FEATURE: Achieving flow

BY BARBARA BALLINGER

Peak performers
No single tactic will put you at the top of your company or your market area. Top producers get and stay there by combining a keen understanding of the business with concrete goals—and the ability to delegate or make fast work of the nitty-gritty tasks that bog others down. When the work becomes almost second nature, these top performers experience flow, a term that university professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi uses to describe what happens when a person’s functioning at an optimal level (see page 24).

REALTOR® Magazine found top listers in four types of markets—urban, suburban, coastal, and small town—to talk about how they achieve flow in their business, capitalizing on their personal strengths and structuring their business to ensure results and maintain balance.

URBAN

Dale Mattison, broker, CRS®, GRI
The Mattison Group, Long & Foster Cos., Washington, D.C.
www.themattisongroup.com
Typical number of active listings: There isn’t an inventory; everything sells quickly.

• Length of typical listing contract: 60 days
• Niche: We built a strong practice by doing everything.
• Dale Mattison has worked in real estate for 31 years. He can’t imagine doing anything else. “I like working with people and never wanted to sit behind a desk,” he says. Last year his sales volume reached $29 million. He expects higher sales this year since “everything sells. Houses don’t last more than eight days due to little inventory, still-low interest rates, and good job growth in D.C.,” he says. Prices in his market average $330,000 for a small two-bedroom or large one-bedroom condo or small townhouse.

Who’s buying? Suburbanites moving back to enjoy the city and avoid commuting.

What’s your biggest listing challenge? To provide valued service in a competitive market. We compete by promoting listings with virtual tours. We mention our Web site in all ads, on business cards, and in monthly e-mail newsletters. We don’t do much print advertising, though, because by the time a house is in print it’s sold. We try to justify value for our fees. There are pressures on every industry to give more for less.

Why do you have a team? You need support. We have 140 associates in our office and two other teams. It’s tough to be a sole practitioner and have a life outside work.

What’s made you successful? I run my team like a business, work hard, have everything systematized, and maintain a huge database. I take continuing ed courses related to business.

Who does stuff you don’t want to do—like paperwork? I do. As a team leader, you have to do everything. I delegate but also do everything since somebody may leave. When I owned a gas station, I pumped gas at midnight if someone didn’t show up for work.

But what do you like to do best? Be the rainmaker, create systems, and keep us focused on the big picture. I delegate listing and marketing and handling contracts to two people. The other five on the team are sales associates.

Did you have a mentor? A few. One told me to go above and beyond, even if that means working until 2 a.m.

What would you still like to achieve? Independent wealth, so I can retire in 10 years and sit on my boat and play golf. Family is important, and I cherish time off with my wife and two teenagers.

Is it hard to achieve balance? No, because I make appointments with my family. But when prospects call, I do call back.

SUBURBAN

Ronnie and Cathy Matthews, partners
Ronnie and Cathy Matthews Team
RE/MAX Advantage Associates, Houston
www.ronnieandcathy.com

• Typical number of active listings: 125–150
• Length of typical listing contract: Six months
• Niche: Mid-priced market and relocations
• Eighteen years ago, when the Houston economy tanked, Ronnie and Cathy Matthews delved into real estate. They joined RE/MAX 16 years ago and slowly built a team of 22, including themselves. Last year the team closed $110 million in sales volume with 597 transaction sides. The Matthews’ average sales price was $184,000 last year, $30,000 above the Houston average. Current listings run from $80,000 to $1.5 million. Here, Ronnie Matthews talks about the team’s approach.

What has made your team successful? We treat people as we’d want to be treated. Also, we’ve worked harder than others and invested in our business by building staff and buying equipment—computers, high-speed fax machines, copiers, desks. We’re affiliated with a RE/MAX broker to whom we pay a fee for each of our team members, but our team works from a building we own with a partner.

How do you divide responsibilities? I run the business end, crunch the numbers. I used to be the listing agent, but three years ago we hired two agents to do that since I’m busy with other things. Cathy, more outgoing, is the buyer’s agent.

What are three key things you do to sell a listing? Set a realistic price, stage the property, and follow up. We recommend fixing up but not overspending. It’s tough listing existing homes in Houston because of so much new construction.

How does your team operate? We’ve got a system, so we all focus on what we do best. Three coordinate appraisals and inspections, two schedule appointments, three are full-time buyer’s agents, and so on. The two of us can’t help every buyer and seller, but others on our team can, so everyone gets great service.

How do you promote your team? We have four billboards and two trucks roaming the city with the company name and our pictures. We also advertise in print and actively look for new business. For example, we decided new business would come from relocation, so we went to California and won the business of an oil company that relocates people here.

With so many team members, how do you maintain quality? Through a system of checks and balances. After a contract is written, it goes to the pending department, and if something doesn’t look right it’s sent back.How did your former career help you in real estate? I was in the plumbing and utility business before this; that taught me how to budget, hire, and fire people. Cathy worked for a small general contractor. Real estate sales isn’t brain surgery; being helpful, kind, and knowledgeable is key.

What trends are impacting your business? Minority homeownership is growing, which is why we have three Spanish-speaking staff members.

What do you do for balance? Our first 12 years we only worked. Now, we’ve got a lake house; we try to go every other weekend.

What’s your goal? To continually do better but not worry about every commission. Right now we give substantial bonuses to team members, but down the road we want to offer profit sharing.

What’s the hardest part of your job? Every call is critical because it involves people’s homes and lives.

Will you retire? Not yet but we hope to spend more time developing subdivisions. Our fifth one is our largest, with 700 homes.

COASTAL

Beth Beauchamp, broker-owner
Intercoastal Realty Inc., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
www.intercoastalrealty.com

• Typical number of active listings: 20–40
• Length of typical listing contract: One year, since luxury listings take time to market. She recently listed a $15 million house.
• Niche: Waterfront homes
• After raising three children, Beth Beauchamp decided at age 50 to get her license. Ft. Lauderdale is called the Venice of America so, naturally, she concentrated on single-family, waterfront properties. Twenty-five years later she’s a company owner and still actively engaged in sales. A single waterfront property sale averaged $1.43 million last year, and Beauchamp’s sales volume was $30 million. Her son John, who had worked in the commercial mortgage field, joined her in business three years ago. Their company has 35 associates.
  

What has made you successful? I love what I do, am patient, and educate clients to make the right decision. But I’m never pushy.

How do you market your listings? Through ads in yachting magazines and newspapers that showcase private docks, since many owners have boats, and through yacht brokers.

How do you encourage team work? We have weekly meetings with activities that promote teamwork. Example: We break into teams of seven or eight people and have assignments such as deciding what should go into our quarterly magazine and on the cover. In summer the meetings are held less frequently, maybe twice a month because of vacations. Most important: We don’t tolerate backstabbing or going after someone’s listings.

How do you stay up-to-date on the business? I read everything I can about real estate and business. Because of intense competition for waterfront sites, we brought in a person to discuss ethics.

Any helpful lessons from another career? From marriage and child rearing, I learned how to negotiate.

What challenges do you see? Giant companies continuing to gobble up independents. We compete through better service and never leaving clients until they’re happy. I want to make the company as strong as it can be so, when I pull away, it’s easier for everyone.

How do you balance work and family? It’s very difficult because your customers don’t care if you’re sick, want to go on vacation, or have a family get-together, which is why teams work so well. But some of my clients have also become my best friends, which makes it easier. What also helps is that my family’s in real estate. My husband’s been an appraiser for 55 years. One daughter-in-law sells “dry” homes—those not on the water.

What do you do in your free time? I read. I’m reading Rich Buyer, Rich Seller! (Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, 2003) and three novels including The Da Vinci Code (Doubleday, 2003).

SMALL TOWN

Jane Pinto, broker associate
United Country Premier Brokers, Salida, Colo.
www.unitedcountry.com

• Typical number of active listings: 30–35
• Length of typical listing contract: One year
• Niche: Homes with acreage and ranches
• Jane Pinto has been in real estate for just five years, having spent 20 years selling women’s apparel in New York’s competitive garment district. Pinto and husband Doug now live in a rural mountain community of 5,200, two hours from Colorado Springs. But Pinto’s not lazing around by a campfire. Last year she listed $11 million and had closed sales of $6.4 million, making her the top-selling associate in her office and No. 4 in the United Country franchise system. Her average active listing now is $379,000, which will buy a 2,500-square-foot Victorian-style house in town; $450,000 buys a house on five acres.

What do you do to get listings sold? I return calls within 24 hours; use a Web site; advertise locally and nationally, including in Santa Fe, where many people in this area move from; and work on relationships with peers for referrals.

Do you have a team? No. My husband works with me part-time and develops land. Three administrative staff support 18 salespeople in our office.

How do you promote yourself? The marketing department in Kansas City, Mo., supports all United Country offices through its Web site, www.unitedcountry.com. The company is dedicated to its rural market mission, so it can focus on getting to the top of search results with keyword searches such as “mountain property” or “river property.” And United Country and I place cooperative ads in magazines such as Farm & Ranch and Cowboys & Indians.

How did your former career help you succeed in real estate? I learned to understand the importance of good design, which has proven important in real estate, too. I also learned to be a good listener and hear what my clients said, not what I thought they said. The garment industry was competitive, but real estate is more so. You have to treat your peers well and maintain your reputation.

How do you balance work and family? I tell customers if it’s an emergency to call me at home but otherwise please respect my private time with my husband and four-year-old twin daughters, whom I waited years to have. I’m also president of a local theater.

Any career goals you want to achieve? I want to keep growing my real estate business and have my company respected in the community. I’m also developing a children’s product line.