Under the leadership of Broker Doug Loyd, Florida Executive Realty has been focused on providing and promoting excellence in the Tampa Bay area real estate market for more than 30 years.

Three decades ago, in 1992, Florida-based Broker Doug Loyd founded Florida Executive Realty alongside General Manager Michelle Weinhold. Today, they have six offices across the greater Tampa Bay region of Florida.

While they have certainly grown over the years, Doug looks back on the "humble beginnings" of Florida Executive Realty and sees similarities. Even with nearly 200 agents, he still views the company as a boutique firm.

"There's about 200 of us, agents and staff," says Doug. "In the real estate world of today, that's not all that big of a company. When you have companies that measure themselves in thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of agents, having a couple of hundred seems like almost a boutique firm. And I am happy to think of us in that regard."

Focusing on Excellence

Florida Executive Realty still follows the same guiding principles and philosophies the business was founded on 30 years ago. By focusing on excellence and putting their clients first, they have earned the respect of their community and professional peers.

Doug says, "We were never focused on growth, at least not numerical growth. The focus was always on excellence — excellence in service, excellence in education, and excellence in raising the overall profile of the profession." 

At Florida Executive Realty, they also abide by the "golden rule" of treating their customers and fellow agents how they would want to be treated. According to Doug, the staff encourages agents to put themselves in their client's shoes to understand how to properly serve them the best they can.

"The golden rule, which became part of our mission statement I wrote back in '95, allowed us to stay focused in the right direction," he says. "Taking that golden rule and thinking that if we were the customer, how would we want to be cared for? Would we want somebody that was highly knowledgeable and fully tuned in to what's happening today? The answer to that question is obvious and so our path is clear."

They recognize that it's easy for agents to get caught up in making the sale. However, they also understand that the best way to do business is to put the client first and the commission second, so they look for and train agents to lead with this principle.

"Clients come first, commissions come second — every day, every deal, all the time," says Doug. "That's the best way to do this business, in a relationship format where we are working to develop clients over decades — family, friends, their family, their friends, who naturally want to refer people they care about to people that will care about them."

Finding Agents in the Community

As a regional brokerage with a strong commitment to its communities, when recruiting and hiring new agents, Florida Executive Realty looks for those who are already involved in serving others and engaged with their community.

Connor Loyd, Florida Executive Realty's South Tampa Office Manager, says, "Most of our agents are generally the ones who are most plugged into their communities, the ones who are out there every day talking to people, whether that be in charities, parent-teacher associations, the chamber of commerce, rotary, or any other social groups."

Another way they acquire new agents is by maintaining relationships with past clients. By building a good rapport with everyone they come in contact with, they find that either the clients themselves are interested in joining the company or are likely to refer a friend or family member. 

"Early on in the company, about 50% of the company was made up of past clients," says Connor. "Interestingly, through general rapport with people we've worked with and the overall reputation of the market, it's attracted the majority of the agents that we have now."

Providing SEAL Training and Support

Whether you're a well-seasoned real estate professional or someone entirely new to the profession, Florida Executive Realty provides training that's tailored to you. The company believes no matter where you are in your career, there's always something for you to learn, practice, and master.

"We have training for agents of all levels," Connor continues. "Whether you're the new agent who just got your license or you're the agent coming in doing 20 or 30 million a year, we have something to teach."

Florida Executive Realty focuses on getting new agents up to speed as quickly as possible so they have everything they need to hit the ground running.

Connor says, "We have our 30 days to start goal program, which is a one-month blitz to get them off the ground, talking to people, learning the contract, learning how to negotiate the contract, and ultimately trying to get them their first deal in that first month or their first client, so they can carry that momentum with them, is key to getting them going."

Florida Executive Realty also offers SEAL training. SEAL is an acronym that stands for Service, Education, Advocacy, and Leadership. Although it's considered training, it's much more than that — it involves ongoing business planning, coaching, and support for every team member at any stage in their real estate career.

FishHawk Ranch Office Manager Paulina Wanamaker says, "At Florida Executive Realty, we provide year-round SEAL training, which is focused on teaching, training, and coaching for agents, teams, and brokers. That includes ongoing business planning, coaching, and support all the way to grad school-level learning to enhance their real estate knowledge in particular and their business acumen in general."

The team at Florida Executive Realty takes pride in the fact that many of their top producers got their start with the company and have worked their way up using the various resources and support they have been given.

"We're happy to say that a number of our top producers are homegrown, people who started, got their licenses, we coached them up, and then through some hard work on their end and a little perseverance, they ended up becoming as successful as they ever wanted to be in the business," says Connor.

Consolidating Technology

Before partnering with Delta Media Group®, Florida Executive Realty was piecing together several different tech platforms in an attempt to cover all of their marketing and technology bases. This not only left holes in their marketing efforts but also made it difficult to keep up with the latest advancements in the industry. Luckily, they found that by switching to Delta, they could update their website and get a CRM that gives them everything they need and want all in one place. 

Vice President of Operations Shannon Calcines, says, "Delta came at a great time for us as far as an opportunity to consolidate a number of our technology platforms and upgrade them at the same time. So with our website, our CRM, and our marketing, it took a number of pieces and brought them together for our agents and for us. One less login is amazing."

The agents at Florida Executive Realty have been more than satisfied with DeltaNET® and the marketing and technology tools they have access to. They feel they are easy to use and love that the platform incorporates artificial intelligence (AI).

"I think the CRM has been really great for our agents. It's comprehensive but easy enough for them to use, while also integrating some of the AI with the My Customer for Life program, which is just fantastic," says Shannon.

In addition, Shannon says the ability to automatically post to social media using Social Connector is another benefit of their relationship with Delta. This has really helped them with their marketing efforts by offering them a way to stay consistent. Plus, the agents are better represented through their personalized websites, which is another major area for their marketing.

"The automatic social postings really help our agents who know that they should be more active on social media but maybe aren't great about actually doing it," she says. "That has really helped give them some consistency in that arena. And just the overall upgrade of the personal websites for the agents has been huge. They really enjoyed that."

Preparing to Win Big Next Season

Since making the transition to Delta Media Group, and getting all the marketing and technology they need to succeed, Florida Executive Realty has its sights set on the end zone in 2023.

"I think one of the biggest things we're looking to accomplish is just taking advantage of this market shift," says Shannon. "Every market has its advantages and the last couple of years have had theirs. It's been a crazy market. And with this transition, we will have other opportunities."

For Florida Executive Realty, winning big means continuing in their pursuit of excellence as well as growing and expanding the company further. To them, that growth may mean merging with another company or adding an additional office location.

"Certainly, our goal in an ongoing way is always the pursuit of excellence first, and growth as it naturally follows," says Doug. "For us, that means to either acquire another company here locally by merger or acquisition or just find the right space, the right real estate for our expansion, or potentially office number seven."

Another goal they have in mind for the coming year is to improve their marketing, ultimately making it their fourth center of excellence behind their collaborative internal culture, their client services and relationships, and their teaching, training, and coaching programs. While they feel that marketing was never their strong suit in the past, they see so much more potential to succeed in that area of their business now that they are partnered with Delta.

"One of the initiatives that we have really been focused on the last year, and plan to focus more on in '23 and '24, is making our marketing the fourth center of excellence in our company," says Shannon. "We really believe that we have three current centers of excellence. That would be our collaborative internal culture, our client relationships and how we serve our clients, and our training, teaching, and coaching programs. I believe they're top-notch and can take anyone where they want to go in this business."

By making marketing a new center of excellence for the company through Delta's tools and support and continuing to put clients first, Florida Executive Realty is guaranteed to lead its team to continued success.