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So, Sonny, tell me about your vision.

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Well, years ago, I wanted to go into real estate with my wife into a partnership.

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This was back about 25 years ago.

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And I wasn't quite sure what the vision would be, what we would do, how we would do it.

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But we had three or four months where I had a chance to think about what we hope to do.

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And so I visualized a company that in real estate that would put the client first in all matters.

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I visualized a company that would deliver a level of service and professionalism way above the norm.

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In fact, would be the absolute best at delivering quality service to the real estate world profession.

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And putting the client first.

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And I visualized a firm that would be so focused on marketing, professionalism and marketing.

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I did quite a bit of research, Harry.

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I first research I did was look at how other real estate agents operated.

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And that research led me to believe that they were kind of shoot from the hip.

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You know what I mean?

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They did things more on a need to basis.

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And so I went to this vision of was delivering a level of service that was so far beyond the norm

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that I could do things.

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Let me just give you a quick example.

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In tenant representation in large buildings, it was pretty well known that the agent for the tenant

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was primarily someone who would introduce people to each other, make the connection.

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But they didn't do a whole lot beyond that.

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And so I visualized where a relationship where I would be not only a superior real estate agent,

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but would also be someone who could do space filing, who could design office space,

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who was ahead of the...

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Now, this came from the fact that I had been doing consulting in large building real estate

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projects for 10 or 12 years.

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So I had the knowledge and the skill sets to do these things.

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So I visualized a way to deliver a superior level of service with highly professional

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connectivity with them.

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And that I would separate myself from the average and the other agents that are in that field,

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in that space, to such a degree that the prospect would feel compelled to choose me.

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In fact, I came up with a vision.

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I want to make such an overpowering, a powerful presentation filled with such benefit and value

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that the prospect intrinsically said, I want to choose him.

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I wanted to have it be...

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The concept professionalism is synonymous with value,

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basically goes on the intuitive thinking concept.

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And that is, this is psychology based, but Wegener, Daniel Wegener wrote a book about

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intuitive thinking.

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And then this book he talked about, he talked about the idea of the idea of the idea of

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principles.

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And he talked about how people form opinions in their unconscious mind.

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So when I sought to create a marketing system in a sales process methodology, that when

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I met with someone that we would cause them to internally feel compelled to choose us

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of the overwhelming professionalism and quality and presentation that we were doing.

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So my vision was to create a really different company than the typical real estate company.

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In fact, our company did residential real estate, tenant representation in large building

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commercial real estate and consulting.

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And that was almost unheard of in our area at the time.

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These either did commercial or did residential, but they didn't do both.

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And few had the consulting element with it.

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So my vision was to create this and from that vision, I began to develop a business model.

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And in that business model, I outlined in writing how I would go about doing this.

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So I created an entity that was called the O'Day Moyers Group, which is now called the

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Renaissance Group.

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And that company was highly successful for over 20 years in real estate.

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And at one point, I was named the top realtor in Dallas metropolitan area by the Dallas

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Builders Association.

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Only one person could receive that award.

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I was fortunate enough to win that.

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So we won a lot of awards and really great money.

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But I think that I kept true to the vision.

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And that was to go by the slogan with us, it's all about you.

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And that's how we treated our clients.

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We put the clients first, it all matters.

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Our primary goal was to deliver a level of service to someone that they would feel compelled

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to choose us and then recommend us.

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And that's what I did.

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And we were fortunate enough to be very successful.

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My wife and I were partners.

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She was the lead in the residential side for a period of time.

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And I was the lead on the commercial real estate tenant representation in large buildings

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and the consulting side of the business.

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Essentially, the fundamental thing was solve problems, help clients be successful by helping

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them solve problems.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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You mentioned your vision in past tense was and what you did with Renaissance Group.

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Can you tell me more about that?

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Yeah, the past vision was when I started, of course, I did not know how.

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I did not know how when I came up with this vision and the business model.

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I did not know how.

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Let me just give you an example.

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Harry there are a million five hundred and twenty thousand real estate agents that are

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affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, the industry trade association.

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There are three million people in the United States that do real estate, they have a license.

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Now there's three hundred and thirty million people in the United States, roughly.

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If you divide that by three million, you get a very small number of people and not all

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those people are in the market to buy or sell a home or lease office space.

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So there's a significant number of people that compete with you in the market area.

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So I wanted to come up with something called a differentiator, a differentiating factor,

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something that would cause us to stand apart from the other people that we were competing

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against.

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And so I developed this whole professionalism, this synonymous with value concept, and I

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tied it to the goal of being the best marketing organization in the business.

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And then I tied that together by putting together some tools and some things that would demonstrate

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that professionalism to a level that the prospect would be overwhelmed with it and say no one

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else does this and create that differentiating factor.

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So it took me a while to put all this together.

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But as I did and as I created these systems, methods and procedures and practices that

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became our company, I was able to write a marketing plan based upon the business model

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that I had created from the vision that I had envisioned from the very beginning.

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And that marketing plan allowed me to put in place tactical plans and strategies that

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would accomplish the goals and objectives of what I had set out to do.

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So where is that vision right now?

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What is that doing right now?

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Well, the vision right now changed quite a bit over a period of 25 years.

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One thing that happened was about eight years ago, my wife suffered a massive stroke and

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caused us to take a business that had two principal people in it.

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My wife was the managing partner on one side, I was the other managing partner, and she

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had to retire from business because of her illness.

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And so that made me change.

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So now I moved from being affiliated with another realtor called Ebby Halliday Realtors.

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Previously it was the O'Day Moyers Group with Ebby Halliday Realtors.

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And I formed my own company called the Renaissance Group.

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And I changed my business model from being someone who was very aggressive at marketing

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to get new clients to more of a boutique.

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That's an overused word, but it is true.

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I only, right now, I primarily work with people who I have worked with before or someone who's

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referred to me by someone I have worked with before.

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So I'm not doing the outreach and proactive marketing that I did in that 20 year period

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that Judy and I were building our business.

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So the way it's migrated to because of the health issues is to me being a smart, and

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of course I'm also older, as you can probably tell.

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I'd say I'm a little bit older than you, Perry.

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I'm 73 and I would guess that you're under 40.

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28.

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28.

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Well, you're very young and very bright to be running this podcast and I commend you

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for that.

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Thank you.

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But being at the age I'm at right now, I don't want to work 80 hours a week, which is what

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I did some weeks in my business.

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I don't want to do that kind of business anymore.

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And so where the vision has changed over time is, and one great thing about real estate

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is you can work until you're 75 or 80 years old if you're healthy.

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And so that's what I'm doing now.

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I have a boutique company.

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I don't have anyone else in the company, other agents working for me, and I could and I have

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in the past, but I don't know.

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Now what the other part of that vision was to migrate and kind of reinvent myself, and

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that's the reason that I wrote this book, The Architecture of the Real Estate Practice,

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How to Build a Real Estate Company, and How to Be Successful in Real Estate Over a Long

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Period of Time.

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And so I've moved toward not just doing it, but also teaching it.

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This is a textbook.

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It's not a book about how to get rich overnight, not about contracts.

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It's about how to build a real estate practice that will stand up through the test of time

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and change.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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So what would you say is your primary focus?

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Is it the book or educating people or?

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Well they're inextricably linked.

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Most people who see my book realize that it is a demonstration of the level of commitment

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that we had in real estate.

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So the people that have bought the book or read the book, it gives them a thorough understanding

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of how we are different from the typical real estate agent and how we are more about problem

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solving.

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We use a consultative problem solving approach rather than a product sales oriented approach.

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We don't really sell houses.

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We don't release buildings.

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We help clients solve problems.

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And that's the approach we've taken and that's why we've been so successful.

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Well that goes to my next question for you.

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Sure.

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Where are you going with your vision at this point?

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Well I think my vision at this point is that I have a unique business model.

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And in my book I share that business model with the people who buy the book.

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Now I've reached a certain point in my life where I want to share what I've learned with

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other people.

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You know there are a lot of people in real estate who come into real estate and fail.

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There are a lot of people who don't have a vision, don't know how to create a business

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model and without a business model and a vision it's pretty hard to write a marketing plan.

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And in real estate brokerage marketing is probably 75 to 90 percent of the expense in

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a typical brokerage firm.

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So if they don't know how to write a business model and they don't know how to create a

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marketing plan they're probably not going to be successful in real estate.

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And that's why you have a very high turnover in agents and offices.

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People come into the business that are totally unprepared.

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I would like to share I taught real estate at the Ebby Halliday Career Development Center

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for about three years and I shared with new agents how to get started in real estate and

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how to build their business.

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This book is simply a continuation of that.

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So I guess what I would say is I created something new and different.

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I'm sharing it now.

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I'm sharing it because you know I've made some really great money in my life and I'm

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not really doing the book to make money.

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Although everyone likes to be successful in what they're doing I think.

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But I think my real goal here is to help people to not come into real estate and fail.

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And I think your podcast vision pros, many people I love the concept by the way, but

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many people go into real estate without a vision.

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They think it's a job.

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They think most people, most people are socially conditioned, especially in the United States,

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to think that real estate agents are all successful.

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They all make a lot of money.

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They drive an expensive car and they probably belong to a country club.

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And that's not the case.

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There are a lot of real estate agents that struggle.

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So I guess the next continuation is to write books.

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While I continue to do my real estate and provide superior client care to my clients

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that I work with.

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You know I think that's where it's headed is for me to help other people.

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I've been successful in what I've done so I'm sharing that.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time

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and attention.

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I hope you have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro

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yourself.