A New Agent Population Keeps Edina Future Friendly

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A New Agent Population Keeps Edina Future Friendly

By Maria Patterson

As the youngest of five, it’s really no surprise that Bob Peltier recognized early on the importance of recruiting the younger generation into the real estate field. As president of Minnesota-based Edina Realty-a role he assumed in 2002 after moving up through the company since his start there as a sales associate in 1978-Peltier knew that in order to maintain the company’s steady success and healthy market share, it would have to be prepared for real estate’s shifting landscape.

“In the ’70s it was all about the broker and in the ’80s and early ’90s it was all about the agent,” Peltier explains. “In the late ’90s and the 2000s it’s about partnering. It’s more of a joint venturing and meeting of the minds. There’s a common understanding that we provide value and they provide value and both are important.”

Along with this new agent/broker partnership philosophy at Edina came a new recruiting philosophy, as well. Moving from a strategy of hiring experienced agents who could hit the ground running, Peltier now focuses on recruiting younger candidates, often right out of college. “The focus here for 26 years was always on hiring experienced agents. We changed our focus about three years ago,” says Peltier, “when NAR statistics said that the average age of a Realtor was 55. Our company is hitting its 50th birthday in January and the average age of our Realtors is 54. Looking at these facts, we realized that if we’re going to continue to succeed, we need to find a whole new agent group and concentrate our efforts on bringing young agents into the business.”

With this goal in mind, Peltier and his team have focused on recruiting candidates right out of college and in doing so have managed to drop the average age of their sales associate group to the 43- to 45-year-old range. This new generation of agents, says Peltier, brings enthusiasm, excitement, college degrees and MBAs to Edina’s table.

According to Peltier, this demographic group is attracted to Edina and the real estate business in general for the promise and lifestyle it offers. “We find young attorneys, for example, who are not willing to work 80 hours a week for someone else, but are happy to work 80 hours a week for themselves.” Peltier explains.

Peltier sees this recruiting direction as similar to his own path at Edina. “We are selling Edina as the company of choice for those young go-getters. We have changed our focus from hiring the most experienced agents, to growing our own agents who can grow up with Edina as I did. They’re learning our lifestyle, motivation and interests. We’re about caring for our agents for the long-term.”

Finding Youth

Peltier’s strategy for finding and attracting younger aged agents was brilliant in its simplicity. Instead of reaching out to his sphere of influence, Peltier and his team turned to their children and asked them to reach out to their twenty-something friends. “We went to our kids and said, ‘bring your buddies in.’ We speak at colleges on career days and our marketing department produces special recruiting ads geared toward the younger set. We use some of their catch phrases and their lingo. We’re going where they are.”

Peltier enrolls new recruits in Edina’s three-week training program, which takes them through the A to Z of Edina Realty and the real estate business. This training focuses on many of the fundamental aspects of being a real estate agent, such as listing presentations and pitch books.

“The new agents have to know how to do a full blown CMA and they have to be able to take it and present this information properly and professionally,” says Peltier. “We’ve been able to train them that prospecting is a big issue. They’re not coming in with a big referral base so they have to get out and prospect. It’s not the old model of prospecting to family and friends … they’re prospecting to their parent’s friends.”

Fundamentals in Vogue Again

New recruits at Edina are stepping foot into a healthy, but shifting market situation. According to Peltier, sales are on target to be about 5% ahead of last year, but the number of homes in the Minnesota, western Wisconsin and the Fargo market have increased 35%. “This changes the way we have to go out there and do business,” says Peltier. “Good homes will always see multiple offers, but it’s switched from a definite sellers market toward a more balanced market that’s trending toward buyers. We haven’t seen that in about four years.”

With real estate starting to come off perhaps its greatest era ever, many more experienced agents have foregone fundamentals in order to carve a more direct path to commissions. As Peltier explains, many agents have felt that they have enough referral business and have, therefore, not needed traditional prospecting tools like open houses. “When you have gotten away from that for four or five years and have been able to make income without having to do that, the problem ends up that as the market changes you have to get back into the fundamentals and now you’re not very comfortable with it. When you’ve enjoyed not having to do things like open houses on Sundays, it’s hard to get back into doing it.”

According to Peltier, keeping new agents well versed in the fundamentals allows them to be professional right off the shoot. This is contrary to many experienced agents who have moved away from the basics-like listing presentations and comps-due to the strength of the real estate market in recent years. For Peltier this is a slippery slope, believing that an increasingly balanced market will necessitate a return to fundamentals.

Room for Growth

Peltier has managed to not only recruit but retain a new agent generation by offering a competitive commission schedule, state-of-the-art offices, and a robust technology platform and Web site.

While the market might be headed toward greater balance, Peltier still sees growth opportunity for his company and his agents, primarily in emerging markets.

“I look at the growth that’s happening in the country and the Census Bureau figures and I see a whole segment of the population that is currently underserved. We’re making diversity a big push for Edina. This is an area where we’ve not done an admirable job in the past. We’re now learning how to understand those markets and how to work with folks who have a different culture than we do. We’re focusing on better understanding their cultures and their needs, wants and lifestyles.”