Today’s RealTrending features an interview with Chris Kelly, president and CEO of Ebby Halliday Companies, part of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices of America in Texas and Christian Wallace, head of real estate for Better, based in New York. These leaders were featured on a panel at HousingWire Annual in Frisco, Texas, discussing the importance of core services in real estate brokerage today.
Here is a small preview of today’s interview Chris Kelly and Christian Wallace. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Tracey Velt: What core service brings you the best returns and by what factor?
Chris Kelly: So mortgage, if you’re just ranking out your different business segments in a company, what is your largest return? It will always be for Mortgage for us here… It can vary from state to state depending on your brokerage model and your splits and everything else. In our market here, what we would see is that for every 10 houses you sell on the brokerage side, it’s the equivalent of about one mortgage. And that can sometimes go higher, as well. So, it’s a big return and you can see why so many brokerages get wide eyed when they think they should start a mortgage company because they see those types of numbers.
Christian Wallace: I mean, it is mortgages, but if you think of putting your customer first, it makes the whole thing a little bit different because by also having a real estate agency and title company, we’re able to stack on our products, and we’re able to offer some different products that other people can’t. And so if you think about it, the person who benefits the most from your core services, not necessarily the financial piece of it, is the customer.
RealTrending features the brightest minds in real estate. Twice a month, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.
