The company has been open since September 2006 and is at 4371 U.S. 17 on Fleming Island. Perkins Realty has a team concept where Roger Perkins, broker, is the team leader of the Pick the Perkins team or “captain of the ship,” as he calls himself.
“We were at Keller Williams First Coast Realty for almost three years,” said Perkins. “We got this place set up, packed up out of there on a Friday and opened here on Monday. Same phone number, same people. We took the whole team and just left.”
WHY OPEN YOUR OWN COMPANY?
“Whichever real estate broker you work for, it limits your opportunities,” said Roger. “We had some things we wanted to explore here, property management being one. It just made sense for us.”
FAMILY AFFAIR?
Roger Perkins is the owner/broker/team leader. His wife Patricia is a Realtor and handles customer care and all the steps to get the deals closed. Son Jeff is the director of marketing and handles property management.
WHAT DOES ROGER DO?
“I run a real estate team,” said Roger. “I do all the listings. I negotiate all the contracts. Then I have salary people who take care of all the steps to make the deal happen. I have four people who only work with buyers. They don’t list anything. Everything in this whole process is controlled by me. I delegate everything. I’m lazy and smart. The best leaders are lazy and smart. If you get bogged down doing a bunch of work yourself, you can’t lead anyone and you get half as much done.”
HOW DOES THAT WORK?
“Jeff markets the team,” said Roger. “People call up and say they want to list their house. I go out, talk to them and get the listing. Kerry Gallinat, my assistant, prepares all the paperwork before I go out. She gets all the paperwork when I come back and enters it into the Multiple Listing Service and our Web site. When I sell it, I negotiate the contract. Once we have a signed contract, it’s turned over to Patricia. She works with the other Realtor and title company to get all those things done and then we close the deal.” When the buyer’s agents in the office get a contract, they also hand it over to Patricia to take it through to closing.
WHY DECIDE TO DO THE TEAM CONCEPT?
“It’s the only way you can do it,” said Roger. “In the three years we’ve been a team, we’ve closed over 200 houses. You can’t do that by yourself. No single agent can do that. Everybody has their job to do on the team. You can control your time better and share the load. No single agent could do the volume we do.”
PICK THE PERKINS?
Patricia came up with the team name. “We needed something that people would remember,” said Patricia. “We wanted something that would stay in their memory.”
WHO IS IN THE OFFICE?
Patricia Perkins, Jeff Perkins, Cindy Kirby, Peggy Goss, Bill Goss and Paul Napierala are Realtors. Kerry Gallinat is Roger’s assistant and also handles marketing.
NEW PROPERTY MANAGEMENT DIVISION?
They recently opened a property management division that Jeff is handling. “Our customers kept asking us for referrals to rent their houses,” said Patricia. “It’s going gangbusters.”
Roger said they saw a need in the market for more property management. “It is growing and we are picking up a lot of rentals,” he said.
TEAM MEETINGS
They have team meetings weekly to train, go over listings, inventory and leads and talk about the market.
EXPANDING THE OFFICE?
Roger said he will probably hire a property manager this year to replace Jeff so he can get back into lead generation. He also might hire someone to handle the closings to help Patricia. “I suspect I’ll be hiring a few more buyer specialists in 2008,” said Roger. “If the market shifts and gets better, I’ll definitely need more buyer specialists.”
HOW BIG DO YOU PLAN TO GET?
“We will do 150 transactions in 2008, 250 in 2009 and 320 in 2010,” said Roger. “The team will grow to support that.”
HOW DO YOU COMPETE IN THIS MARKET?
“We market and do direct mail, and 60 percent of our business comes from referrals,” said Roger.
WHAT’S UNIQUE?
Everyone in the company other than Jeff is retired military or married to retired military. “It just worked out that way,” said Patricia. For instance, Roger was captain of a Navy ship.
WHAT TYPE OF QUALITIES DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AGENTS?
“First of all, they have to be mature. I don’t need anyone with experience, I can train them,” said Roger.
AREA THE OFFICE FOCUSES ON?
Clay County with emphasis on Fleming Island and Orange Park. “I don’t want to go more than 30 minutes from the office for a listing, although I will do that occasionally if I have a reason to,” said Roger. “I do that because I can’t provide the customer service I need to if it is too far away.” His buyer specialists will sell anywhere.
HOW ARE THINGS IN THOSE AREAS?
“New construction slowed way down,” said Roger. “Builders are selling houses at losses. In January. there were 13 months of inventory on the market in Fleming Island. It’s a real important number that we watch. In June it was down to six and a half or seven. Now we are back up to nine and a half or 10 because we had the seasonality going on. I think it is going to be slow through the rest of the year. We are selling a good share of our listings, but I’m being real careful which listings I take and then pricing them to sell.”
WEBSITE
www.picktheperkins.com
- by Michele Newbern Gillis