\u201cEssentially, we are reinventing the brokerage business and traditional agent support model.\u201d As UrbanLand Company owner and Principal Broker Gerard DiRuggiero utters these words it\u2019s with an impressive blend of confidence and excitement. \u201cHow we do that is through lead generation for our agents. We build agents\u2019 businesses by providing them with in-house leads that we generate through dozens of websites that we maintain. In addition, we run a series of home buying and home selling workshops that alone have generated over 800 RSVPs and another 500 Facebook RSVPs.\u201d<\/p>\n
In just the last year alone, the company has held more than 175 such workshop events in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia markets. These are held several times a week at various locations and times in order to make them available and convenient for virtually everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough that ever-expanding network of prospective clients, we\u2019ve generated roughly $41 million in closed transactions that we delivered to our agents, which is in addition to all the transactions they have generated on their own. While many other brokers focus on their top producers, we specialize in building all our agents\u2019 businesses,\u201d DiRuggiero says.<\/p>\n
Apparently, it\u2019s a system that works. Since they first began \u201creinventing the brokerage business,\u201d UrbanLand Company has consistently maintained a steady stream of very desirable, highly qualified and interested buyers and sellers which they in turn feed to their agents. Since they began tracking the success of this pipeline four years ago, they\u2019ve generated 133 closed transactions directly from these efforts and in addition to all their other business.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a very simple, mathematical formula. Leads, prospects and referrals equal transactions. And, the company is there to support their agents every step of the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome anyone who is professional, sincere, and hard-working who brings enthusiasm, motivation and a \u2018can-do\u2019 attitude to the table,\u201d DiRuggiero says. \u201cWith these qualities and our system, anyone can become a top producer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have a fresh approach to phone duty,\u201d he continues, \u201cwhere we have a colleague who answers the calls, warms up the leads and directs them to an agent based on her or his expertise, areas where the agent is doing business and availability. We believe agents\u2019 time is better spent with the clients. We get dozens of phone calls from a variety of sources but rather than have a multitude of agents answering the calls, we have one individual who is specifically trained to screen and \u2018warm-up\u2019 the prospect and systematically assign the lead where it seems most appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unique to the business in our area as far as I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, there\u2019s much more to succeeding in any business than simply providing the right leads. Passed along to the untrained or unprepared agent, these hard-won prospects would certainly be wasted. That\u2019s why in addition to acquiring and supplying these leads, UrbanLand Company also takes great pains to ensure their agents are educated, trained and ready.<\/p>\n
Using the same care and dedication applied to their numerous buyer\/seller workshops, UrbanLand Company has created a sophisticated training program suited to agents regardless of how much time and experience they\u2019ve had in the industry. \u201cWe don\u2019t train agents in the traditional sense,\u201d says DiRuggiero. \u201cFor instance, I think assigned mentoring has some drawbacks and depends heavily on the individual mentor\u2019s available time, client base and willingness to show a rookie agent the ropes.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead we offer \u2018agent guidance.\u2019 It\u2019s a program run by Trish DiRuggiero, who is an attorney as well as an agent, so she\u2019s very detail-oriented and experience-driven. She provides guidance sessions, as well as one-on-one attention, teaching agents how to operate in the field and providing them transactional advice. This includes everything from how to use the lockboxes to the forms to more advanced and finer points of sales and closing the deal. She also instructs them on how to take advantage of our marketing program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t use that word \u2018training\u2019 because agents who are experienced are going to say, \u2018I don\u2019t need training,\u2019 but most agents can use and would welcome guidance in a variety of situations that can arise,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Building a business, whether real estate, banking or whatever, requires many interlocking parts. UrbanLand Company obviously addresses the prospects and training, but there is a third and equally important aspect to success which is marketing. While most large brokerages focus on the company brand, DiRuggiero not only teaches his agents how to present themselves to potential clients but gives them a leg-up with the branding and marketing strategies already in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a very active social media platform and the resources and know-how to have a very savvy presence online,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have been doing this for years and have built up an excellent and active network. Agents who affiliate with us can participate in our \u2018agent exposure\u2019 program which uses social media, open houses, property tours, workshops and farming to get agents in the field and marketing themselves immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce agents are active in our agent exposure program, we begin to introduce them to flow of online leads, phone contacts, and appointments generated in-house by our agent leads generation program,\u201d DiRuggiero continues. \u201cThe backbone of our lead engagement, warm-up and follow-up system is a cloud-based collaborative CRM that every agent uses. Our agents use a follow-up methodology that calls for a minimum of about 29 customer touches per year; most of our CRM training revolves around using follow-up to convert leads into active clients and sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve sold a thousand new condos in D.C. in our 15-year history,\u201d DiRuggiero points out. \u201cThe brokerage actually started by selling dozens of new construction condominium projects in emerging D.C. neighborhoods. These are projects ranging in size from just a few units to landmarks like the 92-unit Parker Flats and 118-unit Floridian projects. This condo experience is a big part of how we became so savvy with the web early on. Even back in 2003, we were maintaining project-specific websites and collecting email address and leads. Over the years, our website network has grown to cover a variety of real estate topics that enable us to generate exceptionally good prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, we\u2019ve sold over half-a-billion dollars\u2019 worth of real estate using these methods, so I\u2019d say it\u2019s been pretty successful,\u201d he adds with a grin. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret that building a business takes time but joining us cuts that time significantly primarily because we have all the systems in place as well as the expertise and knowledge to help our agents get a jump start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given everything that UrbanLand Company offers to agents, regardless of whether they are rookies or veterans of the industry, the obvious question is, \u201cWhat\u2019s the catch?\u201d DiRuggiero says there is no catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe offer a compelling package to agents that includes no desk fees, high-quality back office support, local market knowledge, customized training and lead\/ commission opportunities that are unique to the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are a sales-driven organization with mature volume channels in new construction, first-time homebuyers, premium properties, land\/site acquisition for developers, and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of what we\u2019ve built here,\u201d he adds. \u201cProud of our reputation that is evidenced by repeat clients and significant referrals, and very proud of our agents. We hold ourselves to a high standard of training, support and brokerage participation in exclusive leads from our in-house program. We have a team that feels respected, appreciated and well-rewarded for their hard work. We work diligently for our clients and support one another\u2019s efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
UrbanLand Company owns and operates three regional real estate offices in northwest D.C., northeast D.C. and Baltimore City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cEssentially, we are reinventing the brokerage business and traditional agent support model.\u201d As UrbanLand Company owner and Principal Broker Gerard DiRuggiero utters these words it\u2019s with an impressive blend of confidence and excitement. \u201cHow we do that is through lead generation for our agents. We build agents\u2019 businesses by providing them with in-house leads that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-washington-dc","tag-feature"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realestateagentmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}