Anna-Marie Ellison
Broker/Owner, ERA King Real Estate
Anniston, Alabama
www.era.com/era-king-real-estate–568c
Region served: Central Alabama
Years in real estate: 15
Number of offices: 10
Number of agents: 202
Jordan Grice: How did you come to partner with ERA, and how has the partnership helped mold your brokerage?
Anna-Marie Ellison: ERA is all about building relationships, the power of the network and collaboration, and the brand aligns with who we are as a company. It was a natural fit for us to partner with them.
JG: What traits do you look for in agents, and how do you attract top talent?
AEM: We’re constantly trying to build connections with agents at other companies so that any time they begin thinking about where they are in their careers, we have an at-bat to talk to them about what we offer our agents and how we help support their business. That said, we’re always on the lookout for great agents. If they’re top agents and produce a lot, that’s great, but it’s more important that they’re aligned with the core values and ethos we have for our agents.
JG: What values do you promote at ERA King Real Estate to help your agents succeed?
AEM: Our charge is to do the right thing all the time. We want our agents to deliver a consistently exceptional experience to their clients, and we help them do that by providing support—a ton of professional development for agents looking to get better and hone their craft. We want them to keep their REALTOR® hats on and let us handle the office and administrative project-management responsibilities to get a client from listing to closing.
JG: What strategies have you implemented to snag listings during this time of limited inventory?
AEM: We focus on building a relationship. You’ve got your core people and your sphere people, but what are you doing to get to know their family and help them make the best decision for them? A house is the largest purchase that many people make, so act like it and build relationships around that.
JG: How do you and your agents approach the client experience?
AEM: Here in the south, you have a Publix shopping experience and a Winn-Dixie or Walmart shopping experience when buying groceries. We try and model the Publix shopping experience for our business, which involves under-promising, over-delivering and exceeding expectations. We also encourage our agents to be predictive of what they think their clients are going to need.
JG: How does tech use fit into your brokerage’s daily business strategy?
AEM: While tech is a tool to help us support relationships with our agents, it also allows our agents to support their relationships with their clients. We’re a paperless company, and we’ve supported that initiative since 2016. It allows our agents to move more nimbly in this market where inventory is tight. As a result, our agents didn’t have to pivot when the pandemic began because we had a digital platform for them to work remotely within our framework.
JG: What advice do you provide your agents regarding how they incorporate tech into their business strategies?
AEM: Don’t change anything until you’re ready to work on your business. Adopting tech is like establishing a new habit. You can’t give it a week or two weeks and complain that it isn’t working. Agents sometimes get distracted by the latest shiny thing, but they have to give tech, or any process and workflow change, enough time to evaluate if it’s truly worth it.
For more information, please visit www.era.com.
Jordan Grice is RISMedia’s associate content editor. Email him your real estate news ideas to jgrice@rismedia.com.
