Michi Olson has been in the real estate industry since 1986. Her career has included stops at a 1031 exchange intermediary, a title company and a Silicon Valley luxury real-estate brokerage. After the brokerage was acquired by NRT, Michi was recruited by Wells Fargo to implement its relocation mortgage benefits program to small companies. Recognizing her drive and initiative, Wells soon had Michi calling on corporate clients in its Western region.
In 2004, her former brokerage president, Larry Knapp – now president and COO of Alain Pinel Realtors – asked her to manage the Relocation Department at the highly regarded San Francisco Bay Area firm. She was quickly promoted to Vice President of Relocation and Business Development where she is responsible for developing new strategic business opportunities and initiatives. Michi manages relocation, e-business, license holding company and seniors assistance program.
In 2006 Michi earned the prestigious Global Mobility Specialist designation from Worldwide ERC®, a professional membership association comprised of individuals working in global workforce and mobility professions. For the next 2 years, she also will be serving on the Board of Directors for the prestigious Relocation Directors Council. She is a frequent speaker and panelist in regional and national relocation conferences.
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Everything I worked in prior to this point brought me to where I am today. Unknowingly, my previous career experiences served as a great resource to propel me to my best business decision, which was to work in the relocation industry. I love what I do! And I have such respect for what real estate agents have to do.
I have seven people in my department who handle corporate and third-party referrals and am fortunate to have such an experienced staff. I also have a full-time employee who manages our e-business (Internet leads).
I also am fortunate that our company and our president allow our group to make the match between transferees and our relocation agents. We have complete profiles on all our agents – their hobbies and education – and it’s amazing how well we can match them. For example, if a transferee has twins, we have agents who have twins so they can have that common ground and understand the challenges facing that family.
No matter what, it is your reputation on the line that gives you more credibility. Our firm is independent; it is not a big franchise company. So when I attended my first ERC conference as the director of Alain Pinel’s Relocation Department, I was so pleased to hear people saying our agents were “so professional … so qualified.”
We have 27 offices and 1,300 agents, 400 of whom are relocation-trained agents. I have a full-time coordinator who manages our e-commerce and assigns Internet leads out to 80 Internet agents. The Internet Response Team agents have 30 minutes to respond to Internet inquiries.
I think the entire relocation industry changed after 9/11. People now are more reluctant to move, they think twice about uprooting their family. Also, with many of the group-moves today, it’s no longer about a promotion, it’s about a lateral move or consolidation. It’s move or lose a job. Transferees also are concerned about moving the spouse, their children, leaving their aging parents. All these challenges mean it’s not an easy decision, especially with the trailing spouse having a career of his/her own. So we have to sell the lifestyle of being here in the Bay Area.
The other change I have seen is in relocation policies where companies are looking for ways to cut costs. The Procurement department is much more involved in the decision process than in the past. Of course, it’s a fine line between cutting costs and not cutting service levels. I’m also seeing lump-sum benefits coming back into play – a strategy that was popular years ago. I see it used for new hires. For high-end executives, mortgage subsidies are coming back. That’s where a company will “buy down” the interest rate. It’s better than a hiring bonus because they know it’s going toward a home, and the subsidy is terminated should the employee leave the company.
The most important attributes are patience and empathy. It amazes me to see how our agents go “above and beyond.” They have to be able to work with transferees and understand their stress level. Some say dealing with a job move is up there with death and divorce for stress.
You also must be a team player. When you work with a third-party relocation company, you’re just one of the service providers. You have to give that relocation company a reason to choose you. It’s a very competitive business. In addition, there are pages of instructions you must follow and you can jeopardize the transferees’ tax benefits if you don’t. So we retrain all our relocation specialists every year.
Just because you’re a good agent, you’re not necessarily a good relocation agent. This is business you didn’t have before, so make it one portion of your business plan. The upside is that it is very desirable business, with very motivated buyers and sellers. The average transferee moves every two-to-five years, so an agent needs to stay in touch—today’s buyers will be sellers in a few years. Hopefully, this seller will request that agent to list their home. The downside is there is a lot of accountability and paperwork. For example, ERC has issued a new broker market analysis (BMA) form that expanded from three pages to six.
As soon as the agent has met our eligibility criteria (i.e., number of years in the business and sales production) they can be recommended by their manager to take the training class.
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