Page 27 - Pat Brown (1)

row and #6 in the World in 2007. I sold over $113 million in real right fit to achieve this goal. I was excited to learn about Nextage
estate during those years, bringing in over $1.5 million in real Realty from a fellow real estate investor and discovered that the
estate commissions each year. I had a large team that I had to Nextage business model would allow me to build a team all across
manage on my own, so I was working 60 hours plus per week the country. Linda and I had worked together in the past and I ad-
and approaching burn-out. If I slowed down or stopped working, mired her success and experience. I immediately sought her out to
I knew my income would decrease or end. As the market shifted, become the Broker/Owner of the Nextage Realty franchise in San
so did my business and my income – almost overnight. I decided Diego. With Linda at the helm, I knew we would achieve massive
to downsize my team and ventured out on my own. I love the success because she has lead teams, understands leverage and
real estate industry and knew that there had to be a better way. always embraces a bigger vision. By combining our complemen-
My goal was to find a system that allowed me to build a business tary skills and experience, I knew that we could build a business
that would continue to produce a stable income even if I slowed that allowed us to stabilize and grow our income, while helping
down, took a vacation or wasn’t directly involved in the day-to-day other agents realize their own success and ultimately provide us
business. I know that creating a residual income stream is the best with the freedom we both desired. With Nextage, we are building a
way to achieve true wealth and freedom. For me, real estate is the business, not just doing business. The best part of all is that we’re
vehicle to achieve this goal. The question remained… “What direc- helping other agents make a paradigm shift in their thinking. If
tion am I going to drive this vehicle?” Realtors are going to be successful in today’s real estate industry,
they need to move away from the “I” way of thinking and must
Melissa: After graduating from the USC Entrepreneur Program, start embracing a “we” school of thought. Our focus is: TEAM =
my goal was to work for myself in a business that I was passion- Together Everyone Achieves More.
ate about. Although I had been involved in real estate in various
capacities since the early 1990’s, I didn’t discover my passion for SDW: How does the Nextage business model work
real estate until 2002, which is when I became a licensed Real- and how has that changed your business?
tor. Initially practicing as a Mortgage Broker, it seemed effortless
to earn a six figure income during the “refinance boom”. Then, Melissa: Nextage Realty agents build teams of agents, each one
the market shifted and I felt as though I was working ten times as building a team (or a business) of their own. The agents receive
hard for a tenth of the pay. I pursued advanced education in real sales bonuses from the gross commission income produced by
estate investing and made the transition to practicing as a Realtor their team. Their team can grow exponentially, six generations
specializing in investor transactions in 2007. This focus has served deep. This is dramatically different from other business models
me well as I have been successful in assisting my investor clients that have a profit sharing model or some that only allow agents to
create wealth through real estate. I was instrumental in placing build the team based on one generation. With Nextage, 14.5% of
$10 million in capital with an average return of 18-22% for my every transaction is given back to the agents in the form of sales
clients. Having an investor’s mindset, I recognized that there was bonuses. This allows agents to realize a more stable income.
opportunity in this market, but I still felt that I was missing some- In the traditional real estate model, if an agent doesn’t close a
thing. I realized that I had to change the way I was building my real transaction, their income is zero. It’s hard to build a career on an
estate career, otherwise my income would always be affected by unpredictable roller coaster! At Nextage Realty, that same agent
the volatility of the market. I was still exchanging time for money. will earn an additional income stream – through sales bonuses –
If I didn’t close a deal one month, my income was zero for that which levels out the income fluctuations. The size of the business San Diego
month. Going back to the basics… I knew that I needed to build a an agent builds is up to them and can include recruiting individual Woman
business based on a system that utilized leverage and created a agents into their local office, or recruiting entire offices all across
residual income.
the country.
27
SDW: What lead you to Nextage Realty? It’s pretty exciting to know that we have teams growing in other
states in addition to building our team here in San Diego. The
Linda: After leaving Prudential and opening my own brokerage, best part is – we don’t have to manage those other teams and
Pasas Properties, Inc., I realized that I was then faced with the don’t have the overhead that a traditional broker would have to
challenges every broker faces. 1) Recruiting – If I wanted to grow sustain. The Nextage Realty model is designed for a business-
my brokerage and earn more from my business as a broker, I minded agent who can see beyond their “I” world and understands
needed to recruit good agents, 2) Training/Production – If my the power of leverage. The traditional real estate business model
income and business was going to grow, I had to train my agents doesn’t work in this new market. Both Linda and I feel that the
to be skilled at increasing their production and 3) Retention – after Nextage Realty model is exactly what we needed to take our busi-
taking the time and expense to train my agents – there was always ness to the next level. We have now created a stable and growing
a risk that they would leave at a moment’s notice when another income and designed a plan that will allow us to eventually step
brokerage dangled a carrot in front of them, promising them a away from our business and still receive an income. To us – that is
better split, lower fees or other enticing bonuses. When Melissa true success and ultimately…freedom!
shared the Nextage Realty business model with me, I saw right
away that all three of these challenges were addressed. Nextage SDW: What advice would you give to someone con-
offered a system that I could simply plug into and exponentially sidering a career in real estate?
grow my business to a point where I could eventually retire! Even
more exciting was that I would be providing an excellent opportu- Linda: The best advice I can give you is to always seek out more
nity for my agents to also build a business. It is my way of “teach- education and knowledge as you grow into your real estate career.
ing them how to fish” rather than just handing out the fish to eat. I This truly has been one of the main secrets to my success. Every
am building a team nationwide, not just here in San Diego, and I year I seek out opportunities to educate myself beyond the basic
do not have the management headache of running a large broker- Realtor requirements. This is why my colleagues and clients con-
age. For the first time in my career, I feel that I finally have an end sider me to be a true expert in the areas I specialize in. The train-
game-a retirement plan-and that I have more freedom and am ing you obtain to become a Realtor is only the beginning. I also
more balanced than ever before encourage you to explore all of your career options to find out what
Melissa: I always wanted to build a team, but hadn’t found the