Vitals: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Real Estate Professionals
Years in Business: 76
Size: 32 offices, 950 agents
Regions Served: Oregon and Washington
2017 Sales Volume: $3.9 billion
2017 Transactions: 10,567
www.bhhsnw.com
This summer, Jason Waugh, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Real Estate Professionals, will celebrate his 25th year in the real estate industry.
Prior to joining the firm in 2005, Waugh was a partner with Synergy Sports Management, providing representation services to professional athletes. His experience working with high-demand clients has helped him and the firm succeed time and time again.
Operating 32 offices throughout Oregon and Washington, and employing 950 sales associates, the firm has been a leader in the area for decades.
In 2017, Waugh noted that the markets continued what he had seen the last few years: low inventory with a modest increase or decrease in closed units depending on the sub-market, and continued price appreciation across the board.
The contributing factors? “There’s not enough new construction to meet demand and a healthy economy and job market,” he explains. “We focus on opportunities. Despite the economy and market conditions, favorable or unfavorable, there are always opportunities to be successful.”
In Waugh’s opinion, the firm’s training and technology are a big part of the value proposition that creates differentiation, and that’s how the company separates itself from others.
“What I continue to hear as a point of differentiation is the availability and support delivered by our leadership team and staff,” he says. “Our company is always looking to grow. We have a strong appetite for growth both organically, one agent at a time, as well as through mergers and acquisitions.”
A key motto of the company is “contacts cause contracts and the fortune is in the follow-up.”
“In a general sense, the biggest opportunity for individual brokers has always been and will continue to be consistently nurturing, in a very personal way, the relationships with the folks that have used their services or referred them business in the past,” says Waugh. “The failure to do so creates opportunity for the competition to be top of mind when a consumer has a real estate need.”
In Waugh’s view, we live in an “experience economy,” and to be successful, the firm must be more committed than ever before to creating a superior real estate experience and delivering that in a way the customer wants to be engaged.
“We are focused on equipping our brokers with the best resources to deliver an unparalleled experience, allowing our customers to make good, informed buying and selling decisions,” Waugh says. “How we engage customers is ever-changing too; social media as a medium continues to grow in popularity, as well as communicating by video and text. This new generation of customers is also relying more on reviews and ratings, so embracing that transparency is critical, too.”
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices continues the discipline of investing in tools that provide its brokers with the best data-driven intelligence—another key to success.
“We want them to create a great experience and deliver exceptional guidance to our customers, supported by reliable and accurate market intelligence,” says Waugh. “We attract people to our company in 2018 the same way we always have—providing a culture of support and business services that allows them to compete and win.”
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