So, Sonny, tell me about your vision.
Well, years ago, I wanted to go into real estate with my wife into a partnership.
This was back about 25 years ago.
And I wasn't quite sure what the vision would be, what we would do, how we would do it.
But we had three or four months where I had a chance to think about what we hope to do.
And so I visualized a company that in real estate that would put the client first in all matters.
I visualized a company that would deliver a level of service and professionalism way above the norm.
In fact, would be the absolute best at delivering quality service to the real estate world profession.
And putting the client first.
And I visualized a firm that would be so focused on marketing, professionalism and marketing.
I did quite a bit of research, Harry.
I first research I did was look at how other real estate agents operated.
And that research led me to believe that they were kind of shoot from the hip.
You know what I mean?
They did things more on a need to basis.
And so I went to this vision of was delivering a level of service that was so far beyond the norm
that I could do things.
Let me just give you a quick example.
In tenant representation in large buildings, it was pretty well known that the agent for the tenant
was primarily someone who would introduce people to each other, make the connection.
But they didn't do a whole lot beyond that.
And so I visualized where a relationship where I would be not only a superior real estate agent,
but would also be someone who could do space filing, who could design office space,
who was ahead of the...
Now, this came from the fact that I had been doing consulting in large building real estate
projects for 10 or 12 years.
So I had the knowledge and the skill sets to do these things.
So I visualized a way to deliver a superior level of service with highly professional
connectivity with them.
And that I would separate myself from the average and the other agents that are in that field,
in that space, to such a degree that the prospect would feel compelled to choose me.
In fact, I came up with a vision.
I want to make such an overpowering, a powerful presentation filled with such benefit and value
that the prospect intrinsically said, I want to choose him.
I wanted to have it be...
The concept professionalism is synonymous with value,
basically goes on the intuitive thinking concept.
And that is, this is psychology based, but Wegener, Daniel Wegener wrote a book about
intuitive thinking.
And then this book he talked about, he talked about the idea of the idea of the idea of
principles.
And he talked about how people form opinions in their unconscious mind.
So when I sought to create a marketing system in a sales process methodology, that when
I met with someone that we would cause them to internally feel compelled to choose us
of the overwhelming professionalism and quality and presentation that we were doing.
So my vision was to create a really different company than the typical real estate company.
In fact, our company did residential real estate, tenant representation in large building
commercial real estate and consulting.
And that was almost unheard of in our area at the time.
These either did commercial or did residential, but they didn't do both.
And few had the consulting element with it.
So my vision was to create this and from that vision, I began to develop a business model.
And in that business model, I outlined in writing how I would go about doing this.
So I created an entity that was called the O'Day Moyers Group, which is now called the
Renaissance Group.
And that company was highly successful for over 20 years in real estate.
And at one point, I was named the top realtor in Dallas metropolitan area by the Dallas
Builders Association.
Only one person could receive that award.
I was fortunate enough to win that.
So we won a lot of awards and really great money.
But I think that I kept true to the vision.
And that was to go by the slogan with us, it's all about you.
And that's how we treated our clients.
We put the clients first, it all matters.
Our primary goal was to deliver a level of service to someone that they would feel compelled
to choose us and then recommend us.
And that's what I did.
And we were fortunate enough to be very successful.
My wife and I were partners.
She was the lead in the residential side for a period of time.
And I was the lead on the commercial real estate tenant representation in large buildings
and the consulting side of the business.
Essentially, the fundamental thing was solve problems, help clients be successful by helping
them solve problems.
Thank you for sharing that.
You mentioned your vision in past tense was and what you did with Renaissance Group.
Can you tell me more about that?
Yeah, the past vision was when I started, of course, I did not know how.
I did not know how when I came up with this vision and the business model.
I did not know how.
Let me just give you an example.
Harry there are a million five hundred and twenty thousand real estate agents that are
affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, the industry trade association.
There are three million people in the United States that do real estate, they have a license.
Now there's three hundred and thirty million people in the United States, roughly.
If you divide that by three million, you get a very small number of people and not all
those people are in the market to buy or sell a home or lease office space.
So there's a significant number of people that compete with you in the market area.
So I wanted to come up with something called a differentiator, a differentiating factor,
something that would cause us to stand apart from the other people that we were competing
against.
And so I developed this whole professionalism, this synonymous with value concept, and I
tied it to the goal of being the best marketing organization in the business.
And then I tied that together by putting together some tools and some things that would demonstrate
that professionalism to a level that the prospect would be overwhelmed with it and say no one
else does this and create that differentiating factor.
So it took me a while to put all this together.
But as I did and as I created these systems, methods and procedures and practices that
became our company, I was able to write a marketing plan based upon the business model
that I had created from the vision that I had envisioned from the very beginning.
And that marketing plan allowed me to put in place tactical plans and strategies that
would accomplish the goals and objectives of what I had set out to do.
So where is that vision right now?
What is that doing right now?
Well, the vision right now changed quite a bit over a period of 25 years.
One thing that happened was about eight years ago, my wife suffered a massive stroke and
caused us to take a business that had two principal people in it.
My wife was the managing partner on one side, I was the other managing partner, and she
had to retire from business because of her illness.
And so that made me change.
So now I moved from being affiliated with another realtor called Ebby Halliday Realtors.
Previously it was the O'Day Moyers Group with Ebby Halliday Realtors.
And I formed my own company called the Renaissance Group.
And I changed my business model from being someone who was very aggressive at marketing
to get new clients to more of a boutique.
That's an overused word, but it is true.
I only, right now, I primarily work with people who I have worked with before or someone who's
referred to me by someone I have worked with before.
So I'm not doing the outreach and proactive marketing that I did in that 20 year period
that Judy and I were building our business.
So the way it's migrated to because of the health issues is to me being a smart, and
of course I'm also older, as you can probably tell.
I'd say I'm a little bit older than you, Perry.
I'm 73 and I would guess that you're under 40.
28.
Well, you're very young and very bright to be running this podcast and I commend you
for that.
Thank you.
But being at the age I'm at right now, I don't want to work 80 hours a week, which is what
I did some weeks in my business.
I don't want to do that kind of business anymore.
And so where the vision has changed over time is, and one great thing about real estate
is you can work until you're 75 or 80 years old if you're healthy.
And so that's what I'm doing now.
I have a boutique company.
I don't have anyone else in the company, other agents working for me, and I could and I have
in the past, but I don't know.
Now what the other part of that vision was to migrate and kind of reinvent myself, and
that's the reason that I wrote this book, The Architecture of the Real Estate Practice,
How to Build a Real Estate Company, and How to Be Successful in Real Estate Over a Long
Period of Time.
And so I've moved toward not just doing it, but also teaching it.
This is a textbook.
It's not a book about how to get rich overnight, not about contracts.
It's about how to build a real estate practice that will stand up through the test of time
and change.
Thank you for sharing that.
So what would you say is your primary focus?
Is it the book or educating people or?
Well they're inextricably linked.
Most people who see my book realize that it is a demonstration of the level of commitment
that we had in real estate.
So the people that have bought the book or read the book, it gives them a thorough understanding
of how we are different from the typical real estate agent and how we are more about problem
solving.
We use a consultative problem solving approach rather than a product sales oriented approach.
We don't really sell houses.
We don't release buildings.
We help clients solve problems.
And that's the approach we've taken and that's why we've been so successful.
Well that goes to my next question for you.
Sure.
Where are you going with your vision at this point?
Well I think my vision at this point is that I have a unique business model.
And in my book I share that business model with the people who buy the book.
Now I've reached a certain point in my life where I want to share what I've learned with
other people.
You know there are a lot of people in real estate who come into real estate and fail.
There are a lot of people who don't have a vision, don't know how to create a business
model and without a business model and a vision it's pretty hard to write a marketing plan.
And in real estate brokerage marketing is probably 75 to 90 percent of the expense in
a typical brokerage firm.
So if they don't know how to write a business model and they don't know how to create a
marketing plan they're probably not going to be successful in real estate.
And that's why you have a very high turnover in agents and offices.
People come into the business that are totally unprepared.
I would like to share I taught real estate at the Ebby Halliday Career Development Center
for about three years and I shared with new agents how to get started in real estate and
how to build their business.
This book is simply a continuation of that.
So I guess what I would say is I created something new and different.
I'm sharing it now.
I'm sharing it because you know I've made some really great money in my life and I'm
not really doing the book to make money.
Although everyone likes to be successful in what they're doing I think.
But I think my real goal here is to help people to not come into real estate and fail.
And I think your podcast vision pros, many people I love the concept by the way, but
many people go into real estate without a vision.
They think it's a job.
They think most people, most people are socially conditioned, especially in the United States,
to think that real estate agents are all successful.
They all make a lot of money.
They drive an expensive car and they probably belong to a country club.
And that's not the case.
There are a lot of real estate agents that struggle.
So I guess the next continuation is to write books.
While I continue to do my real estate and provide superior client care to my clients
that I work with.
You know I think that's where it's headed is for me to help other people.
I've been successful in what I've done so I'm sharing that.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time
and attention.
I hope you have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro
yourself.