With home sales still at historically low levels and uncertainty over the commission lawsuits, real estate brokerage executives prize good leads more than ever.
Anthony Djon, CEO of Anthony Djon Luxury Real Estate, said his company gets 90% of its leads from listing portals Zillow and Realtor.com. To convert these leads into business, the brokerage developed teams — also called units — headed by captains who are successful agents with high lead conversion rates.
Djon said these leaders are “at the top,“ with the ability to recruit other agents and override what the unit does, which is a way to retain these top-performing employees. Meanwhile, a customer relationship management system, along with experts in marketing, sales and other areas, are designed to support these teams, he said.
“If you’re a brokerage, and you don’t have a team model within your brokers, I would actually use that starting today because you’ll generate a lot more profit from that team than you will with the independent agents,“ Djon said.
Djon spoke on Sunday during a session on lead generation at The Gathering, HousingWire’s real estate and mortgage conference, held in Scottsdale, Arizona.
He said his company is focused on buyer-side agents, whose activity is expected by some to be impacted by the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) $418 million nationwide settlement of the commission lawsuits.
NAR agreed to abolish its “Participation Rule“ that required sell-side agents to offer compensation to buyer brokers in order to list properties on a Realtor association-affiliated MLS. The change would go into effect in mid-July 2024 if the settlement is approved by a judge.
People will still need to buy a home after July. Djon Luxury Real Estate is expanding its sell-side business, training buyer-side real estate agents on the necessary contracts and selling their value to the consumer.
“But personally, I don’t think much is going to change other than that,“ Djon added.
Power of a title company
Samson Properties, a rapidly growing brokerage based in Northern Virginia, has taken a different approach. The company relies on its title company as a way to capture and convert leads.
“We own a title company and we’re really pushing that title capture rate. We are at about 35% of our overall transactions using our title company, which is fantastic,“ CEO Donny Samson said during the lead generation session at The Gathering.
Initially, Samson was hesitant about pursuing joint ventures between the title company and Realtors due to other participants “sharing the pie“ for revenues. But he decided to bet on this new venture about a year and a half ago.
“It’s a separate joint venture relationship; they will bring lots of business to the title company. Now, they’re incentivized because they share the profits in the title insurance,“ Samson explained.
Samson has been the brokerage CEO since 2019 and leads all operations for its sister company, Cardinal Title Group, which provides residential and commercial clients with settlement services in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Over the past seven years, Samson Properties has grown from four offices and 700 Realtors to 35 offices and almost 6,000 Realtors.
