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Have you heard the news? Apparently there are companies out there that will offer huge splits, caps, profit sharing, training, coaching, etc. etc. and based on the messages being sent by the leaders they have massive agent counts, and huge increases in production, market share, internal rankings, etc. etc. They even attach graphs that make all of the other large and clearly successful companies look as though they’re failing miserably.

I wanted to share my humble thoughts on this out of respect and fairness to the intelligence of all of the local agents who receive these incessant claims that disparage the success of others who have worked very hard over many years to reach their levels of legitimate accomplishment.

If you’ve read that Prudential California Realty has only increased by a meager 24% verses another firm that is up a whopping 2400%, it would stand to reason that one could get the impression that the other firm was just blowing the doors off of Prudential, and the other firms with modest increases in comparison. So let me shed some light on the reality of the very misleading and disparaging graph;

If a company did 1 transaction in 12 months and then the next 12 months that company did 2400% more business than the previous period, they would have closed only 24 more transactions. This is an example, but to be clear, we are talking about small numbers translated into embellished percentages to create a graph to make others look bad. As an equal comparison, Prudential California Realty actually has closed a total of 514 transactions in the previous 12 months in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills. A 24% increase in business would be about 123 more transactions in a relatively small market area! So I ask you, who’s story is more exciting to you? Who is really making an impact in the market area? Who is attracting MORE buyers and sellers? Who’s agents are winning more listings, more sales, more appointments, etc.? I urge anyone at any of the other named large firms on the chart that was sent out to do the math for their own firm. You’ll feel a lot better about your success and “modest” growth too. 🙂

I’m sure you hear the claims of double digit numbers of agents joining these firms and number like 100, 110, 130+ agents have joined too. Internal high rankings for “agent count”. And the thought is that “wow” that’s huge! A simple scan of the PWR or DRE.Ca.gov roster will provide tremendous clarity into the truth. The other glaring fact is that any company can hire licenses to inflate their roster count, but isn’t what we do about selling more homes? What am I missing here that “agent count” is the new measurement of success? No offense to agents who sell 1 or 2 per year, but at Prudential, these are generally agents who leave us who are looking to get “all the money” on a few transactions, verses increase their production by taking more listings and sales. This is NOT the Prudential model, and I don’t imagine it is many others either who have achieved large success in this industry as a firm. In the end, we believe that it is simply all about the customer and provide services geared to help our agents get more of them and therefore make more money as a result!

But what about “profit sharing” or recruiting incentives, aka “mailbox money”? That sounds attractive… Right? If it were really something substantial and easily obtainable, it wouldn’t take a 12 page handout to explain it…. Would it? At Prudential, we aren’t looking to sell you into some program to turn you into “recruiters” waiting and waiting for your “mailbox” money to show up if/when the company achieves profitability. Rather we offer a very quietly promoted program called TeamBuilder that is a legitimate “revenue sharing” program. It’s simple… When an agent you referred, joins the firm, and closes a transaction, you get up to 3% of the GCI the first year and then 1% forever, paid to you every quarter. No strings, the company doesn’t have to be profitable, no hoops to jump through, a check just shows up! Just ask agents like Ashlie Ducros, Karyn Schonherz, Stephanie Francoeur, Rich Thorson, Carole Geronsin, Sally Radi, Pam Minier, Erika Ferguson, Ron Lippa, and many many others, who have all gotten checks ranging from $60 to several thousand dollars in a QUARTER! It’s real money and they don’t need to have a Phd to figure out how and how much they will be paid. With that said, we’ve never hired an agent because we have this program. Agents join Prudential because it’s “where you go when you want to grow”!

To keep my email from getting even longer, I will save some for my next letter to you all next week. Just keep in mind that you may not want to UnSubscribe just yet. You really don’t want to miss my “Boast Buster” emails. At the very least you’ll be informed and know what “everyone’s’ talking about.

In closing, I sincerely would like to thank all of the great Realtors in the community of North Orange County. We are a proud community and have some of the best agents in the entire county, state, and nation here. We work together in a respectful and professional manner and my goal is to simply encourage that continued behavior. I am genuinely impressed with so many of the successful firms that have served North OC for so many years. Their success cannot be ignored or diminished by some manipulated percentages. Let’s all play fair and keep doing a great job in our community!

Brad Pearson,
Vice President, Sales

P.S. I have attached the % graph that was sent to our agents recently, as well as the most recent Year to Date Unit count ranking for Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda markets combined as was done on the other graph to offer a clearer picture of the “rest of the story”.
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