Gregory Charlop: So it sounds like supporting the community is a great way for real estate agents to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
David Ament: Absolutely. Here’s an example. Marc Benioff, the billionaire founder of Salesforce.com, said that while they were founding Salesforce, they want to give 1 percent of profits to a social cause. And, they want to give 1 percent of their employee time to a social cause. So, they ended up paying their employees to do volunteer work. It was part of the fabric that was woven into the entire company. And in record time, it became a multi-billion-dollar company. They created an entire brand and a huge impact.
Gregory Charlop: I'm glad you mentioned that point about weaving it into the fabric of the business. Because I think almost all businesses probably contribute some money to charity at the end of the year before they file their taxes. And, while I think it's great that they do that, I don't think it's the same as defining yourself as working for a social cause. I think it needs to be a bit more than just cutting a check to a charity at the end of December.
If a real estate agent came to you with no business background and had an idea to help the community—say they wanted to help build a park or clean up a neighborhood or help local seniors—what advice would you give that agent on how to get started?
David Ament: Build a team. Find out who else is enthused about what you're trying to accomplish. Depending on whether you're using this as marketing, you might consider bringing in other agents. Maybe you'll bring in other people who are on the periphery of your industry, such as mortgage bankers, etc. and try to get that collaboration going. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to include other agents. Many hands make light work.
Let’s say you want to build a local park for the kids. Maybe the city doesn't have the money. You and your team can approach local clubs, such as rotary clubs, or service clubs and say, "Hey would you guys sponsor this, would you participate in building this park, this community garden?” Whatever it may be. The parents of the kids in the neighborhood would probably be pretty active participants.
Gregory Charlop: A related question: what if a large legacy real estate company called you into the boardroom, and their chief executive said, "Listen, we're worried, we're losing market share, we're starting to struggle now, and we would like to have a more philanthropic cause." Number one, do you think it's possible that these large, legacy companies can transform themselves into having more of a social mission? And number two, what advice would you give them about how to do it?
David Ament: Number one, the answer is yes, they can tie in a social mission. And number two, how would they do it? Real estate firms have a bunch of independent contractors who work for them, so they're quite unique compared to most businesses. So, any policy they create for independent contractors would not necessarily be binding.
Most real estate agents have extra time on their hands. As a matter of fact, if anything they probably have a surplus of time because it's a boom and bust type of business. There are certain times when you're high in demand and certain times when you're really not.
The firm could say, “we would love you to participate in a charitable cause. Go out there and put something together for the community.” It’s great PR, and it's not necessarily costing you a dime. The agents get to put their face out there, which is a big part of their job as independent marketers and salespeople. And, of course, if they're hanging their shingle under your brokerage, they're getting you good press. That one decision, to request agents to participate, yields an exponential return on investment and benefits society. You’ll all enjoy lots of positive attention.
Interview with J.R. McKee, philanthropist, founder of Home in Silicon Valley.com
Gregory Charlop: Can you describe your philanthropic background?
J.R. McKee: I started in 1997, attending a few Kiwanis Club meetings, and, by 1999, I had joined the Kiwanis Club of Campbell here in California. Kiwanis is an international organization in every country around the world, some 600,000 plus members strong. The Kiwanis Club of Campbell has about 25 members.
Kiwanis is a mosaic of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to uplift and support children and our community. There's a club virtually everywhere. Our purpose, as individual clubs—beyond community service—is to also establish “SLP’s” or Student Leadership Programs at each school and grade level within our club’s service area. We have a K-Kids program at an elementary school, and a Key Club (The world’s largest high school leadership program) at a local high school, as well as programs for middle school, college, and special needs youth.
We create, sponsor, and teach the students and members of their individual clubs to be club officers—presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, treasurers, sergeant-at-arms, historians, how to recruit, build their membership, create and run projects, fundraise, and how to give back at their grade level, or where they're at. It's a whole process in a very well-orchestrated organization somewhat similar to Rotary, Lions, and other similar charity organizations.
Gregory Charlop: And how do you help the kids? What sorts of activities do you or the club do with the kids?
J.R. McKee: Great question. To give you a little background, we as an organization, internationally, do somewhere around 18 million hours of community service annually. Of that 18 million hours of community service, 12 million is done by our student leadership programs. So most of it is done at the high school level, which is the Key Club. We do many projects, both locally and internationally. Local community service projects become teachable, hands- on learning opportunities for our youth leadership programs. Probably 60 percent of our work is performed by our youth leadership clubs, or Key Club, specifically. Not only are we acting jointly as two clubs, sometimes three clubs—Kiwanis Club of Campbell, Westmont High School Key Club, and Rosemary K-Kids—to make a difference through this community service project, but it also becomes a leadership and training opportunity. We can train these youth on how to run the various facets of whatever it is that we happen to be doing. So it's a win-win. The community benefits, our youth learn, and we as Kiwanians make a difference, completing us and compelling us to be better for it.
We train our youth, they help us, they learn, and together we go out and run these projects, like tree planting, landscaping, helping to refurbish elderly homes, working in other schools, helping at Christmas street fairs or Octoberfest street fairs, or painting children's wings of hospitals, running the bay area’s biggest Easter Egg Hunt and Eggstravaganza, helping in the Easter Parade, or Veterans Day Parade, among others.
Gregory Charlop: You're a leading real estate agent, along with being a leading philanthropist, and a lot of the people reading this book are real estate associates. What are some good ways that real estate associates can give back to the community or help out the community or people in need?
J.R. McKee: Joining any community service organization like Kiwanis. Kiwanis happens to be my preferred outlet, but there are many. Rotary International is an amazing organization. Lions International is a great organization. Kiwanis happens to be one of the least expensive organizations to belong to. We typically do more hands-on projects, whereas clubs like Rotary more often just give money. They do some projects, but it's more of a fundraising organization where they give away lots of money. We give away money too, but not as much. The barrier of entry into the Kiwanis organization is a lot lower, and we tend to do more hands-on projects, interfacing with the community. And our youth organizations are much stronger in general.
Gregory Charlop: How you think real estate agents, individually, could give back or help their communities?
J.R. McKee: By joining a community service organization. Service organizations need support from professionals, as well as regular individuals from every walk of life. As a real estate professional, joining a charitable organization is an amazing opportunity to support the community, to give back, and to get that sense of gratification and sense of balance. It is therapeutic
to help by giving back to the community and supporting our children. It balances and offsets the intensity under which we work.
It's also good for marketing. I mean, by default I am so visible through my community giving that it reinforces who I am. It does bring me business, but that's the secondary benefit—not my primary goal. I got involved after an “aha” moment in 2001 or 2002 when I saw a dear sweet 75-year-old member of our club walk into Rosemary Elementary School. Kids just started pouring out of class, ran up and hugged her, and said, "Miss Terri, we love you, so good to see you."
This lady and member of our club would for years go every day into this school in an area that was economically challenged. She would hug these dear sweet children, give them toothbrushes, granola bars and offer touching words of encouragement that these children needed but did not hear frequently enough. When I saw how impactful her service through Kiwanis was, I was moved and said, "Wow, that's something I want to be part of." Twenty years later I’m a key stakeholder in the Kiwanis Club of Campbell and couldn’t be prouder to support our little corner of the world.
Gregory Charlop: Real estate agents, as you know, are often pillars of their community. They know a lot of people. They know the pulse of the neighborhood. It seems like they would be a natural fit to join these community service organizations. And, as you said, it seems like it would also be a great way for people to find out about them, and, potentially, even get new business.
J.R. McKee: I agree. Although the business aspect should be secondary and should just be a very pleasurable benefit. I’m resolute in the belief that nobody should ever join an organization purely for business purposes. They should join out of a genuine desire to help and make a difference, by default allowing their generosity and dedication to set a shining example of how we as individuals and professionals make a difference.
Gregory Charlop: Do you find that the larger real estate groups and associations have philanthropic components? What are your thoughts?
J.R. McKee: Well, geographically, from state to state and city to city, there are the National Associations of Realtors, the California Association of Realtors, the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, and local MLSs. Nearly every organization has some sort of philanthropic involvement. And to the degree that you are more or less engaged, really depends on the stakeholders at each one of those organizations and how aggressive they are or are not. Some are better than others. Some are very involved. Some are doing nothing. And, of course, it's everything in between. Many are serious, and some say they support causes but it’s just window dressing for PR.
But most associations do have a division that supports giving programs, particularly here in the Santa Clara area. Many companies, like Coldwell Banker, Keller Williams, Alain Pinel, and the Sereno Group are involved. Each one of these companies has something like Coldwell Banker cares, or Keller Williams cares, or Sereno cares, or Alain Pinel cares. Each one has some sort of division that identifies and supports a cause. The better organizations set goals, create team building opportunities, and truly reach out to support some annual effort using their agents to power a community service event.
Gregory Charlop: A lot of the people reading this book are either brokers or executives with these larger real estate firms. If they came to you for advice about how they could give back to the community or set up a program to give back to the community, what would you recommend?
J.R. McKee: That's a great question because some executives or organizations do it just because they want to create a name for themselves, and they want to be perceived in the community as caring. But they’re not fully vested and “all in” on a truly on-going, full-time basis. Don't get me wrong, there are many, many great companies that truly do care, and they’re involved at a grassroots level. They jump in and really make a difference in their local community. Some of it's just lip service, and some of it's sincere. I've seen this over the years, but the larger nationwide chains encourage each branch manager to actively participate in the community. And I do see the Coldwells, the Centuries, the ReMax's. . . they occasionally tackle projects. They go out and work at a street festival, or they go out and support seniors maintain their yards, or they paint a house. Or they do things for the community such as a Christmas toy drive or maybe a winter coat drive. But these are seasonal and not perpetual by their very nature.
In general, I think the big corporations charge their people at a branch level to find local causes and then support them. They do that for visibility, and they also do it for team building and work rapport among their agents. Every branch is only as effective as the leader in that branch and their ability to rally the troops, find a cause, and really jump in and support it.
Gregory Charlop: You're a leading real estate agent. You left the larger companies, and you're working on your own. Do you get the sense that a lot of other top agents will be doing the same thing? In other words, will a lot of them be leaving these larger companies and starting their own business or joining a discount internet brokerage?
J.R. McKee: A lot of the big brokerages offer extremely attractive packages to top producers in an attempt to retain them. I think agents work for large brokerages for a host of reasons, including—but not limited to—recognition, rewards, systems, branding, being viewed as icons within their organization, and more. Many top franchises offer the top two or three performers a very high split that is not known by the masses of the agents ... and not known by very many agents ... to retain them—the top producers—because the 95 percent of the agents who work for the company are on lower splits. The top five percent are on much higher splits because of their volume. But the brokerages need those top agents as icons to continue to attract newer agents because they need to show them, "Look, this is what you could achieve."
So, a lot of agents will stay in that model. But some of them don't like the politics, don't want to be that iconic agent, they don't want to be pestered by other agents looking up at them saying, "Well, how'd you get there? What are you doing? What's making sense? Where are you succeeding? Where are you failing?" And that happens when you are on top of the heap. Everyone wants to know what you're doing to get there. So, there are some who get tired of that bureaucracy, office environment, and dog and pony show by the broker pointing out how they achieved that status. And they're going to want to strike out on their own. They’re going to seek out or start their own boutiques or seek virtual office opportunities.
Gregory Charlop: What do you think is the best way to train newer agents? If there are a lot of agents who are largely working on their own, how do you feel the newer agents, or the underperforming agents, could get better or learn the tricks of the trade?
J.R. McKee: Well, first of all, they need to pass their statutorily-required educational requirements that are set up by local and state jurisdictions. Secondly, they need some serious training from either their broker, company, or outside training agency—and not just to succeed, but also for the safety and protection of the consumers they serve. Once they get through that, or do that concurrently with a mentorship program, there should still be a mentorship requirement until each agent reaches a level of competency and production. In my humble opinion, NO AGENT should ever be turned loose without any significant education and training. We have the broker/salesperson relationship where a salesperson cannot work except under the dutiful eye and supervision of a broker. But, that's kind of loose and fast in some organizations that should have a mentorship program where a new agent is assigned a mentor, and at least three, four, five, six transactions are run parallel with a seasoned veteran. That way, the new agent doesn't create a liability for the consumer and/or for the company.
So, statutory educational requirements for state and local guidelines, and then some sort of hands-on, real world training—either from an outside vendor or from the company's in-house vendor and their staff—and then they should have some sort of mentorship program to guide those first transactions so that they don't go too far fr
om where they should be.
Chapter 7: The Path Forward
Technology is transforming real estate but remember the human touch
You’re at a cocktail party. Guests are sipping wine by the crackling fireplace and laughing by the pool. After enjoying some appetizers and chatting with an old friend, you decide to network. You are a real estate agent, after all. You know that connections mean business. But you also don’t want to waste your time. It’s cold and the party is winding down.
Who should you talk to? Who is most likely to need your help buying or selling a home?
Is there a way you can predict someone’s probability of moving?
Yes!
You now have the ability to consider a sea of strangers and immediately know which one will soon be looking for a real estate agent.[68] You walk over, introduce yourself, and secure your next commission.
Is it magic? No, it’s artificial intelligence. There is now an algorithm that can determine someone’s likelihood to sell their home based on their demographics and internet activity—even before they start searching for a real estate agent. No kidding!
After you secure your new client, your phone buzzes. It’s your chatbot calling. The bot has some big news! Someone just visited your website and wants a new home. They’re moving to town next month, require a 3/2, and they need help fast. You put down your drink and call the new prospects right away—before they reach another agent.
As you drive home from another successful evening, you get a call from another bot. This time, it’s an actual robot! It turns out that your autonomous robot just signed up a family for a condo you’re renting downtown. Your robotic friend showed the family around, answered all their questions, and pre-qualified them.
Boom! Three deals in one evening.
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