If you’ve noticed the conspicuous absence of updates here let me assure you that the reasons are all good. I am fine, the company is fine, and we have been busy. I have lots of good news to report.
First, after our best year in 2013, I wrote a year ago that I could foresee us growing from one office and just over 40 agents to 4 branch offices and 100 agents. We came close. The firm has indeed expanded to 4 offices, and we are approaching close to 70 fantastic professionals who have chosen to associate with our brand.
In October, we had the grand opening for our Pelham, NY office, followed by the November ribbon cutting for the Mahopac center, which houses both J. Philip Commercial Group and our residential division. Jenn Maher not only manages the residential division there, but is my managing partner (broker in charge) of J. Philip Commercial Group, and she is building something very, very special there. I can’t say enough good things about her- she got plenty of recognition herself, including Hudson Valley Magazine’s Top Women in Business Award. In December we welcomed Buffalo, NY to the family with the amazing Colleen Kulikowski joining as the trailblazer to that new market.
The firm broke all prior production records with almost $34 million in closed sales and well over 100 closings. The most agents we ever had in production was 17 in 2013; in 2014 we had 28, with 7 associates closing $1 million or more and another coming within an eyelash. Out of nearly 1000 firms in our market, our firm was ranked 50th in closed residential transactions according to HGMLS data.
At our December holiday banquet at Finalmente in Sleepy Hollow, I was proud to recognize the following company associates for achievements and distinctions:
Top Innovator: Tom Ricapito
Top Recruiter: Janie Blanks
Top Contributor to Firm Expansion: Donna Materasso
Top Blogger: Barbara Bartell
Annual Awards
Top Producer: Cristina Gameiro not only had the highest number of transactions, she closed the highest dollar volume.
Comeback of the Year: Lorei Velazco. A multi million dollar producer with her prior firm in 2012, Lorei joined us earlier this year after spending the bulk of 2013 recovering from illness.
An agent with the best improvement. This year’s comeback s special, overcoming a year out for medical reasons, never losing a winning, determined attitude, and ferocity, commitment, and a willingness to invest in her business. She could very well be the top producer in 2015.
Rookie of the Year: Peaches Herron Drummond. Peaches came within an eyelash of $1 million in closings since February, and is actually poised to close over 10 transactions in the first quarter of 2015 alone.
As I stated at the banquet: Peaches joined our firm early in 2014, and was exemplary in her learning like a sponge as well as a willingness to invest in her marketing. She was a tiger in her follow up with inquiries, and was smart to ask me for help when needed. It all added up to a December with 10 transactions in contract and another 7 accepted offers pending from her prolific efforts. Another big contender for top producer in 2015
Leadership Award: Gloria Hernandez.
A leader walks the talk, coaches and is coachable. They don’t preach. They lead by example. As the adage says, They often speak softly, but carrying a big stick. This year’s leader was selfless in her willingness to help other agents, would follow up on project from me at the drop of a hat, and had the upbeat, selfless attitude of a leader that I personally admire.
Person of the Year: Mary Kingsley
The person of the year embodies the company ethos of teamwork, collaboration, hard work, ethics, humor, and eagerness to learn. This year’s person of the year was someone I could count on the step in for me when needed, often with little or no notice, was vocal in her opinions to support me personally and professionally, fed me, literally, along with solid sales production in the wake of a tough 2013. She volunteered for more work just to forward the enterprise, and was an absolute evangelist for our brand. She is of my very dear friends as well.
Every one of the awardees is someone I would trust implicitly to take care of me as a client. I couldn’t be more proud.
On a personal note, I completed my term as Hudson Gateway MLS President for 2014, I served as Tech Chair for the NY State Association of Realtors, I served on Zillow.com’s Agent Advisory Board for a 3rd year, and I actually did get some writing done as a contributor to Inman News. The Women’s Council of Realtors gave me the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, which was a very flattering surprise. I lost 45 pounds through better eating habits and exercise, and I enter 2015 feeling better than I did 20 years ago.
It is gratifying that all the growth and expansion did not come at the expense of the client experience- our feedback and online ratings remain stellar, referrals are at an all-time high, and the buzz about the company is undeniable. Much of that is owed to super support staff helping me keep my eye on the ball, with head admin Ronnie DeMeo and “Q Branch” technology chief Angela Johnson. With Nancy Green being added to the team in Mahopac, we are positioned well.
Looking forward, I see 2015 as year to solidify all the expansion we have undertaken, to give our agents the best tools possible to serve their clients, to advance training dramatically, and to eclipse 100 associates, 200 sales, and make a hell of a run at $100 million in closed transactions.
But beyond the numbers, one thing will remain constant: the quality of character that our associates display, day in and day out, will remain at the top of the heap.
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If you like a brick Tudor in the Chilmark area, $705,000 just bought your dream home. This 4 bedroom, 3 bath stately house is a stunner- we were honored to list it for the sellers.
The SWOT of the 2016 Real Estate Industry
I shared the stage with some considerable brain power. It would be difficult to summarize all the answers from each of the participants, but I’ll share my own answers to the question.
Strength: The industry’s best asset is the political clout it wields, chiefly through RPAC but also at the state and local level to preserve consumer interests in real property ownership. The real estate industry has successfully supported the preservation of the mortgage interest tax deduction, kept the banking industry out of the brokerage business, and very recently supported the extension of the mortgage forgiveness debt relief act. There are cynics who would state that the industry’s political strength is chiefly for self preservation, but an honest investigation would yield an overwhelming help to consumers. That is, of course, unless you think that the largest transaction of your life is safe to have as a do it yourself project.
Weakness: I answered this question with a question: In what industry can a person be hired for a position, not produce for 6 months or more, and still keep their job? This is where brokers are their own worst enemy. In their zeal to fill their rosters with bodies in the mistaken belief that more people equals more transactions, brokers have developed an unwitting fetish for dead wood. As snappy as the line was, it is true. Brokers have abrogated being leaders for their troupes in technology, training and accountability and instead become cheerleaders. The result is a vast, inconsistent range in professionalism that consumers do not recognize until it is, unfortunately all too often, too late to do anything about it.
Opportunity: This could be restated as our biggest headache, but I see the industry’s biggest opportunity as educating the public as to what we actually do for them. A good real estate agent isn’t a glorified door unlocker who sucks a percentage of profit out of a transaction due to their superior cartel position from an unsuspecting public. A good agent is an advocate for a consumer in what is typically not only the largest transaction of most lives, but also a complicated, multi-layered process that has the competing interests of lenders, lawyers, title companies (and often municipalities) and principals operating in separate ecosystems with both statutory and industrial roadblocks to congruency or streamlining the red tape. We negotiate, we interpret data, we provide local knowledge, and we know what questions to ask, and that is the tip of the iceberg. Of the hundreds of distressed property transactions I have closed, almost all were either under-brokered or un-brokered prior to my client hiring me. Consumers needs brokers in a transaction, and smart consumers hire a good broker early.
Threat: Contrary to popular sentiment in the industry, I don’t view portals like Zillow or Trulia a threat, nor do I consider “disruptive” technologies or alternate business models a huge danger. The biggest threat to the real estate industry, by far in my view, is the big banking lobby. Real estate is too agile and adaptive to be replaced by a website or new technology; our embrace and utilization of the Internet is a good example of this. The example of travel agents being put out of business by travel websites is a common example of what I see as a red herring. The same Internet that killed my travel agent built my company. But we are vulnerable to being legislated into obscurity, to the detriment of the consumer.
Rather than the travel agent example, we should look at what happened to mortgage brokers. Banks couldn’t beat brokers in the marketplace, so when the crash hit, they used the crisis to back legislation that outlawed how mortgage brokers made money: they outlawed the yield spread premium. Banks want to get into brokerage. Badly. They already have their hands in insurance and securities. And they have a powerful lobby. We are vulnerable to backdoor legislation that could affect how we earn our income, and marginalize us the same way that mortgage brokers were sent into obscurity almost overnight. Ironically, mortgage brokers didn’t cause the crash. They simply didn’t have the resources to fend off an opportunistic attack from their competitors in the halls of government.
“If you can’t beat them in the marketplace, disqualify them in court.” It’s the American way, right? The takeaway here is for our industry to stop wringing our hands about the portal and tech bogey men, roll up our sleeves, and do good professional work.