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Name: Jason Sherman
Title: CEO
Experience: 19 years
Location: Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia
Brokerage/Team full name: RLAH @properties
Team size: 400+ agents
Transaction sides: 3800
Sales volume: $2 billion
How did you choose your brokerage (first or current)?
We are a franchise that chose @properties as our franchisor because of their success, their attitude and their desire to build. Most franchisors are not running a brokerage from their headquarters like Thad and Mike. They are still in the trenches.
A friend of mine said recently that you grow stale in this business almost overnight if you stop doing the day-to-day work. These guys are definitely not getting stale; if anything they get fresher by the day.
What’s something you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
There are a million things I wish I knew when I started, but learned along the way. It’s impossible to pick a single lesson. That said, my business partner and I remind each other constantly to be people we can be proud of at the end of our careers.
That does not mean roll over and be agreeable, but you should know on the inside that you stayed true to your principles and ethics. Those get challenged in this business and bad decisions will eat you up over the years.
What’s your top prediction for 2023?
The variety of business models in our industry has probably hit an all-time high. Some of those models do not focus on the core values of the broker/agent relationship and do not consider the consumers’ interests.
For example, they monetize the broker/agent relationship, but do not build an infrastructure that supports a healthy transaction. I think those models will eventually be revealed for what they are and will struggle one day. That may be closer to a 10-year prediction.
What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?
Starting fresh and generating growth is hard, but totally doable. There will be a lot of days where it will feel like the walls are closing in, but there is always a way through. You just have to hang in there and press forward.
What makes a good leader?
Know when to listen, know when not to listen, and never forget that it’s not about you. Like a good conductor, you are waving the wand, but some other talented person is playing the violin.
What’s one thing you wish every agent knew?
Sometimes it is better to listen to someone, rather than everyone. We interact with so many brilliant and successful people, not to mention endless online coaches and websites that we can get lost in a sea of advice. It can become confusing, conflicting and occasionally paralyzing. It’s important to reduce the noise.