FORT MITCHELL, Ky., Aug. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Local Berkshire Hathaway affiliate HUFF Realty is looking to expand in Greater Cincinnati with at least another 125+ agents over the next five years, in the same fashion as its corporate parent and the international icon behind it, billionaire Warren Buffett: "Slow and steady, acquire and keep."
Now deploying 450 sales agents in the Tri-State, the growth equates to an average 5 percent annual growth in agents, factoring in boom and bust factors. Recruitment at HUFF is a deliberate practice integrating a system of core values that culminates with a highly-motivated sales professional benefitting from a superior training system.
For the HUFF leadership team, it's more about quality than quantity.
"I'm not overly interested in the individual being the number one salesperson in the region. I am interested in someone who recognizes the value of this operation, somebody who brings just as much as they take, who would be a great cheerleader, and encourage their fellow agents and staff," said Brad DeVries, CEO of HUFF Realty. "If they grow to be the number one salesperson in the region, that's great. But we are more interested in the integrity and character of the individual, and their desire to be successful – their desire to serve the customer well."
DeVries is a Florida native and graduate of Centre College. He has worked in real estate for 25 years and currently manages more than 1,200 agents at HUFF Realty as well as Rector Hayden, Semonin and Wakefield Reutlinger.
"Our job is to get the customer from Point A to Point B, as successfully and professionally as possible, with their mind intact, their emotions intact, the correct proceeds from their sale, or the right amount of money they are choosing to invest, while keeping everything as healthy as possible on both ends," DeVries says. "All brokers essentially play the same role of having their agents under that umbrella of education, protection, guidance and support. When we bring them in, we keep them, by teaching them relentlessly and serving them passionately."
Real estate sales agents have never been more valuable than they are today, despite the plethora of tools, websites, software solutions and television shows who say they aren't. As anecdotal evidence, DeVries recalls a late 1990s, company-wide concern for the future of real estate.
"There were all these urgent meetings behind closed doors, and it was all about this big, monstrous thing called 'The Internet,' which was going to put us all out of business," DeVries says. "Everybody was horrified about all these websites going up, that we were not going to be relevant or necessary for long, that we needed to have all this figured out with a new model. It was going to annihilate us."
"Nothing could have been further from the truth," DeVries adds. "Back then, about 88 percent of the market used an agent, with about 10 percent FSBO (For Sale By Owners). Today, we know that up to 92-93 percent of the market now uses an agent, and only about six percent are sold by the owner. We think that's because people need us. Contracts that used to be 2-3 pages now take up a binder. There's never been more complications, never been more fraud, more disclosures, never been more layers to a transaction than there are right now. The right agents – educated, well-trained agents who can make a sometimes-brutal process easier to bear – have never been more essential to the equation than they are today."
ABOUT HUFF REALTY: Based in Fort Mitchell, Ky., with 450 sales agents deployed at 13 offices throughout Greater Cincinnati, HUFF Realty is a one-stop service shop providing products and services for Home Sales, Commercial Real Estate, Mortgages, Insurance, Relocation, Title, Home Warranties, Rentals and Auctions. For more information, visit www.huff.com.
Media Contact:
Jon Reischel
513.237.7758
SOURCE HUFF Realty
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