Posts from August 2021
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23
On the Safe Side: A Q&A with Michael Walls
Michael Walls was walking through what he thought was, at the time, a totally normal showing when things took an unexpected turn.
Walls, who recently took over as Technical Support Manager at Delta Media Group® and is also a licensed real estate agent, said he felt "something strange...and one of the guys [at the showing] was being somewhat aggressive toward me." Luckily, Walls didn't have to worry about defending himself.
A sixth-degree black belt with nearly 40 years of experience teaching self-defense, Walls knew he had the situation well in hand. But while nothing came from the moment, Walls also knew that others in the real estate industry might not be so lucky. So, the wheels started turning, and an idea began to piece...
18
Boost Your Deal Flow With This Easy Step
Deal flow is the rate at which business proposals and pitches are received.
Investors, including investors in commercial real estate, use this as a general barometer of whether business is good or bad. The same term is also used, alongside lead generation, among real estate professionals focused on residential property. More referrals lead to better deal flow overall.
Leveraging marketing automation technology is a key step in accelerating real estate deal flow. Although there are many tools that can help, the cornerstone of any strategy is CRM. CRM, short for Customer Relationship Management, enhances visibility across your customer ecosystem.
16
Get to Know Chinowth & Cohen Realtors
Real estate has always been a family affair for Sheryl Chinowth.
A second-generation REALTOR®, Sheryl began her career working for her father's business, which opened its doors more than 75 years ago, and quickly became a top producer, mentoring associates and managing offices. And while success has long been the name of the game for the Chinowth family, Sheryl wasn't content to simply rest on that same family's laurels or its reputation. Instead, she wanted to do something of her own. That's why, in 2004, Sheryl partnered with Lee Cohen, then one of the top commercial realtors in Oklahoma, to found and open Chinowth & Cohen REALTORS.
What began as a single-office operation with only 25 associates has since grown into the largest independent real estate company in Oklahoma. In nearly two decades, Chinowth & Cohen has established itself as the most trusted option for anyone in Oklahoma looking to make their next real estate move. The regular recipient of some of the country and state's most distinguished honors, including RealTrends #1 real estate company based on organic growth among independent privately-owned firms, Chinowth & Cohen has also become a figurehead in the communities it serves, sponsoring and supporting dozens of initiatives each year.
Still, Chinowth & Cohen's consistent success hasn't changed the company's collective mindset or altered the goals Sheryl first established when she decided to forge her own real estate path. At its core, Chinowth & Cohen is a family business, and every agent, every client, is part of that family. It's only that the family's gotten a bit bigger over the years.
Get to Know Chinowth & Cohen
When opening Chinowth & Cohen in Tulsa in 2004, Sheryl had a particular idea of what her company would look like: Serving as a true partner for any sales associate who worked under the C&C umbrella. This would be a company that provided agents with all the tools they needed to accomplish their own goals in real estate, no matter what they might be. Almost 20 years later, that way of thinking hasn't changed, even as C&C has grown by leaps and bounds.
Since those early days with a handful of agents, Chinowth & Cohen now boasts more than 825 agents and 16 offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and the surrounding areas. Last year alone, Chinowth & Cohen recorded over 50% growth in new business, expanding the company's footprint across the entire state. Doing over $2 billion in sales is the new norm.
President Leland Chinowth, who sold a record $11 million in his first year as an associate, explains how Sheryl's initial desire to create a company that fostered partnerships with its agents has allowed Chinowth & Cohen to keep those agents long-term and how, in turn, those agents have helped facilitate the company's continued growth.
"[Sheryl] always wanted to start a company that brought a lot to the table for realtors," says Leland, who's spent nearly 15 years mentoring and training agents. "And at the time in Tulsa [when Chinowth & Cohen first opened], the culture of real estate companies was more like: here's your phone, here's your desk, and go make money. So, she'd had success working in those companies, but it felt like [agents] would benefit from a lot more support from the brokerage.
"The biggest factor in our growth has been retention over the years," Leland continues. "And, I think that has been our focus. We want to create an environment where our biggest recruiters are our realtors. We don't spend a lot of staff time pushing recruiting. We spend a lot of staff time focusing on supporting the agents where they then want to bring their friends to work here."
All About The Agents
Providing agents with the best tools to achieve success is at the core of everything Chinowth & Cohen does. In fact, it's the responsibility of more than a few people.
Onboarding new agents and getting them all up to speed is a process that's undergone its fair share of tweaks and changes over the years. Evolution, however, has ensured that same process is now a well-oiled machine, with every aspect of Chinowth & Cohen playing a part. HR provides new agents with a folder full of resources for their particular market before agents are put in touch with C&C's
Education Director and IT department, giving them access to all of the company's best tech.
"The day [agents] come on, they have access and the phone numbers to every person on staff, every management team, and they immediately can plug-in," Sheryl details.
"But we also don't just leave it up to them to make the calls, to get things going. We say, 'Okay, your HR has contacted you. Now, you're done through the state. Now, here's education, here's IT, here's your broker to meet.'"
Chinowth & Cohen also has nearly 30 paid administrative assistants and agent assistants on staff whose job is to support agents as much as possible. Teaming together, agents and assistants work on a plan to capture that next big listing or take their career to the next level. Really, they're there for whatever comes next. It's a built-in, company-provided support system that Leland says he doesn't believe "anybody else in the state is doing."
"The support systems are huge," Sheryl adds.
Of course, reaching any sort of success marker, even one that's self-imposed, isn't an easy task for every agent that walks into one of Chinowth & Cohen's offices. Nor does C&C expect it to be. Real estate is a constantly evolving industry, and what might have worked to sell a three-bedroom in Tulsa in 2006 might not be the best choice in 2021. With that in mind, Sheryl says C&C currently offers more than 50 classes and training opportunities, with trainers and coaches on staff, all to help keep associates as sharp as possible. One of the most popular classes, particularly among newer agents, is Circle of Excellence, which, as Sheryl explains, helps "dissect everything on every new contract, every listing agreement, how to get the listings, how to work with your clients."
Chinowth & Cohen's First 60 Days in Real Estate course is also popular with newer agents looking to get their careers off the ground and is taught as part of the company's training. No matter which classes they choose to take or who's taking which classes, Chinowth & Cohen's wealth of options ensures that, as Leland puts it, no agent "feels like [they're] on an island."
"An agent can very easily take three or four free classes a week at several different offices," Leland says. "And what we hear the most from our realtors is our classes are more meat and potatoes than classes at other companies. That's because our trainers, like our managers, have all been in the trenches. They also have a lot of real estate experience and can speak from that experience."
Chinowth & Cohen's marketing department also plays a significant role in helping agents get their names out into the Oklahoma real estate world. With 19 employees on staff, the department assists agents with everything from social media campaigns to more traditional marketing, like flyers and pamphlets, and fine-tuning their webpages, working with Delta Media Group® to get the most out of their tech tools.
"It's a lot of hands-on and one-on-one with our agents and coaching and making sure they get whatever they need," Sheryl says. "They're great agents, and they are really, really good people, but they're not always good flyer-makers, photographers. Most agents, their best talent is dealing with people, with buyers and sellers.
"So, we've got automated systems for them, a lot of technology that they can plug into," Sheryl continues. "It's all about having massive support with the actual people. It's one thing to say you're a tech company when we've got the best there is in technology, but you can't just be a tech company because real estate is about relationships."
Support doesn't begin and end with those folks Chinowth & Cohen has hired, either. Sheryl says she, Leland, Cohen, and Vice President Taylor Chinowth make sure to be available whenever they're needed, ready to provide suggestions, an ear for listening, or simply serve as a sounding board to bounce ideas off of.
"We work every single day, and we're available day and night for agents to call us," Sheryl adds. "And we work hard at making sure that they know we're available. Plus, we've got a great management team. We hire people with strong backgrounds in our brokers and our offices."
Learning what works and, on some occasions, what doesn't, in Oklahoma's real estate market is as much a necessity as it is a challenge. And that rings true for everyone at Chinowth & Cohen. Whether it's an agent getting the latest tips and tricks to catch a potential client's eye on Instagram or Sheryl and Cohen staying abreast of changes in the industry so they can be a knowledgeable source, the desire to constantly be better is a key factor in Chinowth & Cohen's success over the last decade and a half.
Because it's those tools, and that collective drive from top to bottom, that's made Chinowth & Cohen such a desirable landing spot for agents. Putting Chionwth & Cohen on their business cards or in their Twitter bio gives agents a sense of confidence that helps differentiate them from the rest of the Oklahoma real estate pack. And clients aren't worried about what they'll get working with a Chinowth & Cohen agent, thanks, in large part, Leland says, to the work the company has done in "maintaining our brand and our image."
"We have guarded that and made sure that's consistent, and I think our realtors know a lot of clients come to them based on the company image and the brand,"
Leland adds. "I think maybe a lot of companies have lost sight of that. We've continued to focus on it. And sometimes, that also attracts the realtors that want to be part of something that the public is recognizing."
Creating a Culture to Cultivate Success
Chinowth & Cohen doesn't require its agents to meet any sort of sales quotas. Every sale is fantastic, naturally, but the best marker of success, for both Sheryl and Leland, is always in regards to culture and what it means to agents and Chinowth & Cohen as a whole.
"We were using 'culture' before it was the buzzword it is now," Leland says, "and we look for people whose normal day-to-day personalities are positive, and they look to help other people in the company."
Numbers often steal the show in real estate. Buying or selling a home is a monumental moment in anyone's life, and, occasionally, staring down the number on the FOR SALE sign can cause an understandable sense of anxiety. For the client and the agent alike. But Sheryl says it's Chinowth & Cohen's sense of culture, of those relationships the company starts to foster as soon as it brings a new agent into the fold, that can make all the difference.
"A lot of times, it's the biggest investment of [someone's] life, especially first-time homebuyers," Sheryl says. "But we don't want them to be intimidated by that. We train [agents] to teach them to work with their clients as if they're working with a relative and to realize that they're not just buying the biggest investment of their life. They are putting people on the foundations that they're going to build their lives on and their memories on and raise their children on."
It's that thought process — and the company-wide culture it's inspired — that's attracted so many agents to Chinowth & Cohen. And it's those agents who will continue to help C&C grow as they ensure that families across Oklahoma find their forever homes.
Growing With the Times
Change is a natural progression for any company, and for Chinowth & Cohen, change often means new faces, new markets, and, most recently, a new website URL. Switching from cctulsa.com to ccoklahoma.com may not appear like a big-time switch at first, but take a second glance and make sure to notice that Oklahoma means the entire state. This is a change that showcases everything Chinowth & Cohen has accomplished since it first threw its hat into the center ring of Oklahoma's real estate market. When a would-be client clicks on the site, they know they're partnering with a real estate pro who is an expert in the entire Oklahoma market.
Keeping things simple is also a marketing strategy of sorts. After all, buying up domain names to highlight every market Chinowth & Cohen serves is an exhausting idea, both for those within the company and potential clients. Multiple sites only breed confusion and, as Sheryl explains, when Chinowth & Cohen began working in Oklahoma City, the decision was made not to "buy every little town or city that we're going into."
There was no need. Instead, Chinowth & Cohen's move to ccoklahoma.com immediately conveys a sense of cross-state work and, by extension, success. Seeing the state name in the URL is a confidence boost for clients looking for a real estate partner to help them, no matter where they might currently be living.
"The biggest motivator for [the URL change] was that it just better reflects our service area," Leland explains. "We feel very comfortable in selling homes and placing agents with clients anywhere in Oklahoma. Pretty much all four corners of the state are well covered. So I think that's the biggest thing we wanted to reflect; we didn't want it to be specific to one market."
Chinowth & Cohen's move into Oklahoma City also included the company's acquisition of Churchill-Brown & Associates, one of the most respected and high-end real estate brokerages in the city. With a similar company culture and agents Leland describes as "extremely professional," the two companies quickly meshed as Chinowth & Cohen has "retained virtually everyone that we started with [there]."
"We've been able to add a lot of services," Leland continues, "to their business that I think they appreciate. We've been very fortunate that they've hung in there through the transition with us."
Of course, the decision to move into Oklahoma City wasn't taken lightly. Building a dependable reputation in Tulsa has been one of Chinowth & Cohen's most obvious victories throughout the company's history, and there's always some wariness in spreading those imaginary wings. Still, Leland says Chinowth & Cohen approached the move just as it does everything else, taking it in stride and building on personal relationships.
"We had agents from Eufaula, from Bartlesville, from Tulsa that, for the last few years, had kind of been begging us to open in Oklahoma City," Leland details. "They wanted to be able to go seamlessly between the cities and sell and have the same office, support, and services."
Expanding into new markets has become something of a trend at Chinowth & Cohen, and agents sometimes spearhead it. Prior to the Oklahoma City move, Leland recalls an instance where 20 agents in Sand Springs approached Chinowth & Cohen about opening an office in the Tulsa suburb. It all happened over lunch. So, with that sort of organic growth and the clear support of agents across the state, Chinowth & Cohen's strategy of highlighting those agents, promoting them and their business, has grown and evolved as well.
Elite Magazine showcases listings at no cost to agents with print copies available at 525 locations throughout Oklahoma, as well as a web version on Chinowth & Cohen's site. Social media and other print marketing campaigns are the norm these days, and C&C is one of the largest clients of the local newspaper. More often than not, Chinowth & Cohen accounts for nearly half of the World of Homes, real estate section, in the paper.
"Those still bring people to open-houses and still help us sell houses," Leland says of traditional print marketing.
Finding that balance between old and new, looking for new cities and areas to move into, without sacrificing the relationships Chinowth & Cohen has built, is, perhaps, the ultimate accomplishment for everyone within the company. Because, no matter how big Chinowth & Cohen gets, real estate continues to be one of the most personal industries out there. It's a fact the company has never lost sight of.
Chinowth & Cohen and Delta Media Group
Finding a tech provider who is also a true tech partner, one who can consistently keep up with Chinowth & Cohen's ever-growing presence across Oklahoma, hasn't always been simple. In fact, it's one of the more significant challenges the company has faced in recent years and, last August, required C&C to turn back the clock, in a sense.
After originally partnering with Delta Media Group® in 2006, Chinowth & Cohen opted to change providers in 2017. Taking "a big lead from [its] agents," Sheryl says, before making any major decisions, she adds that a handful of issues late in Chinowth & Cohen's first stint with Delta led to agents looking for other options. And while that move worked for a little while, ultimately Delta's platform, with some of the most powerful and easiest-to-use tools in real estate, was enough to bring Chinowth & Cohen back in 2020. The decision to re-partner with Delta was made, in large part, Taylor Chinowth says, because of "the accessibility, how intuitive [the product] came across to an agent."
"Since we've signed back on, coming up on a year ago, that's been the feedback that we've gotten," Taylor continues, "was that it's just more intuitive. It's written more for an agency. The programs and systems seem to be written more from an agent's perspective than a lot of other systems. And so, that was a big factor for us."
The customization options available through the DeltaNET® 6 are also especially appealing to Chinowth & Cohen. Working within the system, C&C's marketing department, the same one that takes all that time to assist agents throughout their careers at the company, can use Delta's tools to provide additional templates and personalization options. And it's those little things, the individual decisions and choices agents can make while using DeltaNET 6, that help them stay out of the competition's shadow.
As soon as agents come on board with Chinowth & Cohen, they get a crash course in DeltaNET 6, learning the ins and outs of everything the CRM has to offer. Chinowth & Cohen's website designer walks agents through the backend of the DeltaNET, showing them the first few steps of getting their page up and running. The key is making everything as user-friendly as possible, something that Delta has excelled in throughout both partnerships with Chinowth & Cohen.
"The CRM client management aspect of it has been well-reviewed by our realtors," Leland says.
Sheryl echoes the sentiment, adding that the ability for agents to be "interactive with their sellers, where they can actually send data and information from the Delta site directly to the sellers" is another appealing aspect of Chinowth & Cohen's second round with DMG. Automation has also become a crucial part of C&C's tech outlook. With so many moving parts across so many different markets throughout Oklahoma, allowing agents to schedule updates, posts, or email blasts through the DeltaNET helps free up their schedule while still maintaining those personal relationships that are the core of everything Chinowth & Cohen does. In this case, tech is a tool that helps keep people connected, but also doesn't require them to sit in front of a computer screen all day.
And while Chinowth & Cohen is happy to be back with Delta Media Group, getting into the full swing of things has encountered a few bumps. Some projects are still being worked on, but Leland quickly points out that Delta Media Group Vice President of Sales Franklin Stoffer has been instrumental in keeping everything on track.
"[Franklin's] always been very responsive and with almost 20 people in [the marketing department] that focus on all this stuff [within DeltaNET 6], we've got a lot of questions and edits and really want to focus on building up our website," Leland says, "and we need somebody that's on the ball to help us do that quickly."
Chinowth & Cohen in the Community
Real estate has always been a distinctly human business for those at Chinowth & Cohen. Buying and selling houses is about more than the walls, windows, and floors that make up a space. It's about learning what a family wants out of their home; about knowing what a couple is looking for out of their first place together. Relating to clients, building those relationships, and that sense of trust is at the center of everything the company does. So it should come as no surprise that Chinowth & Cohen wants to be a driving force for philanthropy and service across Oklahoma. And in the last decade and a half, C&C has made more than good on that pledge.
"That's our core focus," Leland says. "The four of us [owners] have taken a personality test where they say, 'What are your true motivators?' For all four of us, we were a hundred on humanitarian efforts. I think that's our core of why we get up in the morning, and it's easy to say, but over the years, we've been extremely involved, and we focus a lot on our local community and charities that are local."
Since starting Chinowth & Cohen, Sheryl has led the way in the company's charity efforts, supporting dozens of causes, and was recognized by Who's Who of Luxury Real Estate with the Extraordinary Philanthropists Award. From The Junior League to the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother/Big Sister programs, to working with area hospitals, police departments, public schools, and food banks, Sheryl's generosity is the foundation on which Chinowth & Cohen has been built.
And she's made sure to pass that drive onto everyone in the company.
Whenever Chinowth & Cohen brings on a new agent, one of the first things they're asked, after all of the training and tech tips, is if there are any charities or initiatives they're interested in supporting. With over 800 people, that answer can occasionally create some scheduling nightmares, but, once again, the company has a plan in place for just that occurrence. Rachel Keeley served as Chinowth & Cohen's event coordinator for the last three years, working with agents throughout the company to coordinate charity events, sponsorships, and everything C&C does to give back to the neighborhoods it's worked in. Rachel Goodwin took over the position in early June, but the focus of it all remains the same: Get out there and help.
"Sheryl's outstanding about educating everyone on: This is our standard Chinowth & Cohen," Keeley says. "This is what we do as Chinowth and Cohen agents. She's very vocal about this. And she's good at making sure everybody is taken care of in whatever they want or feel passionate about."
Requests come in regularly from agents working in all of Chinowth & Cohen's offices, and Keeley says she went through every single one. Each request gets researched to, as Keeley explains, find out, "Is it new? Is it established? Is this something that we've done in the past? Do we have any agents associated with it?" Naturally, Chinowth & Cohen wants to give back as much as possible, but there's also a desire to spread the love, so to speak. Different events are sponsored every year, and new scholarships and fundraising efforts are regularly added to Chinowth & Cohen's repertoire.
"We want to do different things," Keeley says, adding that there are still events Chinowth & Cohen participate in every year. Namely, the company-wide toy drive each December.
"Everyone takes all their toys to the Salvation Army, and we do a huge press release," Keeley recounts. "We have photographers, [the Salvation Army] brings their president, the [Chinowth] family's involved, several agents and brokers are always there."
COVID-19 presented a challenge to plenty of Chinowth & Cohen's plans last year, but Keeley says one event still stood out in 2020, supporting a Native American Alliance in Catoosa, with Sheryl serving as chair. That event will happen again this year.
With so many different ways to give back — and so much interest from agents and staff members — event coordinator at Chinowth & Cohen has quickly evolved into an essential position.
Leland explains just how important Keeley, and now Goodwin, have been to ensuring all of Chinowth & Cohen's philanthropic efforts go off without a hitch: "[They help] us manage our budget and manage the support because what we had noticed and what Sheryl had noticed, is that sometimes you get involved and share something and your real estate business just drops. And so it was worth it to have a staff person helping those agents manage those events so that they could keep rolling on with their business. They could do both and not feel like 'Just because I'm doing this great thing for the community, it's all a sacrifice on business.' It helps them excel at both fields or activities."
No matter how busy everything gets or how many moving parts go into making an event, Keeley calls Chinowth & Cohen's efforts "incredible," particularly when it allows her and her coworkers to be part of so many different outreaches. And despite massive growth in recent years, there is still a sense of care that makes itself evident in everything the company does. Hundreds of people call Chinowth & Cohen their professional home, so, by extension Chinowth & Cohen is determined to help foster that same sense of home across Oklahoma, keeping a firm hold on the roots that led to the company's success.
Because, really, real estate is about people. All of them are searching for a sense of comfort that can only come from a sense of belonging. And Chinowth & Cohen has made it its mission to foster all of that.
"On your own, I don't know if very many people would be able to do this," Keeley says. "But since it's presented, and it's here, and it's available, they help. They'll keep on doing it forever, and corporately, we will too."
Taking the Next Step
The future is bright at Chinowth & Cohen.
With more growth on the horizon, including a recently-opened office in Owasso, schedules remain jam-packed across the company. Still, there's no ironclad plan for expansion or evolution, only the desire to seize every opportunity as it comes, to provide the best tools the industry has to every agent, and continue building those relationships that have come to mean the most to Chinowth & Cohen. There's the near-palpable drive to be better each day, to serve as a partner in the community, and, really, to be the best version of themselves.
"We're always busy," Sheryl says. "It never slows down. There's so much growth going on and continually going on that we just kind of wait and let it come to us; we have enough opportunities to just wait and see."
Chinowth & Cohen continues to set goals, of course. Increasing the volume of sales per agent, maintaining top-dollar per agent volume across markets, and adding new training and coaching, are all on the table for the rest of 2021 and beyond. As far as Chinowth & Cohen is concerned, the sky's the limit for what comes next. And even then, that's more a symbolic limit than anything C&C is actually interested in.
What matters most is taking it all in stride, embracing change as a fundamental aspect of success, and continuing to improve the lives of everyone who works with Chinowth & Cohen.
"I heard this podcast that said, the companies that have the most success following their mission and the mission statement or their motto, are the ones that actually tweak it most often," Leland says. "It's not sticking to this one thing, and our [mission] has evolved and changed over time. And we've been fortunate to have the growth we've had because of that."
12
Drive Those Idle Listings Off The Market
Stubborn listings are no fun for sellers — or for their real estate agents!
It's well-known that as a listing sits on the market, it becomes less likely to capture an attractive offer. The ideal is to move a listing within 30 days. The longer it waits, the more likely buyers will assume something is wrong with it. At the dreaded 90 days, relisting is nearly inevitable.
There are two situations where agents need to be especially wary about idle listings:
- Markets that strongly favor buyers, especially when there's plenty of housing stock
- Overheated markets where voracious sellers price themselves into the stratosphere
Before a listing even goes on the market, pricing it to sell is one of the most valuable services an agent...
