Top Real Estate Brokerage, Top Real Estate Agents

Any real estate brokerage, or firm in general, can speak to the hardships of finding good/motivated employees. Our job as a brokerage is to enlist as many motivated and talented agents as possible to help us grow. As human resource (HR) professionals will say, it’s not about how to find the people as much as it is how to keep the people. Our team has been slowly growing with individuals that we believe stand out from our competition. They range in experience from newly licensed to 25+ yrs in the real estate industry.

Our most recent efforts to hire have lead me to write this blog. Any brokerage can hang a license on their wall, but we’re more interested in fully engaging our agents and clients to get the most they can from all of their hard work. So how do we find the people that fully commit to our client’s needs? More so, how do convince them that R.E Shilow is the best home for them?

Below are some HR practices that we continuously invest time, money, and energy into. We know that we’re nothing without our people! 

1. Truly invest in your agents

Competitive commission splits and thorough training are not enough. They are certainly the cornerstone of any great agent/broker relationship though. A manager of mine once said, “I’ll pay you fairly and what you’re worth so that we don’t waste any time talking about money.” That enlightened me about how many annual reviews I spent negotiating raises and quantifying my worth before we ever spoke about how we can develop more skills or make the company better together.

At R.E Shilow, we invest not only financially (agents that accept leads don’t pay us cent for anything), but we invest our time and resources as well. Our broker and seasoned agents have an uncanny ability to step in at the right time and assist with closing deals, marketing, the purchasing/selling process, etc. I mentioned before that any broker can hang someone’s license…we do not. We don’t do that because we want to fully invest in every agent. We want them to join our RE Shilow family and allow them to make as much money as possible. Our success relies on the agents’ success. We commit to always be ahead of the agents in real estate knowledge, that’s a broker’s job. Always be available to assist on the phone or in person for any agent that may need you at any time. 

2. Network continuously for new people and pay for your agents to do the same 

We know that the best people out there are being held closely by their current employer. It’s important to not assume that job-seekers are a waste of time, that’s naive. BUT – often times the best of the best are being aggressively held by their employer already. This is where networking and relationship building comes in. This isn’t just for an HR function of course, but what better way to find great talent then by learning about them while they learn about your firm over the course of a mutual/non-binding relationship? Some of our highest earning agents never applied to our firm. They simply met someone affiliated and decided to come in for a chat. 

At R.E Shilow, we implore our agents to attend as many of our free networking events as possible to grow their client base and skill sets, and to develop lasting professional relationships. We’re well aware of the powers of networking and marketing, but so many people lose sight of good relationships because they don’t see the instant result. We encourage our agents to nurture their relationships and continue to grow new ones. Somehow we always end up with more great agents to boot!

3. Cold Calling

Everyone hates this term, right? Well, it’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but it does pay off. We all have to do it. It doesn’t matter if you’re following up on a lead from your website or calling from a list of newly licensed professionals. Sometimes you just desperately need contact. In our case, we have so many leads that we absolutely needed to find more agents.

I signed two amazing people this week from simple cold calls. I had a list of 75 people that I called every day until they told me not to call anymore. Only two came from the list, but they have tremendous potential and we’re very happy to have them. We’re confident that their work ethic and personalities/experience will combo with our agent investments and pay dividends in the future! Welcome, Darren Marbley! We'll update the second agent shortly.

Conclusion:

Invest in your people!!! Don’t ask them for a chunk of the money they work for and not help them make any money! We provide our people leads, all forms needed, extensive training as needed, senior agents to lead and foster new agents, a hands-on broker, all fees and websites paid for, and more! If you’re a real estate professional looking for a brokerage to call home, of if you’re just looking for more information, please visit with us at any time, we’d love to hear from you!