? by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In pro football, the free agent season is short. Players without contracts can jump from one team to another, and Jacksonville’s Jaguars are now in the bidding for some of the available stars.
In real estate, the free agent season never ends.
The battle to lure the area’s top producers is waged all year and brokers will do virtually anything to land an agent who can sell $10 million or more worth of real estate a year.
“The top producers are constantly being recruited,” says Re/Max agent/recruiter Judy Davis. “Constantly.”
There are many incentives brokers use but the two most common are a lucrative commission split and waiver of desk fees. The big producers can command more: personal assistants, even automobiles. In some franchise operations, the commission split can be 95/5.
Being big has its benefits — a big company can afford fulltime recruiters and numerous incentives.
For the smaller operator, there may be limits.
For instance, Exit Realty Network is one of the area’s newest and smallest firms. Owner/broker Pleasant Gay opened an office on Jacksonville’s Southside a year ago and has built the office from just himself to 14 agents. In having to compete with the area’s heavy hitters such as Watson, Prudential Network Realty and Walter Williams, Gay has a compensation package for both new and existing agents with a favorable commission split: 85/15 in favor of the agent. He also offers any agent that recruits another agent 10 percent of the new person’s sales for up to $10,000 a year.
Even with several other perks, Gay still has a tough time luring the area’s biggest sellers.
“Recruiting a top producer is extremely hard,” said Gay. “They get set in their ways. They have a good bank of business and if they leave, everything belongs to the broker. All the money stays with the broker unless other arrangements have been made.”
According to Gay, the key is time. At just a year, Exit simply hasn’t been around long enough to garner the trust and respect of top-name agents. Eventually, Gay says, that will change.
“It’s almost impossible,” he said. “Most wait until you’ve been in business for a couple of years. They want to see how the name grows.”
Gay said the process can become a bidding war. Brokers try everything from full-page newspaper ads to networking to face-to-face meetings. And, just like sports, a broker’s best efforts can still end up failing.
“It’s the same thing here. Exit of Florida had been trying to recruit Susan Kennedy (from Re/Max) for two years,” said Gay, whose goal is to grow his office to 100 agents within the first five years. “She got a better offer from GMAC and took 13 people with her.”
Gay also said the process can be frustrating. There’s a fine line that has to be walked between feeding an agent’s ego and preserving some dignity as a broker.
“It’s a very egotistical business,” said Gay. “The agents say, ‘If you do not prop me up, I’m not coming. If there’s not something in it for me, I’m not coming.’ It’s tough as a small business owner. Do I want to fight with someone everyday or stroke their ego everyday to get to work?
The bigger firms are able to devote more resources to the process.
Audrey Lackie is the vice president/career counselor for Watson and with almost 30 offices and hundreds of agents in the First Coast area, her company is king of the local real estate industry, boasting 23-25 percent of the total market share. Still, it’s Lackie’s job to assure Watson stays on top by luring agents to the company.
“My sole job is to recruit agents and talk to people about joining Watson,” said Lackie, who’s been with Watson for five years and has spent another 13 years with Prudential and Coldwell Banker. “I recruit from other industries, too.”
Lackie says one of the big misconceptions about her job, and recruiting in general, is that real estate agents will jump ship if a better commission is dangled in front of them.
“Agents don’t always leave for the money,” explained Lackie. “They may opt for better support services like a personal assistant. Better technical opportunities and training are key elements. An experienced agent may not be computer savvy and will look to a company that provides computer training.”
Davis, who recruits for Ann McAfee’s two Re/Max offices, agrees: “Emotion has more to do with it that you’d think./ If a person is comfortable in an office, it’s difficult to convince them that it’s better somewhere else. If a person is uncomfortable — if they don’t like their fellow workers, for instance — they’re more likely to listen.”
According to Lackie, the Watson name and reputation are almost priceless intangibles.
“You can’t put a price on being with a company that has the dominant market share,” said Lackie. “The numbers two, three and four companies combined almost equal our market share.”
In addition to pursuing potential agents by recruiting from the nursing and teaching professions, Lackie said she’s seeing an influx of college-educated kids, literally, starting to enter real estate.
“A lot of younger individuals, those under 30, are getting into real estate,” said Lackie. “They get out of college and can’t find a job. They tend to have excellent computer skills and that helps them do well in real estate. They see the opportunities in Jacksonville because the market is booming.”
Like Gay, Lackie said the world of recruiting top-producing agents is a 24-hour a day job.
“It’s extremely competitive,” said Lackie, stopping just short of calling it “cutthroat.”
“It is a constant battle. You have to continue to talk to people. And, you never say never [in going after a top producer]. The key is always being there and being there at the right time. If they don’t know you want them, they will never consider you.”
But it isn’t always about money.
“It’s not all money, not by any means,” said Davis, the former Watson manager who’s now the recruiter for Re/Max on Park Avenue in Orange Park. “Knowledge is a big matter. And location — who doesn’t want to work near home?”
But, she admits, money is a great lure.
“I did a closing last month,” she said, “and the other agent was a very sharp person. But, after it was over, I looked at her and said, ‘Do you know how much money you just left on the table?’ I want to sit down with her and show her what she would have made had she been with us.
“Real estate agents don’t know numbers like they should. They have goals, but they need also to figure out just what they could be doing.”
And you’re worrying about desk fees?