As of April 2004, Robert Moles was named Chairman of Intero Real Estate Services. Mr. Moles, a self-proclaimed student of real estate for over 25 years, is widely regarded as a distinguished leader in the industry and a keen observer in the areas of policy and market trends.
Prior to joining Intero, Mr. Moles was the President and CEO of the Real Estate Franchise Group of Cendant Corporation, the largest franchiser of residential and commercial real estate brokerage offices in the world. As CEO of the group, Moles oversaw the Century 21®, Coldwell Banker®, Coldwell Banker Commercial®, ERA® and Sotheby’s International Realty® real estate companies, which combined have more than 13,000 franchised offices and more than 262,800 brokers and agents worldwide.
In 1997, Mr. Moles was named President and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate Corporation, the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization. During his tenure as President and CEO, he is credited with re-establishing and enhancing the brand’s leadership position with the introduction of its “Vision 2100” strategic plan. Under Vision 2100, the company initiated and completed the following programs: an award-winning advertising and promotions campaign, a state-of-the-art technology-based training platform, a redesigned and enhanced Web site, a new Internet-based transaction reporting system, and an improved franchise support system. Prior to Century 21, Mr. Moles was President/CEO of Contempo Realty, Inc., in Santa Clara, CA. Under his leadership, Contempo’s annual transaction volume grew from $85 million to more than $2.4 billion.
Mr. Moles is recognized as a leader in the area of developing relocation and financial services for brokers. He has led the industry in advocating the creation of value-added services for the purpose of recruiting and retaining agents, and to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s consumers.
There are two major changes that are occurring in the real estate industry:
First, consolidation is continually driving our business and the value attached to it. Years ago, I used to open real estate offices and pay anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per office. Then that increased to about $500,000 and now $2 million. Things have really changed from that perspective.
Second, technology is also continuing to drive changes in our business at both the agent and broker level – it’s something we need to pay attention to and keep up with on a constant basis.
I can’t possibly mention people without missing some significant names. Essentially, the trendsetters are those people who are leaders of major National and Regional brokerages.
At a very basic level, if we look at studies conducted by NAR, we will see that there is a huge disconnect between the demographics of home buyers (especially first time home buyers) and sales associates representing the real estate industry. There is a significant age differential and this alone impacts expectations of consumers.
Consumers begin their home searches on-line, they look for information faster, want a quicker response time, and expect to be kept informed on a constant basis – we have to take all that into account when trying to meet their expectations and fill their real estate needs.
The MLS system - this is one of my favorite topics! I am not sure how many MLS systems we need in the country but I am absolutely sure that we do not need 800 of them! They need to police their own house, become much more stream lined, much more efficient, and simply much fewer!
It’s ridiculous that a company like Intero has to belong to 25 or 30 MLS organizations. It’s insane that our sales associates have to pay dues for all of these MLS. There has been progress, but not nearly enough.
It’s not the job of the MLS to ensure Broker profitability. It’s the Broker’s responsibility to create a business model that runs profitably. The MLS is an information sharing system – nothing more than that. In fact, if the MLS took a stab at trying to involve itself in Broker profitability, I am afraid that their efforts would probably do more damage than good.
As a company, Intero is a model that fundamentally influences positive change in the real estate industry. Four years ago, Intero wasn’t even in existence and now we are at 2000 agents and 50+ offices. We are a company that exemplifies innovation – and our leadership in this area will continue to change the real estate industry in a positive way. It’s a reflection of the people I work with – they are all terrific. I realize that this is all self serving but I believe it to be true. How else do you explain our results over the past four years.
Good to Great
Built to Last
Atlas Shrugged – This book in particular had a great influence on the philosophy that I have about running not only a company but also my life.
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I would also advise anyone trying to move ahead in their careers to treat people well, do the right thing, keep up with tools and technologies, but more than all that… the harder you work, the luckier you get.
When asked, "If there anything in my career that I would do differently?", I must respond, "not at all".
Everything I did was the right thing to do at the time. What a trip this has been. I could not have asked for a more fascinating series of experiences with respect to my career.
