It used to be The Real Estate Gallery but added “Exit” in August to reflect the affiliation. The Orlando owners opened an Orange Park office three yars ago and have added another in Mandarin. Stanley Bishop Jr. is the owner and does the recruiting, training and marketing. The website is www.propertyinjax.com.
WHY EXIT?
One big reason he went with the Exit franchise was the retirement benefits the company offers. “Now an agent can actually slow down before they stop,” said Bishop.
THE BROKERS?
Dan Clark at Mandarin and Scott Orr at Orange Park.
WHAT DO THE BROKERS DO?
“We do recruiting and training as well and review all contracts for the agents,” said Orr. Orr and Clark owned a Help-U-Sell franchise before joining Exit Real Estate Gallery.
TEAM MEETINGS
The office meets every Tuesday and holds a monthly meeting the second Tuesday of each month. “We discuss updates on policies, procedures or market trends in the market,” said Orr. “We also go out on caravan after the meeting.” Since the Mandarin office just opened, they hold their meetings together in the Orange Park office. They have about 60 agents between the two offices and, said Orr, “We are getting five to six new hires a week.”.
WHO IS IN THE OFFICE?
Glenn Adams, Janet Adams, A.J. Agarwal, Amanda Baggett, Nancy Bartlett, Will Bishop, Cynthia Brackett, Jason Braeburn, Lynn Brier-De La Cruz, Mickey Burns, Ernie Carlson Jr., Lisa Cooke, Keith Crichton, Chad Cummings, Mike Cummings, Kathy Dukes, Diane Eavey, Luanne Eckert, Tiffany Greaves, Mindy Griffin, Thomas Grubb, Michael Hamilton, Neil Hanekom, Katalin Illes, Trish Janke, Lori Jorgensen, Rick Justino, Ellen Kardon, Skip Kelly, Annette Large, Vickie Morgan, Wendy Myers, Charito Newland, Veronika Newman, Desiree Ownby, Sharon Perez, Pirkko Peterson, Tony Pittman, Marianne Roelle, Parvesh Saluja, Ahlam Silawi, Greg Shuman, Terri Tagliarini, Eva Tinc, Juantez Tooley, Herb Turner, Robin Tyson, Tom Tyson, Susan Wilkes, Judy Wiisanen, Tony Woodfin, Pat Woods, Kiayana Acevedo-Scott, Christina Brady, Santa Heredia, Nancy Nakanishi and Jaime Schein are agents. Kristen Givens is the marketing director, Diane Simmons is the property manager, Julie Podsidliak and Amy White are receptionists and Jeanne Scholl is the operations manager.
FUTURE OFFICES?
“We have a five-year plan to open 16 offices,” said Clark. They want 850 agents and over 5,000 transactions. Bishop bought all of the franchise opportunities left in Northeast Florida.
HOW DO YOU COMPETE IN THIS MARKET?
“The market is in your head - that’s to quote Stan (Bishop),” said Orr. “There is still activity out there. People moving in, people moving out, upsizing, and downsizing. There is activity. What we are offering is marketing, training support and compensation to our agents.”
TRAINING
Training is ongoing. “We have a class almost daily,” said Clark. They have a closed circuit training session with five different modules of training going on throughout the day. Clark also does a “Training for Success” session every other Friday on various topics. They also have new agent training three days a week.
THE MARKET
Orange Park and Mandarin continue to be good areas, they say. “People are still moving here,” said Clark. “What people see is that there are 100 houses for sale in a certain area instead of 10. So, it looks really bad, but it’s not as bad as people think.”
WHAT TYPE OF QUALITIES DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AGENTS?
“I like someone who is honest and who will go out and work,” said Clark. “Some people are good at recruiting and others are good at doing real estate sales. I like someone who can do both. They are more likely to stay long term with this company because if they are recruiting people, then those people are bringing them residual income, so they are not going to leave.”
WHAT DO YOU TEACH AGENTS TO DO DIFFERENT IN THIS MARKET?
“One of the biggest differences in our company is how we can isolate the agent’s expertise,” said Bishop. “An expertise of theirs is going out there and meeting and working with customers. They are not marketing and advertising gurus. We do all of the marketing in-house through Internet, magazines, virtual tours, direct mail and flyers.”
EVERYONE’S AN AGENT
“Everyone in the office is a licensed agent including the support side,” Bishop. “It really makes a difference. When a phone call comes in for an agent, the receptionist is a licensed agent and she knows how to deal with the customer.”
MEN AND WOMEN IN BLACK?
One thing you will notice about their company is that everyone is dressed in black shirts. “That’s not by choice, it’s by design,” said Orr. “We have people come up to us and ask if we are the Paul Mitchell of real estate. We are very unified.”
- by Michele Newbern Gillis