Jim Fite
President and CEO
CENTURY 21 Judge Fite Company
Dallas, Texas
https://century21judgefite.com
Region served: Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
Years in real estate: 51
Number of offices: 23
Number of agents: 1,100
How have you managed to continually recruit new agents in these shifting times?
About three years ago, in the good times, we revamped, and now we are a recruiting machine. We got our systems down pat, and our presentations down pat. We mentored and coached our office managers on why agents should affiliate with our company, communicating our culture, our core values, how we can help agents grow their business and how we select agents. We’re not a body shop. We don’t recruit just anybody who has a license. We knew that when a downturn happened, there would be an influx of agents attracted to our business model.
How is your new book, “Success Through a Recession,” different from other business books?
The book is about planning for the good times and planning in the bad times or the tough times. Strategic planning is critical for any business. What is the vision? If I didn’t have a vision for our company, I wouldn’t go through what you have to go through to achieve the vision. You’ll find all kinds of books about how to grow your business, how to start a business, how to be successful in life. I have yet to find a book about when times get tough, here’s what you do, here’s the plan of action, and here’s how to execute your plan and tweak your plan to come out on the other end.
Having been through several recessions, what’s your advice to brokerages in these uncertain times, with inventory and mortgage-rate issues?
When you’re going through difficult times, it’s critical to communicate to your affiliated agents what’s going on. What is your company doing? How are you doing it? They don’t need to know the nitty-gritty, nasty stuff that you have to do, or the difficult decisions that need to be made, but you’ve got to communicate what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. As you get bigger, that becomes more difficult. And sometimes you have to be very articulate in your communication so that the agents don’t misunderstand, so they don’t do the Chicken Little thing.
As your company has grown, what key principles have you followed?
Every great leader emphasizes the value of their team, of recruiting the right agents, getting the right agents on the right bus, and in the right seats. Without a doubt, agents play a critical role. If you don’t have the right people, you’re done. Number two is communication. I’ve never been sorry for over-communicating, but I’ve almost always been sorry for under-communicating. We have a lot of very seasoned professionals in the right seats on the bus. We have designed this company over the last seven years to last another 80 years.
What type of mindset do you recommend agents have?
I am not here to survive. I am here to succeed. If you set a goal to survive and don’t quite make it, it’s not a good day. You failed. You’re dead. But when you set a goal to succeed and you don’t quite make it, you’re still in the game. And if you set a goal to succeed and you do succeed, then you’re miles ahead of everybody else.
For more information, please visit https://www.century21.com.
Michael – Thank you for the article about my book. I hope your members will purchase it, read it, and implement the “Lessons Learned” through the “Good Times” and the “Tough Times.”