Amy Hummer
Owner and Qualifying Broker
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Steinborn & Associates
Las Cruces, New Mexico | https://steinborn.com
Region served: Las Cruces/Southern New Mexico
Years in real estate: 15
Number of offices: 2
Number of agents: 85
Best time management tip: On Sunday evening, review the week prior and set your agenda for the coming week. Identify three specific items that will move the business forward, as well as the action items to get there.
No. 1 tip for running a successful meeting: Make sure you know ahead of time how you’ll capture new ideas, decisions and follow-up tasks. Your team will see the value of the time they invested by participating.
Key to getting buyers and sellers to successfully work together: When negotiating an offer, focus on how you get both parties to the closing versus getting under contract. This relieves future stress and helps avoid contract cancellations.
John Voket: Please share a few lessons you’ve learned about taking on brokerage ownership as a second career.
Amy Hummer: First, it’s important to adopt a strategy of quiet confidence, visual presence and active listening. Our industry is people-centric, and your team needs to connect with you before you decide on new initiatives. Ask your people what you can do to improve their business and quality of life. Second, know your strengths, and fill in the gaps with talented team members who embrace your vision.
JV: How are you engaging with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and its lifestyle brand?
AH: We met the brand’s leadership team eight-plus years ago, and I think we knew that we would eventually work together. Their core values and relationship versus transactional approach aligned with our company. We launched our affiliation with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in March 2020, and with the world rapidly changing, they quickly showed us their laser-focused approach to supporting brokerages. They provide numerous platforms that we’re currently using, but the depth of the lifestyle content and messaging is a gamechanger. It’s based on extensive consumer research that’s delivered in real-time.
JV: Talk about your Agent Jumpstart training program and how it’s introducing a new generation to the real estate industry.
AH: While we developed our Agent Jumpstart training program more than 10 years ago, it continues to evolve in order to meet the needs of new team members. We have a chief learning officer who leads the program and provides one-on-one mentoring so that new team members can immediately launch their businesses. In addition, we have semi-monthly Agent Accelerate workshops that allow for group discussion and practice of skills. Last but not least, new team members transition to coaching with one of our qualifying brokers to fine tune their systems and establish accountability. It’s robust and a true time commitment, but real estate is a complex and exciting industry.
JV: What are your top tips when it comes to attracting the best candidates to join your company?
AH: We believe in attracting talent versus recruiting talent. We look for brokers who are not only high energy, but also those who exhibit initiative and see the industry as we do. Our company is known for its culture of learning, high skill and knowledge level, and its focus on building connections with customers. Those who can articulate a match to this philosophy are consistently the best candidates. And we love the opportunity to bring new talent into the industry through our highly rated training program.
For more information, please visit www.bhgre.com.
John Voket is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
