Posts from June 2021
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2
Get to Know Napier Realtors ERA
Jim Napier likes to tell this one story about his dad.Â
In the early days of what would eventually be Napier Realtors ERA, his father, Oscar, who founded the company, originally Napier and Savage Realtors, with Bernard Savage in 1958, always kept a handful of clip-on ties in the top drawer of his desk. Fabric with a variety of patterns and color choices sat in that drawer, ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice or whenever the elder Napier believed one of his agents needed to spruce up their look a bit. But, this wasn't a fashion show; it was a matter of establishing Napier's reputation.
With his business growing, Oscar knew that the first step toward success was dressing the part. So, he filled his drawer, handed out clip-on ties whenever he had to, and began building from the ground up, making sure every facet of the company looked its, literal, best for whoever came in the door next.
"That's what he stood for," Napier says of his father, "being honest, being ethical, and being professional. I always remember a friend of my father's, he said, 'Your dad is honest above and beyond the call of duty.' That's what we've tried to carry through."
And while there might not be a drawer filled with ties any longer, Napier ERA has grown from that single office on Richmond's south side to a four-office firm with over 130 agents. Some things, however, have stayed the same: Still family-owned, still a respected part of the communities it serves. More than anything, Napier boasts people who, at their core, want to look their best and do their best every day for as long as they possibly can.
"We never aspired to be the largest firm or have the most agents or do the most closings," says Mark Joyner, Executive Vice President, Partner, and Managing Broker of Napier's West End Office. "We always wanted to have the best people. And you have the best people by starting with great people, then making sure they're educated, having a good time, and hitting their goals."
Growing Together
The history of Napier Realtors ERA doesn't begin with houses. Instead, it starts somewhere rather unexpected: a local grocer. Growing up in West Virginia, Oscar Napier's family owned a grocery store, and after serving in World War II, before turning his attention to real estate, he opened his own store, serving his community in the late '40s and early '50s by helping feed it. Simply put, he wanted to help people. So, it only made sense that he kept that mindset when he shifted careers.
No matter who Napier is working with, the company wants to help. And that philosophy has led to success.
Even with its humble beginnings, Napier was the number two firm in market share after opening its doors, leading to growth that came quickly and sparked a new era of the company's history. Napier and Savage went their separate ways in the mid-70s, and it was around that time that Jim and his brother joined the company. Then, in the late '80s and early '90s, Napier expanded its market: west to Powhatan, north to Henrico County, and, most recently, to the Tri-Cities, Petersburg, and Colonial Heights areas.
As Napier continued to evolve, it also took on a somewhat youthful mindset.
Jim Napier was only in his late thirties when he took over the company in 1990, and Joyner says, "having a young president like that set the stage for Napier to grow." In fact, Joyner is one of Napier ERA's youth-focused success stories, running the Henrico office in 1998 when he was 29 years old.
"I thought [Jim] was looking to bring me on with the company because I had a fairly strong real estate business role," Joyner recalls. "And he said, 'No, no, no.
I'd like you to run my west end, our Henrico office.' I looked at him, and I said, 'Jim, you've got agents in that office that have been doing business longer than I've been alive.' And I'll never forget. He immediately fired back. He said, 'And you know what? Those are the agents that need you the most.'"
Finding a balance between youth and experience has been one of Napier ERA's strengths for decades. This has helped create an inclusive atmosphere that draws people to Napier ERA and makes them want to keep working. In fact, according to Director of Information Systems Jeff Hardy, the average tenure of Napier's agents is around a decade. That's nearly double the average for other companies.
"From top to bottom, we try to include everybody in the company and make conscious efforts to bring new people in," Joyner says.
One of those people, actually, was Hardy, who was hired in 2004. Not only did Hardy's arrival allow Napier ERA to expand its tech offerings, but it gave agents a built-in support system for all their technology needs and questions. Few local companies offer anything similar, and it's that commitment to helping their people that continues to separate Napier ERA from the rest of the real estate pack.
Taking Technology to the Next Level
Buoyed by their tech prowess and virtual know-how, Napier ERA didn't stumble during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Napier settled into its new normal, staging the same virtual tours they've been doing for years and posting YouTube videos for all properties.
"We didn't have to rebuild the wheel," Joyner says. "We shifted gears and focused more on resources we already had."
"Within a week or two weeks of the shut-down starting, we were doing virtual town halls with our agents," adds Hardy, who says the majority of agents attended. "It ended up being a great forum that we were doing weekly at the time."
Napier ERA's tech-focused mindset is also evident in its longstanding partnership with Delta Media Group®. For nearly two decades, Napier ERA and Delta have worked on a suite of products highlighted by websites and agent pages.
"Our franchise provides web pages for agents, profile pages basically," Hardy says, "but we wanted to provide that extra level of service for our agents and al- low them to distinguish themselves from other agents in our marketplace."
The key to Delta and Napier's collective success is the give-and-take nature of the relationship. Change has always been part of Napier's makeup, and Hardy says it's the ability to suggest changes to Delta that's helped cement the partnership.
"If I need to pick up the phone and call [Delta CEO] Michael Minard or [Del- ta President] Noel England, that's what I do," Hardy says, "It's nice to have [a vendor] that's customer-focused and still provides a path to get to the top people when that needs to be done.
"Delta has grown a lot since we joined them, and there are times when I can feel that a little bit, but not as much as you might expect," Hardy continues. "Because I know Delta has companies that are a lot bigger than we are, and have a lot more agents, and are bigger fish in the sea, but we still get treated like we're at the top of the list."
A Pillar in the Community
From Napier ERA's beginnings in an entirely different industry to focusing the company's collective attention on Central Virginia's housing market, one thing has always remained true: Napier wants to help the people it does business with. As far as Napier is concerned, to be a business is to be part of the community, and that means giving back.
In its more than 60 years, Napier ERA has only expanded on that belief, supporting dozens of initiatives and organizations.Â
Most recently, Napier ERA has teamed with Tech for Troops, the USO and its airport cafe, Toys for Tots, the Richmond Christmas Mother Fund, and Backpacks of Love, which puts together backpacks with food and school supplies for area students.
Joyner says the company also "jumped headfirst" into working with the VCU Massey Cancer Center in Richmond in the late 90s, and it didn't take long for Jim's life-long love of music to evolve into what is now a summer concert series to support the Center and its patients.
"We did some other things, and people would do golf tournaments or this or that, well, I don't play golf," Napier explains. After noticing one of his favorite bands was playing in Virginia, Napier adds that he reached out to their representative and, "We worked a deal out. It very quickly morphed into: let's do it as a benefit for the Massey Cancer Center."
From there, the event has only grown, and in the last 15 years, Napier ERA has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Massey with artists like Bruce Hornsby, Amos Lee, and Lyle Lovett performing.
"We wanted to bring an event to our community, where people come and have fun, raise awareness about the Cancer Center and have those funds go to something special," Napier says. "In this particular case, all of our funds go to the Connor's Heroes Pediatric Cancer Fund at the VCU Massey Cancer Center."
Health protocols kept the concert from happening last summer, but Napier still found a way to give back amidst the pandemic, focusing on COVID-related issues and sponsoring area restaurants to help provide free meals for first responders.
The idea actually came from one of Napier ERA's town hall meetings.
"One of our agents said something about, 'Why don't we drop a gift card, or give the restaurant an envelope of cash or a credit card number for a window of meals for any first responder that shows up,'" Joyner says. "A week later, two weeks later, we had tabs running at six different restaurants for our first responders."
Adds Hardy: "We were trying to acknowledge all the people that were on the front lines of this pandemic and what they've had to deal with and how they've kept us all safe."
Napier ERA's charity work has never been about the accolades or the acknowledgment, but they came, all the same, this year. For the second time in the company's history, Napier won ERA's Circle of Light Award for Community Leadership, chosen from approximately 3,000 brokerages and 30,000 realtors.
"We hadn't thought about it, honestly," Joyner says of the award, "but our ERA representative came to us, and she said, 'You guys need to submit.' And we said, 'No, it's COVID, we didn't do as much.' She goes, 'Trust me, you might not see it, but you guys did more than you think.' So, then we did the video, and we had a couple of our employees jump in and start putting things together. And we were like, 'Whoa, we probably did more in 2020 than we've ever done to support the community.' When you step back and look at it, we did pretty good. It was a good year."
Taking the Next Step
After six decades in the real estate industry, Napier ERA has no plans of slowing down. In the second half of 2021, Joyner says Napier is looking to "double down on our dedication to our relationships, to
our clients and community." Buying or selling a house is as big and emotional a moment as it's ever been, and while there aren't as many agents wearing ties — even ones tossed to them from desk drawers — there's still a need for personal connections.
"You need somebody who's been trained, who understands the market as a seller," Joyner says. "And as a buyer, you need an agent who can, one, weed through the market, and two, go to bat for you. That's what we're going to focus on."
"We've made a decision as a company that we'd rather still be the full-service brokerage that provides all the tools to the agents and better exposure to customers who list their homes with us," Hardy adds.
As competition with companies like Zillow and other disruptors also grows, Napier ERA's connections with neighborhoods and individuals remain the difference-maker. One they hope will last another 60 years.
"We deal with a lot of people in our business, and I've been doing this for 45 years," Napier says, "and I always hear, 'You have the best people. Your people are knowledgeable. They know what they're doing. I love doing deals with your team.' That's the validation of all the things that we have tried to bring to the table all these years."
1
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