionality of the product.

I’m a relationship guy, and I believe in building strong relationships with my database of contacts. The software will be a major upgrade over any other products agents are using.”

THOUSANDS OF SITES By the end of the year, booj technology will power the significantly enhanced remax.com website and consumer app, syncing both with thousands

POWER TOOL: THE BOOJ PLATFORM Developed by booj engineers in collaboration with thousands of RE/MAX affiliates, the booj Platform provides a premium end-toend solution customized for the RE/MAX network. It delivers a better customer experience by streamlining the work of agents, from lead generation to deal management to post-close nurturing and beyond. The powerful CRM tool is at the core of the booj Platform, which provides deeply integrated solutions for:

of content-rich websites promoting listings and RE/MAX agents, teams and brokerages. The comprehensive booj Platform—which integrates transaction management partners such as DocuSign, dotloop and others—will help RE/MAX affiliates capture leads, streamline operations and maximize results.

Over time, it will eliminate “data islands” among the membership, enabling affiliates to enjoy the benefits of being with a thriving global organization.

“The goal of the technology is to connect people,” Zucker says. “We believe technology works best when it amplifies what humans would do on their own. When agents use the platform to work more efficiently and strategically, they have more time to manage new business and cultivate new relationships.”

POWER OF THE NETWORK Beyond agent-client relationships, agent-to-agent connections are another major aspect of RE/MAX value.

RE/MAX agents exchange referrals directly, with no additional costs, middleman or interference. And the annual R4 convention, which last year drew attendees from over 60 countries, presents a perfect opportunity to learn, grow and make invaluable referral connections.

“I never miss an annual RE/MAX convention, and I’ve met so many top agents who open their playbook and share their tips on being more successful,” says Hughes, who joined the network in 2011 upon graduating from college and currently serves as vice president of the 4,200-member Greater Hartford Association of REALTORS®. “Plus, about 25 percent of our team’s business comes from RE/MAX referrals. It pays to be part of all this.

“The power of the network has absolutely helped my career.” RE

• Digital Branding RE/MAX agents, teams and offices can build and customize their own branded RE/MAX website in just minutes. Each site seamlessly integrates with social accounts and provides in-depth analytics. Real estate is a local business, and these sites position affiliates as local experts.

• Lead Capture Agents can be more strategic in their interactions with potential clients. They can reach out with relevant, targeted communication based on insights from the platform. Client engagement is also generated through home valuations, market snapshots and individual property websites.

• Client Engagement The booj Platform has several tools to keep agents top of mind, including the Sphere Interaction tool, which displays recent customer interactions and a visual indicator as to whether the agent should reach out. The platform also automates email campaigns and other content deliveries based on a consumer’s actions on the site.

• Deal Management A fully integrated Deal Pipeline offers a comprehensive, orderly view of an agent’s current transactions and potential new business. As deals move through stages of the pipeline, the system can automatically mark tasks as completed and/or open the next list of tasks.

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

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 33

4 QUESTIONS FOR CEO ADAM CONTOS CEO Adam Contos, who shares his insights on a podcast called “Start With a Win,” is focused on leading the RE/MAX network and raising the customer experience throughout the industry.

Here are a few of his thoughts:

1

How are you adapting the brand to compete in today’s market?

Our surveys show that agents want the company to focus on three main things: tools, training and technology. We’re playing offense in all three areas, freeing agents up to do what they do best—working with clients, cultivating relationships and building their business.

We’ve released multiple tools this year, including all sorts of marketing resources that enable agents to combine our massive brand power with their own personalities. In technology, the booj Platform will provide an entire, data-driven ecosystem. And in training, we’ve invested heavily in our exclusive Momentum professional development program.

It helps brokers and agents systemize their operations—which, in 34 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

turn, can save them time and can increase their productivity.

2

What’s the one piece of advice you’d have for agents?

Use video to connect. It’s an amazing resource and not enough people are using it. I know it’s hard to get started—and trust me, your first videos will not be good—but in this business you really should jump in. It’s become so easy to shoot a video and get it onto social media; there’s really no excuse anymore.

Things like Facebook Live turn everything you do into an opportunity to create content and connect with people.

Once you try it, you’ll see a difference right away. Video helps people see your face and hear your voice, so it’s much more powerful than the written word. It helps them know you before they’ve ever met you.

3

What’s the main reason agents join a brokerage and stay?

It’s easy to think it’s about the cost, but I don’t think it usually is. Any agent in any brokerage can find a better deal, in straight financial terms, somewhere else. But agents at a quality brokerage providing great value generally stay, knowing full well it’s not the cheapest option. They stay because of community, culture, support services, and the leadership of the broker. To me, the broker’s main role is to create an environment where agents can be as successful as they want to be. An environment that develops agents and helps them maximize their abilities—and their results—is the goal. And I think RE/MAX offices generally have that environment.

4

Boil it down: What’s the key to success in this industry?

Be a skilled professional who elevates the customer experience.

Provide world-class service and the sky’s the limit.

INSIGHT FROM GLOBAL LEADERS

The RE/MAX global expansion has been steady and spectacular, especially since the formation of RE/MAX Europe in the mid-1990s. The network now has more than 60,000 international agents and a presence in more than 110 countries and territories, including Australia, virtually all of the Americas and Europe, and large portions of Africa and Asia.

A common trait among the most successful international regions: a transformative, resilient leader who is passionate about helping others. Here are some insights from several global pioneers:

“Being in RE/MAX is a way of life. I greet every day with enthusiasm and energy. We’re all from different countries and we speak different languages back at home, but when we get together, we’re very close. It’s great fun and always an incredible learning experience.”

“From the very start, we were certain we were on the right track. What I learned is that if you believe in what you’re doing and never give up, eventually you will shine.”

“I think people need to dream big and set big goals for themselves. If you don’t challenge yourself and set big goals, any place you get to will be enough. I want to always reach higher, and I want my people to always reach higher.”

DARIO CASTIGLIA Region Owner, RE/MAX Italy (3,700+ agents) and Co-Owner, RE/MAX Germany (500+ agents)

“It’s a very, very close network. We’ve received a lot of helpful input from broker/owners and regional owners from around the world. The insights they’ve shared have been invaluable.”

MICHAEL DAVOREN Region Owner, RE/MAX Australia (500+ agents), RE/MAX New Zealand (170+ agents)

“I joined RE/MAX in 2005 because of the people already with the brand. Their passion, their commitment, their drive, their enthusiasm. We fed off their positive energy.”

ADRIAN GOSLETT Regional Director & CEO, RE/MAX of Southern Africa (2,400+ agents)

BERNARD RASKIN Region Owner, RE/MAX Israel (550+ agents) and Co-Owner, RE/MAX Germany (500+ agents)

BEATRIZ RUBIO Region Co-Owner, RE/MAX Portugal (7,500+ agents) and Co-Owner, RE/MAX Germany (500+ agents), RE/MAX France (200+ agents)

“We use the RE/MAX brand everywhere and put it on everything. Why wouldn’t we? It stands for quality.”

DOTTI PENATE-SOSA Region Co-Owner, RE/MAX Argentina (3,000+ agents), RE/MAX Uruguay (100+ agents)

“I’m much better off today than I was when I started with RE/MAX. I believe I’m a better person, a better professional. I continue to grow just by hanging out with the great people in this network.”

SEBASTIAN SOSA Region Co-Owner, RE/MAX Argentina (3,000+ agents), RE/MAX Uruguay (100+ agents)

100 OPEN OFFICES FOR MOTTO MORTGAGE The first of its kind in the U.S. mortgage industry, Motto Franchising LLC, another member of the RE/MAX Holdings Inc. family of brands, reached a big milestone this summer—the opening of the 100th Motto Mortgage brokerage.

Helmed by president Ward Morrison, Motto Franchising, LLC launched its innovative mortgage brokerage franchise model in 2016.

Since then, the Motto Mortgage

brand has received numerous accolades, including being named as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2019 Top New Franchise brands, as well as an Entrepreneur 2019 FastestGrowing Franchise.

Motto Mortgage Alliance in Dayton, Ohio, was one of the first offices to open its doors. Mike Seagraves, broker/owner of Motto Mortgage Alliance, who is also broker/owner of RE/MAX Alliance, says, “The value

that I had being there in the beginning is that I got to be part of the solution, helping to grow the brand.”

The growing 30-state footprint of 100 open offices illustrates the value created when the power of enterprise is paired with the connectivity of local. The Motto Mortgage model creates a path to an ancillary business for current real estate brokerage firms, while offering real estate agents convenient access to mortgage professionals.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 35

Communication Skills and Commissions Commentary by Darryl Davis, CSP

I

believe part of the reason for so many disruptors in our markets is that we aren’t doing enough to promote the value that our services provide. To quote Judy LaDeur, real estate recruiting expert: “In the absence of value, money becomes the substitute.”

In other words, if we can’t communicate value, then consumers will simply base their decisions on price.

I applaud the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) for this year’s “That’s Who We R” campaign. In their explanation about the campaign, they say, “In this digital age, hyper-connected consumers often think they can do anything and everything with a click of the button, including buying a home. The current real estate landscape gives consumers false hope that the process is as simple as seeing your dream house online, selecting it and moving in.

This is an idealized fantasy perpetuated by house hunting shows, easy apps and a DIY mentality.”

They’re right. This misperception is costing agents not only commissions, but also credibility. So, what can we do to change that?

36 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

1. Make skill-building a priority. If you’re a leader of an organization, bring on the training. For the last few years, most organizations have made technology their training focus. I get it. The world and technology change at intense speeds, and they must keep up. However, just like many of us worry about the social and communication skills of teens buried in their phones, upgrading these skills for agents in the age of disruption is no longer a back-burner concern. Want to increase an agent’s success rate and reputation—and yours? Move communication training to the top of your to-do list in the next six months.

2. Service over sales. I know the CFOs will cringe at that, but when we help

agents make the shift from a sales mindset, where they’re constantly put into prospecting win/lose scenarios, to a service mindset, which allows them to build long- and shortterm relationships and communicate value while making the prospecting process easier and more effective, everyone wins.

3. Communication with connectivity.

When I teach communication skills to audiences, I share the importance of using stories, metaphors and analogies when they’re phoneto-phone or face-to-face with sellers and buyers. Why? Because no one has to memorize a script or sound like a canned recording. That’s important because the more agents sound rehearsed and focused on a script, the less present they are with people, which decreases their perceived value. Using tools like metaphors and analogies increases relatability and shared experiences, keeping agents focused on the person in front of them. That increases both results and our value as service professionals.

Real estate agents can and do make a difference in the lives and best interests of consumers. As leaders in this industry, it’s our job to help them communicate that difference on the next level, for their sakes, and the sake of their customers. RE Darryl Davis has spoken to, trained and coached more than 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe. He is a best-selling author for McGraw-Hill Publishing, and his book, “How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate,” tops Amazon’s charts for most sold book to real estate agents. He is the founder of the Next Level® real estate training system The Power Program®, which has proven to help agents double their production over their previous year. Davis earned the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, held by less than 2 percent of all speakers worldwide. To learn more, visit www.ThePowerProgram.com.

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Rent Out of Reach for Many Low- and MiddleIncome Workers Commentary by Desirée Patno

RENT

I

t’s difficult for low-income renters throughout the country to afford a modest one- or two-bedroom rental home, according to findings from the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s (NLIHC) Out of Reach 2019 report. The national housing wage, or the hourly pay rate a worker would need to afford a rental home, is $22.96 for an average two-bedroom rental home and $18.65 for a one-bedroom.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, which means that a worker earning minimum wage would need to work 127 hours per week, which would equate to having three full-time jobs, in order to afford a two-bedroom rental home. To afford a one-bedroom rental home, a minimum-wage worker would need to work 103 hours per week.

There are currently only 4 million rental homes that are affordable and available to the nation’s 11 million extremely low-income renter households below the poverty rate, leaving a shortage of 7 million homes. A family of four below the poverty rate earns no more than $25,750 a year, which means they can only afford $644 a month in rent. This family would be short $550 in affording an average two-bedroom rental home 38 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

and $326 short in affording a less ideal one-bedroom rental home.

Families below the poverty line and minimum-wage workers aren’t the only ones struggling to afford rental housing. The average renter’s hourly wage is $5.39 less than the national two-bedroom housing wage and $1.08 less than the one-bedroom housing wage. Shockingly, a full-time worker earning an average wage could afford a twobedroom rental home in only 10 percent of counties in the entire United States.

The most expensive two-bedroom rental housing wages are found in coastal states on the West and East Coasts. Full-time workers in the following states need to make over $25 per hour to afford a two-bedroom rental home:

• • • • • • • • • •

California New York Colorado Alaska Hawaii Connecticut Massachusetts New Jersey Maryland Washington, D.C.

Women face greater challenges affording rent because they, on average, earn less than their male counterparts. Recent Census Bureau data reveals that women earn about 80 cents for every dollar a man earns, or 25 percent less than men.

A median-wage, full-time male worker can afford a modest one-bedroom apartment at the national fair market rent, but a female median-wage worker cannot.

This gender disparity in wages and housing affordability adversely affects children, since children that don’t live with both parents are likely to live with their mother. When a mother has difficulty affording rent, this can negatively affect a child’s health and cognitive development, as the parent isn’t likely to have additional income to spend on other necessities.

Rent affordability is a pervasive issue in the nation’s economy. It’s in our best interest to develop affordable housing for citizens so they can attain jobs, earn money for shortterm and long-term financial wealth and contribute to the economy at the state and national level. RE Desirée Patno is the CEO and president of Women in the Housing and Real Estate Ecosystem (NAWRB) and Desirée Patno Enterprises, Inc. (DPE), as well as chairwoman of NAWRB’s Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Council (NDILC). With 30 years of experience in housing, Patno is a champion for women’s economic growth and independence. In 2017, Entrepreneur.com named her the Highest-Ranking Woman and 4th Overall Top Real Estate Influencer to Follow. For more information, please visit www.nawrb.com.

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Making Innovation Easy Zillow’s 3D Home Technology a Game Changer for Real Estate Pros and Their Clients by Keith Loria

C

hris Zinn has been in real estate since 2005, and leads the Chris Zinn Group, which averages approximately 175 home sales a year in Tulsa, Okla.

He attributes a big part of his success to tactics and tools provided by Zillow. So, it was no surprise that he and his team were one of the first to pilot Zillow’s 3D Home experience.

“Our strategy uses Zillow’s zip codes, views and 3D Home tours—we take advantage of all of it,” says Zinn.

According to Zinn, he originally started using Zillow’s 3D Home App. “It became something that we offered that sellers really appreciated, and it began to be a way we differentiated ourselves,” he explains. “Then about a year ago, we piloted the Ricoh Theta cameras and it’s been working great, much better than the app. It’s a

40 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

more in-depth view of the home.”

To create a 3D Home tour with a 360 camera, Zinn explains, all he needs is the Ricoh Theta V and an iPhone with the Zillow 3D Home app installed. The app and camera allow him to quickly capture panoramas of each room in the home and link them together, which takes an average of 10 - 15 minutes.

“What I like about it is that it doesn’t show so much that buyers feel like they don’t need to come see the house at all,” says Zinn. “Some platforms provide so much information, people feel like they’ve seen it all.

This leaves them wanting a little bit more.”

Members of the Chris Zinn Group make sure that they highlight Zillow’s 3D Home solution during listing presentations for potential clients, underscoring their competitive differentiation.

“We explain that normal virtual tours get pushed down in the rankings, but the 3D Home tours are easy to find

and click on, which makes their home more accessible— and they like that,” says Zinn. “This is probably the most cost-effective way of creating a virtual tour to put on the largest real estate platform on the planet.”

AHEAD OF THE CURVE ON INNOVATION Tony Floyd, chief innovation officer for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties, is responsible for marketing and technology at the firm.

“Our company has had a strategic partnership with Zillow for a long time, and we work very hard to understand their benefit to the consumer and agents, and leverage those capabilities for our teams as best we can,” says Floyd. “For many years, we have done things with them as early adopters and have unique feeds to them. We were their launch partner for testing Zillow videos and did more than anyone in the country. The benefit was our listings would get higher search results.”

That’s why when Zillow decided to bring the Zillow 3D Home experience to the marketplace, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties was quick to sign on and, to date, has done more than 1,000 3D Home tours.

“We have been very aggressive with 3D videos as it benefits our sellers, allowing their properties to get higher search results,” Floyd says. “To make it easy for agents, we bought the camera gear and have it in all of our offices. We have the resources that will do it for the agent, though the agent can do it themselves. We make it essentially free so there’s no downside.”

Dan Forsman, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties, echoes Floyd’s sentiments.

“With this new camera tech, you can place it down, get out of the way, click the button and 15 seconds later the room is done,” he says. “You can get in and out of the house in 15 - 20 minutes instead of hours. That’s a tremendous cost and time saver. And it’s just going to get better and better. This type of tech continues to evolve and will become more mainstream over time.”

BIG VALUE FOR CLIENTS Christie Cannon of the Christie Cannon Team for Keller Williams in Frisco, Texas, which serves the Dallas/Fort Worth region, began working with Zillow about six years ago, understanding that the platform offered something both buyers and sellers alike were going to be heavily utilizing when searching for homes.

“We began utilizing the 3D Home technology from Zillow as soon as it was introduced into the Dallas market,” she says. “We were one of the early adopters, and our

“We always want to provide the best marketing and value for our clients, so we immediately understood the value-add of the 3D Home tours.”

– CHRISTIE CANNON The Christie Cannon Team, Keller Williams, Frisco, Texas

in-house photographer was able to utilize the equipment and very quickly get the tours completed while she was there photographing the homes.”

Cannon and her team appreciate how easy it is to use and, more importantly, how it takes so little time to create the tour.

“We always want to provide the best marketing and value for our clients, so we immediately understood the value-add of the 3D Home tours,” she says. “For our sellers, it has provided a tremendous value as an additional marketing tool for their home, and it also allows buyers a quick walk-through to give them a better idea and view of a home’s floor plan and features.”

Besides, clients appreciate that their listings are going to not only show up on Zillow, but also have additional marketing features, such as the 3D Home tour, which will increase a home’s visibility to potential buyers and help get it sold faster.

According to Cannon, she will continue to provide the 3D Home tours on all of the team’s listings, as it doesn’t cost any additional money to provide the service to clients.

“One of our favorite things to show our sellers is how we are outpacing the overall number of views on their home compared to other homes on the market,” Cannon says. “This is made possible by providing the additional marketing through the 3D Home tours, and of course great photos.” RE For more information, please visit www.zillow.com/marketing/3d-home/.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 41

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Social Skills: Giving the People What They Want, When and Where They Want It

by Suzanne De Vita

Remember “The Wall”?

For a long time, Facebook had its own merit—as did Instagram, Twitter and others. Now, LinkedIn is adopting emojis, YouTube allows creators to share Stories…and every feature and function is seemingly universal.

So, what’s the best platform for real estate?

According to Pew Research, 73 percent of adults use YouTube, and 69 percent are on Facebook—the top two platforms for usage, and by a gigantic margin. (Instagram is the third most-utilized, at a distant 37 percent.)

Clearly, we’re hungry for video. According to HubSpot, 99 percent of us are watching videos, and 87 percent of us would like the brands we fol-

low to give us more of them. For YouTube’s impressive piece of the pie, however, it doesn’t have the highest rate of usage. That claim is Facebook’s, where 74 percent of adults check in daily—by far the most popular, according to Pew. (Instagram comes in second, at 63 percent, and Snapchat in third, at 61 percent.)

Despite the ad controversy, misinformation and issues pertaining to privacy, Facebook is hanging on to the majority of us, and it’s for a fundamental reason: connection.

Through Facebook (or whichever platform’s your preference), we connect our experiences to those of our friends, and maintain relationships with them—and, form new ones, too.

Isn’t that what real estate’s all about?

The question, then, becomes not “What’s the best platform for real estate?”—they all have advantageous aspects—but “How should they be utilized?”

According to an RISMedia Social Media Survey, agents and brokers devote 1 - 4 hours to social media weekly. Depending on how you leverage that time, you could be engaging with your followers multiple times throughout the week. If, by Pew’s stats, we have a daily habit of logging onto social media, it behooves you, as a brand/business, to check in regularly, as well.

What does “checking in” entail?

Your latest listing is undoubtedly valuable to you, but it’s also a disqualifier for the followers who aren’t immediately in need of your real estate services—and while engaging house-hunters is important, so is maintaining your referral relationships. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 90 percent of buyers would call on their current REALTOR® for another transaction, or recommend them to others.

By that measure, “checking in” is necessary, and especially between transactions.

With that in mind, what matters are meaningful posts and videos— ones that not only have your branding so you can capture leads, but also impart important knowledge and takeaways, enhancing your overall value. With RISMedia’s ACESocial, you can accomplish that daily, with content distributed to your social media, branded to you so you can engage leads and prompt referrals. Visit rismedia.com/ace to get started today. RE

Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s online news editor.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 43

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Each Weichert ® franchised office is independently owned and operated. ©2018 Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. Weichert is a federally registered trademark owned by Weichert Co. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Real Estate Webmasters to Launch New Branding Agency Responding to industry-wide demand for real estate-focused design services, Real Estate Webmasters debuts “open-to-all” branding agency

by Liz Dominguez

R

eal Estate Webmasters (REW) answers the needs of thousands of real estate agents across North America as they announce the launch of REW Agency, a full branding service completely dedicated to the real estate industry.

AT A GLANCE: • Largest custom front-end development and marketing firm in the real estate industry • Staff in Vancouver, Nanaimo, Montreal, Denver and Sacramento • 150 in-house developers and support staff • 75,000 paid users

Real estate professionals across North America recognize the competitive advantage of brand development, and that catch-all branding agencies just aren’t cutting it for their specific requirements.

Long gone are the days of logos inspired by clipart houses or stockimage driven ad campaigns. Successful agents, teams and brokers know that if they want to be taken seriously and dominate their markets, then branding must take a front seat in their overall business strategy.

REW Agency will offer a full suite of branding services, tailored to the unique needs and challenges faced by real estate professionals.

Services will include everything you would expect from a high-end design agency: brand development, art direction and creation, social media graphics, logo design, postcards, billboard design, and more, but with the added experience and expertise of designers who specialize exclusively

in real estate design.

Although REW Agency is new as a standalone service, Real Estate Webmasters has been providing highquality branding expertise for many years to their website clients.

“This isn’t really a new thing for us—we employ some of the top designers in the industry, who have hundreds of years of collective experience between them,” shares Morgan Carey, founder and CEO of Real Estate Webmasters.

“We have always been the first to collaborate with forward-thinking real estate professionals to create forward-thinking brands. From partnering on the implementation of rebranding strategies, like we did with CENTURY 21 Canada, or leading a complete redesign, like we did with JB Goodwin, we will help your brand not only succeed, but thrive,” Carey imparts. “It is just what we do.”

This announcement is exciting news for agents and brokers who have been waiting for this kind of service to become available. REW Agency’s branding services are open to any professional in the real estate industry, regardless of whether they are REW website customers or not.

“One of the things that I am really

• Approaching $150 million in aggregate annual revenue • Elevator pitch: At Real Estate Webmasters, your only limitations are your budget and imagination. We can make anything happen.

thrilled about is being able to work with other website platform suppliers,” Carey relates. “In speaking with other CEOs, this has been widely recognized as a need, and one that has gone unanswered for way too long.

They agree that this is a service that will benefit all clients, regardless of vendor.”

In their campaign—#brandingmatters—Real Estate Webmasters brings life to the conversation around branding and design in real estate. Their plan is to bring the industry forward, creating greater awareness and elevating the caliber of real estate brands around the world. By offering boutique design services, REW Agency can put that plan into action.

New clients can sign up for branding subscription packages, while website clients (current and new) can access these services through their regular retainer programs. RE

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

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 45

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© 2019 ERA Franchise Systems LLC. All rights reserved. ERA® and the ERA Logo are registered service marks owned by ERA Franchise Systems LLC. ERA Franchise Systems LLC fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Each franchise is independently owned and operated.

Broker Data Management at Your Fingertips Upstream platform powered by CoreLogic® now available; offers transformational service to brokers and their tech partners Commentary by Amy Gorce

U

pstream announced a new developer agreement in February of this year. I’m happy to report that the Upstream platform is now live and in production. Currently, individual brokers can store and distribute their own data, including property listings, high-resolution images, branded media and roster data. Upstream holds the potential to transform our industry and deliver broad new efficiencies, offering brokerages these capabilities for the first time.

CoreLogic’s developments for Upstream will allow brokerages to leverage the benefits of curating listings in their MLS while also enhancing those listings with additional highfidelity information from the brokerage. For example, before Upstream, virtual tour vendors received watermarked and often low-resolution images of a property from the MLS, while each individual broker had to enter (by hand) additional photos of the agent, the broker’s branding, the office, team, bios and contact info, adding to the time it takes to get listings to market. With Upstream, the virtual tour vendor receives the listing images in high resolution, without watermarks and with enriched

broker branding information all at once. No double entry, no industrywide inefficiency. This will allow brokers to leverage a single point of entry to syndicate the listing and broker information to their critical technology providers and partners.

Virtual tours are only one example.

Every category of technology used by the broker has a benefit opportunity with Upstream.

Today, Upstream offers brokers complete control of listing distribution and syndication through high availability and a secure Web API for the first time. This allows rosters and listings to be updated in nearly real-time intervals across all broker systems. Because the connection to

the database mirrors the RESO Data Dictionary and integration protocols of CoreLogic’s Trestle™ platform (accessed today by over 650 tech firms), connecting to Upstream is quick, easy and secure.

By the first quarter of next year, brokerages will have the ability to create entire listings in Upstream and publish them to CoreLogic Matrix™ MLS markets where allowed.

Support for other MLS systems will follow after successful integration is completed with Matrix. This release will also feature support for customer records like CRM data.

The first brokers joined Upstream in June of this year. Simultaneously, technology vendors who sell to brokers have been able to connect to Upstream and power their application with Upstream data.

The Upstream platform is now available to all broker and technology firms in America. Signing up is simple. Visit www.upstreamre.com/ sign-up.html.

One of the most significant benefits to brokers and their technology vendors is cost. With Upstream, small- and mid-sized brokers will have access to the same technology as America’s largest firms. Brokers of all sizes benefit from Upstream because they base their small, flat fee on the size of your firm. The typical brokerage (with less than 25 agents) would only pay a flat $50 monthly subscription. Larger firms benefit from volume discounts where the monthly flat fee could be as low as under a dollar per agent per month.

Upstream has been hosting informational webinars for both brokers and technology firms. Find out more by visiting www.upstreamre.com/ updates. RE

Amy Gorce is principal, Business Development at CoreLogic. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 47

{Strategies} Standing Out From the Competition EMAIL MARKETING SOLUTION ACTIVEPIPE CONTINUES TO RAISE THE BAR IN A CROWDED MARKET

by Paige Tepping

W

hen it comes to email marketing, looking relevant is the name of the game if you want to stand out in a crowded market. And thanks to a new partnership with email marketing solution ActivePipe, the 320 agents affiliated with Intero Real Estate Services – East Bay have yet another way to differentiate themselves from the competition.

“Email marketing is important for any company,” says Intero Real Estate Services – East Bay Broker and General Manager Rishi Bakshi, who spent the past year creating from scratch a whole new set of technology for the firm’s technology stack.

“After changing our CRM, it was recommended that we take a look at ActivePipe’s email marketing system, as this was an area in which we were lacking,” explains Bakshi. “As soon as I saw the demo and understood just how clean, sleek and easy it was for an agent, admin or staff member to create any number of email marketing pieces, it was a no-brainer,” he adds.

Built specifically for the real estate industry, one of the biggest benefits of working with ActivePipe is the fact that it’s connected to the MLS. Therefore, it already showcases every listing the firm has.

Better yet? There’s no cap on the number of emails that can be sent in any given month. Having sent upwards of 250,000 emails last month (at press time), Bakshi notes that this would translate to an exorbitant amount of money with any other vendor.

Simplifying the entire process, ActivePipe makes it easy to create great-looking property alerts, open house announcements and newsletters. “You can create whatever you want on the spot by simply dragging and dropping listings, blog content, YouTube videos—or anything else—into any number of templates and then blast it out to a specific database,” says Bakshi.

“It simplifies everything,” adds Bakshi, who points to ActivePipe’s back-end as yet another key piece of the puzzle. While agents love the back-end because it provides a glimpse into how a particular email is performing, it goes much further than that.

48 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

In fact, in addition to open rates and interactions, the back-end also shows what part of the email the recipient is responding to. “Since most of the emails we’re sending are made up of a variety of components, we can see exactly how our customers are interacting with the content we’re sharing,” explains Bakshi. This further differentiates the firm’s agents, as they can candidly discuss the results of their email marking campaigns with buyers and sellers alike.

“If you’re looking for something that’s sleek and easy to use, consider ActivePipe,” concludes Bakshi, who has nothing but good things to say about his experience thus far.

Whether it’s basic onboarding to launch the partnership, webinars or one-on-one meetings to discuss problem areas, the team at ActivePipe consistently goes above and beyond. “David Greenbaum, ActivePipe’s director of Operations, is constantly checking in and making sure we’re doing okay,” says Bakshi. “The touches they make are incredible.”

For more information, please visit https://activepipe.com.

A Stepping Stone to the World CIPS DESIGNATION HELPS REAL ESTATE PROS GROW GLOBAL BUSINESS

by John Voket

T

wo real estate pros on opposite coasts are experiencing great success tapping into an expanding global marketplace of clients—and they both converge when crediting their Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) designation from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) for helping to make it happen.

Jason Peé serves as the broker for Charleston, S.C.’s Global Property Services, while Spencer Hoo is team leader of The Hoo Group at RE/MAX Premier Realty in Irvine, Calif., where he is acting director of the International Department.

Both enthusiastically state that their CIPS designations have served them very well.

“I knew getting that business would require a longterm investment. International clients weren’t just going to start knocking on my door,” Peé explains. “But I also

know Charleston is an international destination—we have 140 companies with global affiliations, and there were only two agents in the entire market when I got my CIPS about five years ago.”

It was logical for Peé to begin using his CIPS skills locally before expanding to serving global clientele, and he came off the blocks in great form.

“I was able to increase my domestic business by 40 percent in just a short time,” he reports. “There are no secrets left in real estate; it’s really about knowledge— and the more you have, the better resource you are. I engage clients on how I can market their property internationally and I’m able to win those clients away from some of the biggest and most established agents in the business.”

Hoo says he benefited from instructors who created hands-on, real-time practice assignments using CIPS tools.

“That helped us understand the importance of things like currency conversion and the differences between metric and imperial measurements. It helped create a comfort zone when discussing these aspects with international clients or agents,” Hoo explains.

Peé says the most important skill he gained in his CIPS training was how to make an introduction to clients that creates both a positive impression and instills trust.

“I think of culture first before I speak,” he says. “I’m working with Volvo now because a fellow CIPS professional called me to assist with some of her relocation clients coming to Charleston. Having knowledge of the (Swedish) culture, that client was absolutely thrilled. I’m probably going to wind up getting a contract with Volvo because of my CIPS designation and my understanding of their culture.”

Peé is dealing with clients from Japan and Vietnam, as well.

“I got a referral just this week from a seller connected with a CIPS agent in the CIPS Facebook group, and I got the listing,” he reports. “I get as much as 10 percent of my referrals every year thanks to my CIPS designation.”

Peé has just opened his own brokerage with five agents, including one who is CIPS designated.

“We’re going to focus on helping that international market using the CIPS marketing tools and materials they provide,” he says. “I’ve already used some of those resources for marketing packages and presentations.”

Hoo reports that he has also received a number of referrals from the CIPS Facebook networking group.

“These referrals are coming from the U.S. and Canadian agents who have contacts outside the country,” he says. “Our group is very active in China and most of Asia, so when these agents get clients from those countries, I usually get the call.”

Hoo explains that he pays that referral goodwill forward by serving as a go-to resource for anyone in the CIPS networking system who has questions about how to interact with new clients or prospects from those countries.

“The designation has really opened up my company to the international marketplace. We’re starting to see a lot more developers coming to us for help marketing their projects in China,” says Hoo. “And the training and marketing materials are always available for those who need it. That’s why I think a CIPS designation is probably the best stepping stone one can get to increase their global presence.”

For more information, please visit www.nar.realtor/cips.

Happy Buyers, Happy Brokerage: Using Home Loans to Build Client Relationships ACCESS SEAMLESS, SUPERIOR LENDING SUPPORT WITH QUICKEN LOANS

by Zoe Eisenberg

A

nthony Lamacchia has been in real estate since 2004.

In that time, he has built out successful real estate and property management companies, as well as the popular real estate training platform “Crush It in Real Estate,” which publishes high-quality real estate training videos with nearly 20,000 followers across social media.

As broker/owner of Lamacchia Realty, Lamacchia enjoys working in the real estate industry because of the impact his company has on his clients’ lives.

“It’s nice to be involved in something as important in people’s lives as buying and selling properties,” says the Massachusetts native. “No matter the economy, there will always be people buying and selling, so it’s nice to be helpful.”

While Lamacchia spends more time running his company than working directly with buyers and sellers these days, his focus remains on his clients, often through agent training and support. “I train and assist my agents to do a great job, always,” explains Lamacchia.

One of the ways he assists his agents is by offering home loans through his partnership with Quicken Loans, a lender that has been serving clients for more than three decades with affordable mortgage opportuniRISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 49

ties and award-winning client service.

“We started working with Quicken Loans on the relocation side because they get a lot of online leads and can pass them along to us,” notes Lamacchia. “Then we started working with them on the mortgage funds for those leads, and our buyers have been happy.”

Happy buyers equal happy agents, and a happy brokerage overall. “If the buyers aren’t happy with their interactions, the agents find out in seconds, and I find out next,” says Lamacchia. “The agents have happy buyers, so we’re happy, too.”

While Lamacchia began working with Quicken Loans only three short months ago, he’s been impressed with the results from the get-go.

“We’re seeing a positive impact through more sales, many of which Quicken Loans provided us through their buyer leads; but they’re also getting the deals closed on the lending side,” says Lamacchia, who points to the ease of working with Quicken Loans as a key benefit.

“Everyone has a specific point of contact, so it’s streamlined and simple, and their representatives do a good job. We’ve received very positive feedback all around,” he says.

Currently, Lamacchia manages a team of just over 200 agents, with a plan to reach 300 by the end of the year. With his team’s savvy social media skills and Quicken Loans on their side to keep both buyers and agents happy, chances are they’ll hit that growth goal in no time.

For more information, please visit www.RealEstate.QuickenLoans.com or call (866) 718-9842.

Building Market Exposure in a Competitive Marketplace OHIO REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL POINTS TO PLENTIFUL PROFITS WITH HOMES.COM

by Liz Dominguez

J

im Van Paepeghem, a REALTOR® with RE/MAX Revealty in Columbus, Ohio, has worked in real estate for six years and enjoys every minute of it, especially when he doesn’t have to worry about lead generation and return on investment. That’s why he values his relationship with Homes.com, where he says he gets leads that are “second to none.”

50 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Taking the advice of his RE/MAX team lead after being recruited in his first year of business, Van Paepeghem looked to Homes.com to help build his market exposure by finding a solid lead generation source.

“Homes.com was one of the more affordable ways to diversify my lead source,” says Van Paepeghem. “With it being so reasonably priced, I didn’t think I had too much to lose.”

His service of choice? Local Connect. Purchasing zip codes for the hottest markets in his area has allowed him to maintain a competitive edge. While the start-up was slow going after an initial boost from his first zip code, the lead generation quickly gained traction.

“I went on to close four deals within the first 10 - 12 leads,” says Van Paepeghem. “The price ranges were from $150,000 to $425,000 and equated to more than $800,000 in total sales.”

As a result of his initial success, Van Paepeghem quickly jumped on more zip codes when he saw the profit potential.

“I currently own 22 or 23 zip codes at 100 percent,” says Van Paepeghem. “The annual investment is $10,000 to $12,000 with a return of no less than $50,000 annually.”

And the business flows through both buyers and sellers, he says.

“I currently have three active buyers that I’m showing houses to and two properties that I’m going to list from those very leads,” says Van Paepeghem. “It’s not uncommon for me to help my leads find a better fit, but also help them sell their existing homes, too.”

After wasting time and energy on other marketing strategies that didn’t amount to much, Van Paepeghem says he’s sticking with Homes.com. The biggest advantage is in the quality of leads, he says.

“The overall quality of leads is far more superior than anything I’ve experienced elsewhere,” says Van Paepeghem. “I’ve been getting so many leads that I’ve been cherry-picking quite a few of them. I don’t think there’s any doubt I could potentially close 20 deals each year.”

In fact, Van Paepeghem says he can expect a 400 500 percent return each year. The process does, however, require work, and Van Paepeghem is committed to converting as many of those leads as possible.

“One of the most important things in this business is to be an effective communicator. Once I receive a lead from Homes.com, I’m on the phone very quickly,” says Van Paepeghem, who understands the value of offering outstanding customer service and market knowledge.

In hopes of growing his business even more, Van Paepeghem is considering expanding his

marketing budget with Homes.com, and is open to learning more about their upcoming opportunities.

“The potential for growth is limitless,” concludes Van Paepeghem.

For more information, please visit https://marketing.homes.com/advertising/agentbroker-advertising/local-connect-details/.

Gaining an Advantage With Buyers PITTSBURGH REALTOR® GETS COMPETITIVE EDGE WITH HOME WARRANTIES

by Jameson Doris

L

ori Hummel, a REALTOR® with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services in Pittsburgh, Pa., got her start in the industry after purchasing her first home. Inspired by the process and how smooth her agent made everything run, Hummel pursued her real estate license that same year.

That was more than 30 years ago. Today, she is a senior sales associate with Howard Hanna Real Estate Services—a company she joined while raising her children and was attracted to because it’s a family business. Today, Hummel is a Certified New Construction and Homes of Distinction specialist.

For almost the entirety of her time in the business, Hummel has offered her clients HSASM (HSA) home warranties. She understands that, now more than ever, potential homebuyers are looking for properties that check off all—or the vast majority of—the boxes on their list.

Being able to offer those folks a home warranty is an incredibly powerful tool, giving homebuyers that extra reassurance that, should components of a covered system or appliance malfunction or break in their new home, they’re covered.

“First-time homebuyers want a warranty and they want to see a copy of specifics regarding what is covered,” says Hummel. “The HSA website is a great resource for homebuyers. If a question arises, they can always reach out to my account representative and she will respond almost instantly.”

Hummel originally turned to HSA as her first choice for a home warranty provider because of their years in the industry and their reputation among buyers and sellers.

However, there are two very specific reasons for why she’s stayed with them for nearly 13 years: reassurance and response time.

“If a seller has an older system in their home, it gives peace of mind to the buyer that if something happens to a covered item, they have the home warranty to help them out,” she says. “If my sellers also take advantage of the program, it gives them one less thing to worry about while their home is on the market.”

When something does go wrong and a contractor is needed immediately, Hummel says that her homeowners know they can call the 1-800 number and a contractor will be there quickly.

“They also know that the contractor is qualified and is part of the professional home service contractor network of the home warranty company,” she adds.

And Hummel says that she also loves working with her own local HSA account executive, Miranda Gula. She’s worked with Gula for years, and if Hummel ever has an issue or needs to add coverage to a warranty, Gula regularly responds to her emails within minutes.

“At the end of the month, she always sends me a reminder email to help ensure my homeowners have a home warranty plan and that we have everything we need for closings,” adds Hummel.

In today’s incredibly competitive real estate market, being able to offer potential homebuyers products like home warranties gives agents an edge—even more so when that home warranty company is an established brand with an excellent track record.

“I know that when my homeowners choose an HSA Home Warranty, they are going to be very happy with the product and the service,” says Hummel.

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

Real Estate 2.0 BROKER TURNS TO MOXIWORKS FOR CREATING INTEGRATED SOLUTION

by Jameson Doris

A

s principal broker/owner of Mississippi-based eAgent Realty, Justin Allen is intimately aware of the main problems agents regularly face in this ever-changing real estate landscape. Being in the industry for some 17 years, those issues have changed, but Allen notes three main struggles agents are facing today.

The first two are that 6 percent of listing commissions are on the chopping block, since the listing agent’s tasks can now be largely automated with new options for sellRISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 51

ers arriving every day, and the fact that developing your own brand as an agent is harder than ever.

Thirdly, many agents have to do double data entry, since the technology on the brokerage level is often subpar and not integrated. In order to be more efficient, many agents end up purchasing their own tools for lead generation, CRM, CMAs, websites, transaction management...the list goes on and on.

These unwanted expenses all add up, which led Allen to take a step back. After much consideration, he determined that what the industry needed was a much more efficient model where the agent could strike out on their own and develop their own brand, without the burdensome costs associated with doing so.

“Within a short period of time we had this new model figured out, but needed a software company to help build the intranet that it would take to roll out this new, nontraditional partnership between ourselves and entrepreneurial-minded agents,” says Allen.

That’s when he found MoxiWorks, a company that already had an excellent handle on the integration issue that many agents face. Thanks to MoxiCloud, real estate professionals are able to integrate various tech partners so all of their tools work together. This also lets folks use a single sign-on (SSO) for access, saving time and limiting double data entry.

“The service from MoxiWorks was amazing, and in just a few short months, we had an intranet that could act like a power strip where we could easily plug in different vendors,” says Allen. “Having a weekly conference call with our dedicated account manager from MoxiWorks made it easy to stay on task and get a lot accomplished.”

With MoxiWorks on board, Allen was able to face head-on the other two issues agents deal with. Allen repurposed his office into what he calls a “Synergy Office” where other brokers have access for a low monthly fee.

This took care of the need for their own office space.

And for branding, to remove the guesswork, he came up with two different branding options that brokers can choose from.

“Incorporating a partner like MoxiWorks gave us the ability to create something new for the industry and launch an evolution for the next generation of entrepreneurs who have staked their claim in this new world we call Real Estate 2.0,” Allen says. “More importantly, our new partnership with MoxiWorks has changed the team dynamic within our new, evolved office.”

He adds that the support his office has received from MoxiWorks through regular phone calls and webinars for the entire brokerage with his local account manager, Melissa Anderson, has been integral to his brokerage’s innovation, enthusiasm and overall growth.

“MoxiWorks has not only exceeded our needs and expectations, but was the only company we 52 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

could find that even came close to being able to assist us in achieving our vision,” says Allen.

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

Creating a Pipeline of Future Buyers FLORIDA REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL FINDS CONTINUED SUCCESS WITH RENTAL BEAST

by Keith Loria

A

t 22 years old and in the real estate business for just over half a year, Jason Jeremiah of CENTURY 21 Beggins Enterprises in Florida found that he wasn’t often the goto real estate professional for those looking to buy a home.

“Everyone was talking about buying and selling, but because of my age, more renters were attracted to me,” says Jeremiah.

That’s when he made the strategic decision to concentrate on the rental market. Jeremiah, who works in the Tampa, Fla., area and serves hot rental markets including Apollo Beach, Brandon, Riverview, Saint Leo and Tampa, soon found his plan successful.

To build his business, Jerimiah has relied on Rental Beast, a SaaS platform designed to simplify the leasing process and that maintains the most comprehensive and up-to-date database of rental listings in the country.

“I’ve found rentals to be a quick cash flow and a great way to build my brand while obtaining homebuyers down the road,” says Jeremiah, who continues to explain that agents who exclusively use the MLS to locate rentals are often rewarded with only $50 or $100 per transaction. “I went in to see how I could maximize the way in which I was helping renters, and that’s where Rental Beast came in.”

Because Rental Beast works directly with landlords, the database allows Jeremiah to access rental listings that are not found on his local MLS and have no cobrokers attached.

“That definitely piqued my interest,” says Jeremiah.

“I had renters who were attracted to me anyway, so I thought if I could conquer this database, I could excel my commission and rewards. It would help me grow my business, as those same renters would most likely come back to me to buy one day.”

Jeremiah set out to contact the landlords representing Rental Beast’s local listings and work on his negotiating skills.

“Many of the owners don’t want to pay a

fee, which is why they don’t get involved with an agent, but I’m able to explain the value of my finding a qualified tenant, and how it can be done quicker,” says Jeremiah. “If it’s been listed for 60 days, and applications keep failing because unqualified people keep coming to you, I explain that it’s worth the one month’s rental fee so that the property doesn’t sit vacant.”

Within his first two weeks of joining the Rental Beast platform, Jeremiah was able to match a lead provided

by Rental Beast with one of the nearly 100,000 Rental Beast-sourced listings in Tampa. In addition, he became listing agent for a property and closed a second rental deal. He’s also turned a few more no’s into yeses—and some into commissions.

A licensed pharmacy technician at a veteran’s hospital, Jeremiah was looking for opportunities to invest in his future, and found real estate. Though his goal is to make his first direct investment in real estate by next year, he loves being in the industry and plans to continue renting and selling properties.

“Some people are going to rent forever, but a lot of them will eventually want to purchase a home,” concludes Jeremiah, who believes that building rentals into his business will create a pipeline of future buyers. And while he’s beginning to increase his home sales clientele, he’ll continue to work with rentals, too.

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

Leveraging Relationships and Preparing Consumers for Homeownership KENTUCKY BROKERAGE UTILIZES BROKER TOOLS FROM REALTORS PROPERTY RESOURCE® (RPR®) IN A UNIQUE WAY

by Liz Dominguez

F

or many, a yearly or biannual doctor’s visit is just a part of life—a way to provide patients with the information they need to prevent illnesses and lead healthy lives. Can’t the same ideology be transferred to real estate?

Tim Moore, senior vice president of Semonin Technology & Marketing Media, saw a need for the same type of “wellness check” in real estate to ensure that consumers were armed with the necessary tools to reach their homeownership dreams, even if they weren’t immediately ready to buy or sell. Semonin REALTORS® of Kentucky—a Berkshire

Hathaway affiliate that includes Semonin REALTORS®, Rector Hayden REALTORS®, Huff Realty and Wakefield Reutlinger REALTORS®— has been using Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) to routinely offer these wellness checks to consumers.

“It’s like going to the doctor and having him or her listen to your heart and talk to you about how your health is doing. At that point, there’s no need to really go further,” says Moore, whose wellness checks are the preliminary step that provides consumers with easy access to important information they may find useful in the future.

“When someone really gets interested in the market, that’s like going back to the doctor and asking for more assistance,” says Moore. “When they get more serious, that’s when you dive deeper and get more hands-on.”

The biggest challenge Moore saw in the market was a lack of easy-to-understand information. There was data available, but it wasn’t helping consumers because they couldn’t easily digest it.

“Maybe it’s because of how it’s packaged, as it’s not always the most readable. You can put something together that looks a lot like a tax return, but it’s hard for someone to explain that data,” says Moore.

That’s why his brokerage has been providing a bound publication, taking the raw data from RPR, the MLS and FHFA.gov, and repackaging it so that it’s much more explainable.

“What we’ve evolved into doing is combining the RPR reports with other reports that include historical trends and a combination of local market statistics,” says Moore. “They all get packaged together and used in different ways for agents to present the information to buyers and sellers.”

On the agent side, Moore appreciates how easy RPR data is to handle, especially for greener recruits who typically require time to change habits and embrace using something new.

“It can be overwhelming when you’re brand-new and there are all these different things you have to learn to use,” he says. “Looking up data through RPR is as easy as doing a few clicks and out comes a report. It’s pretty helpful.”

But because the agents know this data gives them a competitive edge in the industry, especially when developing those important client relationships, they’ve really taken to these wellness checks.

“Agents that can maintain their client relationships do good business in all types of economies no matter what super tool is coming out,” concludes Moore. “RPR is doing a good job of helping us leverage those relationships.” RE For more information, please visit www.narrpr.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 53

4 Ways to Stand Out From the Competition

by Brian Buffini

R

eal estate agents are under tremendous pressure in today’s market. The number of agents in the field continues to rise, with membership in the National Association of REALTORS® increasing for the sixth consecutive year.

Real estate tech “disruptors” like iBuyer programs remove agents from the transaction process. Flashy online services claim to have a “magic pill” to generate more leads, make more money and become an overnight success—all for just “two easy payments of $19.99.”

With more people—and technology—in the game, it’s crucial to stand out from the competition. How can you do this? It all boils down to excellent service.

MAINTAIN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS. Your relationships drive your business. The buyers and sellers that you’ve worked with in the past play a role in the leads you generate today.

Keep in touch with your clients after the transaction has closed by consistently sending them items of value each month, calling them on the phone, writing a personal note and stopping by their home with small, inexpensive pop-by gifts.

54 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

BE THE HUB OF YOUR NETWORK. The nature of the real estate profession puts you in touch with a variety of businesses and professionals in your local area. While it’s important to maintain relationships with your clients, it’s also important to develop relationships with other business professionals in your area. As you get to know them and build trust, you can refer their services to your clients, confident that they’ll offer your clients the same high-quality service that you do.

FIND A NEED AND FILL IT. Your clients may not ask for help outright.

They may casually mention that they’re thinking of putting a new roof

on their home or that their son is heading off to college. By listening for these small cues, you can find ways to serve them better. You can provide them with the name of a trusted roofing company in your network or drop off a book about how to deal with an empty nest. These thoughtful gestures help to build the relationship and show your clients that you care.

USE TECH AS A TACTIC, NOT A PRINCIPLE. If you want to stand out in a crowded marketplace, you have to stay focused, avoid distraction and keep your eye on the prize. The tech tools you use to support your operation should be viewed as tactics—not as fundamental principles.

Invest in technology, yes, but seek out the services and programs that will complement your business philosophy. If the latest trend doesn’t fit in with the foundation of your system, it isn’t a wise investment.

Weave these four strategies into your business foundation to provide consistent, excellent service. Seek out training and events to brush up on these skills. For a deep-dive into these principles, join me at Buffini & Company Success Tour™. At this two-day seminar, you’ll hear from Buffini & Company Master Trainers, world-renowned guest speakers and myself as we share effective strategies and tactics to future-proof your business so you can stand out from the competition. RE Brian Buffini immigrated to San Diego from Ireland in 1986 and became a top-performing REALTOR®. He then founded Buffini & Company to share his powerful lead-generation system. Buffini & Company has trained more than 3 million people in 37 countries and coaches more than 25,000 business pros. Today, Brian’s a New York Times best-selling author and reaches over 6 million listeners a year through “The Brian Buffini Show” podcast. For more, visit buffiniandcompany.com.

Š 2019 Stewart. All rights reserved.

Sprint Offers Solutions for Real Estate Agents, Delivers Savings on Mobile Technology by the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR®) REALTOR Benefits® Program Team

F

or real estate professionals, the mobile phone is a business lifeline. It’s es-

• 17 percent savings on tablet and connection card plans

sential for fielding offers, connecting

• Waived fees on activations, upgrades and shipping

with clients and accessing critical data

In addition, NAR members may tap special pricing on Sprint’s mobile technology add-on solutions, including:

every single business day.

Sprint, a longtime partner in NAR’s REALTOR Benefits® Program, knows how vital mobile technology is in NAR members’ professional and personal lives, and has now designed an updated benefit offer for new and existing Sprint customers. Sprint’s offer for NAR members includes: • $5/month savings ($60 annually) on Sprint’s Unlimited rate plans; discount applies to first line of service • 25 percent savings on select accessories, such as chargers, headphones and cases • $100 bill credit when activating a new smartphone for a new business line of service (one bill credit available per year)

56 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

• 25 percent off Associate Pledge—eliminates distracted driving by sending calls to voicemail when a car is moving

Digital, Social Media Marketing Streamlined, Managed by Pros Smart, successful agents know how important marketing is to their business.

Partners in NAR’s REALTOR Benefits® Program provide the expertise that helps real estate professionals manage their social media and digital outreach simply, effectively and efficiently.

• 10 percent off Safe and Found— app that sends emergency alerts and current location • 10 percent off Multiline—one device, two lines. Save when both work and personal phone numbers are on just one phone and one account (or one plan) NAR members who use their phone for personal use only might wish to consider a personal account, which includes a select range of benefits.

Tip: To maximize savings, REALTOR Benefits® Program discounts are stackable on top of Sprint’s national promotions and special offers.

For example, if a real estate agent switches to a Sprint business account, they can receive both the $100 bill credit and also take advantage of Sprint’s limited-time national switching offer, extending their new activation bonus credit.

Sign Up. Save.

Becoming part of the Sprint network is simple, and NAR members can sign up online, at a Sprint store or over the phone.

For full details about establishing business and personal accounts, visit NAR.realtor/RealtorBenefits/Sprint.

The REALTOR Benefits® Program is the exclusive member benefits program of the National Association of REALTORS®, bringing savings and special offers just for NAR members. In one year, over 800,000 REALTORS® gained an edge by leveraging at least one REALTOR Benefits® Program offering, saving $63 million on member benefits from industry-leading companies. Program partners are carefully selected and understand the unique needs of real estate professionals. Learn more and save by visiting NAR.realtor/RealtorBenefits. RE

Automated Social Media Presence Back At You helps agents promote themselves, their brand and their listings on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter in a way that’s automated, targeted and fully customizable.

Agents can link their social media profiles, add their MLS data, specify their target market and choose their level of automation. Then, Back At You’s innovative Social Media Center automatically and beautifully posts content to the practitioner’s social media pages.

Various levels of service are available. There’s a starter plan for agents who are new to social media marketing, plus advanced subscriptions for agents who want additional features, such as blogs, branded videos and exclusive seller leads.

NAR members can get started with Back At You with exclusive pricing and discounts.

In addition, brokerage firms can choose an enterprise plan that allows them to set up NAR Starter Plans for all of their agents at a discounted monthly rate.

For complete details about Back At You, visit NAR.realtor/RealtorBenefits/BackAtYou. Back At You is a REALTOR Benfits® Program partner and not an RISMedia-endorsed solution.

Leveraging Digital Advertising Adwerx lets agents leverage digital advertising and use ads to target and follow local prospects when they’re using mobile apps and Facebook, and surfing home search sites like realtor.com®, as well as when they’re visiting CNN, Yahoo and local news sites.

A digital marketing strategy helps practitioners build awareness of their brand, get more referrals and promote listings to a targeted group of online prospects.

Practitioners can target prospects in a variety of ways, including with home listing ads in a specific radius of a home’s address, by zip code and by sphere of influence.

In addition, real estate teams or brokers that want to recruit top agents can use Adwerx to target those professionals with online ads in a given market.

Available exclusively for NAR members is a 15-percent additional impressions (bonus views) deal on newly purchased or renewed campaigns that are created on the Adwerx platform. That means if agents opted to target 10,000 views per month for an ad at a website, they’ll actually receive 11,500 ad views.

Plus, this offer provides extra value when stacked with any existing Adwerx offers NAR members may already have in place through their brokerage, association or other Adwerx partner.

Learn more about Adwerx at NAR.realtor/RealtorBenefits/Adwerx.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 57

Fewer Foreclosures Nationwide, but Local Market Outliers Surface

By Suzanne De Vita

I

n the first half of 2010, foreclosures peaked at 1.6 million-plus properties. In the recovery since, foreclosures have plummeted 82 percent, according to a report last month.

In the first half of 2019, foreclosures hung on over 295,000 properties, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ August 2019 findings—an 18-percent drop from last year. Approximately 177,000 began the foreclosure process in that time, defined as “foreclosure starts,” falling 8 percent year-over-year.

At odds with the trend, foreclosures increased in 16 percent of the largest markets in the U.S., with Buffalo, N.Y., and four Florida markets seeing spikes: Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando and Tampa-St. Petersburg.

Notably, Jacksonville also claimed a considerable foreclosure rate, at 0.54 percent of properties. The highest? New Jersey, with foreclosures on 0.54 percent of properties statewide, and home to two major markets in similar straits: Atlantic City, with a foreclosure rate of 0.92 percent; and Trenton, at 0.52 percent.

58 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

mortgage rates are remaining low and job growth is still strong, lenders are becoming more aggressive with their payment collection because they are confident in getting a decent return.”

FORECLOSURE INCREASES – MARKETS TO WATCH 1. Buffalo, N.Y. (+33%) 2. Orlando, Fla. (+32%) 3. Jacksonville, Fla. (+18%) 4. Miami, Fla. (+7%) 5. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. (+5%) FORECLOSURE STARTS – MARKETS TO WATCH 1. Miami, Fla. (+32%) 2. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. (+18%) 3. Atlanta, Ga. (+16%) 4. Washington, D.C. (+8%) 5. Denver, Colo. (+6%)

Across 16 states—and in 42 percent of the largest markets— foreclosure initiations picked up, concentrated in Southern states.

In Mississippi, foreclosure starts surged 56 percent year-over-year, and in Florida, rose 28 percent.

“Our midyear 2019 foreclosure activity helps to show an overall view on how foreclosure activity is trending downward,” says Todd Teta, ATTOM Data Solutions chief product officer.

“Of course, you still have pockets across the nation where foreclosure activity is seeing some flare-ups.”

Are the blips cause for concern?

According to Teta, foreclosure starts warrant watching.

“Affordability definitely plays a factor in why some areas across the nation are seeing an uptick in foreclosure starts,” Teta says. “The fact that median home sale prices are reaching new levels in Q2 2019,

FORECLOSURE RATES (METRO) 1. Atlantic City, N.J. (0.92%) 2. Jacksonville, Fla. (0.54%) 3. Trenton, N.J. (0.52%) 4. Rockford, Ill. (0.51%) 5. Lakeland, Fla. (0.51%) 6. Columbia, S.C. (0.49%) 7. Ocala, Fla. (0.49%) 8. Philadelphia, Pa. (0.48%) 9. Fayetteville, N.C. (0.47%) 10. Baltimore, Md. (0.44%) FORECLOSURE RATES (STATE) 1. New Jersey (0.54%) 2. Delaware (0.46%) 3. Maryland (0.43%) 4. Florida (0.39%) 5. Illinois (0.38%) 6. South Carolina (0.33%) 7. Connecticut (0.32%) 8. Ohio (0.3%) 9. Nevada (0.26%) 10. New Mexico (0.26%) RE For the complete findings from the report, please visit www.ATTOMData.com.

Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s online news editor.

2019 AREAA NATIONAL CONVENTION October 17–19, 2019 Boston Marriott Copley Place Register now at areaa.org/convention

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INSPIRE: Renew your Passion Immerse yourself into an exciting 3-day experience filled with learning, networking, and education.

Invigorate your passion for real estate and return to your business with a renewed drive to succeed.

Rudy L. Kusuma (front center) and members of his Outside Sales Agents department.

The Real Estate Office of the Future Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Sets Out to Chart a New Course

by Maria Patterson

R

udy L. Kusuma learned early on that the standard approach to the real estate business was not the way to win. The traditional tactic of filling the funnel through cold calling and door knocking wasn’t his style. “I was failing at prospecting and stumbled on this idea of reverse prospecting,” he explains. And with a strategy focused on attracting customers instead of chasing them,

60 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Kusuma started the top-ranking Team Nuvision in 2008, and, this month, embarks as his own brokerage, Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, where he plans to bring his team success formula to agents throughout Los Angeles and, eventually, the entire state. Here’s why Kusuma believes he’s onto a model and a philosophy that just might change the real estate industry for good.

Maria Patterson: Rudy, please begin by telling us a bit about your background and how you first got into the real estate business.

Rudy L. Kusuma: Sure. I used to sell door-to-door promotional items, and one of my clients was a real estate broker. He told me I could be really good at real estate, so I got my license in 2007.

MP: Were real estate sales a lot different? What did you learn early on?

RK: As soon as I got my license, my broker told me that the first thing you do is prospecting: cold calling and door knocking. But I was struggling with cold calling, and it wasn’t successful for me. I thought, “Maybe my voice doesn’t sound good over the phone,” so I tried door knocking.

The only difference with door knocking was that now people were mad at me face-to-face!

That’s when I first realized that there was a problem in this busi-

ness. Most real estate agents spend 70 - 80 percent of their time prospecting, but normal businesses are not this way.

MP: So how did you come up with a different approach?

RK: Back in 2007, I started to figure out how to attract customers to me instead of chasing them.

I was failing at prospecting and stumbled on this idea of reverse prospecting. I started hosting Cashflow game nights based on the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Every time people came to the office to play, I would always ask them, “How many are thinking about buying or selling?” By doing that, I would pick up three, four or five new clients. So instead of cold calling, I hosted the Cashflow game nights and created an investors’ club that taught people how to invest in real estate. By the end of my first month, I had picked up 20 - 25 clients.

“We are the only company to teach real estate agents to grow and develop their own teams. You have to add value as a broker, and that’s what we will do. We’re teaching real estate agents to build their own system.”

- RUDY L. KUSUMA President & CEO, Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty

MP: You then formed a team right away, correct?

RK: That’s right. I realized most agents were just busy looking for clients, whereas I suddenly had more clients than I could handle. In 2008, when I was working in a Coldwell Banker office, I asked the other agents if they wanted to partner up with me, and they all said yes. So, my first team was started by accident out of necessity.

MP: 2008 was an interesting time to be ramping up in real estate!

RK: Yes, in 2008 the market crashed.

I looked around me, and even though people were not doing well, they were still talking about cold calling and the “long run.” For me, I had no “long run.” I had to pay bills now. I was a brand-new agent and my second baby had just been born. I couldn’t be thinking about doing branding and long-term campaigns. My long run was 60 days, not 20 years from now.

So for me, it was about direct response marketing where you create compelling offers so that prospects chase you. And business continued to grow. My first year in 2008, my team in the Coldwell Banker office became No. 1 in the office. We then moved to RE/MAX, and for the past five years, our team has been the No. 1 team in RE/MAX.

MP: Talk about the evolution of your team.

RK: We started in 2008 as Team Nuvision. We focus on only one thing: generating buyers and sellers. We have about 2,000 buyers and sellers calling us each month.

We operate on the same principle of reverse prospecting—using radio, billboards, direct mail, etc., so that people are calling us. We sold 550 homes last year, and we do not do any prospecting, cold calling or door knocking.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 61

MP: How is the team structured?

RK: We have more than 17 people on the team. We have a marketing and media department, and a general administrative staff that inputs all inquiries into our CRM. We have an inside sales team who then follows up with inquiries to check on their timing and motivation. If they find out someone is moving in the next 3 - 6 months, they book an appointment with our outside sales team. If they’re not ready, they go to our customer service team. Our outside sales team uses my buyer’s and listing presentations. We’re not a franchise, but it’s a blueprint—a duplication of a system that works, instead of 10 different agents using 10 different listing systems.

The Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty model focuses on one thing, says Rudy L. Kusuma: generating buyers and sellers.

62 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

MP: How would you say your team differs from other real estate teams out there?

RK: The term “team” has been abused so much. Just because you’re under the same roof doesn’t make you a team. When we talk about a team, we mean that each individual person has a specific role in the transaction. We have been perfecting this model since 2007 to make sure it works.

MP: And now you have made the big step to turn your team into its own company. Why did you make this move?

RK: Yes, we have left RE/MAX and just launched Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty. I felt there was a problem in the traditional brand model,

no matter what brand you’re talking about. For example, McDonald’s teaches you how to cook a hamburger. That’s why, wherever you go, you know that when you have a McDonald’s hamburger, it’s going to taste the same. However, in the real estate industry, in general, the system is broken, because at the end of the day, after all the shiny objects, each individual agent is still responsible for their own business. And the problem with that, just like me in 2007, comes down to the fact that it’s not humanly possible for an individual agent to do everything that needs to be done to be successful. Our team system, however, redefines the job of the real estate agent.

In our new company, we are going to focus on growing and developing

real estate sales teams, and help as many real estate agents as possible grow and develop their own teams.

We want to change how the real estate industry works.

MP: Will you base your company around the strategy of reverse prospecting?

RK: Yes. On our team, because there is no prospecting, we are focused on only one thing: servicing the client.

We are teaching real estate agents how not to rely on the MLS, but, instead, how to set, negotiate and collect their own buyer’s agent fees so that they can show a buyer all the homes that meet their criteria, not just some of them. I believe that in the near future, buyer’s agents’ commissions on the MLS will go to zero, and everyone will have to negotiate their own fee. But no one is teaching the real estate agent how to do that.

We are.

MP: How do you plan on attracting agents to your firm?

RK: My introduction to agents is that we are the only company that books you a face-to-face buyer or listing appointment. That’s our uniqueness.

Leads are useless. The same lead goes to 20 people. We are the only company to focus on helping real estate agents grow. Our vision is to be the best place to work, buy and sell real estate in the state of California.

We hope to have 50 teams in the next 12 months.

MP: Given your team model, what role will new recruits play in your company?

RK: Generally, there will be two types of agents. Some will join as outside sales agents, some as team leaders who want to build their own successful team. Usually, this is someone who is the No. 1 agent at their firm, and they’ve hit a plateau. I know the struggle because I was there. Right

now, they’re a one-man show. They have no time for their family, health is usually an issue, and it’s just a matter of time before the machine breaks down. We will teach them how to leverage themselves with people and with technology.

MP: How will you help agents succeed in an increasingly competitive market?

RK: The real estate agent commission is under attack. The consumer is looking at the agent and asking, “What value are you bringing?” If your value proposition is that you’re just a nice guy, you will be eliminated.

If the machine can do what you do, you should be worried because, one day, you will be replaced. Our asset is training on how to do something the machine cannot do: negotiate.

We give buyers access to homes they can’t find online. When you’re selling a house, instead of giving sellers a For Sale sign or drone photos, through our CRM, we give them a pool of 45,000 prospective buyers. Using AI, we do a search-andmatch analysis, so we know which prospects are most likely to buy your home. Then we call all of those prospective buyers. Sellers hire us because we have already done all the work for them. Because we already have the buyers.

MP: So how will Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty stand apart from other real estate firms?

RK: The relationship between a broker and an agent today is often like a landlord and a tenant. We are the only company to teach real estate agents to grow and develop their own teams. You have to add value as a broker, and that’s what we will do.

We’re teaching real estate agents to build their own system.

MP: Rudy, beyond your new firm, your M.O. has been all about teaching oth-

“I believe in the law of generosity: whatever you want in life, give it away…including time and money.”

- RUDY L. KUSUMA President & CEO, Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty

ers, as evidenced by your seminars, videos, etc. Why is sharing knowledge so important to you?

RK: I was born and raised in Indonesia. My family never had money and never talked about money. My mom always focused on education, and paid for the education of myself and my four siblings. People can take everything away from you, but no one can take away knowledge and education. That was programmed into me since I was small. In 2007, I saw a problem in this business. I could’ve kept that a secret, but that’s not my personality. I believe in the law of generosity: Whatever you want in life, give it away…including time and money. I believe we can change the world if each individual, team or agent has a cause. So every person who joins my company, as a requirement, has to choose a non-profit to give to. For example, last year, we were the No. 1 fundraising office for Children’s Hospital in LA. You must understand that your business is designed for others and you’re a channel of that. The more you add value for people, the more money you will make per transaction.

Focus on adding more value than the machine can offer; otherwise, we’re looking at the commoditization of the industry. Income will continue to go down if we fight over who has the fastest technology. RE For more information, please visit www.YourHomeSoldGuaranteedInc.com or call (626) 789-0159.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 63

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{Power Broker Perspectives}

by Keith Loria

Rod Messick:

A FullService Value Proposition After leaving active duty as a Naval Officer and completing his graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania, Rod Messick had several offers to join Fortune 500 companies in management development programs. Instead, he took an opportunity to go to Lancaster, Pa., to work in a startup national bank whose focus was mortgage banking.

Messick began as a mortgage loan officer and went on to work on an M&A project before joining what would become Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty in 2004. Today, he serves as CEO of the full-service real estate firm.

Once you left the Navy, you had several opportunities, and eventually chose real estate as your career.

What is it about this industry that you enjoy?

ROD MESSICK: What I

love about our industry is that it’s a true meritocracy.

It’ll give back what you put into it. My partners and I love to see people grow personally and professionally, which is why we believe so strongly in the value of a true full-service brokerage where agents get the support and care they need to develop.

What most sets your firm apart in the marketplace?

RM: Dedication to training, professional development, full-time office leadership and an integrated home-services model.

How is your market faring in 2019, and what factors are playing a part?

RM: Our market is up slightly in units year-overyear, and up over 10 percent in total volume. This is primarily a factor of strong buyer demand, limited inventory at two times the median sales price and below, and lower-thanexpected interest rates.

Are you planning to grow your firm in the next year?

RM: Yes, we’re actively seeking great companies with congruent cultures for both in-market and geographic expansion on the non-organic growth front.

Additionally, we invest heavily in organic growth both through efforts to attract new and experienced agents to the company and through coaching, marketing and systems implementation to help our

VITALS: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Homesale Realty

Years in business: 22 Size: 29 offices, 1,340 agents Regions served: Southern Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Reading, Lancaster, York and surrounding communities) and the Baltimore metropolitan area 2018 sales volume: $3,101,464,275 2018 transactions: 14,138 www.homesale.com existing agents grow their businesses. We recently opened a new office in Harford County, Md., to expand our service area, and will continue to look for opportunities to open startup offices where appropriate.

What are the biggest challenges you’re currently facing?

RM: Limited inventory with strong buyer demand, in addition to it not being economically feasible to build new homes at the median sales price in most of our markets. The material, labor and regulatory costs are too high to deliver units at scale that are “affordable.” Wage growth and price support from appreciation need to continue in order to create balance.

What do you see as the biggest opportunities for increasing business right now?

RM: Attracting great agents, both new and experienced, who value the support, training, mentoring and career develop-

ment that are at the very core of our company’s values. We help people achieve their dreams, and this isn’t just limited to homebuyers and sellers, but our agents and employees, as well. We also have opportunities to grow our mortgage, title, insurance and property management business lines. This will be done organically by deepening our relationships with our agents and creating greater confidence in our integrated services model and through non-organic efforts that include acquisition activity and partnership opportunities.

What do you look for in someone new coming into the company?

RM: For new agents, it’s a dedication to a career in real estate. We want people who see themselves as career professionals and are willing to put in the time and effort to learn the business. As for experienced agents, it’s all about the cultural

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 65

fit and whether or not we believe we can help them be more successful and efficient.

Bo Menkiti:

Prepping Agents to Overcome Challenges Bo Menkiti, CEO and founding partner of Keller Williams Capital Properties in Washington, D.C., entered the real estate business 15 years ago and remains deeply invested in the industry, thanks to the power of real estate to transform the lives of the people it touches. Prior to forming the firm, Menkiti served as chief operating officer of College Summit, a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the college enrollment rate of low-income students.

Please describe the current market conditions in your area.

BO MENKITI: The Washington, D.C., metropolitan market is notoriously strong, with a consistent and high demand for housing, so our market and our business reflect that.

Generally, the factors that we’re seeing directly affecting the market are the arrival of Amazon’s HQ2, which has already led to housing prices in the immediate area near the campus to jump as much as 20 percent.

What are the projections for the market ahead?

BM: In the next 20 years, our region is anticipated to add upwards of 600,000 new jobs, while only adding 200,000 new housing units, further exacerbating the housing shortage and affordability crisis that we’re facing. While the economic outlook for our region is strong, several concerning factors emerge. First, the delta of new jobs/residents and available housing units, and second, the pay scale for those new jobs is most likely not going to be at the income levels required to purchase the averagepriced home in our region.

This means those of us in the real estate industry have a real need to help increase both housing supply and housing affordability in our market.

66 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

So how does that factor into growth plans for your firm?

BM: We’re seeking to expand our brokerage in three ways, the first of which entails supporting our agents in growing their businesses. We’ll also be actively recruiting business-minded agents to join our company while seeking merger and acquisition opportunities with independent brokerages and other Keller Williams franchisees.

What are the biggest opportunities for increasing business in 2019?

BM: The first opportunity to increase business right now is to attract agents who want more for themselves and who want to own and grow businesses of their own. These agents are not only experienced and smart, but also, they’re seeking to leverage a proven system, models of success, tools (including technology) and a global network that helps to move

properties more quickly for clients. Secondly, we can increase business by acquiring smaller brokerages that won’t survive a shift on their own, which helps us take more territory.

What differentiates you from the competition?

BM: The access our agents have to a broad and large regional platform that allows them to better harness the innovations and technology coming from Keller Williams. This platform includes a multi-disciplinary environment, with a development company that includes commercial and home-building sectors through which our agents can enhance and enrich their own businesses. Our agents and leadership are strongly encouraged to learn and collaborate within and beyond our brokerage, and they have access to the best systems, models, technology and tools in the industry.

VITALS: Keller Williams Capital Properties Years in business: 13 Size: 7 Mid-Atlantic regional offices, plus a business center in the heart of Washington, D.C., 996 agents Regions served: District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia 2018 sales volume: $2,275,503,252 2018 transactions: 4,756 www.kwcapitalproperties.com

for five regions: Gulf States, North Florida, South Florida, Maryland and D.C.

Wendi Harrelson:

Staying in Front of a Changing Business It was 27 years ago that Wendi Harrelson began her real estate career with Keller Williams, and over that time, she has catapulted to become one of the company’s most trusted and productive leaders.

Today, Harrelson is regional director for Keller Williams in South Texas, the second-largest region with 9,600 associates and 28 offices, and is also operating partner for a pair of offices (CityView in San Antonio and Lake Travis in Austin), with 850 associates in one and 275 in the other.

Additionally, she serves as regional operating partner for Upstate New York, which currently has more than 1,200 associates and 11 offices—and was recently named a divisional leader

You’ve spent your entire career with Keller Williams. What do you enjoy most about what you do?

WENDI HARRELSON: What I love about the industry is that it’s constantly changing and I’m helping people with one of the biggest decisions of their lives. I also enjoy giving others the platform to run their own business as big as they want and brand themselves in the industry. What I love about Keller Williams is the endless opportunities available to our associates, as well as the leadership.

How is the South Texas market this year?

WH: Our market is strong and thriving. The economy is strong in South Texas, and more people are moving here from other parts of the country than ever before.

What is your growth strategy in the year ahead?

WH: We’ll continue to grow and attract other agents due to our advanced technology that stays ahead of the game, in addition to providing all the tools agents will need to compete.

What are some of the biggest challenges the real estate industry faces in 2019?

WH: The biggest challenges are the new companies popping up daily, staying in front of technology changes, and understanding that the business is constantly changing; therefore, it’s not the same business as in the past. You must provide leadership, stay competitive with costs and provide a positive culture for agents to stay.

Can you provide an example of how you’re helping agents?

WH: We’re analyzing daily how to keep the cost low for agents to run their businesses. Keller Williams’ Labs program, led by our top executives, allows agents to be the audience and provide feedback and ideas on tools that are being developed.

What makes your firm unique?

WH: I believe that what sets my firm apart is the highly trained leadership team that’s very plugged into all of the new tools and technology. We realize that the agents are the product,

and the team is there to serve them and make sure that everyone is trained on all new tools and technology. I also think the longevity of the staff/leadership team in the office—most have been in the office for more than 14 years—has created a culture of family and trust that most offices don’t have.

What is the secret to bringing in top agents to the firm?

WH: Asking good questions is always the key in hiring a new associate.

It’s important to make sure they understand that this is a very competitive business that costs money, while educating them about the fact that they need to plug in 100-percent for training and education and be dedicated to building a database as soon as possible. If they have a database coming into the industry, they need to work it daily and continue that in a structured manner for the life of their business. RE

VITALS: Keller Williams Realty South Texas – San Antonio and CityView Years in business: 27 Size: 2 offices (CityView/Lake Travis), 1,125 agents Region served: South Texas 2018 sales volume: $1,713,868,555 2018 transactions: 5,854 units www.kw.com

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 67

5 Reasons You Should Follow Up Every Call With an Email by the Experts at Realty ONE Group

One of the most effective ways to make sure you’ve conveyed the very specific details of a home-buying or -selling transaction is to reiterate them in a follow-up email. Most of us are visual, too, and when you communicate verbally and in a written email, we’re twice as likely to comprehend and remember.

NO. 3 – NOW YOU HAVE A COPY, TOO You may think you’ve got it all down but seeing it in writing may help you, too. Make sure you include yourself on the email so a copy comes to your inbox. And if you’re a great organizer, you’ll have folders set up so you can save them and refer back to them when needed.

A

re you multi-tasking right now while you read this? Chances are pretty good that you are. There’s not much today that warrants our undivided attention and because of that, we could all use some friendly reminders to get the job done.

Whether it’s to your clients, your broker, your title company or even your spouse, you should follow up important phone calls with an email.

Sure, there are exceptions to every rule, but these days, the most efficient way to ensure your message is received is to send an email with details and specifics as soon as you hang up the phone.

Here are five reasons why you need to summarize that call:

NO. 1 – THE USE OF MOBILE PHONES MEANS MULTI-TASKING Most of us are busy, juggling a million daily chores to get it all done, which involves a fair amount of multi-

tasking. Our excessive use of mobile devices today means you can pretty much assume the person on the other end of a phone call is distracted.

We take calls while we’re at the grocery store, jogging or while walking the kids home from school. For that reason, it’s never safe to assume that the person you’re speaking with is jotting down notes. That’s why email is critical in making sure your message has been delivered and received.

NO. 2 – THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS In this complicated world, the devil is in the details, especially when it comes to buying and selling a home.

NO. 4 – ACCOUNTING OR LEGAL REASONS You may already have accounting or legal reasons for making sure most of your conversations are in writing.

If not, it’s good practice so that you’ll be in the habit if you’re ever required to do so.

NO. 5 – BE THE ONE THAT CARES Sending a personalized note shows that you care. While an email isn’t quite as personal as a handwritten card, it does demonstrate that you’re a great communicator and will go the extra mile to make sure your clients have what they need, opening the door for more referrals.

Impressing your clients and others could be as simple as a followup email, but that’s just one reason to get in the habit and start doing it today. RE Realty ONE Group is a growing network of real estate professionals who love what they do and where they work. We share best practices and thrive on a platform of the best tools and technology in the business. If you’ve been wondering what makes us different, visit a Realty ONE Group office today.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 69

The 4 Best Types of Digital Advertising and When to Use Them Commentary by Lauren Maloney

W

hile real estate will always be a relationship business, the nature of those relationships is becoming increasingly more “digital.” In fact, the National Association of REALTORS®(NAR) claims that 44 percent of recent buyers looked online at properties for sale, while only 17 percent first contacted a real estate agent.

Getting in front of that prospect with digital advertising during the home search period gives real estate professionals a huge advantage. Placing ads online can be arduous, but when done well, it can change a business. Before diving in, it’s important to understand the four best types of digital advertising—and how to mix them into your marketing strategy.

1. Display Ads Display ads are the billboards of the internet. Haunting the perimeter of our digital life, display ads follow us as we catch up on our favorite blogs, look for travel deals or browse Amazon. While you can specify where these ads show up based on certain parameters, you’ll commonly find them along the sides or top of your screen.

Real estate professionals should use display ads to target their prospects on sites where an ideal client would browse, like an online local event calendar. Due to the broad nature of display-ad targeting, a lot of people will see your ad, but many of them won’t be actively looking for a real estate professional. This is one of the main reasons why display advertising can be less expensive than other advertising.

70 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

2. Search Ads Search ads are a highly targeted form of digital advertising. They’re the ads you see at the top of search result pages when you Google something. When you place these ads, you select the keywords or search terms that your client would use to find you. This methodology gives you access to a prospect while they’re actively searching for a service provider. The downside to this ad channel is cost. Other “Denver Real Estate Agents” are likely bidding on those same keywords, so this method has the potential to get expensive.

3. Retargeting Retargeting is a cookie-based online advertising method that serves ads to people who have previously visited your website. According to ReTargeter, only 2 percent of web traffic converts on the first visit, which means 98 percent of users leave without taking action. While Amazon is king when it comes to product retargeting, real estate professionals can use the same tactic by installing a simple line of code on their website. When a prospect visits their site, their code collects the data. They now have the resources to serve those prospects display ads on other sites.

4. Social Media Consider these numbers: There are 1.65 billion social accounts globally (www.dreamgrow.com/21-socialmedia-marketing-statistics) with 1 million new social users added every day. This amount of activity is incredible, but it has caused organic social media efforts to become futile. Placing paid ads is often a more effective way to reach your prospective clients for a relatively low cost.

PlanOmatic has developed an easy-to-use tool called CaptuRE, which allows you to use the photos and floor plans from your PlanOmatic order to quickly place ads on Facebook. Product developers have done all the heavy lifting, so prospects will see live, targeted listing ads for only $49 a week.

Digital marketing skills are critical to successful real estate businesses. You need prospective leads to think of you while they’re looking for real estate online. Adding digital ads to your marketing mix will give your brand a competitive edge. RE

Lauren Maloney is the marketing manager at PlanOmatic. For more information, visit www.planomatic.com.

ERA’s Culture of Collaboration Fuels the Next Generation of Agents Commentary by Zoe Eisenberg

M

ikaela Durham, 29, has been working as a sales agent at ERA Landmark Real Estate in Bozeman, Mont., for almost seven years. The support she receives from ERA, combined with opportunities to be mentored by women, contributed to her success in being named a finalist for REALTOR® Magazine’s 30 Under 30. But when ERA founded its NextERA group, she found a collaborative community among like-minded agents.

Dave Collins, ERA’s chief operating officer, says the idea for NextERA—a group of younger, driven and entrepreneurial agents—came about at FUEL, one of ERA’s annual events.

“We already have an amazingly collaborative network, and our brokers and agents are not shy about sharing new ideas, best practices and even business plans,” he says.

“This group is just another way that ERA can foster and nurture this type

of collaboration among this next generation of agents, many of whom are already changing the way we go about the business of real estate.”

What started out as a 10-person meeting with a select group of agents is now a group of 150 agents across the country who network, collaborate, share insights and strategies, and are invested in their collective success. Agents in NextERA participate in quarterly group calls, have access to a private Facebook group, and this spring, they had their first ever in-person meeting at ERA’s annual FUEL conference.

Durham explains that “there are so many educational opportunities in the program, but the best part of NextERA is learning about different agents’ markets—what they’re struggling with, what they’re doing to stand out in their market or a shift that they’re seeing that maybe we don’t have yet in Montana.” Most importantly, because these agents are all from different parts of the country, nobody is seen as competition.

Durham is currently working on a tactic that she learned from a recent NextERA meeting: becoming the go-

to agent in a specific subdivision or neighborhood in her market. “I want to provide services to that neighborhood that nobody else is providing.

And I want to do more than just send out mailers.”

Inspired by her community at NextERA, Durham tried something new: She sponsored a dumpster for a spring cleanup weekend. A huge success, the dumpster was completely filled, and she received a lot of positive feedback from people in the neighborhood.

But NextERA does more than facilitate information-sharing for young agents. Leveraging ERA’s data-driven technologies, it is actively changing real estate as we know it.

“When it comes down to it, NextERA is for agents looking to build a long-term career,” says Collins.

“And anyone who’s been in the business knows that a long-term career in real estate means repeat business and building up a sphere of influence. In order to help connect younger agents to that lifecycle of homeownership, we use our turnkey technologies to help them mine their own data so that they can have an accurate understanding of how they’re performing and how to plan out those next strategic steps.”

According to a generational study conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®, millennials have accounted for approximately 36 percent of home sales in each of the last five years.

“Being able to relate to that key demographic is huge,” Durham explains. “NextERA, in addition to providing additional training and resources on ERA’s technology and management systems, has empowered me to see my strengths as a young agent, and my place in the future of the business.” RE For more information, please visit www.era.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 71

{Blog Spot}

4 Areas of Your Home That Likely Need a Touch-Up even dangerous, if you have a multiple-story home. An experienced team of painters should be able to paint your walls and trim in one or two days.

by Anita Ginsburg

FRONT DOOR Painting your front door is another simple project that shouldn’t take more than a few hours—you won’t need anything more than a few basic tools and a can of your desired paint. If you plan on selling your home in the near future, pick a relatively neutral color that matches the exterior walls and trim. Also be sure to coat the door in some type of exterior sealant if you want the paint to last.

R

egular maintenance is an ongoing process for every homeowner. Keeping up with smaller projects is essential if you want to avoid major problems down the road.

With a little preventive maintenance, you can ensure that your home remains beautiful and efficient for years to come. Here are several areas of your home that are likely in need of some attention:

ROOF A well-constructed roof should last for at least 30 years, but some of the shingles will need to be replaced well before that. Replacing damaged tiles is immediately going to improve the appearance of your home, and that simple project 72 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

could help you avoid serious water damage. As a general rule, tiles and shingles need to be replaced if they’re curled, cracked or bent.

EXTERIOR WALLS Putting a fresh coat of paint on your home can have a huge impact on its curb appeal. While you can paint your own home—there are many people who do—you may also want to hire a residential painting company. Trying to paint exterior walls without the proper tools and equipment is going to be exhausting,

WINDOWS Modern windows usually last for decades, but older panes and sills are inefficient. After a few years, your windows might become warped, and that will allow air to escape.

You can continue to seal around the outside of your windows once every few years, but you should consider replacing them entirely if they’re old and unsightly.

Before you tackle any of these projects, make sure to research all local building codes. While most cosmetic renovations don’t require any permits, there are strict regulations regarding major structural modifications, and you could face huge fines and fees if you don’t adhere to those codes. RE Anita Ginsburg is a freelance writer from Denver, Colo.

This article originally appeared on RISMedia’s blog, Housecall. Visit us at blog.rismedia.com.

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How to Attract Young Real Estate Agents to Your Brokerage

WE’RE HIRING

Commentary by Yazir Phelps

L

ooking to add some new agents to your team? Millennials have a great deal to offer the real estate profession. They grew up in a digital age, making them great resources for how to adopt time- and money-saving technology in an increasingly technologydriven industry. Here are some suggestions on how to recruit and retain millennial real estate agents, assistants and consultants for your brokerage.

Why Hire Young Real Estate Agents?

Not only are millennials the largest pool of buyers currently in the real estate market, they’re also the largest pool of skilled workers looking for jobs. In fact, the millennial generation will make up half of the workforce by the year 2020. These young professionals have much to add to real estate brokerages and sales teams. They’re creative and full of energy, they like to work cooperatively, and they have their finger on the latest technological trends. Plus, they’re super savvy when it comes to social media, which is a must-have tool in your marketing kit.

Moreover, characteristics common in millennials go exceptionally well with a real estate career. Studies show that millennials: • Prefer occupations where they can be entrepreneurial • Don’t like to be micromanaged, but will take general guidance from managers well • Prefer jobs that don’t require being present in an office during regular business hours Given these traits and preferences, it’s clear that a career in real estate

may be a great fit for this savvy, creative, social and highly-motivated generation.

Tips for Recruiting Millennials Now that you have a better understanding of the unique skillsets that millennials bring to the table, the question remains: How do you attract the best and brightest to your brokerage firm? Here are a few of our top tips for attracting millennial real estate agents to your brokerage or real estate team: • Harness the power of social media. Not only do two-thirds of first-time job seekers use social media to search for jobs, but 94 percent of recruiters are using social media in general.

• Create mobile-friendly sites. More than 85 percent of millennials have a smartphone. Anyone observing members of this generation out and about will likely see them surfing the web on their device. It’s also useful to notice how keen the concentration is for these individuals who scan the internet while waiting or dining.

• Emphasize company culture. Millennials are a particularly social

generation. They want to enjoy their workplace. Focus on providing benefits that build community and make millennials feel their professional needs are taken care of.

• Utilize video. Using Skype for interviewing or creating recruitment videos for distribution on social networks are great ways to catch the eye of millennials.

All in all, if you want to attract young real estate agents to your brokerage, remember to consider their unique attributes, skills and preferences.

You may need to make a few changes to accommodate the needs and desires of the millennial workforce, but it will be worth it if you’re able to harness the power of their unique and valuable skillsets. RE Yazir Phelps is the chief marketing officer at Real Estate Express, the national leader in online learning for pre-licensing, continuing education and professional development. Phelps has over 18 years of experience in marketing, fueling growth at Fortune 500 organizations, and over five years of experience working directly with real estate professionals. Her extensive background in generating demand for products and services encompasses crucial strategies for a successful career in the field.

To learn more, visit www.RealEstateExpress.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 75

Don’t Retire...Reconsider Commentary by Allan Dalton

I

n pursuit of his record-setting, 21st masters championship, Roger Federer, the third-ranked tennis player in the world, recently lost an epic five-hour, five-set tiebreaker in the Wimbledon finals.

After the celebrated match, Federer was asked by one reporter, “Are you considering retiring?”

Well, if the third-ranked and, to some, the greatest tennis player of all time, encounters pressure to retire as he nears the age of 38, then what should those real estate professionals who are in their 50s and 60s be thinking? And what about those who are in the 50,000th place in productivity rankings?

You can take it from this 70-yearold, grizzled industry veteran, and I am sure from your deeply appreciative broker, along with your many clients, that you should not even think about the possibility of retir-

76 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

ing...too soon!

Listings expire, but you cannot prematurely afford to. Especially those of you who have enjoyed success for years—and here is why.

According to social scientist Arthur Brooks, there is a phenomenon that he refers to as the principle of psychoprofessional gravitation.

This, according to Brooks, is how “the agony of professional oblivion is directly related to height of professional prestige achieved.”

Each week, I am on an accountability call led by Gino Blefari, CEO of HomeServices of America. On our calls, after making our business reports, we are all asked by

Gino to announce what we are doing to improve that week. Not wanting to call unwarranted attention to myself, I too mention my diet and exercise, but what I don’t mention is that I am really asking myself, as a former Boston Celtics draft choice, what I will need to do that week to slow my decline.

Therefore, to both you legendary brokers and iconic community real estate professionals, I respectfully suggest that you take a page out of the world of politics regarding how one’s inevitable declining years can be managed. Nobody works harder at managing their decline than our highest-rated presidential candidates. This is not to say that you should seek to emulate them in all ways—unless you want to become duplicitous, conniving and self-promoting.

Instead, I do suggest that you look to emulate the geriatric galaxy of presidential contenders in how they validate the fact that society values experience, resilience, ca-

reer stability and longevity. Remarkably, our leading presidential contenders from both sides of the proverbial aisle are of the following eye-popping ages: 77, 76, 73 and 70...according to 71-year-old cable news anchor Wolf Blitzer.

Clearly, our political aspirants, who, like real estate professionals, must rely on brains versus brawn, did not receive or pay attention to society’s collective email delivered to all of we who are aging!

Accordingly, why would a professional REALTOR®, who has spent decades developing experiential knowledge, invaluable skills, a considerable real estate retinue and widespread admiration for their resilience and how they have withstood numerous watershed industry changes, retire now at the peak of his or her real estate prowess?

Moreover, what an opportunity they have to engage in so-called reverse mentoring—that is, accepting technology advice from younger (and based on evolution) more intelligent generations to come.

My advice for our much younger agents is, rather than mocking your older counterparts for not being as adaptive regarding emerging technologies as you are, why not offer your more contemporaneous grasp of our digital world to them? They can then

“Clearly, our political aspirants, who, like real estate professionals, must rely on brains versus brawn, did not receive or pay attention to society’s collective email delivered to all of we who are aging!”

- ALLAN DALTON CEO, Real Living Real Estate; Senior Vice President, Research & Development, HSF Affiliates

reciprocate through providing meaningful career and life lessons.

Given the importance of not only developing spheres of influence, but actually influencing spheres, our industry might not be able to withstand a massive exodus of long-tenured agents. This is due to how new-business-modeled entrants will at the same time seek to dislodge the relationships that many real estate professionals have built with home sellers. Indeed, if selecting a so-called listing agent now becomes as random as how buyers select an agent when they buy, then “industry beware.”

The most effective way for us to generationally move forward, as I stated, would be through the formation of symbiotic relationships.

This is where in exchange for tech support from younger agents, aging agents can turn over or sell their career “book of business” to a younger agent who was helpful in

its sustenance.

This transition, however, in my view, should only happen when our top and more seasoned agents are ready to retire—and on their terms.

This is in contest to being rushed to retire, based upon society’s pressure to speed up the beginning of the so-called golden years.

Doing well in real estate and making a major difference in the lives of those you serve are your golden years.

Thus, I fervently hope that, whether you are a broker, manager or agent, you get to enjoy your “real estate golden years” for years, if not decades, to come. RE

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Allan Dalton is CEO, Real Living Real Estate and senior vice president, Research & Development, HSF Affiliates.

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Agent Success Story: Getting a Bigger Bang for Your Buck With Homesnap Commentary by Matt Thomas

I

grew up in the real estate business; my mom has been a Keller Williams agent for 30 years. But real estate wasn’t my first profession. I went into tech sales after graduating from Notre Dame.

A couple of years ago, I woke up and realized selling to businesses instead of people wasn’t the right fit for me—real estate was.

Tech Tool Quandary Getting started in the real estate business can be tough, especially when it comes to selecting the right tech tools. I was fortunate because both my manager and our local MLS (MRED) were huge advocates of Homesnap. I felt like I was going to miss the boat if I didn’t dive in and learn how to use it.

Today, every single one of my buyers is on Homesnap. It’s an easy conversation. I share with them that we are a team, working toward a joint goal, and I want to help them be successful. To do that, every member of the team has to work in the same direction.

I also explain that while they have other options, Homesnap is the best way to collaborate. I can help track and manage the process for their benefit. Homesnap gives them better, more accurate data that comes directly from the MLS in real-time.

Homesnap helps enable our teamwork, and I say to clients, “Between the two of us, we will find the right home for you in Chicago.”

Collaboration Champ Homesnap saves time when it comes to communications and collaboration. Using another app, they are going to “like” a hundred things, grab screenshots of each property, email them to me and I’ll have to look them up. Or, they can like them in Homesnap, and I’ll get a notification in two seconds. That keeps us on the same page.

Once clients click the link you send them to sign up, they are going to be connected to you. They will start snapping photos and favoring properties—and because I can monitor their activity, I can touch base throughout the process.

Homesnap eliminates communication gaps that buyers commonly

experience. As they search, I can send them a message through Homesnap and say, “What do you like about this property? Do you want to go see it?” We have a constant exchange of communication.

Market Maker, Decision Aider In a hot market, when you need to move quickly, Homesnap helps my clients win. Because I can instantly see their favorite homes, I can comment immediately. With my hyperlocal market knowledge, I can let them know, for example, when they are looking at a pretty active building and will need to act fast.

In a stagnant or slowing market, Homesnap may be even more important. Because it’s such an addictive tool, clients are often tempted to go in and browse using the Homesnap app. It subtly reminds them: “I want to buy a house.”

Homesnap as a Process Spending thousands of dollars each month for a bunch of leads doesn’t help grow your business or refine your business processes—it just gives you names. If you’re good enough at hounding those people, you might get some leads out of it.

Homesnap is different: It’s part of a process. It is how I add value to every transaction.

Today, you have to be on the front end of a customer’s search. Not using Homesnap is a missed opportunity. You risk losing deals to agents that pay to be featured on other third-party apps.

When I began in real estate, I felt like using Homesnap was something that I had to do. Now I can’t even imagine doing business without it. RE Matt Thomas is a broker associate with Baird & Warner in its Lincoln Park office in Chicago. His background includes technology sales for an industry-leading, Chicago-based data management company, where he consistently exceeded his sales goals and honed his skills for managing complex negotiations.

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Humanizing Real Estate How NextHome Bridges Technology and People

by Paige Tepping

80 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

photo caption

NextHome members celebrate their production awards at the companywide annual conference.

NextHome CEO James Dwiggins presents on the trends shaping our industry.

I

n one short year, the NextHome franchise has made a series of impressive accomplishments, from being named the No. 4 franchise in the country by Franchise Business Review to being on track to close more than 20,000 transactions and $5 - $6 billion in sales volume in 2019. But for NextHome, it’s not about accolades and achievements. “For us, it’s about creating a professional, collaborative, community-based organization that truly cares about people,” says CEO James Dwiggins. Here, Dwiggins shares the firm’s unique approach to culture, and explains why NextHome is perfectly poised to withstand the disruptive forces currently shaking the real estate landscape.

Paige Tepping: It’s been about a year since we last spoke. Could you tell us where you are now in terms of size and national footprint?

James Dwiggins: We’re just under five years old and we’ve opened 380 franchise locations across 45 states with more than 3,500 NextHome associates in our network. We have announced at least one new office every week since our franchise launched, and we’re humbled by this record-setting streak. In 2019, we’ll close more than 20,000 transactions worth $5 - $6 billion in sales volume.

For such a young company, NextHome has grown at a tremendous rate, especially considering we’ve never acquired any of our marketshare. Our members work hard to be

the absolute best in the business, and it shows in the professionalism they put forth each and every day. They don’t settle for mediocrity, and buyers and sellers continue to choose them over others because of it. We couldn’t be prouder of their accomplishments in such a short amount of time.

PT: NextHome has had a lot of national recognition in the past year.

Tell us about that.

JD: In February, we were honored to be named the No. 4 franchise in the country by Franchise Business Review. Based on their findings, NextHome also ranked as a Top Services Franchise and a Top Franchise for Women in 2019. Franchise own-

ers from more than 310 brands were asked the same questions to decide these rankings, and to have NextHome place fourth against all other companies the first time we applied for this award was quite a surprise.

What we’re most proud of is that this award was determined by honest feedback from our franchisees. It feels good to know our members truly love what we are building together.

Most recently, we were named one of the fastest-growing private companies in America by Inc. 5000. This was truly humbling as it’s a recognition bestowed upon very few companies, such as past winners Patagonia, Oracle, Microsoft, and others.

PT: We’ve heard from multiple sources now that the culture at NextHome is like nothing they’ve ever seen before and that you call yourselves “NextHomies.” What’s the secret?

JD: There is no secret. You have to make a choice on what you’re trying to achieve with your culture early on and never waiver from it. Being a “NextHomie” means you bleed orange, put others before yourself, and deeply care about the buyer and seller experience. The idea-sharing and drive to help each other are the best things about our NextHome members.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 81

We’re fortunate to be a privatelyheld company, so we don’t have investors or shareholders pushing an agenda that’s only about the bottom line. For us, it’s about creating a professional, collaborative, communitybased organization that truly cares about people. The only way to do that is to be selective about who joins.

In our case, it starts with having the right franchise owners, since they are the ones who recruit the agents representing the NextHome brand in each local market. We knew early on that if we brought on the right owners, they would inherently attract the right agents. This is why we often turn away people who inquire about franchising with us. They need to share the same vision in order for our culture to remain strong as we continue to expand nationally—and to ultimately ensure the success of the company.

PT: Everyone is concerned about all the disruption that’s occurring in the industry. Tell us your thoughts, and where you see things in the next 10 years.

JD: There is no question that our industry continues to face massive change and disruption. For too long, mediocracy has reigned supreme in the real estate brokerage business.

Hundreds of thousands of agents have a real estate license to help people buy or sell the single biggest asset they own, but have little education, oversight or understanding of what they’re actually doing. In most cases, these agents charge the same fees as tenured professional agents who have done hundreds of transactions in their career. As a whole, our industry charges double what most other countries charge— and provides little extra for it. In 2018, it was estimated that real estate commissions in the U.S. totaled $62 billion. Wall Street and Silicon Valley want a piece of that amount, while buyers and sellers are ques82 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

NextHomies help drive donations at a local pet adoption event.

tioning why they’re paying so much.

And while many agents across the country are worth every penny, too many are not. The customer wants and deserves better. iBuyers like Opendoor have popped onto the scene because they know there is a segment of the market that would take a reduction on the sales price of their home in order to sell it faster. This will certainly be a growing trend nationally, especially amongst “generation now” who don’t view money the same way as their parents. Early estimates are that iBuyers will eventually take up to 20 - 25 percent of the existing national marketshare in the next 5 - 10 years.

And finally, Zillow and realtor.com® control online real estate search with hundreds of millions of unique visitors each month going to their websites versus to brokerages and agents. In addition, they are moving toward a referral-fee-based lead distribution program. In time, they will identify the 40,000 – 80,000 agents across the country who effectively convert online leads and will provide them with all their leads

to increase revenue and profitability.

Watch for them to eventually tie in mortgage, title and escrow to disrupt those sectors next.

All of this combined means we’ve arrived at the perfect storm for change and a consolidation of the real estate agent base. Candidly, I think it’s a good thing. The higher the standards become in our industry, the less long-term disruption will occur to the remaining agents because our value proposition will be well understood by buyers and sellers. Real estate agents will be here long term, just a lot less of them offering a very different value proposition than what we do today.

PT: With all this disruption, what are you doing to make sure NextHome agents stay at the center of the real estate transaction in the future?

JD: At the end of the day, we are focused on serving the humans buying and selling real estate. The future is about changing the perceived value of a real estate agent. Instead of homebuyers and sellers only seeing value in their agent for the duration of the transaction, we are currently

“At the end of the day, we are focused on serving the humans buying and selling real estate.”

- JAMES DWIGGINS CEO, NextHome

developing a proprietary system that allows our agents to remain the focal point of everything to do with the home long after the deal has closed.

Currently, most agents receive 30 - 40 percent of their business via referral, and it’s also how a majority of buyers and sellers choose their agent. However, agents as a whole

First-time homebuyers hold “Luke” on closing day.

do not consistently and effectively work their sphere for new business or follow up with past clients. This is mostly because they lack the technology to do it efficiently and have very little to talk about with them once the transaction is complete.

They either never follow up with them again, or when they do, it’s with information their clients care little about.

For us, the future is about providing our agents valuable pieces of information about the home, whether it be a recall on an appliance, a notification about the roof warranty expiring or other information the homeowner actually wants to know. This gives our agents a reason to reach out, stay in touch with the homeowner, and nurture that relationship for the 7 - 10 years they own the property.

The result is more referrals, repeat business and a higher perceived value proposition, which helps our agents justify their commission.

We’re calling it the “Lifecycle of Homeownership.”

PT: And finally, what’s on deck for the future of NextHome?

JD: We are continuing to focus our growth in new markets across the U.S. and are beginning to prepare for our international expansion. Since launching NextHome in 2015, we’ve had inquiries from 28 countries to franchise outside the U.S., and we’re looking forward to opening our first international location in late 2020 or early 2021.

Next year will mark the launch of our new luxury brand. We partnered with world-renowned design firm Pentagram to help us create it and the result is truly different than what’s available in the market today. We’ve spent a year studying the luxury market and what great brands do well, and not so well, to make sure we hit a home run upon launch. One significant difference is that the new luxury brand will only be available for use in the top 10 percent of any given market, and only NextHome agents who have become luxury-certified will be able to use it.

And while we already require minimum marketing and advertising standards at NextHome, the luxury brand will be at a whole new level.

The brand identity includes all new yard signs, presentation materials, global syndication of properties, and strict minimum marketing and advertising standards on every listing so sellers receive the professionalism and exposure they deserve. This is all part of our long-term strategy for increasing marketshare and expanding globally. It’s truly an exciting time for our company.

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

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{Power Teams} Be Your Own Best Client

by Verl Workman

A

fter 25 years in real estate, what will you have of real value? How will you retire and continue to live a full life? It comes down to taking advantage of opportunities and making smart financial decisions.

How many times in your career have you had a client who was an investor with specific criteria for a property, and when they found what they were looking for, they quickly made the offer? Investors remove the emotion from the buying process and simply pencil the numbers. Can they flip it? Rent it? VRBO it? If the numbers work out, they move forward.

As real estate agents and brokers, we’re in a unique position to not only help others find the good deals in real estate, but to also become our own best client. If you ever say to a client, “You should buy this, it seems to be a really good deal,” then you should take your own advice and find a way to purchase it.

One thing I’ve learned in this business is that if you buy right and hold cash flow-positive properties, you’ll be able to retire wealthy. Over time, your tenants will pay off your properties, and you can live on the cash flow or sell them when you’re ready to retire.

Early on in his career, Paul Wheeler, coach and team leader in Tulsa, Okla., made the decision to build wealth for his family, not just his clients. Today, his team continues to make seven figures in commissions, but he could stop

working and his properties would continue to provide enough cash on a monthly basis to live well. Owning properties has created additional revenue streams and profit centers for Paul, including a very successful property management company that manages his and others’ rental properties. Paul’s success is a result of him being his own best client.

Instant-offer programs are showing up in many markets. These institutional investment groups set the stage for individual investors to find and buy great deals in today’s market. The business model has shown us that there are a lot of consumers who just want to be cashed out without the hassle of showings, open houses and listing their homes.

Be the instant-offer agent.

First, put together your funding sources.

• Make connections with cash buyers who want to partner with you initially until you have the money to do this on your own.

• Set up relationships with banks and lenders who like investment properties and know how to lend on them.

Second, message to potential sellers that you have local knowledge and experience to provide a fast, easy closing.

• The only reason people are accepting instant offers is because they want them, so stop trying to fight them. Use this shift to find great opportunities for you and your investor clients.

Remember, most Americans that are truly wealthy either made—or keep—the majority of their wealth in real estate. Are you ready to join them?

Verl Workman is the founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems (385-282-7112), an international speaking, consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and building successful power agents and teams. Contact him at Verl@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 85

{Power Teams}

Keep More of What You Make

by Jim Knowlton

T

here are few business opportunities that have a lower cost of entry and a higher income potential than real estate sales. Why then are so many agents and brokers living closing to closing?

The problem lies in understanding what we make (our gross income) and what we keep (our net income), and how to allocate resources from there.

Most team leaders and agents that we coach work on a cash-in, cashout system—often in their personal checkbook.

Rule one: Always separate your real estate income and expenses and your personal income and spending. Additionally, you should have separate credit cards for business expenses and personal expenses for ease of taxtime recordkeeping.

Once a commission check passes through your business account, you can “pay” yourself whatever you like (see your cash-flow budget). Now, the money coming into your personal account will be your “income.” The first step should be to set aside 20 percent of the money in a tax “bucket.” This “bucket” is a separate savings account where you can accrue money you owe for federal and state income taxes.

Next, set aside 10 percent in a savings “bucket” to build a minimum of six months’ reserve. Those of us who survived the market

86 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

crash of 2007 - 2010 remember the transition period when we had to determine which side of the business to work to continue to make money during every shift, even when we were doing the right money-making activities daily.

Having a good savings reserve provides a safety net in case you find yourself in similar situations that are out of your control.

After we’ve built the basics, we can move to “elevating our wealth.”

Always start by paying off high-interest debt. Most people can get a 27 percent return on investment (ROI) by paying off credit card debt. Next, you have to realize that true wealth is built through regular small investments in low-cost index funds over long periods of time. Most people overestimate the return of the big score and underestimate the return of long-term investment. Pay yourself first. As little as $25 - $50 a week can add up to $1,000,000 given 30 - 40 years to grow.

A self-directed IRA, also known as a “checkbook” IRA, can be a great

vehicle to leverage our real estate investment opportunities (rentals and flips) and build additional streams of retirement income and wealth for future generations.

In summary, separate your commission/real estate income expenses from your personal expenses; budget for taxes with every check; build a six-month savings account; pay off and avoid high-cost debt (i.e., live within your means); pay yourself first and build a long-term, low-cost investment portfolio; and use tax-deferred, self-directed IRAs to leverage real estate opportunities.

Nearly three decades of real estate experience—including 15 years of coaching with Verl Workman—has made Jim Knowlton one of the top agents in the country and one of the most popular coaches on the Workman Success Systems’ team. In addition to serving as director of Coaching for Workman Success Systems, Knowlton also owned and managed several real estate franchises, earned numerous awards for his performance and continues to lead a Keller Williams Mega Agent team in New Hampshire today.

Contact him at Jim@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.

{Power Teams}

Rinse and Repeat

by Cleve Gaddis

“R

inse and repeat.” These instructions are most commonly found on bottles of shampoo and conditioner, but the principle is applicable to almost any business, including real estate. Want to elevate your business’ execution? Apply the simple “rinseand-repeat” strategy. It will be one of the best strategies you’ve ever learned.

If you’re like most folks in real estate, you’ve tried again and again to implement new systems in your business to increase revenue and profit, all to no avail. You end up exactly where you started, with absolutely no forward progress whatsoever. So, what’s the solution? Rinse and repeat. That means repeating productive actions—things you know will help your business—over and over. Do it, then do it again; do it, do it again; do it, do it again. Get the point?

Let’s take lead management, for example. You’ve probably noticed that today’s market is very competitive, with Wall Street companies trying to get between us and our past clients, our sphere and our prospects. Real estate agents earn nearly $80 billion in commissions in the U.S. each year, and these Wall Street companies believe we won’t follow up with our contacts consistently enough to earn their business the next time they’re ready to buy or sell. So how do we keep this from happening? We execute a high-touch follow-up program

for each of our contacts using the rinse-and-repeat strategy.

Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, it isn’t. If it was, then everyone would already be doing it.

I’m currently working with a very high-producing client in the Phoenix area—I mean a couple million a year in commission—and we’re working on keeping competitors from getting between him and his clients. Our first instructions to his sales manager and his team were to enter all leads into their client relationship management (CRM) system upon first contact. But after 30 days of holding at least four open houses per weekend, the team had only entered a total of 14 leads from open houses. Just 14 leads from 16 open houses?

Not likely. They probably had nearly 80 visitors to these open houses.

So why weren’t the leads entered?

Because they weren’t rinsing and repeating.

It can be difficult to establish new habits with our team members. We have to tell them what to do and then tell them again and again and

again. It shouldn’t be this way with adults, but it’s just the way it is.

Think “rinse and repeat” each time you’re teaching people something new, and let this remind you to rinse and repeat while you’re adopting a new process, too. If you want to elevate your ability to execute any new program or system, you have to learn how to be consistent about it. You have to repeat things over and over until your execution reaches a level that produces noticeable, positive results.

I know it sounds simple, but sometimes the simplest things have the biggest impact. Want to make a real difference in your business? Just remember three words: rinse and repeat.

Cleve Gaddis is a Master Coach with Workman Success Systems and a team leader with Gaddis Partners, RE/MAX Center in Atlanta. He learned sales the hard way, selling vacuum cleaners door-todoor, and now puts those skills to use in helping his team close $60 million annually. He loves to share his systems and strategies to help others succeed.

He hosts the Call Cleve Atlanta Real Estate Show, heard weekly on NewsTalk 1160 WCFO. Contact him at Cleve@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 87

{Power Teams}

Elevate Your Wealth

by Paul Wheeler

O

n a basic level, wealth-building starts with nothing more than spending less than you make. The problem is that most of us do the opposite. I’ve been fortunate enough to have done a few things right, and I’ve gone from having $200 in my pocket many years ago to currently having a net worth of over $10,000,000.

These are the steps that I used to achieve that.

The first step is to start now. The earlier the better, of course, but even if you’re in your 50s like me, saving and investing still works. The longer you do it, the greater the snowball effect you will have, but it’s never too late to start. Pick an amount you will absolutely commit to, like 20 percent of your income, and do it—no matter what.

The second step is to have a “why” and a detailed vision of what you want your life to look like when you achieve your dream of wealth. If you aren’t passionate and completely committed, you will give in to the temptations of our consumption economy. When I was young, I saw that money gave you options and that it allowed you to help more people and make a bigger impact in the world around you. I decided that if I worked hard enough and invested well in the first half of my life, I would be able to make a bigger impact through giving in the last half of my life. That vision was so clear in 88 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

my mind that I never strayed from my original goal, which has gotten me to the point today where I’m living the life I dreamed about so long ago.

The third step is to create a plan and buy assets, not liabilities. I used real estate and rental properties as my vehicle for wealth-building, but the fundamental concept is to invest your money into assets that will produce income. It could be the stock market or any other business for that matter. I knew that if I invested in an asset that was able to give me cash flow from my initial investment, I could use that cash flow to buy more properties or any other asset. I grew my wealth by using other people’s money, and I didn’t buy liabilities, such as big boats or expensive cars. I lived way below my means, and I still do.

The fourth step is to get educated. Any investment has some inherent risk. We live in a world where anything you need to learn

is at your fingertips, but it takes time and commitment. No matter what you’re investing in, learn the fundamentals and manage the risks. There are always ups and downs or booms and busts in our economy. In most cases, enough cash reserves and a good knowledge base on how to handle market changes will help you create the life of your dreams.

If you have any specific questions, or if you’d like a free copy of my wealth-building eBook, don’t hesitate to call me at 918-6658559 or email me at paulw@workmansuccesssystems.com. RE

Workman Success Systems’ team coach Paul Wheeler started Accent REALTORS® as a licensed agent and broker in 1992. Leading the Accent Team with energy, experience and a vision for the future, as well as a better business model in the real estate industry, Wheeler and his team strive to continually improve their processes with a focus on learning and staying on top of market trends. His passion for real estate is only surpassed by his commitment to community service and his family. Contact him at Paulw@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.

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{Power Teams}

Driven to Give: For Ohio Real Estate Team, Charity Equals Success

by Suzanne De Vita Suzanne De Vita: Kyle, how did you come to form your team?

KA: I learned very quickly that there were two or three things in this business that I was extremely good at, and about 50 things that I was really bad at—so, rather than working incredibly hard to be mediocre at those things, I decided to simply hire people that were good at those things. I discovered that I was very good at leading the team, and very bad at managing the team. It took me a long time to understand the difference between those two.

In June, Alfriend rappelled from a building to fundraise for a local organization.

Coordinating inspections. Managing paperwork. Scheduling showings.

For countless REALTORS®, the ability to delegate is a necessity.

For Kyle Alfriend, delegation is the secret to his success.

As an agent in Central Ohio, Alfriend began delegating early on, complementing his skillsets with the strengths of his team, The Alfriend Group, affiliated with RE/MAX Achievers. The Alfriend Group encompasses two (soon to be three) buyer’s agents and an operations manager, who Alfriend credits as the day-to-day overseer of the team. Here, Alfriend discusses his team, and their emphasis on giving to the local market.

92 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

SD: What are the benefits to your clients?

KA: Nobody is great at everything, and for most people, a home is the most expensive product that they’re ever going to buy. They deserve great service, great marketing on social media, great staging, great email and direct mail marketing, great showings, great open houses and open house promotions to drive in prospective buyers. They deserve constant communication and hand-holding. I’m not the hand-holder; I’m “Let’s get the job done, and get you the return that you’re looking for.” With my team, there’s other people that do the hand-holding.

SD: Your approach to business is centered on philanthropy. Can you describe your philosophy?

KA: The importance of having the team is to free up time—it is not

just about making money. One of our slogans is, “Money is very good because of all the good that it can do.” Do they want to remember us as top salespeople, or do they want to remember us for the impact that we have made? That gets people working harder. It becomes a life driving force.

SD: You’re active in your community, and established a foundation…

KA: The focus of my foundation is specifically on pediatric cancer, and we do fundraisers for local children, and their families, impacted by cancer. We involve everybody on the team. They’re welcome to stand up and present any type of philanthropic cause that they would like to support. Recently, I rappelled off the 30-story Chase Bank tower downtown, and that was for a fundraiser for the juvenile sex trade in Central Ohio. I’m always looking for opportunities to get a better return on investment. That’s what the rappelling was—I could have just written a $15,000 check.

SD: With charitable initiatives in mind, what are your goals for your team this year?

KA: We are really trying to expand more on our brand so that it is an illustration of my values and what I think is important. I speak at a lot of events, and while that’s how I drive a lot of revenue and a lot of leads, I’m also using that as an opportunity to spread a message about the importance of philanthropy and the importance of giving back. RE For more information, please visit www.alfriendgroup.com.

Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s online news editor.

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{Broker Best Practices} Equipping Agents With the Tools They Need for Continued Success by Paige Tepping

Caron Pelletier-Renik Managing Broker CENTURY 21 North East Windham, N.H. www.HouseValue4U.com

Regions served: Southern New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts Years in real estate: 22 Number of offices: 1 Number of agents: 30 Favorite relationship-building strategy: Going out into the community, meeting new people and getting to know who they are.

Top tip for staying organized: Don’t procrastinate.

Please describe some of the current trends you’re seeing in your market right now. With the market leveling off and an inventory equilibrium coming back into play as interest rates hold—and, in some cases, drop—I’m hopeful that sellers will begin to gain the necessary confidence they need to put their homes on the market, knowing that there are other properties available to move into once they have a contract in hand. Of course, that also means that buyers will realize their home-

94 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

ownership hopes and dreams, as well. While we never went through a huge recession in Southern New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts, our economy did, but we didn’t experience mass foreclosures like other parts of the country.

There’s always been high demand for real estate in our marketplace, and while we’re beginning to see a bit of slowing down at the moment, I’m confident that because of our local community flair and geographic location, we will bounce back.

What do you like most about the region in which you work? The fact that the area we’re based out of is very community-oriented. I also enjoy our location. We are in a beautiful part of the country that’s in close proximity to both the city of Boston and to the mountains in the north.

What are your best strategies for keeping your agents motivated?

Keeping agents motivated begins with equipping them with the “tips and tricks” and the brilliant basics they need to deliver the extraordinary to their clients. As a broker, I’m especially focused on the safety of my team, which is a huge issue today. I’m consistently encouraging my agents to visit CENTURY 21 University® and access the vast knowledge on the site, like scripts and other materials on ways to be safe on the job, as well as the learnings and training available there. It’s a great resource that’s available to them simply by being a CENTURY 21® agent.

How are you preparing your agents for the future of real estate? Preparing agents for the future is all about

“I’m hopeful that sellers will begin to gain the necessary confidence they need to put their homes on the market, knowing that there are other properties available to move into once they have a contract in hand.” training. In real estate, we recognize that there is always more to learn about the market, new tools and innovations impacting our industry.

To that end, we have people come in and conduct training sessions where they sit down and go over forms, prospecting, etc. I hate to pay big bucks to get leads, so I teach my agents how to get involved in the community and utilize all the resources they might not necessarily know about.

In what ways does your company stay current and flexible? With a focus on constant growth at CENTURY 21 North East, we’re doing everything we can to keep up with technology and provide our agents with a variety of training. The CENTURY 21 brand via CENTURY 21 University, and my local franchise specifically, offer numerous options that agents can utilize to help grow their business.

How do you see your market evolving throughout the next year? I anticipate the market will pick up as we head into 2020 and the demand for housing to remain steady.

For more information, please visit www.century21.com.

Supporting Those Who Drive Your Business Vital to Success

by John Voket

Chris Kelly CEO Ebby Halliday Companies, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) Dallas, Texas ebby.com, daveperrymiller.com, williamstrew.com

Region served: North Texas Years in real estate: 12 Number of offices: 33 Number of agents: 1,800 Best time management tip: Every day, I blend my urgent tasks with routine ones to ensure those urgent demands don’t monopolize my time.

Most effective way to motivate agents: Provide them with an accountability partner who can help them achieve what they set out to do.

Key to staying profitable: Whether you’re a new agent or a CEO, know what you do really well—and stick to it.

No. 1 recruiting technique: Let agents know what you’re going to do for them. Don’t create a veil of secrecy and promises. Instead, give them a glimpse of everything they can have if they join your team.

“We discovered what key personnel needed, and since we gave them that support, they’re making faster gains and being more responsive.”

Please describe a few of your biggest accomplishments since you became CEO at Ebby Halliday late last year.

Mission one was successfully completing a restructuring of our management team to provide the best support to the people who drive our business, which includes our sales leaders, title, insurance and mortgage folks. And it’s paying off. We discovered what those key personnel needed by listening, and since we gave them that support, they’re making faster gains and being more responsive.

Did your transition to the role of Ebby Halliday CEO go smoothly, and, if so, why?

When I got here, I realized that I needed to spend two or three months almost exclusively going around to our offices to really get to know the people and to listen to what was working and what wasn’t. They got to know me as a person by being there in the room with me, which helped build a level of trust so that they felt comfortable supporting me through the transition.

How has LeadingRE helped up your game when it comes to attracting more international clients? We’re very big players with LeadingRE’s luxury home program, Luxury Portfolio International®. With our high-end sellers, we’re maximizing opportunities to expose those listings to our international consumers.

In what ways is the company leveraging training and/or tech from LeadingRE? The number of people relocating to North Texas is tremendous, so we have an advantage being affiliated with the LeadingRE network because it ensures that our company is the top destination for people looking to relocate here. And the training that comes along with that affiliation provides us a catalog that our sales professionals can refer to when needed.

We also work to ensure that our course offerings are valuable to every agent at any stage of their career.

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

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 95

Branding as a Strategy for Listings, and Repeat and Referral Business by Liz Dominguez

ing reinforces a reputation that can help you receive referrals. I think branding is important for anyone in any business. For your branding to be effective, there has to be integrity behind the brand in order for people to understand that you do a good job in everything that you offer.

Quality of customer service is the most important thing to longevity in this service.

Rosemary Allison Estates Director Coldwell Banker Ventura County, Calif. www.rosemary4realestate.com

Region served: Ventura County Years in real estate: 40-plus Key ingredient to building client relationships: I think it’s the listening, the giving and the caring for your clients.

Best tip for providing a great client experience: True customer service can only come from the heart.

Your brand, name and image are associated with real estate all over Ventura County. Can you tell us what this does for you? To succeed in branding, you must integrate your strategy and message at every point of public contact. As potential buyers begin to identify with you, your image will live in the hearts and minds of customers, clients and prospects, and they’ll connect with you on an emotional level. Brand-

96 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

How are you targeting your marketing to reach the consumers you will be most successful with? I have a large advertising budget and utilize realtor.com® so potential buyers know who I am, and I pay for the Local ExpertSM City package so that my listings are featured when consumers visit the site. I also utilize print media, including Homes & Land, a kiosk displaying my listings in the local shopping mall and local social magazines with full-color ads of my listings.

Are you able to track the success of branding on realtor.com®?

Realtor.com® has always been a large portion of my advertising budget, and I really enjoy their executives calling me about their new products. With realtor.com®, there’s a dashboard feature where you can see who is clicking on listings, and I’m able to send my clients a weekly market report.

How are you using this on the seller/listing side? When I can offer sellers prominent placing when

“To succeed in branding, you must integrate your strategy and message at every point of public contact.” someone searches locally, that’s something that’s of great value. The weekly reports that realtor.com® offers are an easy way to provide clients evidence of your marketing efforts.

You said that your primary business is referrals. Has realtor.com® had an impact on repeat business and referrals? What’s interesting is that I sold a wonderful couple a home almost 30 years ago, yet I hadn’t talked to them in years. They were poking around on realtor.com® and they saw my name and contacted me. It’s possible that they would have called me anyway, but I feel that the reinforcement of seeing my realtor.com® offerings reinforced their decision to call me.

For more information, please visit realtor.com/sales.

{Intel}

Amazon HQ2 Reshapes Local Markets Before It’s Even Been Built

by Liz Dominguez

O

ver the past year, the suburbs of Washington, D.C., have seen an obvious shift in the housing space, and all it took

was Amazon announcing National Landing as the future home of HQ2.

The massive undertaking—encompassing two 22-story, 2.1 million-square-foot buildings at Metropolitan Park and situated on a 16-acre lot—is still in the initial development stage, but the real estate industry is already feeling the impact.

Inventory Was Low to Begin With According to two industry experts who service the Greater D.C. Metro area, John Eric and Kara Chaffin Donofrio, inventory supply was dangerously low even before the announcement—the most challenging factor thus far.

“Northern Virginia was already low in inventory, and the HQ2 announcement caused a further shrinkage of available properties for sale,” says Chaffin Donofrio, managing broker of the 98 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Long & Foster, Christie’s International Real Estate office in Arlington, Va. Eric, senior vice president and senior advisor at Compass, agrees, stating the biggest market shift has been in the decrease of inventory across the board, but especially in Alexandria and Arlington.

In fact, according to data from Bright MLS, the zip code 22202, belonging to Arlington, Va., has experienced the most dramatic changes, with the number of new listings decreasing 85.3 percent around the time Amazon made its announcement in November 2018. Inventory in June 2019 was down 70.2 percent year-over-year.

“This severe lack of inventory in 22202 could be the result of homeowners waiting for their property values to peak as the official opening of HQ2 grows closer,” said Chris Finnegan, vice president of Marketing and Communications for Bright MLS, in a statement.

Residents Holding Out for Major Profits Eric has witnessed it firsthand: Consumers are holding onto their property in hopes that it becomes more valuable.

“A huge chunk of my listing appointments were initially calls to sell and have turned into rental listings,” says Eric. “Many are holding real estate instead of selling based upon the HQ2 announcement…it’s been prolific.”

Chaffin Donofrio says that conversations with sellers are focusing on whether they should hold their property for the time being or sell now.

“Some sellers want to keep their properties for a few more years in hopes of increased appreciation.

It’s very situational as to what is truly in the best interest of the client,” says Chaffin Donofrio. “For some, now may be the right time to sell their larger home at a great

“Northern Virginia was already low in inventory, and the HQ2 announcement caused a further shrinkage of available properties for sale.”

– KARA CHAFFIN DONOFRIO Managing Broker, Long & Foster, Christie’s International Real Estate, Arlington, Va.

profit and downsize by purchasing another home while interest rates are still at all-time lows.”

Buyers Being Priced Out Those who have chosen to sell, however, have largely listed their homes at inflated prices, according to Bright MLS. The median asking price of single-family homes spiked 99.9 percent year-over-year in June 2019, and shot up 56.6 percent between November 2018 and December 2018—an increase of 75.5 percent ($780,000 to $1,369,900).

Chaffin Donofrio has found that the combination of tightening supply and an increase in prices has put a strain on would-be buyers.

“It’s made an already hot market even more competitive,” she says.

“Our team has experienced an even greater challenge in finding properties closer to the HQ2 proximity, specifically in Del Ray and communities around the 22202 zip code.”

Navigating a Challenged Market Real estate professionals are taking these challenges in stride, coming up with innovative ways to help renters, buyers and sellers. Chaffin Donofrio, for example, is developing more creative and proactive approaches to

helping clients find homes by identifying “off-market opportunities.”

“At our office, we have developed several unique approaches to help buyers find homes before they go on the market,” she says.

Eric says the biggest thing is just setting expectations.

“Sellers are under the assumption that their houses are worth double after the Amazon announcement, and that’s just not true. And buyers don’t want to pay double,” he says.

“We have to do a lot of research and delve deep into Amazon’s impact to know what to expect.”

Despite inventory limitations and pricing-related obstacles, the industry is hopeful that Amazon HQ2 will be a lucrative addition to the area and a positive influence on the homeownership rate.

“We’re certainly excited that Amazon is coming,” says Eric. “We’ve already sold three homes to Amazon folks who are heading this way to set up the environment.” RE

Liz Dominguez is RISMedia’s associate content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at ldominguez@rismedia.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 99

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Home Inspections Play a Pivotal Role in New-Home Construction Commentary by Adam Long

C

lients often ask if a real estate professional is needed when building a new home. The answer is “yes,” because the real estate professional will look out for the client’s interests before and during the building process. Clients also ask if a home inspector is needed when building a new home. The answer to that question is also “yes,” and your clients should make sure a home inspection contingency is written into their offer. that it’s supported using proper beam depth, width and placement.

The vapor/moisture barrier placement will also be checked.

FRAMING INSPECTION. During the

A home inspector will perform several phase inspections during the building process and ensure that your client’s dream home has been thoroughly inspected. With a newconstruction home, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors recommends that you have two or three inspections during the building process.

What type of inspections are needed during the home construction process?

PRE-POUR INSPECTION. During this phase, the inspector will physically and visually inspect the foundation and verify compliance with the engineered drawings, review the proper placement, support, sizing and spacing of graded rebar, and ensure

framing inspection, the inspector will physically and visually verify compliance with building standards or, if applicable, an engineered design.

The inspector will ensure proper door and window egress placement, as well as confirm that framing members are properly attached, spaced, graded and aligned—and that joints aren’t stressed and are fastened with the proper materials.

Additionally, the plumbing, electrical wiring and duct installations, along with the roof structure and roof surface, will be inspected.

FINAL INSPECTION. The final inspection is like a standard home inspection and will include all appliances, doors and windows, the exterior of the home, the roof and attic, plumbing, HVAC and electrical systems.

This phase will prepare you for the final walk-through with your builder.

Why does someone need an inspection when building a new home?

These inspections assist in monitoring the building process by providing

an unbiased, third-party evaluation of construction. Skilled home inspectors from a respected national brand like HomeTeam Inspection Service will inspect the important structural and mechanical components of the home before they’re covered in concrete and drywall. Occasionally, significant problems are uncovered that can save the homebuyer and builder thousands of dollars in costly repairs.

Common issues found in newly constructed homes include: • Incorrect installation of the roof shingles, which may cause water penetration • The mechanical room or space being built too small so it cannot adequately fit all the appliances • The home not being correctly insulated, which may require the removal of finished walls and ceilings to add insulation • Improperly installed siding that needs to be replaced • Improperly installed electrical systems such as open grounds, missing switch plates and poorly installed wiring and electrical panels • Lack of crawl space ventilation, which can cause mold or moisture damage • Improper insulation around recessed lighting, which may cause air leaks and heat loss • Drainage and grading issues, which could cause water intrusion and future structural damage • Structural issues, such as a damaged roof truss system or an unusual floor frame configuration RE

Adam Long is the president of HomeTeam Inspection Service.

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

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 101

Increase Lead Gen With These Easy Social Media Marketing Tips

by Sherri Johnson

TIP 4: CHANGE THE TEMPLATE OF YOUR FACEBOOK TO “SERVICES.” When setting up Facebook, you probably set your template selection to “Business.” If you choose the “Services” template, you can list the services you provide: Enroll in my Exclusive Homebuyer Program; request a free pre-approval; request a free market value analysis on your home; and market your home successfully.

This will allow you to write a summary about the service, as well as include a graphic.

S

o often, agents lack a social media strategy to help them generate new business opportunities. You have a Facebook Business page, but now what? What else do you do to market your services and yourself to the people you know and don’t know on social media?

Follow these tips to market your team and your services online, and generate more listing and buyer opportunities with more engagement and online conversions:

TIP 1: CREATE ENGAGEMENT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. Likes are great, but you want to create likes, comments, shares and link clicks that create more engagement and maximize the social marketing of your team, your services and your listings in order to create more followers and new potential clients. When you create a post, say, “Share this new listing with your friends,” or “Comment below.” Using emojis will help when you say, “Click here to see more pictures of this magnificent lakefront home” or “Click here to request a market analysis of your home.” These create a call to action for the person reading your post, and increase the likelihood that they’ll respond accord102 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

ing other businesses, schools, rec centers, contractors, title and mortgage companies, and your sphere’s and clients’ business pages with your business page name. Each time you like or comment, you’re doing it as your business, helping it gain exposure all over Facebook.

ingly. If you’re giving something of value away for free, create a landing page where the person can fill out a form to join your program or request your free giveaway. If you’re directing them to another page to see more pictures of a listing, create a landing page marketing that particular listing, but prior to sharing information, request their information as well.

TIP 2: MARKET YOUR TEAM’S SERVICES. It’s great to market your listings, but often, agents don’t market the actual services they provide. Use a graphic editor like Canva and create images that market your team’s exclusive services. Be sure to include your logo and photo.

TIP 3: LIKE AS YOUR PAGE. You can promote your business and services by liking other people’s pages and commenting on posts as your business page. This way, you’re support-

TIP 5: MARKET AND BOOST AN AD FOR YOUR OPEN HOUSES. Create an ad for your next open house and boost it to market the open house to potential buyers on Facebook.

You will create massive amounts of groups, potentially sell the home yourself, and pick up new buyer and listing leads.

These online social media marketing strategies will help your team generate more listing leads, appointments and actual listings, which will help you create a huge pipeline of future business. RE For a free copy of my Social Media Marketing Planner & Facebook Guide, visit https://sherrijohnson.com/ rismedia.

Sherri Johnson is CEO and founder of Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting. With 20 years of experience in real estate, Johnson offers coaching, consulting and keynotes, and is a national speaker for the Homes.com Secrets of Top Selling Agents tour and the Official Real Estate Coach for McKissock Learning and Real Estate Express. For more information, please contact coaching@sherrijohnson.com or 844-989-2600 (toll-free) or visit www.sherrijohnson.com.

{Meet the Newsmakers} 2019

TRENDSETTERS: ANTHONY COLANTUONO “Treat everyone as you would want to be treated. Build relationships first— the reward will follow.”

Anthony Colantuono Partner The Real Estate Legacy Group Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty

A

nthony Colantuono is a REALTOR® excellent service he provided. “Treat everyone as with The Real Estate Legacy Group at Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realty who has built a reputation over the

years as a trusted and proactive real estate advisor. He specializes in residential real estate, including all property types and price ranges. He is a Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist (CLHMS) and a member of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing.

Colantuono has been one of Coldwell Banker’s leading REALTORS® since 2002. He is known in his community as an energetic, passionate and knowledgeable real estate professional who uses his expertise to guide clients through the process of buying or selling a property from beginning to end. Colantuono prides himself on building trustbased relationships with clients, many of whom return to him for help years later because of the

you would want to be treated,” he says. “Build relationships first—the reward will follow.”

Colantuono attributes his success in the real estate field to teamwork, technology, passion for the industry and skill as a negotiator. He is known for pushing the boundaries of technology and digital marketing. He was an early adopter of social media and video, and has used new tools to engage with other real estate professionals and clients, including 3D technology in virtual tours. In one case, for example, Colantuono hosted a virtual happy hour in the Cleveland area, where real estate agents toured one of his listed properties while sipping drinks and wearing virtual reality headsets. RE For more information, please visit www.clemoves.com.

To see all of RISMedia’s 2019 Real Estate Newsmakers, visit rismedia.com/2019-newmakers.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 103

{RISMedia’s Great Spaces} Caption

Luxe International Listings This month, we’re heading outside the United States to relish in unique and interesting overseas listings.

by Zoe Eisenberg

Hyde Park Home in London This three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment in London’s historic Hyde Park recently hit the market for £4,750,000. The property, located in Hyde Park Gardens, is currently owned by Kashmira Bulsara, sister of the legendary Freddie Mercury.

The apartment sits on the fourth floor of the Georgian building and includes luxury reception and dining rooms, as well as a loft space that’s ideal for an office, den or guest space. Ample windows in every room naturally flood the space with light.

104 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

The property dates back to 1836, designed by architect John Crake, and the building’s principal front faces south overlooking Hyde Park and the Central London skyline, with exclusive landscaped gardens accessible to residents only.

Listed by: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kay & Co Listed for: £4,750,000 Photos by: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Kay & Co

Light floods this posh London pad.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 105

This Parrot Cay home offers cerulean sea views—even from the pool!

106 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Private Island Life in Turks and Caicos Life on a private island is the epitome of luxe, and this 7,000-square-foot estate on the privately-owned island of Parrot Cay in Turks and Caicos is just that. Known as “Point House,” this five-bedroom villa is one of only 12 private estates on the island, situated adjacent to a nature reserve with ocean views from every angle, as well as beach access.

Inside, 30-foot ceilings, limestone floors, natural wood, open beams and walls of glass are only a few of the space’s architectural gems. The open-floor home was built in 2011 and designed by world-renowned architect Cheong Yew Kuan, with a focus on modern minimalism with Balinese accents.

Outside, ample lounge areas and a covered terrace surround a lava stone pool overlooking the sea, just steps from the beach. RE Listed by: Christie’s International Real Estate Listed for: $15,000,000 Photos by: Christie’s International Real Estate

High ceilings and walls of glass make this space a dream for open-floor enthusiasts.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 107

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That’s where the Top 5 in Real Estate Network comes in. As some of America’s most successful agents, our members enjoy exclusive access to an array of personal branding, professional networking and technological resources few others can match.

• Top Tools • Top Training • Top Technology From weekly marketing videos to monthly coaching sessions, every element is designed to help you differentiate yourself and dominate your market.

Find out how top producers stay on top – and how you can join them there. Visit us at Top5inRealEstate.com today.

Do You Belong?

Find out if you qualify at www.Top5inRealEstate.com

www.Top5inRealEstate.com

The Potential That Technology Partnerships Hold for REALTORS® Partnerships aren’t new. What’s new is their potential to transform the profession.

Commentary by Jason Cheverton

I

f you’ve read the news lately, you’ll have noticed a glut of industry announcements regarding technology partnerships.

While the names on these announcements may change, their motivation is the same: to allow customers of different vendors to connect their products or services and drive better job performance.

The reason you hear about these partnerships often—but experience the benefits rarely—is because they’re usually limited to a small portion of the real estate industry.

What’s different about real estate’s most recent partnerships, however, is that they have some of the most prominent tech leaders— with some of the largest customer bases—joining forces.

The impetus behind this rush of partnerships is an industry-wide movement toward integration. Rather than any single vendor solution, which often provides a few good services but rarely all good services, integration is the single biggest step real estate can take to catch up to other industries.

I know what you’re thinking: “Real estate has a ton of modern technology products! We’re not that far behind!” And you’re right.

The problem is that few of these products work together.

Because of that, it’s nigh impossible to share information in any cohesive fashion. This prevents REALTORS®, staff and brokers from taking swift and deliberate action on their most important activities.

Closing a deal, for example, should

be as simple as sending a picture through Facebook Messenger. The app connects directly to phone cameras and performs a simple task that requires no added steps on the part of the user. The two applications feel like one though they were designed, manufactured and sold by different companies.

Real estate technology should work that way.

• REALTORS® should expect their forms and e-signature solution to connect. It should be simple to send a contract from their client to the office.

• Staff should expect their REALTORS®’ forms solution and their office’s transaction management solution to connect. It should be simple to collaborate on listings and file review.

• Brokers should expect their transaction management solution and their back-office solution to connect. It should be simple to send updates between these products and their users as soon as they occur.

However, outside of the two-way integration between Lone Wolf’s transaction management and back-office solutions, these types of connections don’t exist.

That’s why we partnered with Real Estate Webmasters (REW). With an integration coming soon between

their state-of-the-art website platform and our industry-leading transaction management solutions, it will be possible to manage a lead from contact to contract to close using real estate’s best-of-breed products.

And though each of these tasks will be completed in a separate solution, the entire workflow will feel as though it was completed in one.

More importantly, the integration of data ensures that there’s consistency across systems, regardless of where changes are made.

And that’s just the beginning.

Imagine the impact partnerships will have when they include more components of real estate—front office, title, mortgage, digital EMD transfer, buyer/seller moving services—and more industry leaders like Lone Wolf and REW. By connecting these services, solutions and providers, our goal is to construct the industry’s first true ecosystem of real estate technology. One that brings best-of-breed technology together. One that makes complicated work feel simple. One that empowers real estate professionals in the activity that matters most: brokering deals for homebuyers and sellers.

That’s the potential that partnerships hold. That’s the vision that Lone Wolf has. RE

Jason Cheverton is director, Ecosystem at Lone Wolf Technologies.

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

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 109

Webinar Recap:

How to Run Your Business Like a Million-Dollar Agent

by Paige Tepping

I

f you’re ready to run your business like a superstar, the best thing you can do for yourself is create a long-term vision that not only details what you want your business to look like, but, rather, your life as a whole.

In fact, that’s just what Paul Wheeler—a panelist on RISMedia’s recent webinar, “Run Your Business Like a Million-Dollar Agent”—did 25 years ago.

110 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

“I always say we need a roadmap or strategic plan if we want to get anywhere,” explained Wheeler, and the most amazing thing happened one day when he looked up and realized he was living the vision he’d visualized.

Sponsored by Homes.com, the webinar also featured Cleve Gaddis—leader of one of Georgia’s top 10 real estate teams and coach with Workman Success Systems—and provided attendees with a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a seven-figure business.

A huge proponent of mapping out one’s life down to the smallest detail, Wheeler—broker/owner and listing specialist at Accent REALTORS® in Tulsa, Okla.—kicked off the webinar by underscoring the importance of having a good vision… and a sound strategy to go along with it.

“If you have a goal you’re trying to get to in the future, you have to back into it and look at what your action has to be now,” explained Wheeler, who focuses on daily planning in solitude and team huddles to build one great day after another.

For Gaddis, it’s these very same building blocks that are critical when it comes to achieving something significant.

“When you have big goals, every itty bitty step can seem insignificant, but achieving something significant is the result of tying together these seemingly insignificant steps,” noted Gaddis.

But it doesn’t end there, as becoming a leader in every sense of the word is another critical component if you’re truly committed to growing a seven-figure business.

“Our voice as a leader has to be the GPS for the entire team,” said Wheeler, who stressed to attendees the fact that you can’t motivate people with your own goals. Rather, you must teach them the daily activities to help them achieve their goals and provide them clarity and security.

“Everyone in the organization must have their own daily and weekly definition of success,” added Gaddis, who encouraged attendees to take a good look at their own core values. “The clearer you can be, the more influence you will have over someone else’s behavior.”

While the road to superstardom is fraught with obstacles and challenges that need to be overcome, for Gaddis and Wheeler, working toward a seven-figure business is the ultimate end goal.

“Anything worthwhile is going to take some effort,” said Wheeler.

“Not only are you going to learn, but you’re also going to get knocked down—and you’re going to have incredible success. Enjoy the ride.”

“Whatever you’re suffering now, that’s the first step on your journey to greatness,” concluded Gaddis. RE

To view the webinar in full, visit https://bit.ly/2MbR1LK. Paige Tepping is RISMedia’s managing editor.

Do You Really Want More Sales?

by Terri Murphy

R

emember that business goal you set at the beginning of the year? You know, the one where you enthusiastically declared how this year would be the banner year? The one where you were finally focused on racking up more sales for more income? Your plan may have included commitments to doing a better job of connecting with more people to convert more prospects into profits. and, ultimately, the success you seek. When you’re highly connected to your why for what you’re looking to accomplish, the habits and actions necessary to get there become a “want to” instead of a “have to.”

Here are a few tips to help you reignite, revitalize and refocus in order to get to the profit zone:

As we enter the final quarter of the year, it’s often inevitable that your focus and commitment get lost in all of the everyday distractions that riddle the job of making sales.

So… • Are you at least halfway to your sales goals?

• Have you stuck to your commitment to contact more people daily?

• Has the consistency of your prospecting converted to more sales?

If you’re not where you expected to be, now is the time to monitor, readjust and refocus on your plan.

Successful professionals are willing to invest in proven routines that, when done with purpose and consistency, yield more sales, more income

1. Talk to more people…every day.

This isn’t about cold calling people and asking them if they plan on moving anytime soon. No one wants to be solicited for “leads” to help you make your sales quota this month.

Your purpose is to provide value to your sphere of influence, your database of past clients, prospects and farm area. Instead of asking, think about sharing relevant information or data of interest that can save them time and money. Everyone wants to be “in the know,” which means they’re always curious about upcoming trends as they apply specifically to them—their home, their investment, their well-being. When you shift your message from a high level to a hyper-local level, the interest level and engagement increases.

2. Make it personal. Let them experience you as their “celebrity authority.” Use video email or video

on social media to share short bits of information that are interesting or pertinent to your target market.

Shoot your video on-site instead of at a desk in order to show that you’re actually visible in the areas where you’re offering information or points of interest.

3. Don’t overcomplicate the process.

Sales is about talking to more people more consistently. Lead generation platforms help you identify prospects who have shown interest in buying or selling, but those leads may be months or years to the point of conversion. Take advantage of the people that already know, like and trust you. Plan three ways to touch them during the year: • One face-to-face meeting • One meaningful touch (personal birthday message, congratulations on new job, happy anniversary, etc.)

• One letter of value Nothing changes until you change.

Stop burying yourself in the “busy” of your work, and start focusing on the dollar-productive routines that will get you to where you want to be by the holidays. They’re just around the corner, and the time to start is now.

For a complimentary copy of “How to Close 86 Transactions a Year or More,” and other success tools, visit http://bit.ly/2zSyD4k. RE Terri Murphy is a communication engagement specialist, author, speaker, consultant and master coach with Workman Success. She is the author of five books, a TedTalk speaker and co-radio host on KWAMtheVoice.com. For more information, please visit TerriMurphy.com or email Terri@TerriMurphy.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 111

{Ask the Experts}

Bill Scavone President & COO Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. www.weichertfranchise.com

Q:

How much of a factor do you think leadership plays in recruiting and motivating the best agents and the successful growth of a brokerage?

A:

It’s a big factor; in fact, it’s the main factor.

I played football through college, and the game taught me a lot about leadership. I learned the best teams have great leaders—a parallel that rings true in business. Strong leadership is the driving force behind any successful team, including a real estate organization.

It also helps attract potential agents and plays a pivotal role in the retention and development of the most talented ones.

their agents to do what it takes to stand apart from the competition. They exemplify real estate success and set the course to help others get there. Leadership is about getting people to understand, buy in and believe in the vision, and working with them to achieve those goals. Managing is about executing and making sure the day-to-day things are happening as they should.

Leaders set the tone. They lead by example and know where they’re going. Leaders have a purpose and exude confidence. They listen, have a positive attitude, do the right things, are influencers and make everyone around them better. These traits attract people who are eager and excited to follow them. Strong leaders create a winning culture that’s contagious.

My college football coach used to say to us offensive linemen that we set the tone for the team. We were motivated, we had a clear purpose and vision, and knew where we wanted to go. Our coach was a great leader, and he made leaders of many of his players.

Sure, he told us what to do, made us do it and—in some cases—let us have it for messing up. But what he also did was clearly articulate our mission and provide us with core values we all bought into and lived by. Our coach got us to understand the “why,” then managed us by showing us the “how.”

So, what can brokers do to lead instead of manage? At Weichert®, we start by sharing our core values with our Affiliates and encourage them to recruit agents who share those same values.

It’s also critical that brokers and their hiring managers clearly communicate to prospects what the

Q& A

Unfortunately, most real estate companies place an emphasis on managing instead of leading. But there’s a big difference between leaders and managers.

Leaders inspire and motivate 112 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

“Leaders set the tone.

They lead by example and know where they’re going.”

– BILL SCAVONE President & COO Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc.

organization can do to help them succeed.

Your company’s vision, integrity and reputation are key factors in attracting and keeping new and experienced agents, as well as customers. If you don’t have a vision and know the direction you want your business to head, you can’t expect people to follow you.

As a franchisor, you need to provide all the things necessary to help your brokers develop the leadership techniques to build a high-functioning office.

At Weichert, we provide top-level leadership training to help our brokers concentrate on the key behaviors and activities that positively impact their bottom line, and coach them on creating action plans to help recruit topnotch agents and develop existing talent.

A brokerage with strong leadership sells itself. It attracts people who want to be around other successful and motivated people and creates a winning team atmosphere.

In order to engage your agents in providing the best service, you have to give them a winning game plan—one that gets them excited about where you’re taking them while making sure they know what’s in it for them. By doing so, you create an unbeatable competitive edge.

Dan Steward

extreme heat and sun beat down on the home all summer.

These can cause openings and cracks that then lead to moisture and mold damage.

Ask for a mold inspection if you suspect this is happening to your home to make sure you halt the mold and reverse it where it is.

President & CEO Pillar To Post Home Inspectors® franchise.pillartopost.com

Is there anything to be done to prevent this in the future?

Q:

According to the Washington Post, this past July of 2019 was the hottest July ever on Earth!

We know we must protect ourselves, our loved ones and our pets from staggering heat, but what is it doing to our homes? What are some of the places in or on the exterior of our homes that could experience heat damage?

A:

The first item you are likely to notice with your naked eye is exterior paint damage. Bubbling, chipping, flaking paint is quite common to see after

There are new products under development constantly to combat weather conditions. If you find you must repaint your exterior, be sure to contact the best possible and experienced painting company that specializes in exteriors. The product you should ask for should contain elastomeric coatings (weatherproofing tech).

What else should we look for?

If you have a deck or any wooden structure on your property, it’s likely it also has taken a beating from the heat. Sunlight dries the wood, discolors it and makes any coating crack and peel. Again, there are new stain and protective coating products being improved constantly. Be sure to find an expert to either strip the current layer and reapply, or get expert in-

structions from a product provider on how to do it yourself.

What’s next?

The roof takes a beating and there is a real risk to asphalt shingles.

Direct sun, especially this unusually hot sun, will cause blistering and cracking on any roof material. Metal roofing can encounter problems if moisture gets under it, as is the case with any material. Overheating and moisture are the key dangers here.

And finally?

If you have a home with siding, it can also experience considerable damage in this heat. We know sun can make the color fade, but it also wears the products down and, once again, one of the dangers of that is moisture getting underneath and eating away at the materials.

Moisture is the main enemy here because it can lead to harmful mold. The best thing to do once fall comes around is to have all these points inspected and repairs done immediately—that includes cracks and punctures. These can lead to costly damage down the road.

And we always recommend a mold inspection after a hot summer like this. Mold can make the house “sick” and an early detection is your best bet to fix the problem quickly. RE

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In other words, you get everything you need to get the listing, get the deal and get ahead. All for less than most agents spend on smartphone service. Find out how top producers stay on top – and how you can join them there. Visit us at Top5inRealEstate.com today.

Top Training & Coaching | Top Tools & Technology | Top Resources & Services

Index of Preferred Providers The leading companies providing services to the real estate and relocation industries

RREIN Service Providers

ABR® .................................................................................... 116

Ascent Real Estate, Inc. ......................................................... 120

American Home Shield® ........................................................ 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate .. 120

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices ........................................ 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices C. Dan Joyner, REALTORS® ...120

Buffini & Company ................................................................ 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty .................. 120

Century 21 Real Estate LLC ................................................... 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS® ....120

Certified New Home Specialist ............................................ 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties ........... 120

CINC (Commissions Inc)........................................................ 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties ........... 120

Cole Realty Resource ............................................................ 116

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties ................120

Create for the Human ............................................................ 116

Calcagni Real Estate ............................................................. 120

CRS Data .............................................................................. 116

CENTURY 21 Award ............................................................... 121

Darryl Davis Seminars ........................................................... 117

CENTURY 21 New Millennium ................................................ 121

The Entrust Group ................................................................. 117

Coach REALTORS® ................................................................ 121

ERA Franchise Systems, LLC .................................................. 117

Coldwell Banker D’Ann Harper, REALTORS® ............................ 121

FCA US LLC ........................................................................... 117

Coldwell Banker Kappel Gateway Realty................................. 121

Homes.com........................................................................... 117

Diane Turton, REALTORS® ...................................................... 121

HomeSmart International ...................................................... 117

Fillmore Real Estate .............................................................. 121

HomeTeam Inspection Service ............................................... 117

First Team® Real Estate ......................................................... 121

HSA Home Warranty ........................................................... 117

GARDNER, REALTORS® .......................................................... 121

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® ....................... 117

Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate ............................................. 121

Motto Franchising, LLC® ........................................................ 118

J. Rockcliff REALTORS® .......................................................... 121

MoxiWorks............................................................................. 118

Jordan Baris, Inc., REALTORS® ............................................... 122

National Association of REALTORS® ....................................... 118

Kinlin Grover Real Estate ....................................................... 122

Pillar To Post Home Inspectors ............................................... 118

Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. .............................................. 122

Quicken Loans ...................................................................... 118

Lusk & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty ................... 122

Real Living Real Estate .......................................................... 118

McCOLLY Real Estate............................................................. 122

Realogy Holdings Corp. ......................................................... 118

Page Taft ............................................................................... 122

realtor.com® ......................................................................... 118

Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate ............................................. 122

Realtors Property Resource® ................................................. 119

Randall, REALTORS® ....................................................................122

Realty Executives International .............................................. 119

RE/MAX 440 and RE/MAX Central ........................................ 122

Realty ONE Group ................................................................. 119

RE/MAX Gateway .................................................................. 122

TM

SM

RE/MAX, LLC ......................................................................... 119 RISMedia’s Top 5 in Real Estate Network® ............................. 119 Top Producer® CRM ............................................................... 119 Workman Success Systems ................................................... 119 Xpressdocs ........................................................................... 119 Zillow Group .......................................................................... 119 zipLogix ................................................................................. 119

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 115

ABR® (800) 648-6224 • www.rebac.net • Chicago, Ill. • Marc Gould, Executive Director Brokers are busy with many competing priorities. They should feel comfortable with their salespeople who have earned the ABR® designation when working with buyer-clients. Real estate professionals can hone their skills in representing the needs of homebuyers in real estate transactions and earn the coveted Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®) designation, giving agents knowledge and confidence to navigate the market.

AMERICAN HOME SHIELD® (800) 735-4663 • www.ahs.com/realestate American Home Shield® founded the home warranty industry more than 45 years ago and remains the industry leader with more than 1.8 million customers who depend on us every day.

Not only do we offer home warranty plans that help protect against unexpected covered breakdowns of home systems, but we also offer services that buyers can take advantage of day one of their contract. Current additional services offered include rekeying, TV mounting and pre-season HVAC tune-ups. We’re also leveraging our network of more than 15,000 licensed and qualified contractors to test even more services, such as electronics protection plan, pest control coverage, house cleaning services, garage door tune-ups, electrician services, and more. Discover the shield difference and contact your local AHS® Account Executive today by visiting ahs.com/find-rep.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES (800) 666-6634 • www.berkshirehathawayhs.com Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is a brand-new real estate brokerage network built for a new era in residential real estate.

The network, among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, brings to the market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability and longevity. The brand, grounded in the financial strength, efficiency and tradition of its HomeServices of America parent company, will change the face of residential real estate.

BUFFINI & COMPANY (800) 945-3485 • www.buffiniandcompany.com Headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., Buffini & Company is the largest real estate coaching and training company in North America.

Founded by real estate expert and master motivator Brian Buffini, the company provides a unique and highly effective lead-generation system and comprehensive business coaching and training programs, which have helped entrepreneurs in 37 countries improve their business, increase net profit and enhance their quality of life.

CENTURY 21 REAL ESTATE LLC (877) 221-2765 • www.century21.com • Madison, N.J. • Michael Miedler, President & CEO Century 21 Real Estate LLC is a leading global residential franchise real estate sales organization, with over 9,400 independently-owned and -operated franchised brokerages and more than 127,000 independent real estate professionals in 80 countries and territories worldwide. The Century 21® System capitalizes on brand marketing, promotions and sponsorships, and fundraising efforts with 116 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

Easterseals to build brand awareness and preference. Technology initiatives include both English- and Spanish-language consumer websites, www.century21.com and www.century21.com/espanol, a recently redesigned intranet site, www.21Online.com, and the Century 21 Learning System®, a web-based learning platform. Century 21 Real Estate LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp.

CERTIFIED NEW HOME SPECIALISTTM (800) 428-1122 • www.sellnewhomes.com SellNewHomes.com is the online headquarters for Certified New Home Specialist™ and Residential Construction Certified™ training, sales systems and marketing tools, created by Dennis Walsh & Associates, Inc. Based in Newport Beach, Calif., the company is owned and operated by nationally recognized new-home, real estate and construction experts Dennis and Teresa Walsh. The Walshes have established Certified New Home Specialist™ as the No. 1 brand of training and support products for new-home sales success. To learn more, email contactus@sellnewhomes.com.

CINC (COMMISSIONS INC) (855) 246-2717 • www.commissionsinc.com • Marietta, Ga. • Matt Hart, Director of Sales CINC is the premier lead acquisition and conversion marketing platform designed for top-producing teams, agents and brokers.

Their solution includes a consumer website that integrates with local MLS data, a complete customer relationship platform for nurturing leads, and a trio of three mobile apps supporting all aspects of the home-sale process. Each month, CINC generates over 290,000 new homebuyer and seller leads for its clients.

COLE REALTY RESOURCE (888) 231-0732 • www.colerealtyresource.com • Omaha, Neb. Cole Realty Resource helps thousands of agents and brokers find success. Agents can connect with neighborhoods to stay top of mind and promote open houses or Just Listed/Sold properties, while brokers use this tool to recruit, retain and cheerlead new agents, allowing for confident prospecting. All of this is achieved through a combination of innovative technology, industry knowledge of end-user practices and comprehensive data providers.

CREATE FOR THE HUMAN (914) 909-6701 • www.createforthehuman.com • John Lim Create for the Human is a groundbreaking philosophy from John Lim, CEO of Life In Mobile and an innovator in real estate technology, that helps real estate and real estate-related companies humanize their digital marketing. Through education about the implementation of four main principles, Create for the Human offers companies the opportunity to exponentially increase their marketing success and bottom line by reaching behind their consumers’ devices and screens to capture and truly engage buyers, sellers, brokers and agents.

CRS DATA www.crsdata.com Since 1989, CRS Data has provided you with a wealth of tax data.

Our new, customized MLS Tax Suite integrates seamlessly into your MLS system and gives REALTORS® current tax data, detailed

maps and robust features on all browsers and mobile devices.

Find listings and FSBOs quickly, evaluate them effectively and give clients professional presentations. We’re proud to provide a personal customer service experience to support our intuitive MLS Tax Suite. Learn more by visiting www.crsdata.com.

DARRYL DAVIS SEMINARS (800) 395-3905 • www.ThePowerProgram.com Headquartered in Long Island, N.Y., Darryl Davis Seminars was founded by real estate expert, coach and international speaker Darryl Davis, CSP. For more than 30 years, Davis has been helping agents double their production by learning the listing and sale skills of real estate. These money-making skillsets are vital when agents are working with buyers and sellers to move their career to their Next Level™. His fast-growing membership platform, www.

ThePowerProgram.com, helps real estate sales professionals design lives and careers worth smiling about. He is the best-selling author of three books with McGraw-Hill Publishers, one of which, “How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate,” is the No. 1 book sold to REALTORS® on Amazon.

THE ENTRUST GROUP (800) 392-9653 • www.TheEntrustGroup.com The Entrust Group (“Entrust”) has been the industry leader in account administration services and education of Real Estate IRAs for 35 years. Entrust offers real estate brokers and agents a costeffective, individualized approach to retirement savings using a self-directed IRA account with the AgentIRA Program. As part of this program, Entrust works with real estate professionals by assisting their clients with the purchase of real estate investments with retirement funds. The AgentIRA Program provides real estate brokers a strategy to attract, develop and retain high-quality talent. Learn more at www.theentrustgroup.com/agentira.

ERA FRANCHISE SYSTEMS, LLC (800) 869-1260 • www.era.com • Madison, N.J. • Simon Chen, President & CEO Since 1971, ERA Franchise Systems, LLC, a global residential real estate leader, has set new standards in customer service, technology and training for the real estate industry. Top-­notch offerings from ERA Real Estate include the Sellers Security® Plan, a comprehensive home protection plan, and ERA.com, its award-­winning consumer website. The ERA network includes approximately 2,300 independently-owned and -operated offices with over 40,000 brokers and independent sales associates throughout the United States and 31 other countries and territories. ERA Franchise Systems, Inc. is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp.

FCA US LLC (888) 898-1115 www.nar.realtor/fca FCA US LLC is a North American automaker based in Auburn Hills, Mich. It designs, manufactures and sells or distributes vehicles under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep®, Ram, FIAT® and Alfa Romeo brands, as well as the SRT performance designation. The company also distributes Mopar and Alfa Romeo parts and accessories. FCA US LLC offers extra benefits to membership of the National Association of REALTORS®.

HOMES.COM (866) 697-3308 • http://marketing.homes.com/ Homes.com offers brand advertising, lead generation, online reputation and marketing solutions to connect you with over 12.5 million consumers monthly. With a high average visit time, consumers visiting Homes.com are more engaged and more likely to buy when compared to visitors of other national real estate websites.

Connect with these motivated homebuyers and sellers with the most powerful suite of tools for your real estate business—and convert more leads to closed transactions.

HOMESMART INTERNATIONAL (800) 865-9025 • www.homesmartfranchise.com Founded in 2000, HomeSmart International is one of the fastestgrowing real estate companies in the nation with nearly 170 offices in 28 states and over 16,000 agents. HomeSmart International offers franchisees, brokers and agents efficiency and innovation, coupled with the systems and technologies necessary to succeed in today’s evolving real estate industry.

HOMETEAM INSPECTION SERVICE (844) HOMETEAM • www.hometeam.com You can depend on HomeTeam for a faster, more efficient home inspection every time. Unique to home inspection companies, HomeTeam brings a team of inspectors on-site. Each team member focuses on his or her area of expertise, which keeps us efficient and saves you time. Fast, Trusted and Accurate—that’s the HomeTeam promise. We invite you to experience the difference the team approach makes. For more information, give us a call at 844.HOMETEAM or visit us online at hometeam.com.

HSASM HOME WARRANTY (800) 367-1448 • www.onlinehsa.com • Madison, Wis. HSASM Home Warranty has provided outstanding products and service to real estate professionals and homeowners for more than 35 years. The home warranty helps sellers and buyers protect their budget from the cost of repairing or replacing the covered home system components and appliances in their home. HSASM also offers additional services to help buyers maintain their homes, including rekeying and pre-season HVAC tune-ups. With HSA Home Warranty, your clients get reliable budget protection backed by exceptional service, and you get a provider who works hard to better serve you. Contact your local HSA Account Executive today by visiting onlinehsa.com.

LEADING REAL ESTATE COMPANIES OF THE WORLD® (312) 424-0400 • www.LeadingRE.com Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® is a selective global community of the highest-quality independent real estate companies. We exist to make our members better by connecting them to opportunities and people around the globe, supporting them with a global referral network, professional development programs, and unique events. For more information on our more than 565 firms that span over 70 countries with 130,000 sales professionals, visit LeadingRE.com.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 117

MOTTO FRANCHISING, LLC®

PILLAR TO POST HOME INSPECTORS

(866) 668-8649 • www.mottomortgage.com • Denver, Colo.

Created in 2016 as the second member of the RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. family of brands, Motto Franchising, LLC® powers the growing network of independently-owned Motto Mortgage brokerages with a franchised business model structured primarily for real estate brokers interested in expanding into mortgage origination via an affiliated business. Motto Mortgage offices have access to loan products from top wholesalers and strong regulatory compliance support. The result is a different kind of business, created to innovate and disrupt the industry.

(800) 294-5591 • www.pillartopost.com • Tampa, Fla. · Stephanie Bowling, Director of Marketing (416) 620-3572 Founded in 1994, Pillar To Post is the No. 1 home inspection brand in North America with over 550 franchisees located in 49 states and nine Canadian provinces. The Pillar To Post difference includes a printed on-site report allowing for faster closings, each inspector carrying $1 million in E&O insurance to cover both the agent and the broker, and convenient scheduling options to meet every client’s needs.

MOXIWORKS

(866) 718-9842 • AgentRelations@QuickenLoans.com For more than 30 years, Quicken Loans has been celebrated for providing an amazing mortgage experience. In fact, J.D. Power ranked Quicken Loans highest in client satisfaction for mortgage origination the last nine years. Along with being the largest mortgage lender, Quicken Loans leads the industry in technology with Rocket Mortgage, the first-ever completely online mortgage experience. Whether applying for a mortgage online or with a mortgage banker, Quicken Loans is committed to client experience.

(206) 673-4591 • www.moxiworks.com MoxiWorks is a comprehensive open platform system for large residential real estate brokerages that serves over 72 brokerages and 120,000 agents nationwide. MoxiWorks’ integrated tools are centered on sphere methodology that increases agents’ repeat and referral business by 54 percent, while lowering overall technology, training and support costs for the brokerage. The open platform known as the MoxiCloud has tools from more than 50 partners that plug and play to create unique brokerage solutions.

MoxiWorks also powers the LeadingRE Cloud. Find more information at moxiworks.com.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (800) 874-6500 • www.NAR.realtor • Chicago, Ill. • Bob Goldberg, CEO • Victoria Gillespie, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer • Katie Johnson, General Counsel, Chief Member Experience Officer • Mark Birschbach, SVP, Strategic Business Innovation and Technology • Marc Gould, SVP, Member Development The term REALTOR® identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. NAR members have access to the REALTOR Benefits® Program, NAR’s official member benefits resource, providing savings and special offers on products and services just for REALTORS®. Program partners are industry leaders who understand the unique needs of real estate professionals. Visit NAR.realtor/RealtorBenefits. NAR is also proud to offer the .realtor™ and .realestate top-level domains to members to help them create a robust digital presence that supports their identity as a REALTOR®, and everything they do for their business.

Visit get.realtor. NAR offers a number of designations, certifications and opportunities for continuing education that support member development. Visit OnlineLearning.realtor. NAR empowers REALTORS® to evaluate, enhance and showcase their highest level of professionalism with the Commitment to Excellence program. Visit C2EX.realtor. The REALTOR® Store features publications, webinars and research reports, including the top-selling 2018 NAR Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers. Visit Store.realtor. Additionally, NAR’s venture capital arm, Second Century Ventures, has invested in companies that push forward innovation in the real estate industry, while benefitting NAR members. Visit secondcenturyventures.com.

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QUICKEN LOANS

REAL LIVING REAL ESTATE (866) 373-6228 • www.realliving.com Real Living Real Estate is a full-service real estate brokerage network with a comprehensive and integrated suite of resources for franchisees and their sales professionals, as well as the consumers who work with them. The Real Living brand has been recognized

by Entrepreneur magazine. Real Living Real Estate is a network brand of HSF Affiliates LLC, majority owned by HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate.

REALOGY HOLDINGS CORP. (973) 407-2162 • www.realogy.com • Madison, N.J. • Trey Sarten, VP, External Communications Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY) is a global leader in residential real estate franchising with company-owned real estate brokerage operations doing business under its franchise systems, as well as relocation and title services. Realogy’s brands and business units include Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, CENTURY 21®, Climb Real Estate®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, The Corcoran Group®, ERA®, Sotheby’s International Realty®, ZipRealty®, NRT LLC, Cartus, Title Resource Group and ZapLabs LLC. Collectively, Realogy’s franchise system members operate over 16,300 offices with approximately 300,000 independent sales associates doing business in 113 countries and territories worldwide.

ENGAGE WITH REALTOR.COM® (800) 878-4166 • www.realtor.com Realtor.com® is real estate’s most accurate site, with listings pulled directly from over 850 MLSs and most listings updated every 15 minutes. Homes for sale on realtor.com® only display the real listing price established between seller and broker, not inaccurate machine-generated estimates. Visit realtor.com®.

REALTORS PROPERTY RESOURCE®

TOP PRODUCER® CRM

(888) 914-7771 • http://blog.narrpr.com • Chicago, Ill. • Marty Frame, President • Jeff Young, COO Realtors Property Resource® (RPR) is a national, parcel-centric database that is a free, exclusive benefit for REALTOR® members of the National Association of REALTORS®. The database provides REALTORS® with all available information about every parcel of residential and commercial property in the United States, giving brokers and agents valuable tools and features to make them better informed in order to increase their efficiency in the marketplace.

(800) 821-3657 • www.TopProducer.com Top Producer® CRM is the super fast, super easy real estate marketing system that makes it a breeze to build your loyal client base.

Keep your sales pipeline running smoothly, follow up automatically, and manage your business in minutes with Top Producer® CRM.

REALTY EXECUTIVES INTERNATIONAL (800) 252-3366 • www.RealtyExecutives.com • Scottsdale, Ariz.

Established in 1965, Realty Executives International is one of the largest and most established real estate franchise systems in the world, with over 8,000 agents and 500 offices globally. The company offers disruptive, flexible pricing models for unrivaled mobile technology, business tools, training and service, while providing protected territories to qualified franchisees. The privately-held company has been ranked as a leader in the real estate industry by publications like Entrepreneur, Success and Inc. magazines.

REALTY ONE GROUP (949) 346-9549 • www.RealtyONEGroup.com • Lou Gonzalez, President, Realty ONE Group Affiliates Known as the UNbrokerage, Realty ONE Group is the fifth-largest real estate brokerage and one of the fastest-growing real estate franchisors in the nation. With over 11,000 real estate professionals across the country, Realty ONE Group empowers real estate professionals with business tools, technology, coaching and 24/7 support that aligns with the brand’s core belief in being pro-agent with a YOU-First Focus. Realty ONE Group is committed to creating a dynamic “coolture” that focuses on helping their professionals achieve greater success, faster, and continues opening doors for their clients, real estate professionals and franchise owners every day.

RE/MAX, LLC (303) 770-5531 • www.remax.com • Denver, Colo.

RE/MAX was founded in 1973 by original disruptors Dave and Gail Liniger, who changed the real estate industry forever. Headquartered in Denver, Colo., RE/MAX is now a global franchise network with over 125,000 sales associates in more than 110 countries and territories. The consumer website remax.com is consistently ranked among the most visited real estate websites, and LeadStreet provides referrals to RE/MAX sales associates with no fees from RE/MAX. To learn how RE/MAX can take your career to the next level, visit www.joinremax.com.

RISMEDIA’S TOP 5 IN REAL ESTATE NETWORK®

WORKMAN SUCCESS SYSTEMS (385) 282-7112 • www.workmansuccesssytems.com • Salt Lake City, Utah Workman Success Systems delivers comprehensive team solutions to agents, brokers and companies, private and group coaching solutions for every level of business, and proven seven-figure income-earning systems. Workman Success Systems Founder, Master Coach and Speaker Verl Workman delivers the necessary performance skills, the latest and most effective tools, and proven dialogues and systems that work. To hire Verl to speak at your next event, visit www.workmansuccess.com/speaking. Sign up for a free coaching consult by going to www.workmansuccess.com/consult.

XPRESSDOCS (866) 977-3627 • www.xpressdocs.com • Fort Worth, Texas As a trusted direct marketing provider for real estate professionals, Xpressdocs produces high-quality marketing materials efficiently and economically—from print and digital to mailing services and a custom technology platform, Xpressdocs has you covered. Our unique marketing platform helps clients maintain control over branding, the quality of the materials used and messaging, all while providing a self-serve online website to customize and order marketing materials and execute campaigns at the local level.

ZILLOW GROUP www.zillow.com Zillow Group houses a portfolio of the largest real estate- and homerelated brands on the web and mobile. The company’s brands focus on all stages of the home lifecycle: renting, buying, selling, financing and home improvement. Zillow Group is committed to empowering consumers with unparalleled data, inspiration and knowledge around homes, and connecting them with the right professionals to help, and helping real estate agents, lenders and rental professionals maximize business opportunities and connect with consumers.

ZIPLOGIX (866) 693-6767 • www.zipLogix.com With more than 20 years of experience developing real estatefocused software solutions and used by more real estate professionals than any other program, zipLogix has been established as the industry standard. This experience delivers a completely integrated real estate solution system that’s led by zipForm® Plus, the exclusive and official forms software of the National Association of REALTORS®.

(203) 853-2167 • www.Top5inRealEstate.com RISMedia’s Top 5 in Real Estate® is a membership network of leading real estate professionals who wish to “raise the bar.” Top 5 in Real Estate is a network of select real estate professionals from throughout the U.S. and Canada who have met the Top 5 in Real Estate’s stringent series of various career qualifications and who are committed to the future development of their professional skills and services to the consumers and the communities they serve.

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 119

RREIN Member Profiles ASCENT REAL ESTATE, INC. (619) 325-4100 • www.ascentrealestate.net Owned and operated in San Diego since 2005, Ascent Real Estate embodies an enviable combination of entrepreneurial energy, comprehensive industry experience, and local market knowledge.

This mix lets Ascent “out national” its local competition, thanks to its exceptional professional team and world-class infrastructure, and “out local” the national competition, thanks to its laser-like focus on the specific markets in which it operates. Our highly productive sales team of approximately 140 agents has elevated Ascent as a leader in marketshare in the Metro San Diego area. Our agents receive ongoing training and education, and they go above and beyond to deliver the diligent and ethical standard of care we are committed to providing. And, as an exclusive San Diego affiliate of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, Ascent Real Estate is a hyper-local brokerage with a global reach.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES AMBASSADOR REAL ESTATE (402) 493-4663 • (800) 477-7653 www.BHHSamb.com • agents@BHHSamb.com Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate is dedicated to providing progressive, quality real estate services in Nebraska’s metropolitan Omaha and Lincoln surrounding areas. We service all types of markets: single-family residential, new construction, condos, corporate relocation, third-party relocation, acreages and commercial real estate. With approximately 400 licensed agents, we have an agent to meet your needs regardless of the style, price or age of the property you are looking for. We understand that trust is earned and that good, professional service is an essential part of that.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES C. DAN JOYNER, REALTORS® (800) 476-6650 · www.cdanjoyner.com Locally-owned and -operated, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices C. Dan Joyner, REALTORS® has been serving communities in Upstate South Carolina since 1964. With more than 400 agents on board and 10 offices serving the Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson areas, we are ready to assist with any commercial and residential real estate need. In addition to residential and commercial sales, we also offer corporate services, relocation and property management. With a passion for fostering long-term relationships with our customers and clients while upholding the highest level of professionalism, it’s easy to see why we’ve been the No. 1 real estate company in the Upstate for more than 20 years.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES FLORIDA REALTY (954) 693-0100 • (800) 386-1554 www.BHHSFloridaRealty.com • Sunrise, Fla. • Rei Mesa, CRS, CRB, President & CEO Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty serves 21 counties throughout Florida with more than 40 locations and approximately 1,800 sales professionals. The full-service brokerage company, founded in 1999, is part of HomeServices of America, the nation’s premier provider of homeownership services. The company is a franchise member of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ network, one of the few organizations entrusted to use the worldrenowned Berkshire Hathaway name. The company offers residential and commercial services as well as seasonal rentals, property 120 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

management, REO & Foreclosures, corporate relocations, referral services, title, home warranty plans, and personal concierge services. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty ranks in the Top 10 in the network and is the overall No. 1 fundraiser for The Sunshine Kids Foundation in Florida, having generated more than $3.6 million. Visit www.BHHSFloridaRealty.com.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES FOX & ROACH, REALTORS® (610) 889-7705 • www.foxroach.com Now the nation’s second-largest provider of total home services, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS® has 4,000 sales associates in 65 sales offices throughout the Tri-State area. Through its affiliate, the Trident Group, the company provides one-stop shopping and facilitated services to its clients, including mortgage financing and title, property and casualty insurance. For more information, go to www.foxroach.com.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES GEORGIA PROPERTIES (770) 992-4100 • www.BHHSGeorgia.com Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties has 22 locations and 1,100 agents, and is an independently-operated subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, and a franchisee of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Under the leadership of CEO Dan Forsman, the company is known for innovation and delivering exceptional value to associates and their clients. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties was ranked No. 1 in homes sold, buyers represented and overall transactions in 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 for the greater Metro Atlanta area.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES NEVADA PROPERTIES (800) 735-4488 • www.BHHSNV.com With more than 260,000 homes sold and 35 years in the industry, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties is the leader in Las Vegas real estate. Consistently rated among the top brokers in the nation, our agents successfully help families find their dream homes. With six area offices, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties is a full-service brokerage focused on quality service and the development of its agents. Call today to see how we can help increase your business.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES SELECT PROPERTIES (314) 835-6000 • www.bhhsselectstl.com Since 2002, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties has helped keep the St. Louis real estate market local. With 11 offices in the metro area, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select ranks as the No. 1 locally-owned real estate firm in St. Louis. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select prides itself on providing the highest-quality real estate brokerage services to its clients and customers and in being recognized in the community for high standards and ethics.

CALCAGNI REAL ESTATE (203) 272-1821 • www.calcagni.com • www.land-consulting.com Calcagni Associates is the premier independently-owned and -operated real estate company servicing Central Connecticut for over four decades. We understand the benefits of providing service that goes beyond what is expected and pride ourselves on establishing lifelong relationships with our clients. In addition to residential real estate, we also specialize in land consulting and new construction, and have divisions that handle bank-owned properties and commercial real estate.

CENTURY 21 AWARD

DIANE TURTON, REALTORS®

(800) 293-1657 • www.century21award.com CENTURY 21 Award is the premier Southern California-based, full-service real estate company serving San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties from 15 distinctive office locations. Our 1,000 professional agents and staff are fully equipped to assist you with all of your real estate needs. Our services include residential, commercial, relocation, property management and bank-owned properties.

(877) 388-7866 • www.dianeturton.com Founded in 1985, the Diane Turton, REALTORS® name has earned renowned recognition as the premier real estate company in the markets that they serve. With 18 strategic locations on the New Jersey shoreline, the Diane Turton brand is the recognized leader in providing complete residential and commercial real estate ownership services and support. Diane Turton, REALTORS® caters to all real estate requirements, including title, insurance, relocation and referral services. The company is staffed with nearly 375 sales associates along with a full-time management/support team.

CENTURY 21 NEW MILLENNIUM (800) 727-6888 • www.c21nm.com CENTURY 21 New Millennium is a full-service real estate brokerage in the greater Washington, D.C. area. The company, which specializes in residential and luxury properties, joined the CENTURY 21® System in 1998 and has established a sound and successful organization providing traditional residential and commercial services, on-site mortgage, title, and property management, and access to a vast network of relocation and other real estate service providers worldwide. It has earned the status of No. 1 CENTURY 21 Firm in the World for the past three years. With 20 locations and approximately 900 real estate professionals, New Millennium is consistently included in REALTOR® Magazine’s Top 100 Companies List for all real estate firms nationwide regardless of brand.

It is also a past winner of the prestigious Cartus Masters Cup, the Network’s highest honor. The Cartus Broker Network is the largest relocation network in the world and includes more than 775 handselected brokerages in the United States.

COACH REALTORS® (800) 321-7356 x139 • www.coachrealtors.com · LP Finn, Operating Officer, LP@coachrealtors.com Coach REALTORS® is a Long Island-based, full-service real estate company with 18 office locations and over 600 sales associates serving Nassau and Suffolk counties, N.Y. Coach REALTORS® is an exclusive affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates, a division of the famed auction house, and a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, and has been recognized by Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate for over 14 years.

COLDWELL BANKER D’ANN HARPER, REALTORS® (210) 483-7002 • www.cbharper.com Coldwell Banker D’Ann Harper, REALTORS® is the largest full-service real estate company serving the entire greater San Antonio metropolitan area, New Braunfels, Boerne, Bandera, Kerrville, Fredericksburg and Hill Country markets, representing buyers and sellers in all phases of their transactions. Since opening in 1986, the company has become a trusted name in the real estate industry. With eight offices, over 350 sales associates and over 100 support staff, the company’s extensively trained representatives have knowledge and expertise to service all aspects of the real estate business. Core services include global relocation, property management and rentals, commercial sales and leasing and mortgage financing.

COLDWELL BANKER KAPPEL GATEWAY REALTY (844) 861-5631 • www.KappelGateway.com Coldwell Banker Kappel Gateway Realty was created through the merger of Kappel & Kappel Realty, Inc. and Solano Gateway Realty, Inc. Both firms, founded in 1972, are the market leaders in Solano County, combining more than $600 million in sales dollar volume and welcoming more than 240 agents in seven offices, with branch offices in Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon and Green Valley. Eighty-five percent of our business is derived from returning and referred clients, a true testament to our clients’ high level of satisfaction with our services and our trusted real estate professionals.

FILLMORE REAL ESTATE (800) 528-6673 • www.fillmore.com Fillmore Real Estate is the New York metro area’s largest independently-owned real estate broker. Specializing in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bronx and parts of Westchester, Fillmore has residential, commercial and rental divisions. For more information, visit us at www.fillmore.com or call us at (800) 528-6673.

FIRST TEAM® REAL ESTATE (888) 236-1943 • www.FirstTeam.com First Team® Real Estate is the No. 1 privately-held real estate company in Southern California with 2,000 agents and employees across 60 locations. First Team wins marketshare in any economic climate through innovation and proprietary marketing tools, and by successfully targeting the luxury market with First Team Estates®. Contact First Team today to find out how we have helped thousands of families realize their dream of homeownership— and how we can help you find yours.

GARDNER, REALTORS® (800) 566-7801 • www.GardnerRealtors.com Since 1943, GARDNER, REALTORS® continues our tradition of excellence as the leading full-service real estate company in the Southeast Louisiana and Southern Mississippi Region. The GARDNER Real Estate Family includes over 800 real estate professionals in 24 neighborhood offices that serve over 100 communities.

Our professional services include residential and commercial sales and leasing, relocation and corporate services, asset management/ REO and property management, plus the convenience and added value of one-stop shopping for mortgage, title and home warranty services. We are proud to be homegrown, locally-owned and internationally known. Also, we love to give back to the communities we serve through GARDNER LOVE, which is the philanthropic arm of GARDNER, REALTORS® and The Gertrude Gardner Foundation.

GLORIA NILSON & CO. REAL ESTATE (732) 450-2300 • www.glorianilson.com Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate, has been a revered real estate company for over 40 years. We are known for our representation and commitment to providing clients with the highest level customer service. With our exclusive Christie’s International Real Estate affiliation and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® membership, we have a unique combination of worldwide expertise and regional connections. Our clients expect a world-class experience provided by skilled, knowledgeable agents, and we deliver consistently on that expectation.

J. ROCKCLIFF REALTORS® (925) 251-2501 • www.rockcliff.com • www.rockliffcares.com J. Rockcliff REALTORS®, located east of San Francisco, is the East Bay’s premier real estate company. Recently named No. 1 in residential sales (in the East Bay) by the San Francisco Business RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 121

Times, J. Rockcliff specializes in service. With leading-edge technology, state-of-the-art marketing across multiple mediums, the most experienced management team in the Bay Area and dedicated, ethical and professional agents, our goal is to provide a client experience that is second to none. With almost 600 agents and nine offices, J. Rockcliff REALTORS® is the fastest-growing real estate company in the East Bay.

JORDAN BARIS, INC., REALTORS® (800) 4-JBARIS • (973) 736-1600 • www.JordanBaris.com info@jordanbaris.com Founded in 1952, Jordan Baris Inc., REALTORS® is among the most respected full-service real estate brokerages in Northern New Jersey.

With a team of close to 150 associates, the firm operates offices in West Orange and South Orange, with teams focused on Essex, Morris, Union and Hudson counties. Jordan Baris, Inc. offers real estate brokerage to buyers and sellers of residential and commercial properties, developers, tenants and landlords; title services through JB Title Agency, LLC; and global relocation services through its membership with the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®.

KINLIN GROVER REAL ESTATE (508) 420-1130 • www.kinlingrover.com Kinlin Grover has 16 real estate offices covering Cape Cod from the bridges to Provincetown, specializing in the marketing and sale of waterfront, village, commercial properties and fine homes.

From the very beginning, the Kinlin Grover mission has remained constant: “to help our clients make the best real estate decisions and to uphold the highest standards of ethics and professionalism.” In addition, Kinlin Grover Vacation Rentals is the largest real estate firm on Cape Cod with over 600 privately-owned Cape Cod vacation rental homes. We value every client and pledge to deliver unsurpassed service as trusted advisors, expert facilitators and skilled negotiators.

LONG & FOSTER REAL ESTATE, INC. (866) 677-6937 ∙ www.LongandFoster.com Long & Foster Real Estate, the nation’s No. 1 independent brand by sales volume, is part of The Long & Foster Companies, a subsidiary of HomeServices of America, a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate. HomeServices is the nation’s second-largest real estate brokerage and one of the largest providers of integrated real estate services. Long & Foster Real Estate is the exclusive affiliate for Christie’s International Real Estate throughout select parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and it is a founding affiliate of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, a prestigious global network of real estate professionals that includes the Luxury Portfolio International division. Long & Foster Real Estate has over 220 offices, stretching from Raleigh, N.C., to Fair Haven, N.J., and from Martinsburg, W. Va., to the Atlantic Ocean, and it represents more than 11,000 agents in seven Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states, plus the District of Columbia. The company, which has a productive commercial business in addition to its residential side, sold more than $31.1 billion worth of homes and helped people buy and sell homes nearly 85,000 times in 2017.

Visit www.LongandFoster.com for more information.

LUSK & ASSOCIATES SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY (717) 291-9101 • www.LuskandAssociates.com When you work with Lusk & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty, you can count on specialists who can answer your questions, apply in-depth knowledge of current market conditions, and access extensive resources that can expedite the sale of your home.

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MCCOLLY REAL ESTATE (800) 348-2100 x206 • www.mccolly.com Since 1974, McCOLLY Real Estate has found your place to call home, from the shores of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana to Lake Street Beach in Chicago. McCOLLY is a proud LeadingRE member with bilingual agents in 14-plus languages among 450plus REALTORS® in 18 offices. McCOLLY Companies is the One Source for All Purpose Real Estate with its ancillary companies of McColly Insurance, Community Title, McCOLLY Auctions, McCOLLY Bennett Commercial, McCOLLY New Homes Division and Luxury Home Portfolio™.

PAGE TAFT (203) 453-6511 • www.pagetaft.com Since opening its Guilford office in 1980, Page Taft has expanded its presence with offices in the historic towns of Madison and Essex, Conn. Page Taft agents foster long-term relationships with clients based on a strong foundation of trust and an unsurpassed commitment to excellence. These unique strengths set us apart from our competitors and make us your most valuable resource in fulfilling your real estate needs.

PATTERSON-SCHWARTZ REAL ESTATE (877) 456-4663 • www.pattersonschwartz.com pattersonschwartz@psre.com Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate is Delaware’s largest independent REALTOR® with over 50 years of service to the Delaware real estate market and surrounding communities in nearby Pennsylvania and Maryland. With nine offices and 415 sales associates, we are committed to excellence, integrity and quality service. We offer a full range of services, including residential home sales, purchase and rental, relocation services and property management.

RANDALL, REALTORS® (401) 364-3388 • www.randallrealtors.com Randall, REALTORS® has been a consistent leader in the marketing of Southern New England properties for more than 28 years.

Specializing in waterfront properties and second homes, our agents boast a 98.5 percent client satisfaction rating. Through our extensive marketing network, we offer tremendous exposure for our property listings and continue to deliver successful sales and representation for our clients. In addition, Randall, REALTORS®’ Vacation Rental Department offers a large selection of vacation rental properties serving the Southern Rhode Island shoreline and Eastern Connecticut.

RE/MAX 440 AND RE/MAX CENTRAL (215) 453-7653 • www.pahomesforsale.com • Tom Skiffington, Broker/Owner, tom@tomskiffington.com RE/MAX 440 and RE/MAX Central is a first-class, professional real estate company. Our goal is to provide the most prompt, courteous and professional services to all our customers and clients. We are the leading RE/MAX in Pennsylvania and Delaware with the highest sales volume and transactions. RE/MAX 440/Central has 10 different offices in Bucks, Montgomery and Lehigh counties.

RE/MAX GATEWAY (703) 652-5760 • www.gateway2realestate.com The real estate market is ever changing. It takes constant evaluation, review of recent trends to forecast a potential future and education of agents through mastermind groups and real estate information exchanges. These are areas in which we excel at RE/MAX Gateway. Contact us today if you are looking to advance your career in real estate through a multitude of educational experiences and resources, or if you need real estate advice in order to make informed decisions when buying and selling houses.

YOUR BROKER-TO-BROKER SOURCE FOR REFERRALS FROM REAL ESTATE’S LEADING RESIDENTIAL BROKERAGE COMPANIES CALIFORNIA Ascent Real Estate, Inc. 410 Kalmia St., San Diego, CA 92101 Contact: Gina Lancelot • Tel: (619) 325-4100 Email: info@ascentrealestate.net • URL: www.ascentrealestate.net Coverage Areas: San Diego Offices: 9 • Associates: 180 CENTURY 21 Award - Orange County 22342 Avenida Empresa, Ste. 110, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 Contact: Joshua Tucker, Director of Relocation Services Tel: (760) 217-2491 (Toll Free) • Fax: (619) 374-2706 Email: jtucker@century21award.com Coverage Areas: Orange County Offices: 15 • Associates: 1,200 CENTURY 21 Award - San Diego, Riverside 7676 Hazard Center Dr., Ste. 300, San Diego, CA 92108 Contact: Joshua Tucker, Director of Relocation Services Tel: (760) 217-2491 (Toll Free) • Fax: (619) 374-2706 Email: jtucker@century21award.com Coverage Areas: San Diego, Southern Riverside Offices: 15 • Associates: 1,200 Coldwell Banker Kappel Gateway Realty 750 Mason St., Ste. 101, Vacaville, CA 95688 Contact: Rachel Guerin Tel: (707) 427-5344 or (844) 861-5631 • Fax: (707) 446-9830 Email: info@kappelgateway.com • URL: www.KappelGateway.com Coverage Areas: Vacaville, Benicia, Davis, Dixon, Fairfield, Napa, Rio Vista, Suisun City Vallejo and Winters, Calif.

Offices: 7 • Associates: 240 First Team® Real Estate 108 Pacifica Ave., Ste. 300, Irvine, CA 92618 Contact: Gayle D. Glew CRP, CRB, Director, Relocation and Corporate Services Tel: (855) 858-8028 (Toll Free) Email: gayleglew@firstteam.com • URL: www.firstteam.com Coverage Areas: Southern California counties of Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego Offices: 36 • Associates: 1,865 J. Rockcliff REALTORS® Headquarters Office: 4115 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Ste. 201, Danville, CA, 94506 Contact: Robin Dickson, CRS, GRI, Executive Vice President Tel: (925) 251-2501 (O), (925) 324-1323 (C), 877-JRCKCLF (572-2523) (TF) Email: rdickson@rockcliff.com • URL(s): www.rockcliff.com • www.rockliffcares.com Coverage Areas: Alameda County: Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Castro Valley, Dublin Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Sunol, Union City; Contra Costa County: Alamo, Antioch, Bethel Island, Brentwood, Byron, Canyon, Clayton, Concord, Crockett, Danville, Diablo, Discovery Bay, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Oakley, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill Port Costa, Richmond, Rodeo, San Pablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek; San Joaquin County: Country Club, Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca, Mountain House, Stockton, Tracy, Silicon Valley/San Jose area

CONNECTICUT Calcagni Real Estate 330 South Main St., Cheshire, CT 06410 Contact: Steven Calcagni, President Tel: (203) 272-1821 ext. 302 Email: Steven_Calcagni@calcagni.com • URL: www.calcagni.com Coverage Areas: New Haven County, Central Connecticut Offices: 4 • Associates: 140

Page Taft 89 Whitfield St., Guilford, CT 06437 Contact: Karen Stephens, Executive VP • Tel: (203) 453-6511 Email: kstephens@pagetaft.com • URL: www.pagetaft.com Coverage Areas: Connecticut Offices: 3 • Associates: 60 Randall, REALTORS® 4009 Old Post Rd., Charleston, RI 02813 Contact: Jean Fournier, Dir. of Relocation & Referral Services Tel: (401) 486-9677 Email: jfournier@randallrealtors.com • URL: www.randallrealtors.com Coverage Areas: Connecticut and Rhode Island Offices: 9 • Associates: 175

DELAWARE Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS® 1 International Plaza, Ste. 100, Philadelphia, PA 19113 Contact: Linda Zanzinger, Vice President, Relocation/REO Services Tel: (610) 595-3149 Email: Linda.Zanzinger@foxroach.com • URL: www.foxroach.com Coverage Areas: Greater Philadelphia Region, Greater Allentown and Easton Region, Southeast Pa., Southern and Central N.J., Northern Del. Offices: 65 • Associates: 4,000 Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+ Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate 7234 Lancaster Pike, Ste. 220B, Hockessin, DE 19707 Contact: Brian Pomije, Relocation Manager Tel: (302) 234-3600 (Office) • (302) 234-5207 (Direct) • (800) 443-2295 (Toll Free) Email: bpomije@psre.com • URL: pattersonschwartz.com Coverage Areas: Delaware (New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties), Pennsylvania (Chester and Delaware counties), Maryland (Cecil, Kent and Harford counties) Offices: 9 • Associates: 415

FLORIDA Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty 1580 Sawgrass Corporate Pkwy., Ste. 400, Sunrise, FL 33323 Contact: Rei Mesa, CRS, CRB, President & CEO Tel: (954) 693-0100 or (800) 386-1554 • Fax: (954) 236-6962 Email: ReiMesa@BHHSFloridaRealty.com Relocation Contact: Sharon Sapp, Vice President, Relocation, Referrals & REOs Email: sharonsapp@BHHSFloridaRealty.com • URL: www.BHHSFloridaRealty.com Coverage Areas: 21 counties throughout Florida, including Southeast Florida, Southwest Florida and Orlando area Offering mortgage, title, insurance, home service plans and 1031 exchange services Offices: 40 • Associates: 1,750

GEORGIA Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties 863 Holcomb Bridge Rd., Roswell, GA 30076 Contact: Kathy Connelly, SVP Corporate Services • Tel: (678) 352-3321 Email: Kathy.Connelly@BHHSGeorgia.com • URL: www.BHHSGeorgia.com Coverage Areas: Metro Atlanta and North Georgia Offices: 22 • Associates: 1,100 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 123

ILLINOIS McCOLLY Real Estate 800 Deer Creek Dr., Schererville, IN 46375 Contact: Deborah Horton, CRP, RCC, Director of Referral/Relocation Services Tel: (800) 348-2100 ext. 206 Email: dhorton@mccolly.com • URL: www.mccolly.com Coverage Areas: Alsip, Aroma Park, Beecher, Blue Island, Bourbonnais, Bradley, Burbank, Burnham, Calumet City, Channahon, Chicago, Chicago Ridge, Clearing, Country Club Hills, Crest Hill, Crestwood, Crete, Evergreen Park, Flossmoor, Frankfort, Glenwood, Grant Park, Harvey, Hazel Crest, Hegewisch, Hickory Hills, Homewood, Kankakee, Lansing, Lemont, Lockport, Lynwood, Manteno, Matteson, Mokena, Momence, Monee, Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, New Lenox, Oak Lawn, Orland Hills, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Park Forest, Peotone, Richton Park, Riverdale, Roseland, Steger, Tinley Park, University Park, Worth Offices: 18 • Associates: 450+

RE/MAX Gateway 4090B Lafayette Center Dr., Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Scott MacDonald, President Tel: (703) 652-5760 • (703) 727-6900 (Cell) Email: scottmacdonald@remax.net • URL: www.gateway2realestate.com Coverage Areas: Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland Offices: 6 • Associates: 170

MASSACHUSETTS Kinlin Grover Real Estate 4 Wianno Ave., Osterville, MA 02655 Contact: Lucy Cundiff, Director of Agent Services Tel: (508) 420-1130 Email: lcundiff@kinlingrover.com • URL: www.kinlingrover.com Coverage Areas: Southeastern Massachusetts Offices: 16 • Associates: 275

INDIANA McCOLLY Real Estate 800 Deer Creek Dr., Schererville, IN 46375 Contact: Deborah Horton, CRP, RCC, Director of Referral/Relocation Services Tel: (800) 348-2100 ext. 206 Email: dhorton@mccolly.com • URL: www.mccolly.com Coverage Areas: Beverly Shores, Cedar Lake, Chesterton, Crown Point, DeMotte, Dyer, Dune Acres, East Chicago, Gary, Griffith, Hammond, Hebron, Highland, Hobart, Kouts, La Porte, Lake Station, Lake Village, Lakes of Four Seasons, Long Beach, Lowell, Merrillville, Michiana Shores, Michigan City, Miller Beach, Morocco, Munster, Ogden Dunes, Otis, Portage, Porter, Rensselaer, Roselawn, Schererville, Schneider, St. John, Sumava Resorts, Thayer, Valparaiso, Westville, Wheatfield, Whiting, Winfield Offices: 18 • Associates: 450+

LOUISIANA GARDNER, REALTORS® 3332 N. Woodlawn Ave., Metairie, LA 70006 Contact: Nancy Harmann, Director of Relocation & Corporate Services Tel: (504) 200-5080 • (504) 402-9567 (Cell) • (800) 256-5677 (Toll Free) Email: NHarmann@GardnerRealtors.com • URL: www.GardnerRealtors.com Coverage Areas: Southeast Louisiana, including Greater New Orleans and Greater Baton Rouge, and Southern Mississippi, including the MS Gulf Coast Offering a full range of services including Residential, Commercial, Leasing, New Homes, REO, and Loss Mitigation; plus individual and corporate Relocation, Property Management and National/International Referral Network services Offices: 24 • Associates: 800

MARYLAND CENTURY 21 New Millennium 5990 Kingstowne Towne Center, Alexandria, VA 22315 Contact: Todd Hetherington, CEO • Tel: (800) 382-1101 • Fax: (703) 822-0136 Relocation Contact: Jeff Hetherington, Director of Relocation Email: move@c21nm.com • URL: www.c21nm.com Coverage Areas: Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Southern Maryland markets. Our areas of expertise range from Fortune 500 executives to specialized training in military and government relocation.

Offices: 16 • Associates: 700+ Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+

124 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

MISSISSIPPI GARDNER, REALTORS® 3332 N. Woodlawn Ave., Metairie, LA 70006 Contact: Nancy Harmann, Director of Relocation & Corporate Services Tel: (504) 200-5080 • (504) 402-9567 (Cell) • (800) 256-5677 (Toll Free) Email: NHarmann@GardnerRealtors.com • URL: www.GardnerRealtors.com Coverage Areas: Southeast Louisiana, including Greater New Orleans and Greater Baton Rouge, and Southern Mississippi, including the MS Gulf Coast Offering a full range of services including Residential, Commercial, Leasing, New Homes, REO, and Loss Mitigation; plus individual and corporate Relocation, Property Management and National/International Referral Network services Offices: 24 • Associates: 800

MISSOURI Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Select Properties 1650 Des Peres Rd., Ste. 205, Saint Louis, MO 63131 Contact: Angie Ignatowski, Relocation Director Tel: (314) 835-6000 • (314) 835-6050 (Direct) Email: aignatowski@bhhsselectstl.com • URL: www.bhhsselectstl.com Coverage Areas: St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, Lincoln County Offices: 11 • Associates: Over 500

NEBRASKA Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate 13340 California St., Omaha, NE 68154 Contact: Katie Adams, CRP, GMS, VP Corp. Relocation & Business Development Tel: (800) 477-7653 or (402) 547-5137 Email: Katie.adams@BHHSamb.com • URL: www.BHHSamb.com Coverage Areas: Omaha and Lincoln Metropolitan Area, including Omaha, Bellevue, Ralston, LaVista, Papillion, Gretna, Elkhorn, Fremont, Lincoln, Council Bluffs and surrounding communities

NEVADA Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties 3185 St. Rose Pkwy., Ste. 100, Henderson, NV 89052 Contact: Eileen Mitchell, Dir. of Relocation & Referral Services Tel: (800) 735-4488 Email: relo@BHHSNV.com • URL: www.BHHSNV.com Coverage Areas: Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin and Pahrump Offices: 6 • Associates: 1,050

NEW JERSEY Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS® 1 International Plaza, Ste. 100, Philadelphia, PA 19113 Contact: Linda Zanzinger, VP, Relocation/REO Services

Tel: (610) 595-3149 Email: Linda.Zanzinger@foxroach.com • URL: www.foxroach.com Coverage Areas: Greater Philadelphia Region, Greater Allentown and Easton Region, Southeast Pa., Southern and Central N.J., Northern Del. Offices: 65 • Associates: 4,000 Diane Turton, REALTORS® 511 Forman Ave., Point Pleasant Beach, NJ 08742 Contact: Dawn Fetherston, Director of Relocation & Corporate Services Tel: (877) 388-7866 Email: info@dianeturton.com • URL: www.dianeturton.com Coverage Areas: Monmouth County, Ocean County and Middlesex County (N.J.) Member Organizations: Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®, Luxury Portfolio, Luxury Real Estate Offices: 18 · Associates: 375 Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate 826 Alexander Rd., Princeton, NJ 08540 Contact: Mark Williams, Relocation Director Tel: (888) 467-MOVE (Relocation Line) • (609) 750-7655 (Direct) Email: mwilliams@glorianilson.com • URL: www.glorianilson.com Coverage Areas: Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean and Somerset counties, N.J.; Bucks County, Pa. Offices: 23 • Associates: 700+ Jordan Baris, Inc., REALTORS® 50 Mt. Pleasant Ave., West Orange, NJ 07052 Contact: Carol Abdo, Relocation Director Tel: (973) 736-1600 (Office) • (800) 4-JBARIS (Toll Free) Fax: (973) 736-5159 Email: relocation@jordanbaris.com • URL: www.jordanbaris.com Coverage Areas: Essex, Union, Hudson and Morris counties. Specifically West Orange, South Orange, Maplewood, Livingston, East Hanover, Roseland, Short Hills, Montclair, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, East Orange, Orange, Irvington, Jersey City, North Bergen, Union, Vauxhall, Parsippany-Troy Hills Offices: 2 • Associates: 150 Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+

NEW YORK Coach REALTORS® 66 Gilbert St., Northport, NY 11768 Contact: Jose Matos, Inbound Referral Coordinator Tel: (800) 321-7356 ext. 138 Email: jmatos@coachrealtors.com URL: www.coachrealtors.com/buying-and-sellin/relocation.cfm The Coach REALTORS® Relocation Department understands the complexities and challenges of employee transfers and is very responsive to the many needs of relocating families. Coach’s relocation division is supported by three full-time referral coordinators: Jose Matos, Kathy Brandofino and Roseanne Tourto. These three professionals draw upon more than 50 years of combined relocation experience in order to make the client transition a comfortable one.

Offices: 19 • Associates: 650+

Coldwell Banker Prime Properties 10 Osgood Ave., Green Island, NY 12183 Contact: R. James Long, Broker/Owner Tel: (518) 640-4008 • Fax: (518) 456-8980 Email: jim.long@ColdwellBankerPrime.com Coverage Areas: New York State, primarily Capital Region and Central New York Offices: 16 • Associates: 500 Fillmore Real Estate 2990 Avenue U, Brooklyn, NY 11229 Contact: John Reinhardt, President/CEO • Tel: (800) 528-6673 Email: JohnReinhardt@Fillmore.com • URL: www.fillmore.com Coverage Areas: Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bronx and parts of Westchester Offices: 16 • Associates: 400

NORTH CAROLINA Coldwell Banker Advantage 7610 Six Forks Rd., Ste. 100, Raleigh, NC 27615 Contact: Benina Drake, CRP, SVP Relocation & Referral Services Tel: (800) 274-5345 • (919) 846-3330 (Direct) Email: BDrake@AdvantageCB.com • URL: AdvantageCB.com Coverage Areas: Apex, Cary, Clayton, Creedmoor, Chapel Hill, Durham, Falls Lake, Fayetteville, Ft. Bragg area, Henderson, Holly Springs, Knightdale, Lake Gaston, Lillington, McGee’s Crossroads, Pinehurst, Pittsboro, Pope Air Force Base area, Raleigh, Southern Pines, Wake Forest and Zebulon Offices: 17 • Associates: 325 Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+

PENNSYLVANIA Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS® 1 International Plaza, Ste. 100, Philadelphia, PA 19113 Contact: Linda Zanzinger, Vice President, Relocation/REO Services, Tel: (610) 595-3149 Email: Linda.Zanzinger@foxroach.com • URL: www.foxroach.com Coverage Areas: Greater Philadelphia Region, Greater Allentown and Easton Region, Southeast Pa., Southern and Central N.J., Northern Del. Offices: 65 • Associates: 4,000 Gloria Nilson & Co. Real Estate 826 Alexander Rd., Princeton, NJ 08540 Contact: Mark Williams, Relocation Director Tel: (888) 467-MOVE (Relocation Line) • (609) 750-7655 (Direct) Email: mwilliams@glorianilson.com • URL: www.glorianilson.com Coverage Areas: Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean and Somerset counties, N.J.; Bucks County, Pa. Offices: 23 • Associates: 700+ Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+

RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE September 2019 125

Lusk & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty 100 Foxshire Dr., Lancaster, PA 17601 Tel: (717) 291-9101 • Fax: (717) 393-2336 Contact: Sandy Zercher Email: sandra.zercher@sothebysrealty.com • URL: www.LuskandAssociates.com Coverage Areas: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; Susquehanna Valley, Pennsylvania; South Central Pennsylvania Offices: 1 • Associates: 40

Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+

RE/MAX 440 and RE/MAX Central 701 West Market St., Perkasie, PA 18944 Contact: Tom Skiffington, Broker/Owner • Tel: (215) 453-7653 or (215) 643-3200 Email: tom@tomskiffington.com URLs: www.pahomesforsale.com • www.lehighvalleyrealestate.com Coverage Areas: Pennsylvania counties: Bucks, Berks, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Lehigh, North Hampton, and New Jersey Offices: 10 • Associates: 170

RE/MAX Gateway 4090B Lafayette Center Dr., Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Scott MacDonald, President Tel: (703) 652-5760 • (703) 727-6900 (Cell) Email: scottmacdonald@remax.net • URL: www.gateway2realestate.com Coverage Areas: Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland Offices: 6 • Associates: 170

RHODE ISLAND Randall, REALTORS® 4009 Old Post Rd., Charleston, RI 02813 Contact: Jean Fournier, Dir. of Relocation & Referral Services Tel: (401) 486-9677 Email: jfournier@randallrealtors.com • URL: www.randallrealtors.com Coverage Areas: Connecticut and Rhode Island Offices: 9 • Associates: 175

SOUTH CAROLINA Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices C. Dan Joyner, REALTORS® 745 N. Pleasantburg Dr., Greenville, SC 29607 Contacts: Nichole Moore, Director of Relocation, (864) 678-5362, nmoore@cdanjoyner.com, Jo Anne Conner, Destination & Broker-to-Broker Mgr., (864) 678-5227, jconner@cdanjoyner.com, URL: www.cdanjoyner.com Brookfield GRS, SIRVA, AIReS Relocation, Graebel, MI Group Coverage Areas: Greenville, Greer, Taylors, Duncan, Spartanburg, Mauldin, Simpsonville, Fountain Inn, Powdersville, Easley, Piedmont, Anderson Offices: 10 • Associates: 400+

TEXAS Coldwell Banker D’Ann Harper, REALTORS® 18756 Stone Oak Pkwy., Ste. 301, San Antonio, TX 78258 Contact: Pam Poitevent, Sr. VP Relocation Services Tel: (800) 521-1408 (Toll Free) • (210) 483-7035 (Direct) Email: ppoitevent@cbharper.com • URL: www.cbharper.com Coverage Areas: San Antonio metropolitan area including New Braunfels, San Marcos, Seguin, Spring Branch, Bulverde, Canyon Lake, Schertz, Universal City, Boerne, Bandera, Kerrville and surrounding areas Offices: 8 • Associates: 350+

VIRGINIA CENTURY 21 New Millennium 5990 Kingstowne Towne Center, Alexandria, VA 22315 Contact: Todd Hetherington, CEO • Tel: (800) 382-1101 • Fax: (703) 822-0136 Relocation Contact: Jeff Hetherington, Director of Relocation Email: move@c21nm.com • URL: www.c21nm.com Providers of world class real estate services in the Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Southern Maryland markets. Our areas of expertise range from Fortune 500 executives to specialized training in military and government relocation.

Offices: 16 • Associates: 700+

126 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

WASHINGTON, D.C. CENTURY 21 New Millennium 5990 Kingstowne Towne Center, Alexandria, VA 22315 Contact: Todd Hetherington, CEO • Tel: (800) 382-1101 • Fax: (703) 822-0136 Relocation Contact: Jeff Hetherington, Director of Relocation Email: move@c21nm.com • URL: www.c21nm.com Providers of world class real estate services in the Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Southern Maryland markets. Our areas of expertise range from Fortune 500 executives to specialized training in military and government relocation.

Offices: 16 • Associates: 700+ Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+ RE/MAX Gateway 4090B Lafayette Center Dr., Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Scott MacDonald, President Tel: (703) 652-5760 • (703) 727-6900 (Cell) Email: scottmacdonald@remax.net • URL: www.gateway2realestate.com Coverage Areas: Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland Offices: 6 • Associates: 170

WEST VIRGINIA Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. Headquarters Office: 14501 George Carter Way, Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vicki Hamp, SVP of Corporate Real Estate Services Tel: (800) 335-0356 Email: Vicki.Hamp@LongandFoster.com • URL: www.LongandFoster.com Coverage Areas: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia Offices: 220+ • Associates 11,000+

INDEX OF SERVICE PROVIDERS ABR® ..................................................................................12

NextHome .......................................................................BC

American Home Shield ..................................................24

Pillar To Post Home Inspectors..........................................2

Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA)....59

Quicken Loans .................................................................19

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices............................. IBC

Real Estate Express ..........................................................39

Century 21 Real Estate LLC ............................................17

Real Estate Webmasters .................................................21

Create for the Human ................................11, 20, 84, 113

Realtors Property Resource® ..........................................15

Darryl Davis Seminars, Inc...............................................73

Realty ONE Group ......................................................... IFC

ERA Franchise Systems, LLC ...........................................46

RE/MAX, LLC ....................................................................10

Firepoint ............................................................................64

RISMedia’s ACESocial ......................................9, 90-91, 127

Homes.com .......................................................................7

RISMedia’s Content Solutions ........................................78

HouseStay...............................................................................37

RISMedia’s Real Estate CEO Exchange ..........................5

HSA Home Warranty ............................................................... 1

RISMedia’s Top 5 in Real Estate Network® ..........108, 114

Key Estates .............................................................................77

RISMedia’s Ultimate Real Estate Team Guide ...........100

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World ..........22-23

Sherri Johnson Coaching & Consulting ........................97

NAR’s Resort and Second-Home Property (RSPS) Certification .....................................................................42

Stewart Title ......................................................................55

National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP)® .................................................74

Women in the Housing and Real Estate Ecosystem NAWRB ..............................................................................68

National Association of REALTORS® ...........................8, 27

Workman Success Systems.......................................89, 93

®

Weichert Real Estate Affiliates, Inc. ...............................44

Build Your Brand and Generate Leads!

“ACESocial allows us to provide a valuable, time-saving social media solution to all our sales professionals. Offering company-branded, professional posts through ACESocial adds value not only to our customers, but also to our REALTORS®!”

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{re: Real Estate}

Helping REALTORS® Maximize Safety, Minimize Risk

R

EALTORS® face job-related risks every day— working alone, meeting with strangers in unfamiliar places, and sharing personal contact in-

formation. While independence is one of the perks of our industry, it can leave agents open to vulnerabilities.

The Natioanl Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has dedicated September as REALTOR® Safety Month to raise awareness of safety issues, though it’s important for real estate professionals to stay focused on safety year-round. That’s why, more than a decade ago, NAR launched the REALTOR® Safety Program.

The program provides members with safety education, tips, and countless other resources and tools at no cost. The aim: Help REALTORS® make it home safely to their family every night.

Here are some REALTOR®Safety Program highlights: A New National Network There is safety—and power—in numbers. In March, NAR launched the REALTOR® Safety Network to capitalize on the strength of our 1.3 million members.

The program enables members and REALTOR® associations to submit incident reports online. NAR will deploy safety alerts via social media when a physical or cyber threat to REALTORS® warrants national attention. For example, alerts will be issued if a pattern of assaults against REALTORS® has been reported, a REALTOR®or immediate family member goes missing and the family is requesting assistance, or an association name is being used fraudulently.

Empowering Agents Arming your agents with information will build confidence, increase their capacity to protect themselves and their clients, and make them less susceptible to mistakes that could put their property or personal safety at risk.

We encourage you and your agents to attend NAR’s upcoming REALTOR®Safety Webinar, “Prospect or Predator? Reduce the risk of being a target!” presented by David Legaz on Sept. 17, 1 p.m. Central. Learn more and register at NAR.realtor/safety/safety-webinars.

Along with the webinar, you’ll find a wealth of information and extensive resources at NAR.realtor/safety. Take advantage of hundreds of articles, reports,

128 September 2019 RISMedia’s REAL ESTATE

and videos, plus archived webinars covering topics like personal safety, data security, and cyber safety.

We continually add new information, resources, and programs, so check back often.

Keeping Safety Top of Mind An easy way to help your agents make safety a habit is to send them regular safety tips. Each week, NAR posts a new safety tip as a shareable graphic on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow @NARdotRealtor or search for #RealtorSafety to capture and share these tips with your agents.

Safety Tools and Apps At NAR.realtor/safety, you can learn about an array of tools and products, such as security systems, personal alert devices, and smartphone apps. NAR doesn’t sell or endorse these products or services, but offers information to help members decide what’s best for their personal safety protocol. Several companies that participated in NAR’s REACH technology accelerator are listed, including Guard Llama and Trust Stamp, as well as REALTOR Benefits® Program partner SentriLock with the SentriKey Real Estate app and agent safety feature.

Supporting REALTOR® Safety Programs To help state and local associations implement safety programs and encourage ongoing awareness, we provide $10,000 annually in safety grants.

What’s Your Plan?

NAR strongly encourages brokerages to create a safety plan and educate agents about it. Since every office has unique needs, NAR doesn’t prescribe a standard plan. But to help you get started, we offer customizable safety-related forms like an Agent ID Form, Agent Itinerary, and Office Safety Action Plan. RE

Make safety your top priority year-round!

Visit NAR.realtor/safety to access all of NAR’s REALTOR® Safety resources.

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©2019 BHH Affiliates, LLC. Real Estate Brokerage Services are offered through the network member franchisees of BHH Affiliates, LLC. Most franchisees are independently owned and operated. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices symbol are registered service marks of HomeServices of America, Inc.® Information not verified or guaranteed. If your property is currently listed with a broker, this is not intended as a solicitation. Equal Housing Opportunity.

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