Last week at the ERA International Business Conference we announced the four nominees and one winner of the 2015 Gene Francis Memorial Award. Named after ERA Real Estate co-founder Gene Francis, this is the highest honor given to an ERA company and reflects the qualities most respected throughout the global ERA system and the real estate industry – including high customer satisfaction ratings, strong brand engagement and use of ERA resources, and sales and company growth. This year, we were proud to bestow the honor upon ERA Reardon Realty!

Our four other deserving nominees were ERA Colonial Real Estate, ERA American Real Estate, ERA King Real Estate and ERA Davis & Linn. Each broker/owner shared with us their thoughts on what contributes to their firm’s success, and we’d like to share those insights with you:

  • “While real estate has a definite sales focus, we aren’t focused on the money. The satisfaction that comes with helping people make the most important purchase of their life is our primary pay off.  When you provide exemplary service because it aligns with your core values, the money always comes.” – Rick Reardon, ERA Reardon Realty
  • “ERA Real Estate’s founder Gene Francis knew more than 40 years ago that the key to success is to win the listings. Those who control the listings, control the market, he said. As a listing company, that is our mindset every day of the year. Our agents go into every listing presentation with a singular goal: win the listing. And not just win the listing, but blow the competition away.“ – Tom Dewine, ERA Colonial Real Estate
  • “Specialized support staff keep the wheels in motion all year long at ERA American Real Estate. We have an aggressive recruiting program which last year brought in 28 agents, more than half of then new to the business. Agent Care Coordinators keep new agents on track to ensure success.  We also have a full time Leads Manager whose job is to capitalize on each and every lead that comes into the company. And we have two Deal Doctors whose primary focus is to facilitate deals quickly.” – Gloria Frazier, ERA American Real Estate
  • “Real estate is a relationship business and we make it rain all year long by establishing, cultivating and strengthening relationships with a personal approach that delivers the right message at the right time, while also conveying the agent’s unique market knowledge and expertise.” – Jim Linn, ERA Davis & Linn
  • “I created a company structure that allows agents to work on the most important things: prospecting, working with sellers, working with buyers agents, and closing. The company handles everything else. This approach not only maximizes our agent’s productivity, it also sells home faster and allows our agents to command a higher commission rate in our marketplace.” – Everett King, ERA King Real Estate

Congratulations again to all of the finalists, and especially our honoree Rick Reardon and the rest of ERA Reardon Realty!