Editor's note: These quotes originally appeared in this month's edition of Real Estate magazine, which you can view here.
Earlier this year, RISMedia released its 2019 Power Broker Report which ranks the nation's top real estate firms by 2018 sales volume and total transactions. The Top 1,000 Power Brokers reported a collective sales volume of $1,424,776,652,825, with NRT again capturing the largest share of that figure with $176,431,375,000 in sales volume.
Additionally, the Top 1,000 hit 3,881,412 transactions—and for the first time, HomeServices of America took the No. 1 spot for transactions, closing 346,629 last year.
Here's what some of this year's Power Brokers have on their mind as summer approaches:
Having looked at the impact of technology for years, the coming wave of AI-enabled real estate technology will be instrumental when it comes to developing products that solve agents’ pain points, says Charlie Young, president and CEO of Coldwell Banker.
"With developments in AI and data analytics, technology will assist real estate agents so that they can focus on serving clients," says Young. "Technology will also streamline the home-buying process for consumers."
Tipper Williams serves the Northern Virginia market as operating principal of Keller Williams Virginia Realty Alliance Group. She believes training and consulting agents on how to leverage technology creates success for all.
"Our industry has always evolved, and the most successful agents have always been the ones that evolved within the industry by re-training their mindset and making changes or adjustments as needed," Williams says.
For the housing market overall, this year has been characterized by easing home prices across the board. "Our message to our sales professionals is to make sure that when we bring properties onto the market, that they are priced to sell," says Rei Mesa, CEO/president of Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices Florida Realty.
"Here in Florida, we’re starting to see listing inventories grow, which is a good opportunity, because the buyer demand is there," Mesa adds.
Cheryl Eidinger-Taylor, president and CEO of ERA Key Realty Services, leads a team of 335 agents in 15 offices, and sees big opportunity in 2019.
"I see a continuation of the strategy we’ve embraced for a while, which is making sure our agents are the best educated and best equipped to go out and work with the consumer," says Eidinger-Taylor. "The consumer is very savvy with a lot of knowledge at their fingertips, and wants guidance."
Hunt Real Estate, which covers Western, Central and Upstate New York, began 2019 with the mantra to start referring to agents as "real estate professionals" and adopted a new theme surrounding reliability, responsiveness and building self-esteem.
With 1,600 real estate professionals, Chairman and CEO Peter F. Hunt has several objectives for the year ahead, including "to recruit and select new and developing (two years or less in the industry) real estate professionals; to recruit and select productive agents now with competing firms; to grow through acquisition where opportunities exist within our current six-region footprint and also into new markets/regions; and to be a generator of high-quality leads for our real estate professionals."
