Real Estate One is the largest brokerage in Michigan and one of the largest brokers in the country. The Elsea family is in its third generation of company leadership: founder Staunton Elsea, son and current Chairman Dick Elsea, and grandsons Dan and Stuart. Dan Elsea is President of Brokerage Services for the company, which generated $1.8 billion in home sales in 2009.
Elsea graduated from Michigan State University with a Business degree in Marketing.
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Your Web site says your company was the first in the country to have multiple offices, host open houses and create a computerized MLS. Now you’re on Facebook and Twitter, you have a blog, and your Web site received 1.4 million unique visitors in 2008. Tell us how this culture of innovation continues to bring you success.
Right now, these tools give us credibility, especially with first-time homebuyers, many of whom are younger. The process is slow with many of our agents who may be over 50 or 55, as well as some of our Baby-Boomer customers – who may know about Facebook and Twitter from their children but are not quite as adept. These tools are a way for us to reach into Generation X (the leading edge of buyers, many are move-up buyers) as well as Generation Y.
We also are learning to arrange the company around accepting that culture and style. Of course, it’s a little like changing oil when you’re driving down the freeway! For example, we teach our associates how to communicate by text-messaging their customers. It’s a simple act but very effective.
A core differentiating point for us is we are known as the “numbers guys”; we provide a steady flow of market information to our clients and the media.
Have these efforts been even more important during this housing market downturn?
We publish a lot of data and market information. We tell our salespeople, your clients may not be as happy, but they have never needed your expertise more as they do now.
We are very focused on the skillset our agents need now. Back in 2005 we shifted how we train, to concentrate on seven specific skills:
1. Foreclosures
2. Short sales
3. Leases – every 5 foreclosures generate 2 leases
4. Investors – now 15 percent of the market
5. First-time homebuyers – 40 percent more of the market
6. Understanding financing – our John Adams Mortgage Co. is a lender (not a broker) and is FHA Direct Endorsed. We are now the largest FHA lender in southeast Michigan.
7. How to sell a non-REO listing – how to generate activity and sales
We’ve added some technology tools as well, but spending time on these “nuts and bolts” issues has been crucial for our associates.
Your company is the largest in the state, and has remained independent for its entire 80-year history.
It’s a unique point of differentiation for us. Our firm was founded by my grandfather Staunton Elsea in 1929, and he did a number of different things: he opened up branch offices, he hired women (which just wasn’t done in those days), and he grew early-on by merging with four other companies (which is when we changed our name to Real Estate One). We became the dominant brand in Michigan, and actually started franchising ourselves. At one point we had offices in four other states, but eventually sold them to concentrate on the Michigan market.
We have two boutique brands, including Max Broock REALTORS®, which joined us in 2002 and has five offices, and Johnstone and Johnstone, which has one office in Grosse Pointe. We also have two commercial entities and a niche brand in Northwest Michigan, 45th Parallel Realty Premier.
How many offices and agents do you have covering the state? What changes are you seeing regarding the kinds of agents who are staying – and joining – the business?
Today, we have 67 offices with some 1,600 salespeople; 34 are company-owned with 1,460 agents. Another 33 are franchised offices with some 200 agents – many in resort areas in the state.
We are moving toward the Gen X’ers, leading with technology. We are rolling out a text-messaging product where anyone with a smartphone will be able to get a flyer faxed or texted for any property in the state. It’s part of our “First to Know” program: any time, any place, any device. We also have a specific mobile site.
Of course, we offer automatic updates via our Web site. We are always looking for programs to make it easier for our consumers to gather information.
You are in the third generation of family ownership of Real Estate One. Have you always been in real estate? What’s the most exciting thing for you, being involved in this industry and with your company?
My brother and I were the owner’s sons, so we grew up at the office. After graduating from college, I worked for a local bank and then came on board working in commercial real estate. My brother Stuart worked for a steel company and then came with the company to work in accounting and residential sales. Today, I handle the brokerage side and he handles the title, relocation, mortgage, administration, etc. It’s split half and half.
It’s exciting to be with a company that has survived for 80 years. There is a level of curiosity that has passed from generation to generation, allowing us to grow and change. We’ve probably failed at 80 percent of what we’ve done, but we keep doing things in the context of driving forward, not sitting on our hands. It’s probably one of the most exciting times to be in real estate, considering the speed at which the industry is changing. Our size and history provides us the competitive advantage to take advantage of and enjoying those changes.
