As many new agents quickly discover, selling real estate is a highly competitive business. With over 1.5 million agents in the United States right now, it’s become more difficult than ever to stand out from the crowd. But with low interest rates and high demand fueling the current housing market boom, a record-breaking number of new agents are jumping into real estate sales every day.
However, the industry is going through a major disruption. Services and websites such as Redfin and Zillow are changing the way consumers are buying and selling properties. For such a big industry, the real estate market feels particularly vulnerable to advancements in technology and could be one new app away from turning the entire industry completely upside down.
For these reasons, many agents realize that a career in real estate sales is no longer desirable, and they exit the industry. But regardless of whether an agent has been selling real estate for 3 months or 30 years, most have invested a significant amount of time, money, and resources into getting their license.
At this point, most agents simply let their license expire to avoid having to pay all the fees, dues and expenses required to maintain an Active license. But once this happens, the agent no longer has any ability to make money with their real estate license.
This is the dilemma that Dana Jensen tried to solve with his company, Realty Connect. Like most agents, Jensen started out helping people buy and sell homes when he became licensed in 2003. But when the 2007 financial crisis caused the housing market to crash in 2008, Jensen found himself in a difficult position.
“When the market crashed, so did my career.” Jensen explains. “But I just thought I failed, and it hurt. I hated telling everyone I quit. I had worked so hard for my license, but couldn’t afford all the MLS fees, Association dues and Realtor expenses. Without these, no broker would hire me. Why would they? I didn’t fit their model.”
But Jensen understood he was not the only agent who was caught in the middle and recognized this gap in the market as a unique opportunity. During his research, he discovered that hundreds of thousands of agents were silently exiting the industry every year. Unfortunately, most were just letting their licenses expire or go inactive. This became the inspiration for his company, Realty Connect. When the market recovered a few years later, Jensen opened his first office in Reston, VA.
However, Realty Connect is different from most brokerages. Although his agents hold Active real estate licenses, they do not personally engage in helping clients buy or sell homes. Rather, they refer their clients into his network of over 50,000 top-rated agents, who represent the client and conducts the entire transaction. In exchange, his agents earn 25%-75% referral fees depending on the type of transaction.
This innovative business model allows Realty Connect agents an easy way to keep their license Active for only $100 year without all the cost and stress of being a Realtor. Jensen adds, “When I first started this company, everyone laughed at my idea. They never thought it would work. But I was able to prove the concept, and now over 1,000 new agents join Realty Connect each year!”
The average referral fee his agents earn is $3,200. Since they can refer in all 50 states, most agents make 2-3 referrals each year. Jensen states “Most people don’t know that over 70% of all real estate transactions are generated by referrals every year, so we’re just trying to own that space.”.
And it’s working. Since launching in 2015, Jensen has expanded his company to 9 states making Realty Connect the largest independent real estate referral brokerage in the United States. However, Jensen still has ambitious growth plans and will be in 16 more states by the end of 2022.
For more information, please visit RealtyConnect.com
Media Contact
Company Name: Realty Connect
Contact Person: Dana Jensen
Email: Send Email
Phone: 7037626218
Address:1818 Library St Suite 500
City: Reston
State: VA 20190
Country: United States
Website: www.RealtyConnect.com
