Leveraging Opportunity for Long-Term Success

Tyler Thornhill
President
Janet McAfee Real Estate, a member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®
Saint Louis, Missouri
https://janetmcafee.com 

Region served: St. Louis, Missouri
Years in real estate: 21
Number of offices: 1
Number of agents: 120
Favorite part of your job: Seeing agents succeed.

Best advice for new agents: Spend time in the office. I know that might sound disjointed in a world where not many people go to the office anymore, but some of the greatest mentor/mentee relationships have formed organically at the phone duty desk.

Tell us what you like most about the region in which you work.
Our town experiences a familiar “boomerang” pattern common in many Midwestern towns—where people leave for an extended period of time and later return. We see it come back around when people you went to school with, or those you knew as a young adult, come back and lean on the brokerage’s expertise to purchase their first home and become part of the St. Louis community.

What is the most significant trend positively affecting your business right now?
We had the opportunity to grow our agent count significantly this past year due to changes brought about by consolidation in the marketplace, which resulted in a good year for us. That said, we don’t have annual target numbers for agent adds, as we don’t think that way. But when we get the opportunity to add good agents to our roster, it’s really exciting. Our longevity in the industry—we’ve been around for 50 years—really matters to people right now. 

When it comes to closing transactions, what strategy do you rely on most?
We focus on being there for the entire transaction, managing it closely and offering an all-hands-on-deck level of support for the agent so that the client has a great perception of the experience from beginning to end. Ultimately, that’s where success happens. The magic is digging in, being present for every aspect of the transaction and offering help along the way.

What is one of the challenges your market faces, and what are you doing to overcome it?
I don’t think our market is fundamentally different from other markets in the country, specifically other Midwestern markets, where inventory is limited. Good homes sell quickly at market prices, which is a beautiful thing. However, for buyers searching for that needle-in-a-haystack property—or sellers looking for a needle-in-a-haystack buyer—it becomes a long game. The challenge is finding the inventory, and to manage that, you have to think in years, not just individual transactions.

As we continue through 2026, what are you most looking forward to?
2026 is a year where the lock-in effect stemming from the low interest rates we saw in 2020 and 2021 will finally begin to ease. People’s needs are requiring them to move again, and as a result, I think we’re going to see more transactions in the marketplace this year. It’s exciting to see people moving forward authentically because they have a true need for housing.

For more information, visit https://www.leadingre.com.