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Link to @BusinessCourier story: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2017/06/15/exclusive-one-of-cincinnati-s-largest-residential.html
HUFF looking to add 125+ sales agents over next 5 years
‘Teaching Relentlessly, Serving Passionately’
Local Berkshire Hathaway affiliate grows to 450 agents by taking care of its own
Long the real estate king of Northern Kentucky, HUFF continues growth across southwestern Ohio. Renewed Anderson Twp. lease coincides with 20-year presence in Ohio market.
FORT MITCHELL, KY – June 15, 2017 — 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.”
“Instead of company-by-company, as they do in Omaha, our growth strategy here locally is agent-by-agent, and agent team-by-agent team,” adds DeVries, who runs three other Berkshire Hathaway real estate brands besides Huff (www.huff.com) through the HomeServices of America Inc. family.
Based on Beechwood Road and 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.
And, for DeVries and 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 DeVries.
“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.”
The five core values espoused by HUFF reflect the company’s commitment to agents by “teaching relentlessly and serving passionately,” and begins with DeVries’ original point emphasizing the firm’s most valued characteristic:
- Honesty and Integrity: “Too many people sell on sizzle. The honesty and integrity of the person are their most important character traits. Whether male or female, old or young, matters not.”
- Continual Pursuit of Excellence: “We are constantly trying to get better at everything we do.”
- Mutual Respect and Caring: “We recognize the importance of working on a team. The Bengals QB is important – but so is his second-string center, and the team trainer.”
- Family Takes Priority: “We talk long and hard about falling in love with the job. We don’t want our people working seven days a week, 365 days a year. Your loved ones will fall by the wayside.”
- Loyalty In Relationships: “We march together, arm-in-arm. We want people who respect that, who recognize and have mutual respect for the education and the training we provide, and who understand loyalty is a two-way street.”
DeVries is a Florida native and graduate of Centre College in Danville, Ky., who manages more than 1,200 agents at HUFF Realty as well as a triumvirate grid of realty firms in Louisville and Lexington (Rector Hayden REALTORS, Semonin REALTORS and Wakefield Reutlinger REALTORS).
He has worked in real estate for 25 years, and began his career with HomeServices of America Inc., corporate parent of HUFF Realty, in 1999.
“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,” says DeVries.
In an Era of Technology, People Have Never Been As Important
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,” said DeVries.
“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.
“Agents – 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 was created by former owner Jim Huff and his wife, Bert Huff, to be the dominant commercial and residential real estate force in Northern Kentucky. 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. Offices are in Anderson Township, Cincinnati, Downtown Cincinnati (OTR). Fairfield/Hamilton, Florence, Fort Mitchell, Highland Heights, Hyde Park, Lawrenceburg (IN), Mason/Deerfield Township, Montgomery, Union Centre and Western Hills. For more information, please visit www.huff.com or call (859) 341-7400.
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