Every week top-producing agents, entrepreneurs, marketing gurus and technophiles infiltrate My Home Group across multiple locations, turning office spaces into classrooms and infusing the brokerage with a collegiate vibe.
“Workshop Wednesdays” have become tradition at the second fastest-growing privately owned brokerage in the country and are a staple of the 100-percent commission, Scottsdale, Arizona-based firm’s focus on training and education.
All real estate professionals regardless of brokerage affiliation are welcome at these free events that cover business nuts-and-bolts including contracts, buyer and listing presentations, farming, prospecting, cold calling and the psychology of sales. The classes change every week and — bonus! — there’s food. Around 10 to 15 percent of the company’s nearly 1,200 agents sit in while others tune into the live stream.
The recurring events are the brainchild of the company’s founders — Jereme Kleven, designated broker, and Mark Hutchins, operations manager — who are always on the lookout for agents who are doing things differently and successfully inside and outside their firm.
According to Kleven, the approach marks a differentiation between My Home Group and other big-name 100-percent commission brokerages — a model that continues to see fast growth in the real estate space — in that the competition are trying to build with tech whereas My Home Group is not. “Ours is more of a meat-and-potatoes approach with true tactical and business-building strategies,” he explains. “For the folks that want to put in the work, we provide a road map. We share the knowledge; we give them the strategy to do the work.”
The founders came from Keller Williams and set up My Home Group in 2004. The company ranked as no. 240 on the 2017 Inc. 500 with 1,792 percent growth over the course of a year, and was the second highest ranked brokerage on the list, following only its 100-percent commission counterpart, San Diego-based Big Block Realty. Rather than sharing a percentage of their commission, agents pay My Home Group a flat monthly fee and a transaction fee.
Since 2012, the firm has been on a strong growth trajectory as the two agents have moved to expand their footprint. My Home Group is now bringing in around 75 recruits per month, with a total of close to 1,200 agents now in Arizona and Washington state across 18 offices. The brokerage is planning to expand to San Diego and Las Vegas next.
Part of the company’s success can be attributed to the high-performing agents and teams it’s attracted, including The Laughton Team, the Revisto Team, the S4 Group and Envision Team, which has resulted in a domino effect of sorts. These big teams and top producers in turn recruit and expand on their own.
“The no. 1 thing is money,” Hutchins said. Once team leaders get to a certain size, they really start to resent the money they are putting in their brokerage’s pocket, both founders argue.
“Research on the psychology of sales has shown that people want to be around success, to be surrounded by others who are successful,” Kleven added.
My Home Group recruits mainly via its social media presence, especially Facebook and Instagram, and uses testimonial videos to appeal to younger millennials in the industry. “We let our agents tell our story, people buy in and believe at a much higher level,” Kleven said.
Jason Mitchell, who is the only agent with a shareholding in My Home Group, says he thinks his coming over to My Home Group from Realty Executives 18 months ago was about “the culture more than anything.”
“At My Home Group, they do a great job of promoting other agents not in the company,” Mitchell said. “They create synergy in the real estate community, show best practice from best agents; it’s an open forum.”
