Kevin Wiles
President
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty
Alexandria, Virginia | www.penfedrealty.com
Region served: Midwest/DMV area
Years in real estate: 34
Number of offices: 65
Number of agents: 2,060
How does being part of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network help advance your growth?
The Berkshire Hathaway brand is globally recognized, admired and trusted. The brand is one thing that helps us attract growth-oriented entrepreneurs—what we call the “halo effect.” Our average agent closes 10 or 11 sides per year, which is significantly higher than the industry average, and I think the brand contributes to that.
In what ways is your brokerage tackling its overall innovation strategy? At Berkshire Hathaway
HomeServices PenFed Realty, we have three core values: integrity, innovation and improvement. We’re always questioning and challenging our systems or processes, how we conduct business and finding better ways to do it. Our whole mission is to “Make It Easy” for our agents so that they can focus on listing, selling and taking perfect care of their clients. The most exciting thing we’re working on is innovating our proprietary business management platform, similar to a CRM, that we originally built alongside The Rhodes Team in Texas. We’ve now expanded on and invested a lot of time, resources and capital in it so that we can launch it for all our teams and agents beginning in the fourth quarter.
What is your best piece of advice for aspiring real estate professionals?
Focus on finding value in a niche and being a trusted advocate for your clients. The first thing I would recommend is becoming a subject matter expert so that you can provide for your clients. Secondly, partner with a brokerage firm that shares your same values and will invest in your brokerage and help you grow. When it comes to business development, find your value proposition. At Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty, we say UrVP—what is your value proposition? Lastly, try to be your clients’ forever agent.
How does Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed’s Real Estate Concierge Service help agents succeed?
Our Real Estate Concierge Service (RECS) is basically an in-house creative services and transaction management agency. We provide comprehensive and heavily subsidized creative services, listing promotion and contract-to-close services. RECS allows our agents to expand their capacity and serve more clients without hiring additional staff, taking on more expense or taking on more tasks themselves.
What are some of the current trends you see in your market right now?
There’s a long-term housing shortage—with some estimates proposing that there’s an undersupply of housing by some 6 million units—and household formation continues to outpace new construction. Agents need to understand what the market fundamentals are, keep their clients informed and help them understand the current market conditions.
As the future unfolds, what are you focusing on?
We believe our strength is our growth-oriented, professional real estate entrepreneurs. We will continue to add support and service for them so that they can continue to focus on listing and selling and taking care of their clients. We want to continue to do what we’ve been doing successfully as far as attracting and supporting these growth-oriented top producers—just more, better, faster.
For more information, please visit https://www.bhhs.com/.
