How To Grow Your Real Estate Business In A Slow Market

Jamie
Jan 25, 2024
19 min read

While this may seem like a difficult time to jump into the real estate business, top leaders at Corcoran share their insights on how to make the most of a quiet market. Today's guests share what they are doing within Corcoran to stand out, and what they are looking forward to in 2024.

---

Listen to the podcast here

How To Grow Your Real Estate Business In A Slow Market

This is exciting. It’s a little bit of a meet the VIPs of Corcoran. Gary, since we have you with Marc and Michael, why don't we start here and tell us who you have with you?

I have my main man, the Robin to my Batman, Mike Sorrentino, SVP and General Sales Director of Manhattan. Mike and I have worked together for many years. He was a manager first at City Habitats after he came over from being an agent at Corcoran. When Pam realized how amazing Michael was, she stole him back from me and said, “Turnabout is a fair place.” She wasn't wrong. Mike and I have a long history. He is incredible in what he does. Marc is the VP of our education platform, which we call the Education Studio. In the center box is the rockstar and superstar agent from out East, Randi Ball, with whom I did not know you guys had a history together. It's exciting.

I was happy when I put everything together and was able to get all of you here. Randi, you are originally from New York City, now out East in the Hamptons. Tell us how you started your career with Corcoran.

I've been full-time in the Hamptons for almost fifteen years already. I am not a COVID transplant. I am a pre-COVID. When I left New York City and moved my family out to our beach house permanently, it was a time when everybody thought I was insane. They are telling me, “People are on vacation out there. They don't live out there. What are you going to do out there? That's crazy.” It was time to leave the city. We had the house. We figured, why not? It was the best thing that we've ever done. We loved living out there.

When I was in the city, I was in advertising and production. I had my own company, which was a repping firm. I was an agent for directors, editors, musicians, and anybody who made a TV commercial. It was sales. I worked on commission. I was used to that structure. I made my own rules and hours. It’s similar. As much work as you put into it is what you'll get out of it situation.

When I moved my family to the Hamptons, I closed my business in the city, which I was excited about because I wanted out of advertising. I had done that since I was seventeen years old, right out of college, and enough was enough. In year one, my goal was to get my family situated in a new place. My kids were small. My husband was still working in the city. He was commuting. He was in the city for five days. He was only out on the weekends. I was raising these little kids by myself in an area called the Domes down by the beach, where nobody at the time lived full-time.

It was quite challenging, but it was still good. That's when people from the city started calling me. Acquaintances, not even real friends, were like, “How's the market out there?” Everybody is always obsessed with Hampton's real estate. I was like, “I live here now, but I certainly don't know anything.” I kept meeting brokers and giving them referrals. I learned more about the marketplace.

I did not start working until I was in my third year out there full-time. The first year was to get my family-oriented. In the second year, let's see what I want to do. I have a choice of changing careers for the first time. In year three, I'm going to do it. Things started happening fast, and my acquaintances in the city pushed me into real estate in a way because I was finding out all about it. I was in sales. I knew how to do this. I was like, “My three-year plan is turning into a quick one-year plan.” I dove in. I decided, “I am going to do it.”

The only reason I didn't do it is because I felt like it sounded cliché when you move out to the Hamptons and you become a broker. I resisted it for so long because of that. When I finally delved in, I was like, “Not everybody is a working broker in the Hamptons. You may get your broker's license, but not everybody is a working broker. Not everybody is a career broker. I can do this.” I delved in and did it 100%.

I was fortunate that you did because you're doing an amazing job out there.

Thank you. To answer one of your questions, Jamie, about why Corcoran, I had family friends who had liaisons with the Corcoran corporate brands. They were all encouraging me to go to Corcoran. I went to Corcoran because I knew that my business would start and depend for a long time on the network that I already had in the city. I counted on friends to push me through and refer me to people. Everybody was comfortable with the Corcoran brand in the city. That was what was going to launch my career. It was important because it gave me automatic credibility and I never left.

You're never going to.

Thank you, Gary.

You're welcome.

Randi raises something common for people in our regeneration, which we all sit in, which is a second career. What's interesting is that for generations these days, it's not necessarily a second career. People are getting out of college and wanting to go into real estate. I go towards you, Marc, which is, through the education department at Corcoran, what is it that you would say to people that are starting life, graduating college or not going to college, but want to get into the workforce? How can people step into it now because there are many brokers out there? How can they ever learn it all?

As a real estate agent, you are your own business. You are responsible for everything from building your brand, learning technology and tools to help facilitate that business, and developing relationships. I could name about another 100 things that you're responsible for. It's exciting to dive into the residential real estate space.

As a real estate agent, you are your own business. You are responsible for everything.

We at Corcoran, as Gary mentioned, branded ourselves an agent studio, our learning and development team. We have a physical space and an online platform that covers the gamut of everything that an agent would need to get up to speed. I'm a big fan of not only treating yourself as an individual but also potentially either joining a team or getting mentored by a senior agent. We are constantly sharing advice with newer agents who join the industry to generate opportunities from your network.

Everyone has opportunities in their network. They could build a social media brand. They could leverage a past career or an alumni network if you got out of college. There's a ton of opportunity. For those people who are entrepreneurial-minded, you're going to learn a ton not only about the business but also about yourself and about the audience that you want to go after. It's a great opportunity now. It is a bit challenging in this market, but I know a lot of people who have joined the industry during challenging environments. I'm sitting across from one back in 2008.

I started at the last great time to start as a brand new agent. It was because there was so much inventory. Some agents were trying to get their open houses staffed, and there weren't enough agents for listings. It was a crazy situation. You had many new developments that were finishing their construction and hoping to cash in.

There was so much uncertainty due to the massive crash. We weren't contending with the competition of Street Easy and Zillow. I got mentorship and training from a bunch of our top agents in our Brooklyn region. I started in the Brooklyn Heights office. I would be able to host 3, 4, and 5 open houses a week and meet face-to-face buyers. If they didn't like that property, I was happy to show them everything else.

I was force-fed so much product knowledge by taking buyers around in my first six months in the business. I consider myself very lucky, even though it seemed like a crazy time to start the business with all the challenges that agents face now getting into the business. I would take it any day of the week when I start because it's harder now than ever with all the competitive forces that are there. That's my take.

Gary, this is best answered by you. You hear this because you could learn the business now and you could enter it. It could be your first job or second job. How do younger people find themselves there because it would seem like it'd be hard? You have a lot of agents already in the industry, and you have a slow market.

It comes down to the same thing in life. Just because a lot of people are doing it doesn't mean a lot of people are doing it well. You have to start with that proposition. You can't get intimidated because of the sheer number of people who work at any one company or any one industry. The top 20% are doing 80% of the business, to begin with any way in most times.

The question is, “What is your drive? What is your motivation? What is your focus? What level of commitment do you have? Do you think this is going to be a $1 million listing, which means you're going to fail? Do you want to get out there, hustle, work, and do what Mike said about being available to other agents to do open houses? Are you going to network? Are you going to put 6 to 7 days a week in?”

I tell agents that are brand new, “This is not like HGTV where you're going to show three apartments or homes, and you're going to sell one and go have a margarita on the beach in an hour. That's not happening. You have to put the time in.” First and foremost, what is your internal constitution? What's your work ethic? People think, “It's great. I set my own hours.” I'm like, “Yeah, but you're the CEO of your own business. Are you going to put the time and effort in? Are you going to sink financial resources in? What are you going to do?”

We try to give people the reality of what this business is before they come here not to scare them, but to give them an understanding that this isn't simple. This is a hard job. It's a great job, and it will become easier as time goes on like anything else. Having a platform like the agent studio that Marc runs, having a great management team that Mike runs, and a company filled with resources, if you're willing to plug into those things and you're willing to take risks and try, you could be successful. It's not going to be that hard to out-hustle a lot of people in this business.

Randi, you came into the industry and it sounds like you got thrown in in a good way. How did you decide to stay yourself versus going and becoming a team?

I came into this business after running my own business for a long time. Even though I was coming in as a new agent, I wasn't new to the workforce. I didn't want to have a partner. I had a partner before. A partnership is a wonderful thing if you find that person who you connect with on many different levels, but it's a delicate relationship.

I decided that wasn't going to be for me. Number one, I didn't know if I was going to like it. I didn't want to make a commitment to anybody else but myself until I found my own way. I came from a marketing background. I am a marketer. I believe in branding. I had to brand myself the way that I felt comfortable. I found this with sales in my last career. You have to find a way that works for you. It's almost harder when you pick a career where there are no clear rules.

How do you sell something? You have to dig deep inside and find what's comfortable for you as a salesperson. I felt like being my own brand was the best way to go for me. I also like to home-grown my own assistants. I don't have a team, but I like taking people who have not been in real estate before. Even if they've never worked before, if they have a marketing feel for them and they're hard workers or motivated, I'd rather have them not be in the industry and teach them also how to be themselves and how to work the system within their own personality. That's important. When you join a team, you have to make sure that you're representing your own personality and not somebody else's.

It is critical, Randi, that you said about finding people who don't have preconceived notions about this industry and this business and coming into it with a fresh set of eyes and perspectives. A lot of people who come into this business transition from company A to company B or role A to role B. They have scar tissue on them. That's not good in certain instances. To get those people to undo that, you have to change what you're doing to get the result that you want.

Many people in our business don't look at change as an opportunity for growth. They look at it as an obstacle to growth. That's why it's hard sometimes when you have people who have been around in the industry because they're myopically focused on what they see, and they don't see anything else to go work for Randi or go work for Warren Bard teams. It wouldn't work because these people have decided the way the business is versus everybody can do his or her business their way.

What makes their business successful is who they are and how unique they are as an individual. That's why it's hard to find teams that match up at times because you don't have the same work ethic. You don't have the same beliefs. As much as you might be good people, and if that doesn't align, it's not going to work.

A common misconception is you have two agents who might be both struggling, and they see in themselves, “We complement each other in a weird way. I'm good at this and you're good at that.” If they're both not dedicated to the business and working with requisite, especially in the beginning, 10 to 12 hours a day to get the business off the ground, both will easily fail.

As far as finding somebody, it's like in real life, you don't want to rush into any marriage. It's critical to make sure that you spend time and dedicate some time to see how you work together. It's a misconception that teams can solve a lot of problems that an individual agent may have. The reality is it's not the case. When a good fit does come along, you usually know it intrinsically.

It's a misconception that teams can solve a lot of problems that an individual agent may have, and the reality is it's just not the case.

The way an organic way team is formed is that a lead agent has so much opportunity. There's business dripping off of them, and there's nobody to catch those drips. If there's a junior agent who's looking for mentorship, Randi would be an amazing example of somebody who has generated such amazing business for herself. That's a great person to learn from and potentially help capture some business that a busy agent like Randi may not have the time because of the hours in the day to be able to capture. That's the most organic natural way I see teams form.

What we're saying is if there are people who are coming from one place to another place, they've been hopping around a bit. You automatically have negativity coming in. It's easy to always highlight the hard and bad and pay attention to what everybody else is doing. When people ask me about what's going on in the business and how it is marketable, it's a funny answer, but it's a true answer.

I pay attention to what's happening out there. I like to stay in my own lane. I mostly pay attention to my own business. I pay attention to my own business, clients, and customers. I’m making sure that my homework is done. I don't care so much about what everybody else is doing. It's not my business. If somebody is going to do well, it might as well be me. That's my feeling.

I try to stick in my own lane and make sure my own people are taken care of. When I'm training people and when I have people who I want to come to work for me, I want them to feel the same way. Stick to what you're doing. Worry about your business and your people. Work hard. Know that you're not making your own hours. You're on call, which is another misconception. Your customers and your clients. It's their schedule, not yours. If you can understand that, that's a good thing also. When training young people or having mentors come in, you have to keep them positive as long as they're hard workers and smart. Don't bring that negativity with them, then you’ll win.

It's great when people can take the time that is slower, which we know that it is. This is the perfect time to start a career, grow a business, and learn something new. Even getting together and starting the show, I did this during a time that was slower. I was able to connect with Gary and Neil Garfinkel to get this going.

One of the things that I see and have a problem with in my business, and it's the same in any business, is the work ethic, which is what you guys are talking about. I don't know about you, and I don't mean any disrespect to the younger generations. When I was starting my career, it was day and night. It was late nights. We didn't know from working from home, but for all of us sitting here, it was a different world. In any business, you're going to get out of it what you do put into it. With that, Gary, give us some ideas. What is Corcoran's focus going to be in 2024? Is there a new plan or a new goal ahead?

It begins and ends with the same goal every year. It's the best people win. If you have the best people, whether it's your corporate staff, your managing staff, or your agents, as long as you're cultivating a brand where people want to work, that's always the most critical thing because ultimately speaking, whether we're coming into the office or not, you want to feel proud about the people you work with.

My baseline foundation is you have to work with people you enjoy being with and who represent you holistically. Beyond that, it's providing great education opportunities for the team. We understand that this business is changing and evolving. It's changed and evolved every year. I've been in it for 25 years, and it'll continue to evolve well after I'm done in this industry.

Being prepared for that is important. Whether it's adding new technologies, adding new training, trying to find ways to generate leads, or guiding, cultivating, and motivating people, what we're doing more important than anything else is recognition. You have to recognize the efforts that people make inside of your company if you want them to stay here long.

Mike and I are always contemplating ways with Pam. How can we increase recognition, whether we take everyone on a nice trip that Randi's been on, we send out monthly notifications, or we have people that have celebrated 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years at Corcoran, and you send them some nice gesture, like, “Thank you for this.” When the day comes, everyone is going to tell you they're better than you. I have this. I have that.

If you're a large-scale company, you have to check the box on all the important things because if not, you can't be a big company. Once you're done checking the box, it's like, “Who's running the company?”That is the most important thing. Corcoran stands for what it stands for, and everyone knows we believe in ethics, integrity, professionalism, and leading. We don't want to follow trends. We want to lead through them.

We're not the fly-by-night company that says, “We're this, we're that, we're doing this, and we're doing that.” Jack of all trades, master of none. We have to focus on who we are. This team always puts our game face on and it is like, “We're going to work.” As long as you do that, you'll ride through these ups and downs.

Michael, what about you? In Manhattan, in Brooklyn, anything new plans for the new year?

We've been dealing with a low inventory market for some time. We're starting to see signs of that breaking. A lot is happening with technology that we're encouraging agents to incorporate into their business plans. I sat in on a tech demo with one of our heads of tech, Dale Yin, to go through a new tool that's going to be employed within our web traffic tool. It's important to have an idea of who's looking and responding to your marketing.

We partnered with a company called Flowcode, which is a QR code that can be attached to a brochure, a sign, or a postcard. I see an increasing use of that as a way to direct traffic towards more than what a customer may be seeing on a piece of paper or a print. It'll lead to a digital site, which can open a lot more and allow the agent to articulate their value prop in much more in-depth ways.

That's a trend that I would hope to see more agents incorporate as they learn more about it. Knowing and capturing the email address of the person who is getting your mail is critical. Any agent at this point who's not doing a digital newsletter and not taking the opportunity to be able to have their commercial and articulate their value, it is a wasted opportunity not to do that.

I encourage agents to do that stuff and come from an angle if you're hesitant to do it. You're trying to help somebody. If you're not doing it, you're not helping. Why waste all of your sphere of influence? They want to hear from you. I see a lot of people hesitant because they're like, “I don't know. I don't want to be bothering people.” I challenge them to say, “Can you remember an email that you got from a few days ago? Tell me one email.” They're like, “I have no idea.”

When you're the sender, it might feel as if you're being overly aggressive, but on the receiving end, you have to remember. You're providing information that people aren't getting from anywhere else. They will almost expect to see it. If you don't have it on a regular cadence, they'll say, “I missed your May edition of your newsletter. You always provide good stuff.” That's a huge thing at this point.

Anybody in the industry who doesn't look into the digital world for the future growth of their business is missing opportunities. I try to dedicate a lot of time to work with my team and our marketing team to get that concept in front of as many agents as we can and take them from a place of uncertainty to confidence about doing those things on a regular basis. The key to this business, in a lot of ways, is being confident and sure of yourself and not taking what you know for granted because what you know is a lot more than the consumer knows, and they appreciate hearing from you.

Marc, for you guys with education, is there a certain time of year that you start a program, or is it an ongoing thing?

It is ongoing all the time. We're responsible for getting newer agents up to speed on the industry on how to do a transaction, the essentials of fair housing, agency, and revenue code of ethics for New York City. Part of our goal is to cater to all audiences. If I could even get Randi interested in certain sessions that we offer, maybe a mastermind where she can engage with other top agents or hear from a third-party expert or author on a book that they wrote that no one has heard about yet until now, that's ultimately our goal.

We cover not just professional development but also real estate technology, digital marketing, and business development. To Mike's point about technology, there's constantly new technology coming out, not only that Corcoran offers but also out in the world that we're regularly responsible for educating our agents on. All of our jobs are ongoing learning.

The last question, and we'll start with you, Randi. Any personal goals for the year ahead?

I don't have any personal business goals. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm going to work hard, take care of my people, make sure everybody has great experiences, and see if I can mentor some new young talents along the way, which will be exciting for me. I like doing that. On a personal level, I want to get into good shape, feel good, put out good energy, and make the world a little better.

You're doing a good job of that so far.

See more of you, Jamie.

Any personal goals for you, Michael?

I have a 6, 4, and 3-year-old that keep me busy. A frequent goal of mine is to get through the day. I do have one thing to look forward to every year. We do a trip out to out West. Telluride, here I come, 2024. Beyond the first quarter of 2024, it's hard to see past it. I'll get through the day and get to Telluride. Hopefully, I live to tell the tale.

How about you, Marc?

Mike mentioned kids. I have two sons. I’m always looking to spend more time with them if I can. I have never been able to stick with something. I'm hoping this upcoming year might be the year. This is crossing over to professional but generative AI. That's the hot topic. That is something that I've always been interested in data. I know it's in its nascent phases, but I'm interested in knowing how it helps me, the company, and everything that we deal with. It's going to be transformational.

Best for last, Gary.

From a business perspective, I want to get people feeling positive and confident. It's been an eighteen-month run where people are beaten down on many different fronts. I feel like getting the back focus, getting the back committed, and realizing that there are cycles in every business. This has been a little longer cycle than anyone would've wanted, but cycles end. The next chapter is always going to be a good one.

If we can get people mentally to believe that, that'll start translating to activities that maybe they're not doing now. A lot of people cycle themselves out of doing things or not doing things because they've already determined nothing good's going to come from it. If we can get people positive, that would be great. Personally, I want to get back to being a single-digit handicap and taking all my friends' money on the golf course. What about you, Jamie?

Professionally, I've been trying to learn more and do more while it has been quiet. Litigation has been busy, but transactions are slower. I've been getting myself out there, spending more time either at the East end or in Westchester, and trying to build on the relationships that I've had. On a personal level, we all hit this place. I'm noticing as I speak to my friends in their mid-50s that it's much more comfortable to be vulnerable and to be open to whatever is going to make a situation better.

When we're younger, we're more into fighting, aggression, and being right. I noticed for myself it's so much easier to be more humble in these later years. To all of our credit, it's the experience and the years that allow us to be that way. That's why many people have their big years during the mid-40s to mid-60s. It's the time. You're building and growing the whole time. I want to do more of that and be the best version of myself.