“When my father, Dale, first founded Realty Executives and created the 100 percent-commission concept in 1965, we only accepted agents who had years of experience under their belts,” explains Rector. Over the last decade, however, this philosophy shifted to allow agents with less experience into the company because of the launch of new mentor and training programs that enable the agent to gain more experience.
So, what happens when you provide top-quality training and tools to educate agents and brokers while leaving them free to run their businesses as they see fit? The result is a collaborative environment of knowledgeable sales associates who want to leverage the brand and grow their businesses in line with the tech-savvy environment consumers are entrenched in today.
“You can walk into any of our offices across 27 countries and find experts who are armed and at the ready to provide excellent service to buyers and sellers,” says Brooks. “Our per-agent productivity speaks for itself and the reason we have been able to grow as an organization while maintaining the integrity of our agent productivity is because we are dedicated as an organization to training and education.”
The Future of Real Estate Franchising Is Here
How has Rector been able to recruit such savvy, quality agents and brokers? By bringing in some of the real estate industry’s brightest to lead the Realty Executives International franchise organization. From the corporate senior management team to the company’s regional developer leadership, there has been an influx of Gen X and Gen Yers who have brought with them new ideas that have invigorated one of real estate’s longest-lasting franchise brands.
“I am proud of the fact that we increased to No. 177 on the 2014 Entrepreneur Magazine Franchise 500® list. Our ranking is indicative of the financial stability and management of this great organization,” says Gen Xer Brooks.
One of the reasons Realty Executives International is able to grow with such quality is due to its ability to listen to what franchisees and agents need and want for their businesses.
“We employed a third-party research company in the spring of 2013 to survey our franchisees about a variety of topics, including our company culture and leadership,” says Rector. “We were happily surprised with the results in that our franchisees scored us very highly on almost every category. But, the one area where we saw an opportunity for improvement was in having our franchisees feel heard in our decision-making process.”
So, instead of just shoving the survey results in the drawer, Rector and his leadership team immediately launched a new initiative called the Realty Executives Franchise Advisory Council. This group of 10 franchises from all over North America is engaged in a year-long communications process where they will meet regularly with the top brass at Realty Executives International for the specific purpose of communicating the concerns and successes of the collective group of franchisees.
“We haven’t promised that we will make every change the Franchise Advisory Council wants, but what we have committed to is listening to them and having real, concrete discussions about ways we can make our company even better for our franchisees and agents,” says Brooks.
The future of real estate is present in the offices, transactions, marketing, agents and brokers who make up the Realty Executives brand. Talk to any of the firm’s staff members, regional developers, brokers or agents and you’ll hear a passion that is unmatched in many other companies. Realty Executives believes this is why so many are flocking to find out more and get in on the company’s future-focused approach.
For more information, visit www.realtyexecutives.com.
