RISMEDIA, July 29, 2010—Adapting to today’s market realities and getting back to basics are some of the best practices real estate professionals are attributing to their success. Here, Richard and Brenda Rose, Owners of Realty Executives Advantage in Bowie, Maryland discuss how they are helping their agents adjust to today’s difficult market—and find success.
Richard and Brenda Rose
Owners
Realty Executives Advantage
Bowie, Maryland
Region served: Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. area
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 75
Average listing price: $300,000
Average time on market: 90 days
How do you keep your agents motivated, especially in today’s market?
It has been tough to keep our agents motivated in today’s market, but we have focused largely on getting back to basics, which has been successful for us. We have had to adapt to the realities of the market and that means calling past customers as well as keeping in touch with your sphere of influence in addition to family and friends who may be selling or buying.
What strategies do you find most effective in communicating with your agents?
Communicating effectively with our agents means taking the time to walk around the office each day and talking with our agents about how things are going. While many of our agents have been with us for many years, we work hard to show them that we support them, whether this means stopping by their open house or even getting them to office meetings and functions.
How are you keeping consumers educated about today’s buying opportunities?
We are working hard to keep our agents on the phone with consumers in order to educate them about today’s market. By sharing information with our agents, they are then able to talk with consumers and tell them that now is a great time to buy as interest rates are down, prices have leveled out and the inventory is up.
When it comes to listing homes, what’s your pricing strategy?
Pricing a home correctly is simply about studying the comps and finding out the seller’s sense of urgency. In addition, agents need to get their sellers to trust them so they can list the house correctly from the beginning.
What makes your company unique in today’s market?
We have a great management team that has a lot of management experience and we work closely with our agents to show that we genuinely want them to be successful. We are a diverse group of individuals, but we know that if we all stick together, we will make it through this challenging market.
