The office is in the shopping center on the corner of Monument and McCormick Road at 2771-7 Monument Rd.
THE BROKER
Robert Morrell has been the broker for one year. He was with Watson Realty in the Ortega office prior to joining Prudential. He had decided to retire and go to part-time real estate sales and Linda Sherrer, the president of the Prudential Network Realty, asked him to join her company as a manager. “I told her, ‘I’ll give you one year. If I’m still having fun, I’ll stay with you’. So, it was one year last week and I’m having way to much fun, so I guess I’ll be here a while.”
WHAT DOES HE DO?
“My job here is basically to be here for the agents in the office and to help them as they are doing their business. I really partner up with them because when agents come to you, they bring to you their license, their skill and their desire to do business. We bring to them the name recognition of Prudential, ability to give them support with the office environment and to work with them as partners in developing their business plan for the year so they can meet the goals that they set for themselves.”
WHERE DOES THE OFFICE DO BUSINESS?
Morrell said his office has an interesting mixture of agents.
“There is a core group of agents who have been doing business here for a very long time. They, because of their sphere of influence and their portfolio of business, tend to do most of their business in Arlington, Hidden Hills and Fort Caroline area. The newer agents coming in focus on the northern part of Duval County. Then we have several agents who really work the whole city. Our incubator program exposes the new agents to knowledge of the entire community so that no matter where the buyer wants to look at buying a home, they can take care of them.”
HOW HAS THE WONDERWOOD EXTENSION AFFECTED BUSINESS?
“We call it the ‘Wonderoad’ as a nickname. That is having an incredible impact on our community. It is impacting it from the idea of developing land that was not developed before between Monument Road to the Intracoastal. Areas on Kernan Road and Hodges Boulevard are areas that are developing very rapidly as a result of that. It is impacting what will be happening in Mayport and property values in Neptune Beach as well. It’s impacting the property values of existing property within the Arlington, Hidden Hills and Ft. Caroline area.”
AVERAGE PRICE OF THE HOME IN THE AREA?
$174,000.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IN THE YEAR YOU’VE BEEN BROKER?
“When I came in here, one of the challenges was to begin building up the office and to bring the number of agents up to what the office is designed to hold and that is 35. When I came, we had 20 and now we have 30. We still intend to bring the number up to 35.”
WHAT TYPE OF AGENTS DO YOU HIRE?
“We also tried to mix a combination of experienced with new agents. That way the experienced agents are here to help the new agents who are coming in. But the new agents that come out of our incubator program are very well trained and come in as producing agents.”
WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT YOUR OFFICE?
“We have in combined knowledge of a core group of agents who have been in this office for a long time, 110 years of experience. That is just incredible for the new people coming in. The core agents who are here and that have been doing business for a long time are very willing to work with the new agents, so they can be brought up to speed quicker and still have that quality of good customer service. The tradition of the business is being handed down.”
HOW DOES EVERYONE GET ALONG?
“Very well. This is like a family. We’ve had several things happen in the office and I have been so impressed at how this office pulls together to take care of each other when things happen in their lives or in their families. They are a marvelous group of people.”
DO YOU ENCOURAGE INVOLVEMENT IN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS?
“Absolutely. Prudential insists upon that. It brings a level of professionalism but also keeps us in tune with what is happening state and nationwide within our own organization. It creates a good relationship with other brokers and agents in the community. There is also incredible training that the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors puts out.”
IN HOUSE TRAINING?
Morell said his office has two main programs, The Prospectors Club and The Gold Diggers Club.
• The Prospector’s Club is for agents coming out of the incubator program to help them finesse the skills they recently learned. “We begin to take a hard look at how do I market myself, how do I make myself stand out and what is my niche. It also holds them accountable to performing out there, building their business and doing their prospecting.”
• The Gold Diggers Club is for agents who are producing at $2 million and above and who want to go even higher. “We focus on very creative marketing tools. Marketing tools for themselves and marketing tools for the properties they are listing. We focus very heavily on obtaining a good listing portfolio. We have a lot of agents who are very good at working with buyers, so we want to work that other side as well so we have a good balance.” He also meets with the seasoned agents at least once a week. “We sit down in their office usually and just talk about things that are happening, areas of concern that they might have so I can stay in touch with them.”
ADVANTAGES OF HAVING SUCH A LARGE OFFICE?
“I think the big advantages is that you have such an assortment of styles that other agents can look at and emulate if they wish to. If gives the customer a tremendous amount of choices as to what kind of personality they want to work with. It also creates an excitement within the office because you have all of these agents working their own little area and the dynamics of that can be very interesting when you see that mixing up in the office when they all get together.
“I think the most exciting thing about an office this size is, when you have a good core of seasoned agents and you are bringing in new and building the office, the dynamics between the two groups as they learn from each other. The seasoned agents are looking to the newer agents for the latest in technology and the newer agents are looking to the seasoned agents for the knowledge and experience they have.”
— by Michele Newbern Gillis