Vitals: CENTURY 21 Everest
Years in Business: 10
Size: 14 offices, 945 agents
Regions Served: Utah and California
2019 Sales Volume: $2.8 billion
2019 Transactions: 6,429
www.c21everest.com
Last year, George Q. Morris, CEO of CENTURY 21 Everest, was honored for being the No. 1 CENTURY 21 office in the U.S. and the world based on sales production. It marked five years in a row that the firm was on the list of top offices.
With four offices in Utah and 10 in California, the 25-year veteran of real estate is tasked with leading a team of almost 1,000 agents, and is proud of all his team has accomplished.
You are listed as the No. 1 office in the world for Century 21. What is the secret that got the firm to this level?
George Morris: The thing that makes us unique is that we are more like a personal development company that happens to sell real estate. We are highly invested in working from the inside out and training and coaching our agents to become their very best. We have a high success rate with agent productivity. Our managers and brokers meet with our agents regularly to understand their goals and map out a business and accountability plan for the agents’ success. We offer unique tools for strengthening the mindset, skills and discipline required to succeed in real estate.
What sort of tools?
GM: These include a daily podcast, Elevate your Real Estate, which is texted out to our agents each workday morning and available for free on iTunes and Google Play or whatever podcast app you use. While many real estate agents are still in bed, our agents can be found at Morning Ascent meetings where they begin the day journaling what they are grateful for and writing down their goals. They also receive daily training at the morning meeting, engage in role-play to strengthen skills and recite daily affirmations to keep a positive mindset. At our monthly Summits, our agents hear inspiring and educational messages from the leadership team and our top-producing agents. We recently launched the Everest Sales System, with a powerful team of coaches available to meet weekly with agents who are seeking to grow their business.
How do you maintain profitability as the market fluctuates?
GM: The life events that affect buying decisions continue in all real estate cycles. Our philosophy is to keep our agents working in all types of markets. The agents who continue to work will survive and thrive. In a world of competing models, an agent must be able to articulate their value proposition in order to protect commissions.
How do you stay on top of trends and innovations?
GM: Research. Reading publications, such as those from RISMedia, and exchanging information and ideas with our large network of brokers across the nation.
What market segments/niches have you recently expanded into?
GM: We are currently focused on expanding our efforts to create one team of services for our customers, offering support in ancillary ventures such as lending, title and escrow.
How are you attracting new agents to your firm and retaining top producers?
GM: Our training, coaching and events assist us in attracting and retaining top-tier real estate professionals who often perform above their peers at other brokerages. This creates a culture of achievement and friendly competition that casts a vision of what is possible with a real estate career. Many of our agents jokingly mention that at their previous brokerages, they could be a big deal by making more than $100,000 GCI per year. At Everest, the bar has been raised. Nearly one-third of our agents make more than $100,000 GCI, with the top-producing agents exceeding $1.5 million GCI. Our agents collaborate and assist each other and genuinely enjoy being together. We reward our top-performing agents with a top producer trip each year, which is a great recruiting and retention tool. We will travel together next spring to Kauai and treat our agents to 4-7 nights of accommodations depending on their production level.
Keith Loria is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
