Michael Nourmand
President, Nourmand & Associates, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
Beverly Hills, California | www.nourmand.com
Region served: L.A. County
Years in real estate: 19
Number of offices: 3
Number of agents: 175
Best tip for getting the right listing price: Don’t talk price with the seller at your first meeting. After you tour the property, email them comps for a follow-up meeting to discuss.
Most creative advertising, promotional or marketing campaign you’ve run: To celebrate our 40-year anniversary, we created a video called “Decades,” which is about the history of Los Angeles and its shifting cultural landscape.
Key to staying profitable: The conversations you have with your agents should be about value. If you compete primarily on price, you (and your agents) are in a weak position.
No. 1 tip for running a successful meeting: I like to start with an interesting quote before getting agents to participate by approaching appropriate subjects with a sense of humor and keeping the discussion to a few timely topics.
John Voket: Congratulations on surpassing the incredible $1 billion sales benchmark! Tell us about the process involved in achieving this significant milestone.
Michael Nourmand: The fastest way to increase sales volume is through recruiting. We hired several notable agents within the past few years; however, our big jump was helping our agents grow their business. Our Vice President Howard Lorey does business planning and coaching with our agents, which has been very effective. The number of agents at our company who are having their best year in the business is staggering. We are fortunate to have incredible agents, and when you pair that with a strong management team and staff, the results will show up over time.
JV: What role did market factors play in helping the firm surpass this critical industry benchmark?
MN: COVID-19 has been challenging for many reasons, but after the initial shock, the residential real estate market took off. A strong market was helpful in reaching our goal to surpass $1 billion in sales volume. The other interesting thing to note is that there was a larger pool of talent looking to get into our business. We’ve hired several new licensees, and our training director Carolyn Rae Cole has helped them get off to a great start. Many of them will become top-producers at Nourmand & Associates.
JV: In what ways has your affiliation with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) contributed to your firm’s success?
MN: LeadingRE is an exceptional network of the best independent real estate companies on the globe. Our affiliation is an essential listing-presentation tool since we always emphasize our national and international reach through LeadingRE when we pitch listings. In addition, we do a lot of incoming and outgoing referral business with other members. But my favorite thing is the annual conference. It’s a great way to bond with my agents and management team, network and learn something new.
JV: Where do you go from here?
MN: Nourmand & Associates doubled its sales volume in two years. We grew our sales volume this past year by 50%, so if we can continue that breakneck pace in 2022, we could reach this goal. We’ll have to double down on recruiting as well as business planning and coaching to make this a reality, but I’m up for the challenge.
For more information, please visit www.leadingre.com.
John Voket is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
