As the founder and CEO of Northrop Realty, a Long & Foster company, Creig Northrop leads daily business operations and growth for his Maryland-based specialty brokerage.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped grow Northrop Realty into a billion-dollar brokerage while expanding from 10 to 12 offices.
Here, Northrop discusses what it means to be an RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker—individuals recognized for their positive contributions to the real estate industry—and how to successfully transition from a top-producing real estate team to a billion-dollar company.
Jordan Grice: You were selected as a Real Estate Newsmaker Achiever; how have you stayed so productive over the past year and a half?
Creig Northrop: During the pandemic, we knew that you could either pivot or pause. We pivoted, and that was primarily because our technology was five years ahead of the other brokerages.
People wanted to know where they were going to quarantine next. I think that has changed our marketplace and our company. We’ve tripled our business because we had the tech foresight already before COVID, which put us at the forefront of most buyers. After all, it didn’t slow our processes down because we were ahead of it.
JG: Tell us about your transition from real estate team to brokerage and some of the benefits and differences between leading both.
CN: As you build a team, you’ve got to create the best systems and invest a lot of money. My wife and I invested all of our money into the team and systems, and we got great people and built an incredible team structure.
We achieved our goals and decided we wanted to teach it to others and help them grow under Northrop Realty. We brought our years of experience with trial and error and financial investment to a brokerage model. Most brokerages offer just a split, but we offer a game plan, administrative help, coaching and everything the agent needs to sell real estate so they can focus on the client.
JG: What are some of your most valued keys for success that have helped get your brokerage to the billion-dollar milestone?
CN: You have to care about your clients, community and everybody. We wanted our agents and clients to know that we care about them. I know every agent and everything about them. We run things like a family unit.
Next is consistency. The problem with many agents is that we aren’t consistent. You put an ad in, and it doesn’t work, and you stop the ad. Being consistent is the number one aspect of any successful entrepreneur.
Lastly, you have to have confidence. Our agents have confidence in our brand, and they are confident in their expertise because of the ongoing training that we provide.
JG: What is one challenge your market is facing, and what are you doing to address it?
CN: The biggest challenge in our market, and probably most markets, is limited inventory and convincing sellers to sell. October is the second-best month in real estate, and people don’t realize that. Most sellers think spring is the time to sell, so what you find is you get more money and less competition by selling in October. How we are overcoming that is marketing to sellers that there is no better time to sell than right now and showing them that things do sell in the fall.
JG: What was the most important thing that you learned during the past year?
CN: I’ve learned that people live in their houses more than they ever have, and I think a question that came out of the past year is, where do you want to quarantine next? I also learned how to pivot and how to rely on technology more than I ever have.
Jordan Grice is RISMedia’s associate content editor. Email him your real estate news to jgrice@rismedia.com.
