In the following interview, Dionne Malush, co-owner and REALTOR® at Realty ONE Group Gold Standard in Pittsburgh, Pa., discusses the advantages of the brand, attracting and retaining talent, and more.
Region Served: Pittsburgh, Pa. Years in real estate: 14
Number of Offices: 2
Number of Agents: 53 (including myself)
Motto/Work Philosophy That You Live By: My goal is to affect someone’s life in a positive way every day.
How does being part of Realty ONE Group help you and your agents do your jobs well?
I can’t say enough about Realty ONE Group; it’s life-changing for agents. We not only help them grow their business, but also make much more money while doing it with our 100-percent commission structure. Pittsburgh hadn’t seen anything like this before, so brokerages in the area were in shock when we opened our doors earlier this year. We’re definitely disrupting the market.
What’s your best advice for hiring and retaining agents?
First off, if you’re a seasoned agent, the tools and back-end systems that Realty ONE Group offer make the brand unbeatable. On top of getting 100 percent of their commissions, our agents all help one another. We’re truly passionate about working together. What’s more, I’m a part of each agent’s life and work instead of just being their boss. My partner Michael Hanlon and I have an open-door policy, and we always have our agents’ backs. We’re both very positive, and that’s the type of culture we’ve established here at Realty ONE Group Gold Standard. That being said, the positive energy here is contagious.
How do you stay ahead of the competition?
Through social media and putting my knowledge of graphic design to work. We’ve only been open since Feb. 10, 2018, and we already have 52 agents. In fact, one of the slogans I recently coined, made a graphic design for and posted on various social media sites triggered a huge amount of activity for us. It simply read: “We don’t pay cut, we pay raise.” This is a perfect example of the way in which marrying social media to my graphic design knowledge works for us.
What is the one thing your agents say is the best thing you do for them?
We’re always attentive to their needs. Michael and I both take the attitude that it doesn’t matter where we are, if our phone rings and it’s one of our agents, we take the call. It’s not about the company; it’s about the agent.
For more information, please visit www.realtyonegroup.com.
Lesley Grand is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
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