Ryan Michaelis: Recruiting as the driving force for growth

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey sits down with Ryan Michaelis, the Chief Growth Strategist at Worth Clark Realty. Ryan shares his journey in real estate and discusses Worth Clark Realty’s growth plan and how its strategy has evolved over the past few years amid changing market times.

Ryan explores Worth Clark’s strategies for recruiting and retaining agents, the impact of the NAR settlement on buyers and sellers, and how their flat fee model has evolved over the years. He also talks about Worth Clark’s approach to providing tailored support and resources to agents and shares some of the key leadership lessons he’s learned along the way.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• How Worth Clark Realty’s growth plan is fueled by solid agent support and resources.
• Recruiting and retaining agents may be challenging, but is often the driving force for growth.
• The flat fee model now offers more support and appeals mainly to agents working on growing their businesses.
• The NAR settlement may confuse buyers and sellers initially, but it improves consumer transparency.

Here’s a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: I feel like the flat fee company of yesterday is not the flat fee company of today. It used to be no services, just come and you get your commission, but then you’re kind of on your own. But I’ve really seen a maturity, or an evolution of that model in the market over the years.

Ryan Michaelis: I think a lot of agents would look at joining a flat fee brokerage as, well, I’m getting less. I’m getting less support. I’m getting less resources. But we’re focused on growth. We talk to hundreds and hundreds of agents throughout the year.

I’ve found that, in general, real estate agents don’t proactively look to switch brokerages for things like you would think of like compensation, better technology, better resources. We find actually that most agents are speaking with us because of one too many poor support related experiences at their brokerage.

That’s why we focus so much time on providing really good support because we know if we can keep agents happy, they’re going to stay with us. And we’ve proven that.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.