Sheryl Chinowth
CEO/Co-Founder
Chinowth & Cohen REALTORS®, a member of
Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
Tulsa, Oklahoma | www.cctulsa.com
Region served: Tulsa and Northeast Oklahoma
Years in real estate: 43
Number of offices: 15
Number of agents: 850-plus
Best time management tip: Lists, lists and more lists. Also, delegation is key. Make sure you are doing the jobs that fall within your pay grade.
Top tip for getting buyers and sellers to work together: My father taught me that contracts are only as good as the people involved in them. And the REALTOR® must always be the calmest, kindest one in the transaction.
Key to staying profitable: Never live beyond your means. Set aside tax money from every check and plan way ahead on expenses.
No. 1 tip for motivating agents: Bring them knowledge and show them the path to success. Keep awareness of market changes—and how to deal with those changes—ever-present.
As the world continues to reopen, what trends are you seeing across your markets?
As is the case in most of the country, inventory is our largest challenge. Our agents are also eager to get back together personally. Most of our REALTORS® are true “people-people” and have missed the face-to-face connections they had with their colleagues. Chinowth & Cohen began conducting in-person sales meetings last month, with a virtual option for those who still aren’t comfortable being in front of others. Real estate classes also resumed the same way in June.
You’ve increased your salesforce from nearly two dozen in 2004 to over 800 today. How do you successfully manage and inspire your team?
Great tools. Whether it be education, marketing, technology or support of any kind, we work hard to keep our people inspired with the latest and greatest. We have support teams to help with social media, websites and design work. We also have agent assistants to help with showings, inspections, etc., for when agents are double-booked or on overload. Knowing they have support people to do many of the things they may not be the best at keeps them in front of buyers and sellers, which is what they love most.
What are some of the biggest benefits associated with being part of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) network?
LeadingRE leads the pack in sales volume in comparison to any other real estate network, franchise or brokerage brand among the top 500 U.S. firms, so just being affiliated with something as large and prestigious as LeadingRE is a huge benefit in and of itself. The online training has also been great for our agents. In addition, Luxury Portfolio for our luxury agents—and access to the website for their luxury clients—has been a huge benefit. Chinowth & Cohen takes a lot of pride in its luxury brand and status.
How is LeadingRE supporting you when it comes to connecting with luxury buyers and sellers?
LeadingRE has a great network of agents and relocation directors who trust one another and send us clients from across the nation and across the world. The national/global referrals we receive through LeadingRE give us a significant advantage in our markets.
For more information, please visit www.leadingre.com.
John Voket is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
