In 1977 Harold Crye and Dick Leike were working at a real estate company together in Memphis, Tennessee, and they decided to team up and start a new brokerage. Crye-Leike Real Estate Services started with a single office, a phone, and a few agents. 

Crye-Leike is now one of the largest independent brokerages in the nation, with over 3,000 agents and over 600 staff members in seven states and one beautiful island: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Puerto Rico. It encompasses 28 franchises and over 130 offices. Harold Crye still runs Crye-Leike Real Estate Services today.

RealTrends currently ranks Crye-Leike Real Estate Services #4 among the 500 largest independent brokerages. Multiple Listing Services (MLS) sales data shows it is #1 in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Like many of Delta Media Group's brokerage partners, Crye-Leike is a member of The Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE) and Luxury Portfolio International®, selling premier properties in various luxury markets.

A Company Focused on Convenience

Since the company's early days, Harold Crye prioritized convenience for Crye-Leike agents and customers. One of the ways he accomplished this was by building offices in locations that were highly visible and accessible to people in the community. He would often seek out open land, develop it, and rent out the rest of the space that wasn't being used as an office. 

Crye added another convenience layer by offering many affiliated services through the brokerage. These services include property management, commercial real estate, auctions, relocation, title, insurance, and mortgage services. A one-stop-shop, these offerings allow customers to get help with real estate transactions, apply for a mortgage, do a title search, and more, all in one place. 

He even added Success Real Estate School. Having a real estate school within the brokerage makes it convenient for interested sales professionals to learn about the business and get their real estate license, creating a simple path to becoming a Crye-Leike agent.

The Impact of Commission Changes

Like the rest of the industry, Crye-Leike has been experiencing the effects of the changes in the market and commission structure. 

Crye-Leike's President of Residential Sales, Steve Brown, says, "The business is still in a state of change. Half the agents didn't get out like predicted due to the practice changes, but slow markets force people out regardless. Agents have been forced to do some uncomfortable things. Even the Department of Justice thinks forcing a buyer to sign a buyer's agreement to pay someone they've never met is not a good idea."

Brown addresses how these changes will likely impact agents in the long run as the market shifts.

"The pendulum has swung back toward buyers today, so it's not that difficult to get payment from sellers, but when the market swings back to sellers, buyer agents are likely to have a harder time getting paid," he explains. "It will pay better to be a listing agent long-term. They will prosper in both types of markets."

Choosing an Already Built, All-in-One System

As a large independent brokerage, most of Crye-Leike's operations are in-house. However, after years of developing all their technology independently, Crye-Leike opted to become a partner of Delta Media Group for several compelling reasons.

The first reason Crye-Leike partnered with Delta was that the DeltaNET CRM was already created and ready to use. It contained nearly all the features their agents would need to run their businesses successfully.

Angie Bird, Crye-Leike's VP of Web Technologies and Innovation, says, "Delta has a lot of things that are already built. The CRM is really in-depth; it's hard to build that on your own when a product like that is already available."

Another reason they chose to work with Delta was that the technology could accommodate the needs of the brokerage, the agents, and their affiliated companies, which was not something many other providers in the industry offered.

"Crye-Leike has such a wide array of services that we have to cover," says Bird. "From a marketing and technology perspective, Delta was one of the few companies that could cover the breadth of those services. So instead of choosing multiple vendors and having many disjointed systems, we chose one who could do it all."

Crye-Leike also saw similarities between their company and Delta Media Group's operations. Like Crye-Leike, Delta is an independent, family-owned company whose owner is directly involved.

"We may have a large footprint and a lot of agents and offices; however, the company's owner, Harold Crye, will answer his cell phone for any agent," explains Bird. "His cell phone is out there; anybody can call him at the end of it. This is a family-run business, and it's very personal and directly connected that way. And one correlation that we saw with Delta is the same concept. There's a lot of pride in it being a family-run business, and the owner of Delta will also answer his cell phone directly and be directly involved in the details of day-to-day operations."

They also chose Delta Media Group because of the one-on-one support and customer service they would receive as clients. Bird addresses the impact of this and how rare this quality is in a real estate technology vendor today.

"A lot of the vendor systems service such a broad range of a market that you're just a very small fish in their big sea," says Bird. "You're calling 1-800-SOMEBODY who doesn't know anything about you and it might be very difficult to get to the heart of the matter. So when you work with a company that provides that level of access and care at the ownership level about what's happening and how the products are being used and experienced daily, it makes a real difference."

Finally, partnering with Delta was a major part of Crye-Leike's strategy for keeping up with industry changes, knowing that the tools in DeltaNET are always evolving.

Harold Crye, Owner and President of Crye-Leike, notes, "Changes in the real estate industry are happening at a fast pace. Crye-Leike's new relationship with Delta Media Group is our strategy to keep pace with these changes. Delta's best-in-class technology and CRM program is helping us to keep pace with a rapidly changing industry."

An Adoption Rate Above Industry Average

Since launching with Delta Media Group about a year ago, Crye-Leike Real Estate Services has reached a high technology adoption rate among its agents — well above the industry average. 

Crye-Leike's Chief Marketing Officer, Keith Sullivan, has heard high praise from the agents regarding their experience with the technology thus far. 

"Our brokerage has been on DeltaNET for almost a year, and our agents can't say enough good things about their experience with the new technology platform so far," he remarks. "As a large company with over 3,000 agents, we've had many tech partners over the years, but with Delta, our agent adoption rate is about 75%, which is phenomenal."

Sullivan attributes their high adoption rate to several circumstances, including agents seeing the value in the integrated system.

"The agents see real value in having integrated multi-channel lead generation tools ranging from agent websites to a robust CRM, AI behavioral-driven marketing strategies, and social media automation," he says. "It makes newer agents feel more comfortable starting their real estate career, while the seasoned agents who join our firm are amazed and ready to go!"

This integration has been particularly helpful to them in driving more web traffic — any marketing sent through DeltaNET, such as automated social media posts, emails, newsletters, market reports, and property searches, directs traffic to the agent's website.

In addition to customizing the look and feel, agents can customize pages and navigation, which has been helpful for them. For example, they can add a landing page for a specific location. They can adjust the site's navigation to include the specific pages they wish to feature. If they work primarily in a particular neighborhood, they can provide a link at the top of the page for simple navigation.

Automation for Building Sustainable Connections

DeltaNET excels at helping agents build trusted relationships and sustainable connections, which are key to real estate success.

"At the heart of it, real estate is a relationship business," says Bird. "It's about developing genuine and trusted connections and providing a top level of service that people come to trust and rely on. An agent's successful business is built on daily actionable steps. The software with Delta Media Group provides tools to streamline this."

The automations in the platform have enabled Crye-Leike agents to save time, allowing them to focus their efforts where it's most important. With so many aspects of their business to run simultaneously, this support is crucial. 

"I joke that we have 3,000 CEOs because the agent is everything in their business; they're trying to do it all," remarks Bird. "One of the things that we talk to agents about is that we want them to focus on building their relationships and selling. That's where their focus should be. The support we offer in technology and marketing helps focus the agent's time where it's most effective."

Delta Pitch, an automated, all-in-one CMA and presentation builder, is one of Crye-Leike agents' most used features. The staff has added listing and buyer presentations to the platform to make it even easier for them. Crye-Leike agents also highly regard email marketing and frequently use DeltaNET's automated email features, including email blasts, campaigns, newsletters, market reports, and property searches.

Family-Level Marketing and Technology Support

Along with the value of the technology itself, Crye-Leike staff's support for agents in setting up their websites is a significant factor in their high adoption rate.

"Most agents don't know how they want to customize their site," says Bird. "We'll advise them to add at least a few local market pages for the areas they're working in the most, information about their services and what makes them stand out. We will also edit their website for them. They don't have to worry about how to figure that out. They could say, 'Add a page to my website for Collierville, Germantown, and Bartlett, Tennessee.' There are predefined pages that automatically pull in the listings for those markets."

The Crye-Leike staff also supports agents in setting up their CRMs and will even import their contacts, saving them time and effort.

"You have to help them figure out how to get their contacts from all these different systems," says Bird. "It's one of the biggest stumbling blocks to someone getting started using a CRM, and we offer the ability for us to just do it for them. We say you don't have to figure it out. You can schedule an appointment with somebody in technology and we will sit down with you at your computer. We will help you export your contacts from whatever system. We'll help you combine them into a list. We will import them into the new platform. They do not have to do anything. That direct support, sitting with agents one-on-one, and eliminating the barriers that make it difficult to start using the CRM is critical."

Bird explains that when the system was launched, leadership set a few goals for getting agents up and running. 

"Our goals were very simple: number one, get your contacts in the system, and number two, sign up each customer for an automated email update that best fits their needs," she says.

Crye-Leike immediately heard about a major win from an agent who launched their CRM. The agent shared the following story: The agent uploaded a contact list and set up an email update, and then they received a phone call from a client they had interacted with years ago. The agent didn't realize that the person was on their list and didn't know why the person was calling them. They said, "Huh, that was because of the CRM." When agents realize something like that happens, it incentivizes them to put more energy and effort into using the technology.

Delta Media Group's technical support has additionally helped Crye-Leike attract more agents to adopt the technology. Throughout their experience with Delta thus far, Crye-Leike agents and staff have been pleased with the technical support they have received. Much of their praise comes from this support being customized for their specific needs over time.

Crye-Leike notes that Delta's tech support team has become increasingly helpful. Over many months, they have learned about Crye-Leike's distinctions and become more responsive to the different questions Crye-Leike agents and employees ask regularly. This level of customized support has been beneficial for the brokerage. 

Software for Luxury and Global Marketing 

Another benefit of partnering with Delta for technology is that the agents and staff at Crye-Leike are experienced working with clients in LeadingRE and Luxury Portfolio. Delta can integrate the systems needed to reach international buyers, such as relocation software.

"For those relationships to work, we have various software needs behind the scenes," explains Bird. "For example, Delta has a data feed, and there's an API between Luxury Portfolio and LeadingRE that allows our data to get into those systems and agents to log into those systems. We also have relocation software that we use behind the scenes, and Delta has set up an API where data updates from the Delta system flow into that system. This provides our relocation team access to our agents and offices; they can make those referrals in the system. So Delta is a behind-the-scenes operator in our day-to-day running of the software required for us to participate in those networks."

Putting Their Trust in Delta

Crye-Leike Real Estate Services' partnership with Delta Media Group enables them to provide their agents with easy-to-use, all-in-one technology that evolves with the industry. At a corporate level, they reap the benefits of technology that meets their global marketing needs and seamlessly cooperates with their luxury brand affiliations. Plus, they receive customized technical support and one-on-one service from Delta's leadership team, including CEO Mike Minard. These distinct advantages ensure that Crye-Leike Real Estate Services continues its commitment to convenience and adapting to change. 

By encouraging their agents to use the platform and helping them transfer their data, they have achieved a technology adoption rate nearly unheard of in the industry. Altogether, the adoption rate among agents, the leads they have received from the platform, and the family-level support have solidified Crye-Leike's trust in Delta Media Group and confidence in the technology they've built. This trusting partnership will continue to serve them as the industry changes rapidly, and automated technology with custom support means more than ever.

For more information on Crye-Leike Real Estate Services, visit crye-leike.com.