LORE Fall 2017 Issue

Fall 2017 • Volume 11 / Issue 3

John Peyton: A Creative Mind

Giveback Homes:

Be the Change in the World

PLUS:

Profiles of some of this years’ 2017 REAL Trends The Thousand Food Equals Love for 600 Needy Children Professional Profile: Marty Rodriquez

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Fall 2017 Volume 11 / Issue 3

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COVER STORY John Peyton: A Creative Mind With a gift for art and business, the new leader of the Realogy Franchise Group (RFG) brings his talents from the corporate world to real estate.

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Feature: Giveback Homes: Be the Change in the World Social responsibility is more than a buzz phrase to these entrepreneurs who founded company that provides a way for real estate professionals and brokers to build a social impact program.

Feature: It’s All About the People 2017 REAL Trends The Thousand, as advertised in The Wall Street Journal This years’ The Thousand all have one thing in common— they’re passionate about people. Find out more about these savvy professionals.

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Saving the World Food Equals Love for 600 Needy Children This Arizona Realtor® is doing extraordinary things for her customers, her family and her community.

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Professional Profile Hard Work Pays Off What does it take for Marty Rodriguez to be a top performer year after year? A strong work ethic instilled in her by her parents and a love of serving people.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

SHINING STARS

P

eople ask me all the time, “Don’t you get tired of writing about the real estate industry?” After all, I’ve been at it for more than 24 years (no old jokes please!) The truth is my job is never boring. I get to write stories about the amazing things real estate professionals do in their communities.

This issue, I interviewed John Peyton, the newish CEO and president of Realogy Franchise Group. Sure, you probably know that he came to Realogy from Starwood Hotels. You may even know he loves his dogs. But, you probably don’t know that he is passionate about giving back to his community. He’s on the board of an organization that secures funding for guardians ad litem, and his wife is a social worker who serves as a guardian ad litem personally. The whole family is involved in giving back as his children also believe in serving their community in different ways.

On the topic of giving back, Caroline Pinal and Blake Andrews, co-founders of Giveback Homes, built their entire company on the idea of social responsibility programs. Between them, they’ve spearheaded almost a dozen building trips and helped others build about 100 homes internationally.

Jen Felker, an Arizona real estate professional with RE/MAX Infinity Realty, spends at least four hours a week packing food for school children to bring home with them to eat over the weekend.

Then, we have the top real estate professionals who made the REAL Trends The Thousand, as advertised in The Wall Street Journal.

No story is the same. Some were born into the business, some lost everything and rebuilt to become successful, and still others worked day and night to prove they had what it took to be a top agent.

Finally, we profile Marty Rodriquez, one of the top Latino agents according to the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. She is no stranger to hard work. In fact, she and her brothers and sisters worked most of their lives to help support the family.

So, you can see, when it comes to writing about real estate, it never gets boring. I’m constantly surrounded by inspirational and interesting people who get me excited for the future of the industry.

Enjoy this issue and feel free to drop me a line at tvelt@realtrends.com. Whether you just want to comment on a story or you have a story to tell, I’d love to hear from you.

Tracey C. Velt Editor

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www.loremagazine.com Steve Murray

Publisher smurray@realtrends.com Tracey C. Velt

Editor-in-Chief tvelt@realtrends.com David Grassnick

Graphic Designer chiefcreative@msn.com Bryan Warrick

Creative Director bwarrick@realtrends.com Doniece Welch

Advertising dwelch@realtrends.com 303-741-1000 Lore magazine is published online via Issuu four times a year—in February, May, August and November—by REAL Trends Inc. 7501 Village Square Drive, Ste. 200 Castle Rock, CO 80108 (303) 741-1000 Free Subscriptions: Click Here or call 303-741-1000 psalley@realtrends.com

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N O O S G N I COM LOL AND WIN A 4 - N I G H T VA C AT I O N !

THE SECRET LIVES OF REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

Have you ever walked in on a seller fresh (really fresh!) from the shower when you were told the house would be empty? Been flown to an island to sign an offer on a luxury property? If you’ve got a funny, compassionate or crazy story from the trenches of real estate, REAL Trends wants to know. Your story could win you an all-expenses paid trip to Denver, Colo.—home of REAL Trends!

Be on the lookout for our official entry form in the September REAL Trends newsletter.

In the meantime, check out LORE magazine and the REAL Trends/QuantumDigital The Secret Lives of Real Estate podcasts, where we pull back the curtain to share the personal passions, philanthropic efforts, community spirit and industry insights from real estate industry leaders, trendsetters and legends.

SecretLives.REALTrends.com

COVER STORY

John Peyton

A Creative Mind With a gift for art and business, the new leader of the Realogy Franchise Group (RFG) brings his talents from the corporate world to real estate.

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Lives of Real Estate

M As a high schooler, Peyton was thinking about design school, not business school.

In fact, he built a whole portfolio of drawings, paintings and graphic designs to show those schools how talented he was.

But Peyton’s father had other plans for him.

ost people know John Peyton, Realogy Franchise Group’s (RFG) president and chief executive officer, as a savvy businessman who made a name for himself at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide LLC as a global branding leader. He can thank his father for pushing him into the corporate world. As a high schooler, Peyton was thinking about design school, not business school. In fact, he built a whole portfolio of drawings, paintings and graphic designs to show those schools how talented he was. But Peyton’s father had other plans for him.

“I had a dad who was very traditional and heavy handed in guiding his sons. He did it out of love,” says Peyton. “When my father noticed me preparing my portfolio for college, he told me, ‘You’re not going to design school.’” Out of respect, Peyton heeded his father’s advice and went to the University of Pennsylvania. However, like most young adults, he rebelled a teeny bit by serving on the school’s newspaper, eventually becoming the art director of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Peyton had two job offers out of college—one for business consulting and the other to do creative work at a Manhattan-based ad agency. “I wanted the ad agency job,” he says, “but the salary didn’t allow me to live anywhere near Manhattan,” he says. Somewhat naively, he asked his father to supplement his salary. “He said no,” he laughs, “so I took the consulting job.” That job was with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the audit, tax and consulting service in New York City.

While some young adults might consider the parental guidance to be crushing their dreams, Peyton chose to look on the bright side—after he did some muttering about it. “My dad actually knew what was best. He knew where my true strengths were and where I could make a difference.

I don’t guide my son in the same way my father did me, but it shaped me into who I am today,” he says. During his time with PwC, Peyton went on to earn his MBA in accounting and marketing at New York University.

Big Shoes to Fill In April 2017, Peyton was named president and CEO of the Realogy Franchise Group and successor to Alex Perriello, who now serves as Chairman Emeritus. (To read about Perriello in LORE magazine, click here.) Peyton first joined Realogy as president and chief operations officer in October 2016. He also spent nearly two decades in the hospitality industry at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide LLC, most recently as chief marketing officer.

Says Peyton, “When following a living legend, what occurred to me is that I can’t walk in his footsteps. I can’t fill his shoes. Alex has been in the business for 50 years and knows everyone and every real estate company and the history. I try not to say to myself, what would Alex LORE

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do? I’m trying to be conscious of forging my own path. You don’t replace a person like Alex.

You just focus on your own strengths and ways you can help the company.” Those strengths lie in his experience working in a multibrand franchise company like Starwood. “Coming to Realogy wasn’t as much of a challenge as a comfort.

Realogy is also a multibrand company at the top of its industry, and the two companies are much more similar than one would expect. Regardless of what industry you’re in, when it comes to serving your customers, they care about the same thing—that they are getting value for their money.”

He adds, “Our job is providing the sales agents

The lesson I’ve learned as a leader is to be very patient with people but impatient with organizations as a whole.

Always ask the question What’s next? so we never get too comfortable. — John Peyton, president and CEO, Realogy Franchise Group

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and broker-owners affiliated with our brands with the greatest value that we can possibly deliver, and we will always look to raise the bar.” Of course, not everything is the same across the two industries.

After all, at Starwood, most of the company’s franchise partners and managed hotel owners were large, publicly traded companies or REITs. “At Realogy, our franchisees are mostly small- to mid-sized entrepreneurs and multigenerational, family-owned businesses. When a business employs 10 to 20 people and has 50 to 100 affiliated agents, it’s a personal commitment to those people in a local community. This is the engine—small business. It’s a challenge to remain relevant to those local, entrepreneurial brokerages.”

Peyton plans to remain relevant by focusing on the people. At Starwood, he helped the company implement Six Sigma practices, which it adapted from manufacturing to the service industry. “It’s a manufacturing process and methodology to improve and standardize to produce outputs with few defects. Starwood was one of the first to apply it to a service industry 15 years ago,” he says. The main principle is to focus on the voice of the customer in anything you do. “At Realogy, we’re focused on that in any tech training, support and coaching that we do. We make sure we have focus groups and that agents give us feedback and information throughout the process, so we understand their requirements.”

This may be cliché, but you ask yourself—why do we exist? For Realogy, it’s to provide exceptional value for our affiliated agents and brokers. It’s a simple way to have all the people who work with Realogy understand why we come to work every day and serve our customers.

— John Peyton

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Lessons Learned He’s also a believer in leadership expert Jim Collins and his push for “BHAGS”—Big Hairy Audacious Goals. “You have to set goals that make you think differently,” he says. Peyton learns lessons from everyone he comes across. From his experience at Starwood, he says, he learned that “As a brand manager talking to brand leaders at Realogy, you have to think about every single consumer touchpoint. Every aspect communicates something; even the way service reps answer the phone with a ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello.’ It communicates tone.” Another Starwood CEO taught him to think: different, better and special. “It’s a more meaningful way to say innovative. When someone pitches an idea, is it different, better and special? It sets clear, high bars when developing new products.”

Making a Social Impact For Peyton, his service to people extends outside of the boardroom as well. When the State of Connecticut cut state funding for guardians ad litem, those who work in the courts representing the best interests of a child in family court, Peyton jumped to help raise private money for Child Advocates of Southern Connecticut, a group that trains guardians ad litem. “The organization was founded by three social workers who invited me to be on the board,” he says. Peyton’s wife, Allison, is a social worker who serves as a guardian ad litem and facilitates the continuing education for the volunteers. “She leads groups to help them problem-solve cases,” he says. “We’ve now helped over 150 children in southwest Connecticut. The group has been around for about seven years making a difference in children’s lives.”

He and his son, Scott (17), are both active with Full Court Peace, an organization that was founded by his children’s high school basketball coach.

Peyton sits on the board. “The coach is fascinated with Cuba and fell in love with it. He created a program where he takes high school kids to a small fishing village outside of Havana, where they restore basketball courts during the day and play the sport at night,” he says. Scott and his friends hold T-shirt sales, bike spin-a-thons, water bottle sales and more.

“In the past five years, they’ve raised about $30,000.”

But, the group does even more now, helping to restore basketball courts in needy neighborhoods in southern Connecticut. “My son helped launch a high school club that supports the local restoration.

It won’t change the world, but it helps connect teenage boys who grew up in a fairly sheltered, affluent lifestyle to those in very poor neighborhoods only ten minutes away,” he says. “They’ve used the money they raised to fund their Full Court Peace trips but they also donated to a local baseball field.

They lost one of their friends in a bike accident in 8th grade, so they raised money to build a press box at the school baseball stadium in memory of him.”

Peyton’s son Scott (left) and a friend restore basketball courts in Cuba.

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Leadership Lesson Learned

Patience and Confidence are Vital When I was with Starwood as COO of the North American Hotel division, says Peyton, I was working for Denise Cole. She was one of the best bosses I’ve ever had. She chose me as the COO at the same time she chose another guy from our Latin American division to be CFO of the North American division. He and I were opposites in many ways—mentally, physically, you name it.

He thought I cared only about people, and I thought he cared only about numbers.

He and I were opposites in many ways—mentally, physically, you name it.

He thought I cared only about people, and I thought he cared only about numbers.

We battled over everything. In our leadership meetings, he and I would go at it, and everyone would put their heads down and wait until it was over. Denise let this go on for about a year. By then, he and I had worked out our differences and were respectful of each other. It took us a lot of work.

During my annual review, I asked Denise why she tolerated our going at it for a year. She said she knew that if she forced it, then it wouldn’t have been real and wouldn’t have stuck. She also said that she respected us both. She knew that if she gave us the time, we would get there on our own.

That impacted me—that she had the confidence in us to wait it out because she was sure we would work it out on our own. It was a risk. She knew the importance of the occasional conflict and patience. — John Peyton

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Family Time Spending his downtime with family is tops for Peyton. He’s also crazy about his dogs. “When we had to name our new puppy, a rescue dog, every name my son and I came up with was rejected by my wife and daughter Caroline (19),” he laughs. After seeing the new Star Wars movie, “my son and I told them we had a new name—Kylo Ren—the name of the new villain in the movie. When they asked where we got it, we said it was the name of a beloved Disney character because Disney now owns Star Wars,” he laughs.

“They liked it and didn’t know about the Star Wars connection until someone mentioned it to my daughter at school.” They also have a Portuguese Water Dog named Mason, about which name Peyton says, “I lost the vote on that name three to one.” He also loves to attend spin and Pilates classes, lift

Get to Know

weights and “move wood chips from one place to another,” in his garden. And, he says with a chuckle, “No, I don’t play golf. People ask me all the time, so I’m getting it out there.”

For now, downtime is infrequent as Peyton travels around the country and the globe visiting brokers and introducing himself. He recently returned from a trip to the Asia Pacific region in June. “I love the problem solving, working things out and helping people get to yes. I like helping our talented employees grow their careers and develop,” he says.

“It’s great going to a new company where you have the freedom to ask questions, push boundaries and challenge assumptions. I was at Starwood for 18 years, so I became the assumptions and boundaries.

It’s fun to ask those questions again.”

John Peyton

Three Things You Can’t Live Without (not including family, friends or phones): Nantucket, Excedrin Migraine and a good book.

We’ve gone to Nantucket for a week every summer since the kids were babies, and I fall asleep reading books every night.

Hardest part of leadership: Aligning an organization and leader around the vision. Establishing the vision and direction is hard, executing it is hard, but getting everyone on the same page is the biggest challenge of all.

Bucket List: When retirement ever comes, I want to learn Spanish and teach business somewhere. I took six years of Spanish in high school and college, and I still can’t speak it. And I always had the bug to teach. If I can’t be an English teacher, I’d like to teach at a business school.

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You are what you do.

Not what you say you’ll do.

Giveback Homes would like to thank the following real estate industry leaders for their help in building more than 200 homes, serving more than 1,000 meals, and providing access to clean water for more than 5,000 people across U.S. and abroad.

FEATURE

G i ve b a c k H o m e s

Be the Change in the World

Social responsibility is more than a buzz phrase to these entrepreneurs who founded a way for real estate professionals and brokers to build a social impact program.

By Tracey C. Velt

Co-founder Blake Andrews surrounded by Nicarguan children during one of Giveback Homes’ building trips.

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A

home means so much more than a place to live, according to Caroline Pinal, co-founder of Giveback Homes, a Manhattan Beach, Calif.–based company that helps real estate professionals build social responsibility programs.

Pinal saw that firsthand at a recent Giveback Homes building trip to Nicaragua. “On an early trip, the father of the family we were building a home for was severely ill. The family was counting the days they had left with him,” she says. “On my last trip, I was going back to the families of homes we built in the past to do some impact reporting.

That deathly ill father was walking up a hill, hauling a piece of wood. He was healthy.” Pinal asked him how he turned his health around. His answer: Once his home was built, members of his new community bought him the medicine that he

needed but couldn’t afford. “Now, he’s doing small jobs for the people who chipped in for the medication. It was incredible to see that transformation,” she says.

Building a Social Impact Program When it comes to building social impact programs, Blake Andrews and Caroline Pinal learned from the best—TOMS Shoes. “I traveled the world and put shoes on kids’ feet. On one of my giving trips to Nicaragua, I saw what shoes did for the children,” says Andrews, who is friends with TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie and took a position with TOMS as special projects manager to learn about social entrepreneurship and the one-for-one business model.

“I can tell you 100 examples of when people told me no and I proved them wrong.

Those microexperiences turned me into what I am today—driven,” says Caroline Pinal, co-founder of Giveback Homes

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Straight out of college, Pinal worked for Fox News and Disney. “I wasn’t happy or passionate about it.

One day, I purchased a pair of TOMS Shoes. A co-worker asked me about them, and I realized that I was excited to tell her about the company.” Pinal immediately applied and got a job with TOMS Shoes, where she met Andrews. “We were both on the same giving trip to El Salvador and Nicaragua, and we had a shared passion,” she says.

That passion was helping the families of Nicaragua. “I saw the living conditions of these families and knew there had to be a way to help them improve their homes,” says Andrews.

But it was a few years before Andrews had his aha moment. “My wife, Tricia, and I were looking for homes and working with a local Realtor®, Nick Schneider. He knew the TOMS story and wanted to know how he could differentiate himself with a social impact program,” he says. Andrews realized that other real estate professionals and brokerages

wanted to have these types of programs as well.

“People want to know where their money is going,” he says. He told Pinal about his idea and asked her to help him start the company. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, you just get on,” laughs Pinal.

Building Homes Domestically and Abroad Thus was born Giveback Homes, a community of real estate professionals who are committed to creating social change by helping build homes for deserving families. “We built a website and had about 50 people sign on to Giveback Homes. From there, bigger names in real estate started to reach out,” says Andrews. “We used all the real estate agents in the South Bay area (of Los Angeles) as our initial test market,” says Pinal. Andrews has been on seven building trips to Nicaragua, and Pinal has been on ten trips. The company is now in its fourth year and has more than 1,000 members and ten partnerships with companies who provide marketing and other services to Giveback Homes

Caroline Pinal Likes: Riding bikes on the beach, beach volleyball and … the beach!

Why she travels: It energizes her and inspires her.

Reads about: Other businesspeople, business challenges and solutions Motivated by: Stories of triumph from the people Giveback Homes has helped Three things she can’t live without (no family, friends or phone): The ocean, Uber/Lyft ride services, a great pair of running shoes Dreams about: Visiting Niagara Falls, living in a tiny house in Joshua Tree and building brokerage partnerships 16

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Inspired by: People telling her she can’t do something. I love when someone tells me no.

I love a challenge. At my first job at a pizza restaurant, they told me I couldn’t be in charge of pizzas; I proved them wrong.

members. “We also have brand ambassadors such as Madison Hildebrand and Mauricio Umansky and real estate brokerage partnerships with Intero Houston and The Agency in Los Angeles,” says Pinal.

gives them access to tools and marketing, including a customized Giveback Homes profile page to share with their network and customers to promote giving as a positive aspect of their brand. Marketing tools include Referral Exchange and a marketing center with automated marketing material from Imprev Inc. “I wanted to provide a service that would help grow an agent’s or broker’s business and let customers know they are part of social change. It allows real estate professionals to turn customers into humanitarians who can see where the donated money goes—to building for families in need,” says Andrews. “There are plenty of people asking for money. We want to provide a service and make a change. We want members to benefit in the way they feel about themselves and the way they look in the community,” he adds.

How It Works Giveback Homes works like this: Real estate professionals pay a monthly membership fee which

All Giveback Homes, member agents and brokers are invited on build trips internationally. “We’ve built about 100 homes internationally. We took our last

“When I moved to California to work for TOMS Shoes, I offered to work for free.

I loved that they put people first,” says Blake Andrews, co-founder of Giveback Homes

B l a ke A n d r ew s Likes: Golf, karate Family: Wife, Tricia, and baby daughter, Curran

Inspired by: His father. He was a successful beer distributor in Texas and worked hard to get there. I worked for him for 14 years and saw the way he gave back. He dedicated his life to giving to charities and putting others first.

Best-kept secret: Has been training for MMA (mixed martial arts) for five years Motivated by: The positive impact we’re making in the industry Three things he can’t live without (no family, friends or phone): coffee, Golf Channel, seeing my daughter wake up in the morning or from a nap Dreams about: Doubling company growth, securing more strategic partners and building homes for families in need

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group on a build trip to Nicaragua in December 2016. We take about 10 people who build for three days straight. Everyone is muddy, sweaty—it’s incredible,” says Pinal, who says the best part is that you build alongside the family receiving the home.

Giveback Homes also partners with Habitat for Humanity in the United States to organize build days. “Once local members reach their goal, we organize a build day where we all meet to work on a project ranging from laying a home’s foundation and installing windows to framing and landscaping,” says Pinal, who adds that the group has built about 50 homes in the United States.

Be a Doer “There are the sayers and there are the doers,” says Andrews. “The companies who have joined are doers as are the ones who come on the trips. You don’t realize the importance until you go on a trip like this,” he says. “It hits home when you hand over a set of keys to a new homeowner. Many of the Nicaraguans have never even seen a key, and you realize that this family of seven lived in a home with no windows and with dirt floors and they’re so thankful for what you’re doing for them.” To Andrews and Pinal, that is what social responsibility is all about—helping others and making a difference in communities.

Fa s t Fa c t Millennials represent $2.45 trillion in spending power, reports Adweek, and according to Omnicom Group’s Cone Communications, 70 percent of them will spend on brands supporting causes they care about.

Consequently, social responsibility has become a considerable priority to brands targeting this segment.

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FEATURE

2017 REAL Trends The Thousand, as advertised in The Wall Street Journal

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE Meet the 2017 The Thousand

TOP REAL ESTATE SALES PROFESSIONALS & TEAMS Ranked by Transaction Sides Ranked by Sales Volume Ranked by Average Sales Price

by Tracey C. Velt

T

his year’s The Thousand all have one thing in common—they are passionate about people. Find out more about these savvy professionals.

No. 3 Individual by Transaction Sides Amy Wienands, Amy Wienands Real Estate Waterloo, Iowa Loves: coffee, Indian food and great watches Passionate about: the pursuit of excellence Believes in: video marketing As a teacher of employability skills to inmates in the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Amy Wienands wanted more. “I was on the train going to work reading “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz, and it dawned on me that I wanted to get into sales,” she says.

Soon after, she decided to get into real estate, and her business took off. So much so that Wienands, now broker/owner of Amy Wienands Real Estate in Waterloo, Iowa, hit a wall. “I love the service piece of sales. Four years ago, I realized I was at capacity and just could not do any more. A friend called asking if I could take on more business, and I told him I didn’t need more business; I needed a life,” she laughs. So he connected her with Bob LORE

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Corcoran of Corcoran Coaching & Consulting.

“Coaching was a game changer for me. Everything opened up for me, and I started going in a completely different direction with a focus on building a team,” she says. Corcoran told me to step out of the industry and look at the forty-thousandfoot view. Where do I want to take this company?

What kind of philanthropic endeavors do I want to create? He’s been pounding that into my head, and it’s really sinking in.”

She says her positive approach and high energy help her navigate her busy real estate career as well as her toddler twins, Faith and Foster. “They keep my husband and me very busy,” says Wienands, who spends the majority of her downtime in parks and in the driveway watching the kids ride up and down

the cul-de-sac. “I think my aha moment was when my twins were born,” she laughs. “The whole world changed that day, and I became very focused on legacy and creating a future that I would be proud of and that, eventually, they would also appreciate.”

When it comes to marketing, she says, videos are the key to the future of real estate. She developed a video blog that offers critical information to buyers and sellers. “We’re building a new office, and we are including a soundproof media room with a green screen,” she says. The current videos focus on the common mistakes they see buyers and sellers make.

Her ultimate goal, she says, is to “wrap up the year hitting our goals, exceeding our goals and pleasing our customers.”

No. 9 Individuals by Transaction Sides Blair Myers, Team Blair—Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Success Warner Robins, Georgia Loves: sweet tea and baked goods—in moderation, of course Wants to: spend more time outside the business traveling Claim to fame: Appears on reality TV show “Like a Boss,” produced by Nick Cannon on the Oxygen Channel. “I declined the second season because it takes too much time to film.”

When Blair Myers was just nine years old, he would pull the Home Hunters magazine out of the Sunday newspaper and beg his mother to go to open houses after church. “I would pretend I was showing the houses to buyers,” says Blair, who admits he thought real estate meant nice cars, fancy clothing and fun open houses. “Of course,” he laughs, “that’s not my everyday life, but it sounded good back then.” However, when college graduation came, Myers was a bit concerned about being in real estate. “No salary, no benefits—that’s scary,” he says. But, his father insisted and told him he would pay for real estate school and some of his bills if he moved to Warner Robins, Georgia. He agreed and got his real estate license in 2004. He thought he would relocate to a bigger city someday—Atlanta or Miami. “I always saw myself as a big city person. I’m the jolly blond giant because I have thick, bushy blond hair and I’m tall. Plus, I joke that I popped out of the womb with a bag of Skittles tasting the rainbow. I came out as gay to my parents, and they weren’t surprised. I stick out like a sore thumb in this small town,” he says. “But, to my surprise, I became the No. 1 agent here in both production and closed units for seven consecutive years, so I stayed.”

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Myers credits his parents’ unwavering support for his success. “I come from a family that is incredibly supporting and accepting. I hope to inspire and influence the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) groups and all minorities so that they pursue their dreams and go after what they want, but I don’t play a direct role in any specific group,” he says. And, although he did appear in a reality show, he really enjoys being at home with his “other half.” Both are involved in fitness, his partner a bit more than him as

he’s a body builder and fitness model. “I love sugar and carbs too much to be so strict,” he laughs. “What drives me every day is our relationship and the life

that we enjoy together as well as being that role model for minorities out there.”

He’s also inspired by the people he meets daily.

“I’ll never forget this lady at a conference where I spoke. She was sitting toward the front and she was balling her eyes out when I was about 75 percent through my speech. She came up to me after and said she was touched by my story of overcoming the odds. A lot of people told me that the rednecks in Georgia would eat me alive. She is a minority and was empowered by my speech. That touched me and I find her inspiring,” he says.

Overall, says Myers, “I love different parts of what I do—staging the homes, meeting people, going on appointments. But I don’t love the bookkeeping or sitting in the office managing problems, closing issues, inspection issues and mitigating issues.” And, he says, if he could accomplish one thing this year it would be to focus on himself and downtime. “I’ve been licensed over 13 years, and my goal this year would be ‘the year of me.’ I made a commitment to my other half that I would spend more time outside the business. I would delegate and outsource more, and I wouldn’t take on so many new things.”

No. 4 Teams by Transaction Volume No. 186 Teams by Transaction Sides Tami Pardee, CEO and Founder of Halton Pardee + Partners Venice, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Culver City and Palm Desert, California Likes: her stuffed bunny, Brad Stays calm by: meditating each morning Aha moment: learning the Hoffman Process, which taught her who she was inside and broke through her armor During her career in television production, Tami Pardee would flip houses on the side. “I was disappointed with the service I got from the real estate agents assisting me. I felt there was a better way to do it, so twelve years ago, I got my real estate license and modeled my business after the television production model instead of a regular real estate model,” says Pardee, who runs a LORE

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FEATURE team of salary-paid agents rather than independent contractors. The team is up to 90 people.

However, for Pardee, it’s all about the people and always has been, no matter which business model you choose. “We spend a lot of time looking for the right people. We have a survey called the Culture Index that we use to make sure that culturally the people are a good fit. We want them to be happy and thriving at our company. If they’re happy, they’re going to do really well. That’s probably been the biggest challenge and something that we spend the most time on,” she says.

As the mom of four children ranging in age from 13 to 6 years old, Pardee says she likes to “work hard and play hard.” She and her family recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park, where they went river rafting and cruising on a houseboat. “I think it’s important to spend quality time with my kids, so I don’t have a lot of extracurricular activities except for things with them,” she says. However, to keep on an even keel, she meditates each morning. “I get up at 5:30 a.m., walk the beach and meditate. I think it’s important to have your own time to center yourself on a daily basis.”

Another thing Pardee makes time for is her Life-Changer Program, which offers active

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participation and significant financial contributions to local charities, including Teen Project, Harvest Home, Homeless Task Force, Venice Community Housing Corporation, and more.

To date, the program has donated over $875,000 to nonprofits. “This is something I was born to do,” she says. Her personal mission statement is “to be a down-to-earth, life-change warrior who inspires hope, courage and purpose by motivating those I touch to show up and start on the life they love.” So she carried that through to a philanthropic level. “I live in Venice, California, where there is a lot of homelessness. I gave away a lot of money to help solve the problem, but didn’t feel like I was changing lives,” she says. So she decided to work with Harvest Home, a facility for homeless pregnant women. Ten women live at the home. Pardee developed a five-week session that helps them build goals and pursue dreams. “The first time I went, they wouldn’t even say hello to me. But I told them my emotional story. I opened myself up, and the next time, they were giving me hugs,” she says. Her goal is to grant their wishes. Pardee is on the board of Santa Monica College, and she partnered with the college on the project. “The school agreed to admit these women, even without a high school diploma, and we fund their studies,” she says. “One of the girls wants to be a nurse, so the college is admitting her into the nursing program. We’re funding part of her housing and childcare to help her change her life. We’re doing something different with each of the ten women to help them strategically plan their lives.”

In life, as in real estate, says Pardee, “I’m motivated by helping people change their life in a positive way, whether it’s buying a dream house or going to college.”

No. 9 Teams by Transaction Sides No. 55 Teams by Transaction Volume Don Wenner, CEO of DLP Realty Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Likes: Leadership experts Jim Collins, Verne Harnish, John Maxwell and Gino Wickman Motivated by: “I love taking an idea, putting a plan in place, setting goals and achieving them.”

Claim to fame: posting listings to craigslist at a time when no one else was doing it yet In 2006, Don Wenner accidentally got into real estate. “I was a college student at Drexel University, studying finance and marketing,” he says. He thought he would be a wealth manager, when a friend persuaded him to work for ADT Security, knocking on doors and selling systems. “I was 20 years old and the money was good, so I took the job not knowing what it meant. I sold alarm systems, and my very first paycheck was $5,218 for two weeks.

That was the worst paycheck I earned with ADT,” he laughs. The man who owned the ADT franchise was also a real estate sales associate at a local Keller Williams office. “He persuaded me that if I was so successful selling alarm systems, I would be successful at real estate,” says Wenner. He took his real estate classes at night while still in college, got his license and upon graduation joined Keller Williams in Pennsylvania. “I didn’t have my first sale until six months later. “At the end of the year, I had sold 67 homes. The following year, 2008, I sold 339 homes and went on to break records each year.”

Now Wenner runs a 45-person team of specialists.

“We break everybody down into specialist roles— inside sales specialists, buyer success managers, showing specialists, listing specialists and more,” he says.

There is a sales manager who oversees the sales team.

Early on, when he started, he says, one of the biggest reasons he was successful was that he realized that he needed to make the phones ring.

“Nothing else mattered until we could get the phone to ring, so I focused on generating leads, and

that was a huge challenge. To generate leads, I needed to do something different from my competitors. I needed to innovate and have a lot of capital to invest in marketing,” he says. He says he used craigslist to market his listings. “Nobody was using craigslist for real estate then. I was posting 20 or so ads a day. I attribute at least 30 of the 67 homes I sold that first year to craigslist.”

He also came up with the Guaranteed Sale Program.

“Your home will be sold in 68 days guaranteed, or we’ll buy it. We’ve had that exact same unique selling proposition (USP) for 11 years,” says Wenner. He also started a No Risk Home Sale Program and another program he called the Immediate Buy-out Program, which is a cash offer, as-is, no contingencies. “These programs generated leads.”

Of course, be careful what you wish for, laughs Wenner. “The leads started rolling in, and the biggest challenge became lead conversion.” From there, administrative support and getting the right processes in place to handle the volume of activity were his biggest challenges. “Once I filled the administrative needs, our focus turned to hiring. As we started growing the number of agents we had, we focused on strong training programs; then it was technology. Once we got the foundation shored up, it was time to innovate again and continue our growth,” he says. Wenner has now stepped out of the day-to-day business, hired a sales manager and put other leaders in place to oversee the team and drive results.

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FEATURE

He works hard to balance life outside of work.

“I have two young boys who are four and five years old. I’m home for dinner with my wife, Carla, and the boys four nights a week and finish up Saturday midday so I can spend the rest of the weekend with my family,” he says. “I live in St. Augustine, Florida, so we spend a lot of time at the beach. We’re also focused on church and active in a few ministries.

“I believe that you can have multiple obsessions. I am obsessed with my companies. I am obsessed with being a great father. I am obsessed with making a positive influence on my church and community.

Knowing that I can make a difference in the areas in which I am obsessed makes it easier to get up in the morning and harder to go to bed at night. And that’s great,” he says.

No. 8 Teams by Transaction Sides No. 28 Teams by Transaction Volume Lance Loken, The Loken Group of Keller Williams Realty Signature Houston, Texas Likes: tennis Motivated by: goals and helping people succeed Claim to fame: putting money back into his business rather than in his pocket Like many sales associates, Lance Loken fell into his real estate career after spending years in the retail industry as a chief financial officer. “The Houston economy started to plummet, and in 2010, about 400 of us lost our jobs. My wife persuaded me to get into the real estate world, so we started The Loken Group in January 2011,” he says.

After six years, the team currently has 52 members including Loken’s wife, Karena, who is vice president of business development and the team’s full-time recruiter. Lance runs the day-to-day operations, and the team has several departments and an executive team that heads those departments. “For the most part, we don’t recruit seasoned agents. Most of our agents come from corporate America and learn the business through our extensive training methods,” says Lance. “We hire people from corporate America because they bring a business mindset into this industry. The other cool part is that they think outside the box because they don’t 24

Lives of Real Estate

understand the real estate industry. When they come up with ideas or new activities to implement, its coming from that business background, and that’s been a key part of our growth.”

Lance’s business and organizational skills carry into his downtime. He plays tennis about four days a week and captains six different teams. “My wife also loves tennis, and she just finished a fitness competition, so fitness is important to us both,” he says. The couple has two girls, ages 11 and 13. The younger is into horseback riding and barrel racing, and the older is into digital cartoon imaging. “She has a goal of graduating from high school a year early, so she’s already planning which college she’ll attend,” he laughs.

Giving back to the community is also important to Lance. A year ago, he created TLG Gives, a philanthropic arm of the team, to help families

in need. He says Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams, inspired him to give back to the community through a philanthropy. “Last year, we helped renovate a home for a family who didn’t even have running water. They were taking showers outside with a hose. They had four children. We spent three weeks transforming the home,” he says.

The company is doing the same thing for another family this year. “One of the children has cerebral palsy. The father died, so we are renovating their home,” he says. Loken and his team have already raised $30,000 this year for TLG Gives.

This type of charitable giving is all about the people, says Loken. And, that’s important to him. “I remind myself daily that my goal is to ‘build an organization that’s large enough to encompass every one of my team’s dreams and aspirations,’ because if we can provide opportunity for our agents, they will expand and grow their horizons, and they will never hit a ceiling. The whole reason most people in corporate America change jobs is because they hit a ceiling and don’t see a future. I want to make sure that I focus on building our organization so large that they never see that ceiling.”

“The whole reason most people in corporate America change jobs is because they hit a ceiling and don’t see a future. I want to make sure that I focus on building our organization so large that they never see that ceiling.”

– Lance Loken, The Loken Group of Keller Williams Realty Signature

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Individuals by Transaction Sides 1. Ben Caballero, HomesUSA.com, Addison, Texas 2. Brian Bair, Bair Group/Liberty Properties, Gilbert, Ariz.

3. Amy Wienands, Amy Wienands Real Estate, Waterloo, Iowa 4. Monica Breckenridge, Pink Realty, Colorado Springs, Colo.

5. Larry Magguilli, Hunt Real Estate ERA, Rochester, N.Y. 6. John Swartz, RE/MAX Connecticut, Turnersville, N.J. 7. Amanda Bell, At Home Realty, Ashland City, Tenn.

8. Gina Gargeu, CENTURY 21 Downtown, Baltimore, Md. 9. Blair Myers, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Success, Warner Robins, Ga. 10. Sherri Saad, RE/MAX Leading Edge, Detroit, Mich.

Individuals by Transaction Volume 1. Ben Caballero, HomesUSA.com, Addison, Texas 2. Efi Luzon, Intero Real Estate Services, Los Altos, Calif.

3. Alexa Lambert, Stribling & Associates, New York, N.Y. 4. Erin Aries, Brown Harris Stevens, New York, N.Y. 5. Maurico Umansky, The Agency, Beverly Hills, Calif.

6. Dora Puig, Luxe Living Realty/Fisher Island Real Estate LLC, Miami Beach, Fla. 7. Jade Mills, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage/NRT, Beverly Hills, Calif.

8. Karen Heyman, Sotheby’s International Realty/NRT, New York, N.Y. 9. Chris Cortazzo, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage/NRT, Malibu, Calif.

10. Tracy Campion, Campion and Company Fine Homes Real Estate, Boston, Mass.

Teams by Transaction Sides 1. Rhonda Duffy, Duffy Realty of Atlanta, Alpharetta, Ga. 2. Mark Spain Real Estate, Mark Spain Real Estate, Alpharetta, Ga. 3. The Creig Northrop Team, Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., Clarksville, Md. 4. Ryan O’Neill & The Minnesota Real Estate Team, RE/MAX Advantage Plus, Lakeville, Minn.

5. Lucido Agency, Keller Williams Realty, Ellicott City, Md. 6. The Ronnie & Cathy Matthews Team, RE/MAX Legends, Spring, Texas 7. John Murray, Key Realty, Rockford, Ill. 8. The Loken Group Inc., Keller Williams Realty, Houston, Texas 9. Don Wenner, DLP Realty, Bethlehem, Pa. 10. The Jim Allen Group, Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston Realty Inc., Raleigh, N.C. Teams by Transaction Volume 1. The Creig Northrop Team, Long & Foster Real Estate Inc., Clarksville, Md. 2. The DeLeon Team, DeLeon Realty Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.

3. The Eklund Homes Team, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, New York, N.Y. 4. Halton Pardee + Partners Inc., Halton Pardee + Partners Inc., Venice, Calif.

5. Ryan Serhant, Nest Seekers International, New York, N.Y. 6. Lucido Agency, Keller Williams Realty, Ellicott City, Md. 7. Zachary and Cody Vichinsky, Bespoke Real Estate, Water Mill, N.Y. 8. The Leonard Steinberg Team, Compass, New York, N.Y. 9. Stanfield Real Estate Team, HOM Sotheby’s International Realty, Huntington Beach, Calif.

10. Rhonda Duffy, Duffy Realty of Atlanta, Alpharetta, Ga. 26

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S AV I N G T H E W O R L D

Community Activism

FOOD EQUALS LOVE FOR 600 NEEDY CHILDREN This Arizona Realtor® is doing extraordinary things for her customers, her family and her community.

By Bridget McCrea

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S AV I N G T H E W O R L D

N

ot everyone thinks about children who could go hungry over the weekend, when school breakfasts and lunches aren’t available, but Jen Felker does. A real estate professional with RE/MAX Infinity Realty in Chandler, Ariz., she allocates about 3 to 4 hours every Thursday morning packing up food that children then take home in their backpacks and eat over the weekend.

“It’s something that I block out time for,” says Felker. “It’s like a minivacation from work that allows me to do something good for someone else—while also getting a mental break.”

A member of the Chandler Service Club—which sponsors the Weekenders Food Program—Felker is not only an active member of her community, but also the mother of two teenage boys. With a spouse working his own demanding 48-hour workweek, and Felker running what she refers to as a “24/7 real estate business,” family time is both treasured and hectic in this household.

“It’s not unusual for me to run to a client meeting during one of my sons’ baseball games, change in the car and be back at the game before anyone even notices that I’m gone,” says this quick-change artist who launched her real estate career 12 years ago after working as a stockbroker for Charles Schwab. “All my clients had real estate holdings, so I took an interest in it and got licensed.”

When the stock–real estate overlap created a conflict of interest, Felker was forced to choose one or the other.

“And,” she says, “here I am.”

Making a Real Difference With the motto “Feed the hungry, clothe the needy, educate the willing and mentor our youth,” the Chandler Service Club caught Felker’s eye a few years ago. In Chandler alone, the organization feeds more than 600 children every weekend.

With the motto “Feed the hungry, clothe the needy, educate the willing and mentor our youth,” the Chandler Service Club caught Felker’s eye a few years ago. In Chandler alone, the organization feeds more than 600 children every weekend.

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The group also has a flower girl program (for 40+ high school seniors who need help organizing their financials, college plans and other life events); a charity ball; a student and adult college scholarship program; and “Warm feet, Warm hearts” (a winter coat donation program).

Through the latter, for which Felker has served as chairman, school nurses alert the organization when a child needs a jacket or shoes. Last year alone, Felker helped gather and donate more than 100 jackets to children who needed them.

“Through these programs, which mostly require time and energy to orchestrate and organize,” she says, “this group really makes a difference in people’s lives.”

All Hands on Deck She jokingly calls herself “boring,” but in talking to Felker you’d probably say she’s anything but boring. Just take her fortune cookie story, for example. About eight years ago she was finishing a meal at a Chinese restaurant with her family and happened to grab a cookie that would literally wind up changing her life. “It was a true game-changer moment,” says Felker, who usually just throws the paper-based messaging away without giving it a second glance.

But this time was different because the fortune was this: “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is a little extra effort.” Those 11 words sparked a fire in Felker, who to this day carries it around in her purse. “That really struck home and made me realize that this is what’s going to set me apart,” she says. “From that day on, I knew the little extra effort that I put in would make a big difference.”

Felker also credits her father with creating some of her internal spark and vividly remembers the day he came home from his job as a bank president and announced that he wanted to start his own investment firm. “He called an, ‘All Hands on Deck’ family meeting and asked us what we thought about that idea,” says Felker. “’This could flop, and we could lose everything,’” he told us, but we told him to go for it.”

Felker’s father went on to grow that startup into one of the largest investment firms in the United States. From her vantage point as the owner’s daughter, Felker saw the hard work and the amount of time and dedication that went into it. “I’ve never heard a bad word about my father—about his integrity, how ethical he is, and how he’s a giver and very selfless,” she says. “That really stuck with me; that’s who I want to be.”

Give Everyone a Chance Asked about the challenges she’s faced during her career, Felker says she’s learned that it pays to give everyone a chance regardless of preconceived notions or judgments. “All my business is based on referrals, and I never get a second chance to make a first impression,” she points out, “so I just try to be my best at all times and always treat everyone with the same level of respect.”

“All my business is based on referrals, and I never get a second chance to make a first impression,” she points out, “so I just try to be my best at all times and always treat everyone with the same level of respect.”

– Jen Felker Felker says that while her biggest accomplishment by far is raising two teenage sons, people are also impressed with her ability to juggle her many responsibilities with relative ease. “People always compliment me on how calm and organized I am, and they want to know how I do it,” she says. “They all know how crazy I am and how many things I’m doing at once. But quite honestly, I just laugh and say, ‘I have no idea!’”

Bridget McCrea is a Clearwater, Florida-based freelance writer.

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PROFESSIONAL

PROFILE

Marty Rodriguez

Hard Work Pays Off

What does it take for Marty Rodriguez to be a top performer year after year?

A strong work ethic instilled in her by her parents and a love of serving people.

By Vanessa MontaĂąez 30

Lives of Real Estate

Love compelled Rodriguez to get into real estate. She met and fell in love with Ed Rodriguez, a man who shared the same work ethic and determination. He knew that Marty was a natural at selling anything. She took courses in real estate at a local community college and, with Ed’s encouragement, parlayed her talent into a career.

Y

ou could say sales prowess comes naturally to Marty Rodriguez, a sales associate/broker at Century 21 Marty Rodriguez in Glendora, Calif. Beginning at age 6, she was the top Christmas card and candy seller, and she was the top seller at her school every year for eight years. At a young age, Marty was a fierce and determined competitor. More than that, she knew the value of hard work.

Rodriguez was born in Monterey Park, Calif., as Martha Armanda Castruita. Her parents, Felix and Rosalina Castruita, worked hard to buy their small two-bedroom, one-bath home in El Monte, Calif.

Rodriguez is one of 11 children, instilled with an incredible work ethic, values and determination at an early age. “Nobody owes you anything; you have to earn things on your own merit,” she says, an attitude she learned from her father’s words of wisdom.

Growing up, she and her siblings worked odd jobs such as cleaning houses and taking in ironing to help support the family. As a barber, Mr. Castruita was the primary provider for the family, and Mrs. Castruita was a hardworking homemaker. Money was scarce for private school for eleven children. “Mom and Dad sold Shaklee and Aloe Vera products,” says Marty. “We ironed clothes. We shelled walnuts and cleaned houses; Mom made and sold tamales. We all did whatever it took to makes ends meet.” The children worked to help subsidize the cost of tuition. All eleven Castruita children attended Catholic schools from elementary through high school.

Despite the hard work, says Rodriguez, “Growing up was so much fun. We had so much interaction with each other. We played sports and games. The most important thing to our parents was for us to go to church and get good grades.”

Love compelled Rodriguez to get into real estate. She met and fell in love with Ed Rodriguez, a man who shared the same work ethic and determination. He knew that Marty was a natural at selling anything. She took courses in real estate at a local community college and, with Ed’s encouragement, parlayed her talent into a career. Ed had a background in construction, making it a perfect match. July 18, 2017, marked their 46th wedding anniversary.

Ed and Marty Rodriquez

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PROFESSIONAL

PROFILE

“In my office, I have the ‘21 Suggestions for Success’ poster by H. Jackson Brown Jr.,” says Marty Rodriguez.

“The first suggestion says, ‘Marry the right person.

This one decision will determine 90 percent of your happiness or misery.’ I am blessed to have married the right person. Ed understands and supports me.

He knows what it takes to be successful in our business. I am more successful because of him, my family, my team and clients.”

The couple has four children, three of whom work at Rodriguez’s office. This is a family business built on genuine concern for and devotion to its customers. It’s more than a formula for success; it’s the culture of the office, and it all begins with Marty. “Without our customers, I am nobody. The difference between my competitors and me is service, experience and the knowledge my team and I bring to the table,” she says.

“We’re here for [our customers] during the emotional moments—when [they have] to sell the home they grew up in—handling one of their biggest investments.

We go above and beyond when needed with any service

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tasks, whether picking up their mail, bringing in their trashcans or helping to facilitate repairs,” she says.

She knows that the results of exceptional service to her customers will win them for life. Many brokers downsized after the housing crisis of 2008. It triggered a large decline in home prices after the collapse of the housing bubble, leading to foreclosures, unemployment and lack of access to capital. During that time, Rodriguez maintained her full team so that her service could remain top-notch. Now that the real estate market is flourishing, she continues to educate and empower her team, agents and staff to provide exceptional service.

Her motto: A team can consistently outperform an individual when it comes to providing excellent service. She lives by her simple business philosophy: to bring happiness to herself and others by being the best example she can be; to inspire and change lives; and to bring out the best in the people whose lives she touches. “I learned from Tony Robbins that in order to make other people happy I have to make myself

Accolades

Caption to come?

The Marty Rodriguez team has sold more than $4.2 billion in real estate and has been ranked CENTURY 21’s No. 1 in the nation for 21 years and No. 1 in the world for seven years, according to the CENTURY 21 franchise. Additionally, Marty was the No. 1 Female real estate professional, No. 1 Latino Agent by Volume, No. 1 Latino Agent in California and No. 2 Top Latino Agent in the United States, according to the NAHREP Top 250 Latino Agents published by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP). happy first. I must lead by example and must be a teacher to others, in order to inspire and empower the people around me,” she says.

Hope for support and treatment. In light of challenges that face Marty, she perseveres and continues to inspire everyone around her.

Rodriguez takes these words to heart and lives by them. Further, her philanthropy is shown by her generous donations to various organizations, which include the City of Hope, local schools and many other nonprofits. Her business hosts a blood drive every 56 days for the City of Hope Blood donation program. The City of Hope is a world leader in research and treatment of cancer, diabetes and other serious diseases.

“Each day, I wake up excited and full of energy,” says Marty Rodriguez. “I know that there are people counting on me to be the best version of myself and help make their dreams come true.”

The cause is near and dear to her heart. When her husband, Ed, got cancer, they turned to the City of

Vanessa Montañez is a freelance writer and a doctoral student pursuing a degree in executive leadership from the University of Charlestown. She is a National Association of Women in Real Estate Businesses (NAWRB)-certified delegate spokeswoman and knows Marty Rodriguez through the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

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NEW PODCAST SERIES LAUNCHING IN MAY

The Secret Lives of Real Estate

QuantumDigital and REAL Trends partnered to create The Secret Lives of Real Estate Podcast Series, where we pull back the curtain to share the personal passions, philanthropic efforts, community spirit and industry insights from real estate leaders, trendsetters and legends.

Discover the secret lives of your real estate peers at

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Want to be featured? We’re looking for real estate professionals and leaders who have interesting hobbies, philanthropic efforts and more. Email info@secretlivesofrealestate.com