Testimonial for Sherman Oaks Agent Ben Salem!

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We needed to sell an apartment building from afar and we were clueless, we needed a dependable realtor, we received Bens contact information from a source we could trust, we called, setup the sale, sold for a very viable price. Bens group waded through unscrupulous individuals handled problems in our way and other tasks that would have been impossible from long distance. Ben and staff took care of business and closed on the deal. Pleased as can be!!! Highly recommend Ben Salem!

 

-Monte Anderson

 

 

 

Testimonial for Rodeo Realty Calabasas Agent Joni Greer!

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To Whom It May Concern,

We recently chose Joni Greer to represent us to find a new home for our family. From the moment we met her, we felt at ease. She was extremely knowledgeable about the local markets, clearly understood how to make a deal work and made the entire process, from the first showing to signing the lease, very easy. Joni was professional, polite, and a pleasure to work with. When we are in the market to move again, Joni will be the first call we make.

Thank you,

Alison and John Siegler

Top Coaches for Real-Estate Agents

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In early September, Gary Gold, executive vice president of the Beverly Hills-based brokerage Hilton & Hyland, got a phone call and confronted a question: “What specifically can we do to reach our goals this month?”

Mr. Gold, who currently lists $77 million worth of luxury homes in Los Angeles, wasn’t talking to his boss—the call was from his coach. Mr. Gold pays Debbie Holloway, one of 50 real-estate coaches at the company Tom Ferry-Your Coach, to force him to achieve his goals. For $1,000 a month, Mr. Gold gets to talk to Ms. Holloway for a half-hour a week, attend company seminars and access online training materials.

Prodded by the call, Mr. Gold presented a detailed market report to a client, convincing him reduce the price on his property to $3.95 million from $4.3 million. The listing is now attracting more interest, Mr. Gold says, putting him back on target to close shortly.

“Tiger Woods knows how to play golf, and he still has a coach,” says Mr. Gold. “It’s all about accountability.”

Real estate coaches emerged in the late 1980s and early ’90s and proliferated throughout the housing boom. Many coaching services folded during the housing bust, and some larger outfits lost about a third of their clientele, companies say.

Today, as the real-estate industry bounces back, agents and brokerages are returning to coaches to help them figure out a raft of new technologies, manage increasingly large teams and offices—and help them cope with the pressures of being fully commissioned salespeople. Coaches who run the biggest companies maintain a guru-like status in the industry, garnering followings of thousands of agents.

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There is Tom Ferry-Your Coach, the Irvine, Calif.-based coaching company, which says it has more than 1,800 individual clients. Last year, the company saw revenue rise by 38% compared with the year prior, to more than $10 million, and expects revenue to grow to $15 million this year, Mr. Ferry says.

 

There is also Buffini & Company, a real-estate coaching specialist based in Carlsbad, Calif. The company doesn’t disclose revenue, but says that membership has grown 26% since last year, to 10,500 clients today, and that it is on track for the same growth this year.

Keller Williams MAPS Coaching, a division of Austin-based Keller Williams Realty International, which has 107,000 agents, says it currently has 1,605 agents in one-on-one coaching, more than three times the number it had in 2010. Agents who use coaching earn 315% more gross commission income than Keller Williams agents who don’t, says Dianna Kokoszka, chief executive of the coaching division.

In July, Century 21 made a deal to offer its 100,000 agents a discount on coaching services from the Mike Ferry Organization, based in Las Vegas. Mike Ferry, who is Tom Ferry’s father, was among the first big names in real-estate coaching. The elder Mr. Ferry says his 2013 revenue was $28 million, up from $22 million in 2009.

Century 21 Chief Operating Officer Greg Sexton says he was initially skeptical of outside coaching. But eventually, “I came to realize that those agents in and out of our brand will go to coaching regardless.”

Real estate agents are increasingly hiring coaches, who garner crowds at seminars and millions in fees. Brian Buffini recently spoke to a crowd of more than 2,000 people at New York’s Javits Center. Photo: Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal.
A typical coaching arrangement involves a year-long contract, a fee between $400 to $1,000 a month and bi-weekly or weekly phone calls, plus access to seminars, large rallies and digital materials. Coaches might instruct agents to stand up while they talk on the phone, for added energy; or to end sentences on a downswing, to sound more authoritative. Coaches also help brokers make hires and figure out web and social-media marketing.

“Without coaching, I would be 10 years behind and I would have spent millions of dollars doing the wrong thing,” says Jane Fairweather, a Coldwell Banker agent in Bethesda, Md., whose eponymous team earned $3 million in commissions last year. Ms. Fairweather says she spends about $20,000 a year as a client of Ken Goodfellow at Goodfellow Coaching and Consulting in Ottawa, Canada, and has learned such strategies as creating websites around specific market niches and producing reports that convince sellers to drop their asking prices.

Some of the top coaches have spent most of their careers in coaching and training, not selling real estate. Mike Ferry, 69, only worked selling real estate from 1970 to 1973; Tom Ferry, his 44-year-old son, got his start working for his dad’s coaching business when he was 19.

Coaches generally preach motivation and hard work, but each has his own specific strategy. At a recent event for about 2,000 people in New York where former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was a guest speaker, Buffini & Company chairman and founder Brian Buffini, 47, spoke with a light Irish brogue and astute comic timing on how to generate referrals. He generated big laughs from the crowd, even as he detailed his systematic approach to marketing to a sphere of influence. One suggestion: Pop by clients’ homes with a pumpkin pie and a note reading “Thank you for your business. I’m never too busy for any of your referrals.”

There are no state or federal license requirements for people calling themselves real-estate coaches, nor for other types of life, business or health coaches. Some opt for voluntary credentialing from a variety of organizations; the largest of them, the International Coach Federation in Lexington, Ky., credentialed 11,735 coaches last year, over twice the number in 2008. Some companies, such as Tom Ferry, use mainly active real-estate agents and brokers who coach part time; others, such as Buffini, use full-time coaches who have been trained in the company’s system. Some outfits, including Goodfellow, say they only coach agents earning over $500,000 in annual gross commission income; others accept newcomers.

Rise of the Real-Estate Coach

A look into the high-energy world of the real-estate coach

A sitting area in Mr. Gold’s Hollywood Hills listing. He is currently listing $77 million dollars worth of luxury Los Angeles property. Mr. Gold said his expertise is in sales, not management. As his team has grown, his coach has helped him with hiring, training his team, and leadership, he said.

Guests make their way to see real estate coach Brian Buffini speak during his “Success Tour” seminar at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City last month. Buffini & Company currently has 10,500 coaching clients.
Audience members at Mr. Buffini’s seminar. The company recently built its own online management system, used by 10,000 clients, it said. Last year, it also launched Buffini TV, an online portal for training materials.
Mr. Buffini explains his system, which is based on marketing to a referral network. His Carlsbad, Calif., company, with 141 employees, includes 37 full-time coaches. In bi-weekly calls, they encourage agents to send notes, gifts and make pop-by visits to clients.

Tom Ferry is another big name in coaching. His company serves over 1,800 coaching clients and expects revenue of $15 million this year. Mr. Ferry continues to coach 11 individual agents and two chief executives, he said.

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At a recent seminar in Manhattan, Mr. Ferry talked about marketing property through Facebook. Part of the benefit of using a coaching company is the opportunity to network with other industry players at events, several agents said.
Mr. Ferry said when he first began working for his father—real estate coach Mike Ferry—the field was considered esoteric. Now, it is mainstream. Tom Ferry recently signed deals with Zillow and Bank of America -both companies sponsor his 450 live events per year.

Gary Gold, executive vice president of Beverly Hills luxury brokerage Hilton & Hyland, in a $6.6 million, 6,000-square-foot listing in the Hollywood Hills. He pays Tom Ferry-Your Coach $1,000 a month for services that include a weekly, half-hour phone call with his coach.

A sitting area in Mr. Gold’s Hollywood Hills listing. He is currently listing $77 million dollars worth of luxury Los Angeles property. Mr. Gold said his expertise is in sales, not management. As his team has grown, his coach has helped him with hiring, training his team, and leadership, he said.
Guests make their way to see real estate coach Brian Buffini speak during his “Success Tour” seminar at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City last month. Buffini & Company currently has 10,500 coaching clients.
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Guests make their way to see real estate coach Brian Buffini speak during his “Success Tour” seminar at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City last month. Buffini & Company … Audience members at Mr. Buffini’s seminar.

The company recently built its own online management system, used by 10,000 clients, it said. Last year, it also launched Buffini TV, an online portal for training materials.

Mr. Buffini explains his system, which is based on marketing to a referral network. His Carlsbad, Calif., company, with 141 employees, includes 37 full-time coaches. In bi-weekly calls, they encourage agents to send notes, gifts and make pop-by visits to clients.

Tom Ferry is another big name in coaching. His company serves over 1,800 coaching clients and expects revenue of $15 million this year. Mr. Ferry continues to coach 11 individual agents and two chief executives, he said.

At a recent seminar in Manhattan, Mr. Ferry talked about marketing property through Facebook. Part of the benefit of using a coaching company is the opportunity to network with other industry players at events, several agents said.

Mr. Ferry said when he first began working for his father—real estate coach Mike Ferry—the field was considered esoteric. Now, it is mainstream. Tom Ferry recently signed deals with Zillow and Bank of America -both companies sponsor his 450 live events per year.

Gary Gold, executive vice president of Beverly Hills luxury brokerage Hilton & Hyland, in a $6.6 million, 6,000-square-foot listing in the Hollywood Hills. He pays Tom Ferry-Your Coach $1,000 a month for services that include a weekly, half-hour phone call with his coaching area in Mr. Gold’s Hollywood Hills listing. He is currently listing $77 million dollars worth of luxury Los Angeles property. Mr. Gold said his expertise is in sales, not management. As his team has grown, his coach has helped him with hiring, training his team, and leadership, he said.

While many coaching companies say agents using their systems earn far more, such results aren’t typically promised in contracts. One common complaint on online consumer-review sites comes from agents who signed contracts with coaching companies but failed to improve their sales, and now want to stop the service.

“When you’re in a contract, we enforce it. You can’t get out of it,” says Mike Ferry. Buffini says it releases unhappy clients, while Keller Williams says it is “lenient.” Mr. Goodfellow says he doesn’t ask clients to sign a contract at all.

SiBelle Israel, 35, says she signed up for coaching at one of Tom Ferry’s summits in 2011 while she was a real-estate agent in Santa Barbara.

“It’s a feeling like you’ve been enlightened and you’ve found something to believe in. I used to joke that I joined the church of Tom Ferry,” says Ms. Israel. Coaching, however, was expensive and not helpful, and her contract was renewed for a second year without her approval, she says. She hired a lawyer and stopped payment on her credit card, she says.

“We work with the client to come up with a solution that best serves both parties;” however, “we cannot always honor their initial requests,” Mr. Ferry said.

Some agents say they have noted a sharp increase in sales pitches by coaching companies in the past year or so.

Pamela Liebman, president and chief executive of the Corcoran Group in New York, says that fewer than 2% of the agency’s 1,700 agents use coaching.

“They think: ‘Why would I ever do this? I don’t need to be baby-sat,’ ”she says of her agents. “They think, ‘I know more than they do, especially in NYC.’ ”

 

By: The Wall Street Journal

Testimonial for Terri Aaseth at Encore Encino!

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Hello All,

On behalf of Team Sammy and Realty Executives United, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your hard work, dedication and professionalism in regards to this transaction. First and Foremost Encore Escrow, Terri,  Erica and Cindy. Girls I couldn’t have done this without you, you really helped me out a lot and I appreciate you girls for that, thank you. Jorge Flores, thank you for bringing in those buyers, they truly deserve the house and they got it, we made it happen Jorge.  Ademar, bro you are awesome, thanks for coming through. Our Transaction Coordinator Kristy, thank you for taking care of our file.

It’s great to work with such a GREAT TEAM. I feel proud to count on people like you, all of you. Reliable, dependable and knowledgeable in your craft. I look forward to another great transaction with you all. Once again, thank you for your hard work, dedication and professionalism. Hope all is well.

Best Regards,

Sammy Gomez

Testimonial for the Corporate Office Team!

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Hi Syd,

We wanted to let you know that your team at corporate is nothing short of GREAT! Tim Egan, Jeff Weston and Jason Peteler have done and always do an over the top job in assisting us with all our needs. We thank you a 1,000,000!!! We’re very proud to be a part of the Rodeo Team!!

Thanks,

Judy and Warren Handler

 

 

Testimonial for Rodeo Agents Steve & Teri Goldbaum!

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Dear prospective home buyer/seller:

Deciding to sell our home of 10 years to move closer to work and family was a difficult decision. Partly because of all the memories we had in our home and partly because of the challenging housing market. But selecting a realty team to sell our home was a simple decision. The Gold Team had represented the seller when we purchased the home 10 years prior. We were so impressed with them then, that we were confident they were the perfect team for us.

Steve and Teri proved to be very knowledgeable, hard-working and always accessible. Whenever a critical question arose, we knew that we could trust Steve and Teri to give us an honest assessment thus allowing us to make a well-informed decision. In the end, we sold the home for more than we had initially anticipated.

The process of finding and purchasing our dream home was equally smooth. Here again, we benefited from the many strengths of the Gold Team. Our jobs tend to keep us very busy at work, but Teri was always accessible and accommodating of our schedules. Steve is so knowledgeable and it proved invaluable during the various inspections. In the end, we ended up with hour dream home in an ideal location and for less than list price.

The Gold Team is truly an outstanding team. Steve and Teri are very knowledgeable, hard-working, and always accessible. We would highly recommend them to anyone looking to buy or sell a home.

Sincerely,
Joy and Jose Saavedra

 

Testimonial for Encino's David Rindenow!

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Hi Cary,

My husband and I just wanted to take a moment and express how grateful and lucky we are to have had such a hardworking agent as Dave (or David, as you all know him :)) on our side. He went above and beyond every single step of the way. I have known him for years and I have never seen him so passionate, excited, and dedicated to a job as he is with working for Rodeo. I feel he has truly found his calling and loves what he is doing. He is extremely professional and his knowledge far exceeds that of any other realtor I have ever worked with. He is the type of person who goes the extra mile for his friends, and I have seen him now basically run a marathon for me as his client. He was on the phone with Tom, me, our mortgage broker, the other agent, and the escrow company on a regular basis, answering every silly little question we had and checking in to make sure we were doing okay. There were some issues with the seller’s realtor and he handled it extremely well- putting just the right amount of pressure on her without getting on her bad side. Expertly handled. I told him exactly what we were looking for and the exact areas, and he checked the MLS listings on a very regular basis- and even introduced us to some areas we had never considered that really could have worked for us. I could not have asked for a better agent or a smoother process in getting this all taken care of. We almost can’t wait to buy our next house and have Dave handle the selling of this one and the buying of the next! 🙂

Sincerely,

Meghan and Tom Ellsworth