Above: Marta Grace.
Marta Grace
Broker/Owner
United | Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
www.UnitedRealEstateKansasCity.com
Region served: Greater Kansas City
Years in real estate: 25
Number of offices: 3
Number of agents: 350
Key to continued growth and success: It comes down to retention. Recruiting is its own art, but so is keeping the agents you have. Otherwise, you’re in this constant cycle of bringing people on to replace those who leave.
Favorite part of working in real estate: Positively impacting the lives and financial trajectory of our agents
How did you get started in real estate, and what inspired you to take the leap into owning and leading a brokerage?
Working as a nurse, I felt the excitement of being a part of somebody’s life for an important moment, which isn’t something I expected when I made the transition to real estate. But at my very first closing, an older Spanish-speaking couple was crying at the closing table, saying they never thought homeownership would be a reality for them, and I was crying right along with them, knowing that I’m absolutely still making a difference.
My husband and I were investing in real estate before we got our licenses and quickly realized we needed access to the MLS. We needed to have our licenses if we were going to invest and build a portfolio, so we decided to start our own brokerage so that we weren’t giving up half of the commission. As time went by, we began growing in agent count—and the five agents we had when we started in 2003 are still with us today.
How does the real estate profession empower women, and what role do you play in mentoring others?
I always say real estate allowed me to be the mother I wanted to be. As a nurse, you can’t just say, “I’m not coming in today. My kid has the sniffles.” You don’t have the flexibility in most careers that you do with real estate, which allowed me to still be a mother who was available for all the important things. Most of the time, I would have a laptop on my lap at their games or whatever, but I was there, and that’s what I really wanted. I talk to other women all the time and say, “There’s nothing like real estate in terms of the freedom you have to parent the way you want.”
What does success look like to you, not just in terms of numbers, but the impact on agents, employees and buyer and seller clients?
Success for me is freedom, and that’s what United offers. In fact, one of our slogans is “Find Your Freedom.” Freedom for my schedule, freedom for my agents, freedom to travel. Again, even as a broker, I’m available via Google Meet, text or phone call anytime. Now that our kids are grown and we’re empty nesters, we’ve been traveling a ton, and it hasn’t impacted my business because everything’s mobile nowadays.
What were the most important factors in choosing United Real Estate as your brokerage partner?
We chose United mostly because they were the first brokerage we talked to that was 100%-commission but still offered everything. It felt like everybody else was saying, “Hey, we’re 100%-commission, but don’t expect much in return” or “You’re going to get all this great training, but you’re going to pay us a 30% to 50% split.” Also, it’s an international company, so they’re much bigger than mom-and-pop shops, and we have boots on the ground. There’s a real office in every city we’re in, so we’re not virtual like a lot of the other 100%-commission brokerages.
As the broker, I don’t work with buyers and sellers anymore, and that’s huge. At first, I thought, gosh, am I giving up business? But as we started growing, I could see why that was so important, and it’s made a difference in our brokerage.
How has United’s technology, marketing tools and resources helped you differentiate your brokerage in a competitive market?
Technology is one of the main things that sets us apart. Our CEO, Dan Duffy, sold his last company to Microsoft, so technology is his passion. Nowadays, there’s AI, and people are more familiar and comfortable with CRMs and all automation. Back then, he also started creating what we call Bullseye, which is an entire agent and broker productivity platform that all our agents have access to, and we automate the follow-up, which is key. No matter what broker you go to, we preach that there is fortune in the follow-up. We all teach our agents how to stay top of mind, but no company is really saying, “Let’s take that off your shoulders and just automate it for you.” That’s what this technology does.
United is among the top 10 brokerages in America. How does being part of its national network benefit you and your agents?
Here in Kansas City, where United actually started off as United Country in 1925, we already had a nice presence, so it benefits us when it comes to credibility. Once we became national and earned all those accolades as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., it became easier as far as recruiting. But bottom line, it’s about what we are doing locally and what we are doing for the community. We’re very involved here because United promotes getting involved with the community and making a real difference.
As an entrepreneur, what does it take to build a thriving brokerage in today’s market?
Truly listening. That’s one of the reasons I feel like female brokers are strong. Every agent has a different need, a different schedule, a different niche and a different goal. It’s all about how well I’m listening to what your needs are to ensure we’re setting you up for success in terms of what success looks like for you.
What is the biggest challenge you face as a leader?
Keeping everyone positive, because in the news, there’s doom and gloom. We stay on top of the news and communicate with our agents, creating videos and posting them on a closed Facebook group. It’s really about keeping the positive messaging going, keeping real numbers in front of them and saying, “Don’t listen to the news hype. Here’s what’s actually happening in our city and in our state.”
What are your best practices for attracting top talent?
That’s definitely the toughest part because people are feeling spammed due to the amount of emails and text messages. That said, phone calls have made the biggest difference. Actually picking up the phone and calling somebody and saying, “Hi, I know I’ve sent an email, but I wanted to follow up and make sure you’ve looked at it.” The actual phone call makes a huge difference with me being able to say, “Hi, I’m the broker,” not just, “Hey, we’re a company reaching out to you.” It makes them feel special, makes them feel wanted.
What trends do you see shaping the future of real estate, and how are you preparing your brokerage to thrive?
Like other businesses, we’re being impacted by AI, so we’re teaching our agents how to use it properly. We’ve created an AI for agents that we’ve pre-prompted with real estate coaches like Tom Ferry and Brian Buffini, so agents can go in and create marketing campaigns. With all the technology that’s being used now, we’re making sure our agents know how to use it and are actually implementing it. Where it once took an hour to create a flyer or listing presentation, thanks to the hundreds of templates available within Bullseye’s Marketing Hub, it now takes less than two minutes to create what you need.
In what ways has real estate investing proven to be a great move for you in addition to your career?
One of my passions, my husband and I have been investing here in Kansas City for about 25 years, and it has completely changed our financial trajectory (we own about $60 million worth of real estate between residential, commercial and multifamily). It’s something we preach to agents as well. My goal is to make sure we can empower them, train them, teach them and guide them on how to invest themselves. There’s no pension when you retire from real estate, so a few investment properties can change what their retirement could look like.
What excites you most about the next chapter for your brokerage?
That it only gets easier. The more time passes and the more we grow, the growth becomes easier, and I’m really excited to hit that 500-agent milestone.
For more information, visit https://www.GrowWithUnited.com.
