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This is the second installment of Inman’s Talking Talent series on recruiting. Click here for Part 1 by Rory Golod of Compass.
At The Agency, CEO Mauricio Umancusi is “daring to do bad things.”
At least, that was the argument Mr. Umansky made when he spoke to Mr. Inman earlier this week. This conversation is part of Inman’s ongoing “Talking Talent” series about recruiting and other pressing industry issues, and Umansky’s argument is that success comes with risks and tradeoffs. It was something.
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The conversation ended up covering a wide range of topics, from commission litigation to Clear Collaboration, the National Association of Realtors, and emerging rival organizations. Mr. Umansky claimed that his company has recently experienced success in both recruiting new agents and expanding worldwide, a process that is still ongoing.
But broadly speaking, the takeaway from Umansky’s comments is that more changes may be on the horizon for the industry.
Below is a version of Inman’s conversation with Umansky, edited for length and clarity.
Inman: Talk to me about how you guys approach recruiting overall and your strategies for finding talent.
Mauricio Umansky: We try to be very selective about the people we hire. We have never focused on huge numbers. We have always focused on quality. That was our job.
But from a recruiting perspective, we’ve been very successful. we don’t promote it. To be honest, I’m uncomfortable even talking about it. You guys recently wrote an article about hiring people from outside of us, and that’s the only reason I’m talking about this.
Inman: It was a compass. You were talking to them about a similar topic and they immediately brought up your name. I was wondering if there was a rivalry between you guys.
Umansky: There is no rivalry between us and Compass. I consider Compass a collaborator and friend. we do a lot of things together. It’s certainly not something in between [Robert Reffkin] Both at the CEO level and myself.
But in terms of recruiting, we’re definitely in a positive position compared to how much we’ve lost to anyone in the past. Not just against the compass, but against everyone. I don’t choose specific companies from the perspective of always pursuing them. That’s not our style. All we’re looking for is people who fit into our culture and are great at what they do.
Inman: What type of agent fits that culture?
Umansky: Anyone interested in collaboration. And what I mean is, share. To share information and actually be part of a network, a global network. That is, someone who is interested in learning from others. We will also help you gain more referrals by building a network around the world. people who are interested in high [touch] service.
If you want to see what the culture is really like, come and spend a week with us. That’s unusual.
Inman: If you were to come visit, what would you see?
Umansky: It’s a feeling. It’s that friendship. It’s that openness. People support each other’s success.
When something negative happens in the world, whether it’s a fire or an earthquake, we come together to help. In response to what happened in Spain, we came together to help those on the ground.
Inman: Are you talking specifically about the Spanish floods? What did you guys do? I can’t remember if I heard about it.
Umansky: Well, you don’t hear about it because we don’t necessarily talk about it. But we all got together and collected money and sent it over there.
Inman: How big is it in Spain?
We currently have offices in Marbella, Mallorca and Costa Palma del Norte. We just opened Barcelona and I think we’re about to open Madrid.
Inman: You guys expanded quickly. What happens next with that effort?
Umansky: We are currently building our brand in Florida. Florida has a huge new development component. We are focusing on South America, Brazil and Colombia.
I was just in Brazil. We are in the middle of talks to open up and expand the Middle East, which is very important. The Middle East’s economy is progressing at an amazing pace. We’re just always following the money and following where everyone is going so that we can serve our customers.
Inman: Let’s go back to the United States. This year has been a tumultuous year. What are you hearing from your agents regarding commission litigation?
Umansky: There’s a lot of confusion. A huge amount of education has to take place. There is a lot of anger in the industry right now.
In addition to facing difficult times in terms of volume, brokers are also angry about the various ways in which NAR has responded, whether related to settlements or settlements. [having] It forced major brokers to pay huge bills. Agents are upset.
There is a huge amount of conversation going on about clear cooperation policies. There are great things about it, and there are also terrible things about it. But in the end, a monopoly situation is created in which people do not force you to do something, but allow competition to exist. We expect to see a lot of change in the real estate world over the next 12 to 24 months.
Inman: Given the lawsuit and settlement, what are your current thoughts on fees?
Umansky: It’s still a little early, but it looks like it’s not actually going down, it’s going up little by little. People can now only negotiate on one side of the commission instead of both sides. I think it depends on who the agent is and how good a negotiator they are. But at The Agency, we feel like we’re seeing them rise.
Inman: You’re involved with the National Association of Realtors and you’ve mentioned your anger at NAR. Do you think NAR is toast?
Umansky: I don’t think NAR is good. I think there is a world where NAR exists. I just think NAR exists arbitrarily. I think NAR still has many challenges to overcome. My prediction is that more of the non-kosher behavior they have committed over the years will continue to be exposed. I think NAR may file other lawsuits.
I don’t think it’s toast. I think they have the ability to survive and do great things for our industry. I think they just need to change politics. When you are protected for over 100 years and can do whatever you want, there are a lot of things that need to be cleaned up.
Inman: How is the National Association of Realtors doing? What is the membership and interest like?
We are growing every day. It’s growing slowly. Building market share and power and getting enough funding is difficult. But it’s definitely growing.
I don’t know exactly what we’re doing right now. The number of members is 5,000 plus or minus. We’re currently talking to someone who could potentially get 85,000 members, which would be an extraordinary acquisition. If we can get to a situation where we have 100,000 members, we can become a real association and start having a really important voice.
Inman: Did you say 85,000? That’s about the same number of agents as eXp. Is it Exp?
Umansky: It’s not eXp. Not a broker. It’s a federation.
Inman: What is the ultimate goal of the National Association of Realtors?
I think lobbying and advocacy is very important. I think teaching at the university is probably the most important thing for us. I would like to work with local Realtor associations, especially state associations, to be able to strengthen them.
We would like to lobby to make it a little more difficult to obtain a license. We believe that getting a real estate license is too easy. For most people, this is a significant investment. I want to improve the quality of real estate agents.
Inman: Let’s go back to recruiting. When you talk to potential new employees, does your leadership and advocacy come up?
Umansky: Yes. I’m sure there are people who come to our office because they find that attractive. Many people will stay away from the office because of this. So I think it’s probably a little bit of both.
I’ve said this a thousand times. To become great, you must dare to be bad. If you just want to be a good person to everyone and Vanilla, that’s exactly what you’ll become. You will become mediocre. In other words, Walmart dares to offer the best prices on the planet, but they have the worst customer service on the planet. But people don’t go there to get customer service. They seek the best pricing.
Inman: What is The Agency’s version of that? What areas do you guys excel at? What are you sacrificing?
Umansky: We are a boutique company and we dare to be. So you don’t have 20, 30, 40, 50,000 agents. That’s not what we’re looking for.
We provide attentive service. That comes at a cost. We are not a discount broker. Our agents receive a vast array of services ranging from marketing, PR, technology, listing presentation, and education. As such, we may not have the highest fees to split with agents. I’d like to split the commission 100 percent, but that’s not possible with an agency.
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