REality

Bob Clarkson on Embracing Career Transformations, Innovative Real Estate Strategies, and Building Genuine Connections

• Gary Scott

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Join us for an invigorating conversation with Bob Clarkson, a seasoned real estate professional who shares his remarkable journey from the adrenaline-fueled world of downhill ski racing to a flourishing career in real estate. At just 21, Bob faced the challenges of being younger than his peers, yet a pivotal encounter set him on a lifelong path that he passionately recounts. His stories from a 45-year career and the lessons learned along the way offer valuable insights into maintaining enthusiasm and resilience in the ever-evolving real estate landscape.

Speaker 1:

This is the reality podcast and I'm your host, gary Scott. With more than 35 years of experience in the real estate industry, working in 10 major markets from New Jersey to South Carolina and now as the president of the largest real estate company in the Carolinas, allenentate Realtors, I know what it takes to be successful in this business. This is real life in real time, sharing real experiences of industry professionals to help both new and seasoned agents achieve their goals and realize their maximum potential. Allentate Realtors is a proud partner of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, the largest independent, family-owned real estate company in the country, with more than 13,000 sales associates and staff members across the combined companies. You'll have the opportunity to hear from the absolute best in the business from the absolute best in the business. Join me each episode as we unpack the reality behind what it takes to make it in this great business. Welcome to Reality Podcast. Today's guest live from Hilton Head, south Carolina, bob Clarkson. Bob, how are you today?

Speaker 2:

Well, Gary, I'm thrilled to be on your podcast with you, and life is good sir.

Speaker 1:

Well, we are excited number one to have you on Reality Podcast. Number two to have you the newest members of the Alan Tate Howard Hanna family. I know you know how excited we are to have joined forces with Alliance Group Realty. I don't know if it feels like a month ago, but it might have been six months ago. But, bob, we are thrilled to have you and over the next 45 minutes or so we're going to get to meet Bob Clarkson. Does that sound?

Speaker 2:

good Listen, Gary. It's mutual. I'm equally. I'm not sure who's most excited about this whole partnership of us joining together, but we share that same excitement here.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm going to. I'm going to start with a little bit of Bob and then I'm going to ask Bob a lot of questions. Bob, my first question is when did you start in this incredible business called real estate?

Speaker 2:

Well, gary, I started as a really young boy. As a matter of fact, I can remember the first client. I was so excited, the first buyer. And I'm looking out the window and here they come in their car and I'm standing in the office and a couple walked in the door and I said hi, I'm Bob, and put out my hand to shake and they said is your dad, I think we're here to see your dad.

Speaker 2:

True story. It wasn't the most confident way to start my entire career, but you know, not to make matters worse, but my hair was a little long. I was driving my mother's car and I think when we got in the car to look at houses, I turned that key and Led Zeppelin was playing on the 8-track. So I had a very strange start, but I really was. I was very young, I was licensed at 21. And you know, the first few years, like any new agent, were kind of tough and I was up against this. You know whole thing of being, you know, 25 years younger than the rest of the brokers that were out there. So that was a challenge for sure, but it worked out and so that's how I started, gary, and you know then the rest is history.

Speaker 1:

Good, well, we're not going to go year by year, but I do want to remind our listeners that at 21, that's 1978, that Bob Clarkson got into the real estate business after several years of racing on snow skis. That's right about that. I think often about what careers lend themselves to successful realtors. I think of school teachers, I think of flight attendants, I think of registered nurses. I have never thought about a ski racer as being the perfect transition into real estate. So tell us a little bit about racing, ski racing.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, definitely, definitely different, I can assure you of that. I mean, you know I often people ask me that question. Often they used to ask me that years ago. You know why? How did you go from a professional downhill ski racer into the real estate business? And I jokingly always say, well, because when you have frostbite on top of a mountain day after day, it's really nice to think about working in an office where they have hot coffee. But so so no, I think it was, you know.

Speaker 2:

Actually it was one of my racers parents, a guy that owned a huge real estate company in the town that I grew up, who came to me one one day after race practice and said, hey, listen, I was coaching his children and he said you know, what are you going to do when you're done with this? Because this is, you know, these, you guys usually don't last that many years as a career, which is true. At that time I was 20 or 21. And he said why don't you let me put you through real estate school? I think you'd be great at it, because you know everybody in town and my family was pretty deep rooted in the town and a funny thing happened. I took him up on it and I went to real estate school once the ski racing season ended and I became fascinated with real estate.

Speaker 2:

I started right in real estate school. When I started to learn the laws and the rules and how the whole business worked. It really grabbed me and it fascinated me. And so once I finished that class I thought, well, do I go back to ski racing next winter or do I go to real estate? So I went and jumped in with both feet, gary, and again a bumpy start. But I my whole career, you know for the last 45 years or so, has I've been fascinated with this business in every aspect of it. I just got the real estate bug and it's lasted my entire life.

Speaker 1:

Well, bob, you've had lots of great experiences. You've moved around the country a little bit. So you know, as I said, while we're not going to spend 45 minutes on the past, because we want to talk about the future, sure, share some of the highlights of your 45-year career in terms of moving from New England to Florida, spending some time in the franchise space. And then I know we're all very interested in why Hilton Head, what makes it so special, and I know that I'm particularly interested in the timing of that when I'm reminded by that amazing slide you showed on the announcement, David. Just take a couple minutes, bob, just walk through some of the highlights of your career, because I think the highlights of your career is why we're here today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's no question. And well, so what happened is I began just like everyone else listening, as a realtor. But what I did my second year in the business is I joined a company no one had ever heard of called Remax and I was the first agent in New England and that was a brand new company, obviously just trying to get started. They had a handful of offices in Denver and a few other places around the country. So I got to be pretty good friends with the founder and a lot of the key people there were, I think, only four or five people that worked at that time in the entire headquarters Got to be friends with them and they would always say to me hey, bobby, you know, one day, when you look your age and we have money, we'd love to hire you because you've been very helpful. They would call me sometimes and have me talk to people about joining the company or buying a franchise or whatever. So as time went on, you know, 10 years later, I got the phone call and they said you know how, would you like to take over, you know, and work the Connecticut region and take over the whole thing? And I did. I was a big fish in a very small pond. There were not very many franchises and they were all losing their you know losing money and it was kind of a mess. And so I took over and a couple of years later I had the offer by a dear friend of mine that I got to know who owned the Florida region and North and South Carolina and said you know, look, why don't you come on down here? It's a way bigger opportunity for you.

Speaker 2:

So in 1990, newly married, I uprooted and moved to Orlando, florida, and went to work as a director in REMAX of Florida and REMAX in the Carolinas. That lasted 14 years and it was quite a ride and what I loved about that whole experience is through that whole growth and all that happened. And when I left, I think we had 528 offices and pretty close to 10,000 agents. And when I left, I think we had 528 offices and pretty close to 10,000 agents. And what I loved about it was I got to sit in a seat where I was able to see the attributes of great brokers, how real estate brokers worked. You know we'd always ask ourselves the question, you know, how can we have three offices in the same market? One of them is, you know, knocking it out of the park and one of them is not doing anything and the other one's crashing and burning. How does that happen? So I took, I guess, a lot of interest in saying you know why, why does that happen? And I studied brokers and spent a lot of time with agents because I had been one, and so that went on for until let's see 2004.

Speaker 2:

And I woke up one day and, frankly, was burned out because I was living on airplanes and hotels and was never home and ended up in a divorce as a result of those things. And then, about two years later, fell madly in love with my wife, rochelle, who you met, gary, and, and we decided to uproot out of Orlando. And she's in the dance business and she had a huge dance studio, or like you know what. Let's go start a new life in a beautiful place, and so Hilton Head was it. And I don't I probably have to explain why Hilton Head to your listeners, because most of you have been down here on vacation, so the answer is pretty clear. I mean, hilton Head is a gorgeous, beautiful place, it's a paradise here. And so we moved here, bought a sailboat and started a whole new life, and I partnered on a REMAX office. That lasted about three or four years.

Speaker 2:

That partnership did not work out. I ended up doing a lot of consulting, quite a bit of training and speaking all over the place, and then I'm back on the road again. So I decided one day on the way to the airport you know I'm getting tired of it, here we are traveling again. We moved here to get away from this and my wife, rochelle, asked me the best question I think it's a great question for everybody to ask themselves. And I said you know, honey, I'm getting tired of the traveling. Here we go again. And she said well, honey, if you were going to do something else, what would be your passion? That's a great question, okay.

Speaker 2:

And I really thought about that and it didn't take long for me to come to the conclusion that my real passion is down and dirty in the street grow real estate company. Like Frank Sinatra, I'm going to do it my way. And I went on that business trip and I filled up like three yellow pads full of notes about. You know, if I were going to start a real estate company, what would it look like and how would I go about it? So I developed a plan and I thought about that for several months.

Speaker 2:

Now, keep in mind, it was the absolute bottom of the market. I mean, it was the worst real estate market in the entire history of our country, because real estate values had plummeted in 2009 and 10. And so I ended up thinking you know, am I crazy? So I ended up taking a risk, you know, took the plunge and we started the alliance group. Everybody said you're nuts, you're going to lose your shirt. Do you know how bad this market is? And you don't have a brand, you have no agents.

Speaker 2:

And we put all our money on the table, borrowed some money from a dear friend of ours who helped us out with the capitalization of the company to start with, and off we went. In the first year we've recruited 18 agents and got everybody's attention and, frankly, we never look back. And here we are today with a little over 70 agents. It's what is that? 11, 12 years now it's been so. The Alliance Group Realty has been my baby and I'm so lucky to have attracted some wonderful, wonderful people that I can't take the credit. Um, they do you know? They're the ones who sell the homes I? I don't sell houses, I'm a non-competing broker, so I didn't sell any houses, but but they've sold, you know, hundreds and hundreds of them. So, um, it's been a wonderful experience, it really has.

Speaker 1:

So I want to make sure everybody, uh, wraps their head around. I started my new company in 2011. And I've told this story many times. When 09 ended, we said, god, that was the worst year until 210. 210 ended and I know, I said, ah, we're coming out of it until 211.

Speaker 1:

Like, that financial crisis was broad and deep. It was 08 to halfway through 12. And so I wrote down a couple of things and again, one of our goals of our podcast you know, I try to make things pretty simple, bob and one of our goals today in our conversation is to give every one of our listeners three takeaways, not 13, not 23, but three things that they really can use. Quite frankly, bob, either personally or professionally. Like, I'm okay if the question what is your passion takes somebody and says you know, I love art, it doesn't mean I'm going to get out of the real estate business and become an artist. It means that in 2025, I'm going to do something relative to my passion, and I'm going to talk about your passion. My passion is sports, and so I leverage that passion all the time, not to replace the real estate business, but to augment it. You talked a little bit about sailing. Let's talk about your passions, sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, aside from my wife and my daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and the puppies, you know, those come first in my life, obviously. But I, you know, sailing is a passion. I've been sailing since, you know, for 40 years now, since I bought my first sailboat and I really see the sailboat is almost, like you know, it's a battery charger, if that makes sense. When I get tired and I get stressed out, you know, I jump on the sailboat and I sail off into another world, in essence. And so I work hard to play hard. You know, I think there's a lot to be said. I think my dad had a great quote he used to tell me all the time and it was I hope I get it right, but it was. You know you work to play, not the other way around Okay, and he lived his life that way and did it very successfully and I took a lot of notes on that. So I work hard to play hard and I think you have to have it.

Speaker 2:

I worry about some people that I see are all work and no play. I lived through burnout in 2000 and about 2001 and 2002, I started to realize I was just tired and beat up and I was no fun and I wasn't having a great time, I wasn't making memories that I can think about when I'm an old man and be able to play those back when you're you know, when you're sitting in the nursing home someday and you're able to replay the tapes. The most you know the most cherished memories of your life. You better have a pretty good library of tapes. So I think when you wake up in the morning, you know you need to think about what am I going to do today to be able to make a great memory that I can you know I can roll that tape when I'm, you know, whatever 90 or whatever I'm going to make it to.

Speaker 2:

So I think that's important, gary, and I think you bring up a really good point that you know people talk about it as being balanced and all that. It's the same thing, and so I do think that the most successful people I know work hard, play hard. They have passionate things. They do that are takes them away from their business. But I will tell you, I'm passionate about the business and I have been for my whole career. It's kind of a mix. It's work and play.

Speaker 1:

Well, certainly, as you and I have gotten to know each other I have seen, experienced, felt the passion I have certainly gotten I've learned a lot. You know you've got incredible experiences, vast. I want you to share the slide that, I think, said it all. As we talked a little bit earlier about starting a real estate company in 2011, when we went down for our announcement to announce to the Alliance Group Realty that they would become part of Howard Hanna Allen Tate Company, which everyone is excited about it. The Allen Tate Company is excited Tate company, which everyone is excited about it. The Alan Tate company is excited about it. Howard Hanna is excited about it. Bob and his team are excited about it. And you know, connecting the coast of South Carolina, specifically, you know our journey starting in Hilton Head and Bluffton, is just super exciting for us. But there was one slide and I know you know the slide I'm talking about. Will you share with our listener what that slide said, because I think it really tells the story about Bob Clarkson and how he views the world.

Speaker 2:

Uh-oh, gary, you got to tell me what slide that is. I used about 30 of them. Okay, I had so much on my mind that morning. Give me a little more.

Speaker 1:

I will. So let me start by saying Bob, I don't know I. Part of the beauty of these is the authenticity of these conversations. One of the reasons that you chose to start it in 2011 is real estate agents needed something to be excited about Remember that?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I sure do Now.

Speaker 1:

I know what slide you're talking about. I love that.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's true, it's true, it's true, and I think you know this, this step forward with, with you know, ballantyne organization and Howard Hanna. I mean it's a rebirth of that excitement. So, when I started the Alliance group, you know that slide, it was so true. We started the Alliance group at this time and I sometimes joke, not to digress, but I loved a little humor here At this time, and I sometimes joke, not to digress, but I love a little humor here. But I had friends who will now tell you I went broke in 2008. I just didn't know it until 2011. Right, so, I know.

Speaker 2:

So the the it's important to understand the environment at the time, you had brokers who were, you know, just quit advertising. They quit working. Frankly, everybody was in this huge depression because the market had been so terrible for, you know, three, four years Again, worse than the Great Depression of 1929. Some people don't realize that, but properties were down 50 percent. I mean, we had, we had oceanfront. Lots of people paid a million and a half dollars for we couldn't get 350 for it. Right, so it was that. It was that depressing, right? And the agents were depressed and the brokers were depressed. The whole place was depressed when it came to real estate. I mean, I had top agents saying I can't go out of the house, I'm afraid I'm going to see my clients at the grocery store and they're going to start yelling at me. And some people remember this.

Speaker 2:

When I started the Alliance Group, the idea was that we're going to have a shiny new, exciting, different attitude, positive, creative. You're going to do things nobody else has ever done before. We started doing massive open houses. You know, we got on the radio and did a real estate report. I was on the radio every week doing this and so we became we used the slogan sometimes the company everybody's talking about. So what we did was we really created a very exciting company and, frankly, the whole industry was talking about what are they doing over there? You know, by the second year we're up to 30, 35 agents and we're crawling up pretty quickly, coming up through the rankings. So then we just, you know, we just kept that momentum going.

Speaker 2:

We sort of kind of leads Gary into maybe I'm getting ahead of the questions a little bit, but I see this um, you know, this acquisition and working with Tate is the next thing because we frankly got to a point where we couldn't really go any further. We needed the, we needed the technology. The one thing we were really missing was this huge connection. I mean, everybody in Ohio, it seems like everybody living on Hilton Head came from Ohio. It's like it's a joke, it's true. And so what really got?

Speaker 2:

A couple of things got my attention, but obviously the feeder markets of Howard Hanna being number one in Ohio and Pennsylvania, right and New York and these other places, and then, of course, alan Tate being such a huge success story in the Carolinas with all the surrounding markets. I mean that, just that just made perfect sense, that that to me, along with the marketing and technology and the incredible staff and the way you guys run things, was at a whole different level that I could never afford to put together. Ok, so the resources I think were was the right thing to do for our agents. And and I believe that that is the next, it's not the next chapter, it's like the next book of the Alliance Group Realty, because we've taken this thing a long way, become a very respective, successful company. But now, you know, now this new affiliation is is like almost like starting over with all this new excitement and we've got the, we've got the market. Talking about it for sure.

Speaker 1:

And I think the other thing, bob, you know, is we, we courted or dated for about a year and you know, I think there's so many lessons that I think our listeners can take with them from that journey that you and I specifically had for a year. Number one patience. Right, a year seems like a long time. I think it's okay to disagree, and I think one of the things that you and I learned over time is that an appreciation for a perspective that might not be the one that was ours, and it's something I shared yesterday with a group of our folks. I said, you know, welcome. Opposing views, I think, is really a mark of a great real estate professional, a great mark of a leader, like opposing views create and stir up curiosity and things like that. And so, you know, listening to your journey and then getting down there and seeing the business that you and your firm are doing, our firm got to change. Our words matter right, it's our firm. And I think that and I've shared this many, many, many times is when you put companies together, the first thing you look for is is, and you look for a relationship, and one of the things that I think is really important for this podcast to remind everybody listening is you know, relationships have never, ever been more important in our business and we just get so intimidated, overwhelmed.

Speaker 1:

Multiple introductions of this new technology and this new platform, and I just had a meeting today on a new AI, and you know I joke. Ai is authentic interaction, not artificial intelligence. Let's have real, authentic intelligence Now. Again, I'm not so naive to think that AI and predictive analytics are not going to become an integral part of our business, but I also don't want to do it at the expense of people taking care of people, like my dad's company was. It's people caring about people in a people-oriented business. Like that was a mantra that has not changed, which actually leads me to my next question. But before I get to my next question, I've created, through our interview, a little theme for today, and that's a series of questions that will come from this podcast. Number one what is your passion? How about this, bob? What is your sailboat? What?

Speaker 2:

is what.

Speaker 1:

No, I know, I know what your sailboat is, but I listen to you describe. Everybody out there has to have a sailboat. Yeah, no, no, bob's is a sailboat, right, but everybody, what's your sailboat, what's your release, what's your re-energizing? Then my next question and I love it because it was yours Are you making? Memories Are present, and I think every one of us has to ask ourselves kind of introspective questions to say you know what is my sailboat Like? What is it? So I am going to talk a little bit about what has and hasn't changed in your 45 years, but I am going to ask you two questions about names. How did you come up with the Alliance Group Realty? What was the genesis of that?

Speaker 2:

Well, it happened in the kitchen over, I think two, maybe three bottles of wine Was that just you, or you and Rochelle? It was Rochelle and I and our friend.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm just checking yeah yeah, exactly, and it's just what happened. We started kicking around all these different names and, you know, I have always felt like alliance, because it's an alliance of people who have the same ethics, the same morals, the same belief system. And we, you know, we looked at it that way and said you know what we want to have? An alliance of people who think the same, who look at the business the same, who understand how important the job that they have, you know, selling somebody the largest, most important investment in their lifetime. We wanted to have an alliance of people with integrity.

Speaker 2:

I think I think one of my number one goals in this company that will be the legacy ultimately is is integrity. That that'll be the legacy ultimately is is integrity. Uh, we're, we're known to be. We've had some wonderful comments from fellow brokers and local attorneys that say you know what, when they tell you something at the Alliance group, you can take it to the bank, okay, so, um, big on integrity. I think that you always have to put people in front of the money and you always have to do the right thing, and doing the right thing, gary, isn't hard to figure out. So we always do the right thing and put people in front of money, so integrity is a huge thing.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that. You know I always say people over profits, right, which is what you just said. Yeah, and you know I love what else you said and I use this often is the right thing is not that difficult to understand. It's not like this big, huge debate, right? I think sometimes we make it more complicated. The right thing is usually pretty self-explanatory.

Speaker 2:

So now I'm going to talk about the name of your boat turning. You're going to make me tell a lot of stories today, gary. These are, by the way, some of my favorite no-transcript. Her, she, you know she had to. She had to quit winning because they had five studios and every time she'd go to Studio B they'd all you know, they'd all run to that studio. So they fired her and she, she started her company and somebody gave her a card.

Speaker 2:

It's at our house and it talks about hills and mountains and valleys and turning points in your life. So she called it Turning Point and that's carried all the way through for us and it's just ironic because so many things happen with us and you know the word turning point comes up. It's really humorous because we're watching TV or listening to the radio or whatever and the word turning point comes up. It's really humorous because we're watching TV or listening to the radio or whatever and the word turning point comes up and we just look at each other. It's amazing how often you people use that. But you know the alliance group, you know that was a turning point for us. For sure was a turning point. This affiliation with, with Tate, is a turning point, so it's kind of interesting. Moving to Hilton Head was a turning point, so the name is just you know, it's fit, it's fitted perfectly. It's just almost a weird magical kind of a thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm always intrigued by boat names. Coming from a boating family, like I always find it fascinating, you see a name of a boat and you try to figure out. I'm not going to give away too many secrets, but my brother in law and sister have a boat called Sea Lion. Yeah Well, he went to Penn State. There you go. Yeah, I said you should. I said why didn't you name it? We are, I mean, that would have been the same thing, right. But my point is like anybody that knows knows Bill knows exactly what that is. But if you don't, the average person who might not know anything about Penn State might wonder what the heck is that guy about the sea lion?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, you hear some great stories about how they got named. It's a wonderful question.

Speaker 1:

So thank you for that. So I'm adding to my list of questions that I think we should all ask ourselves prior to the new year, and that is what are your turning points, or what have your turning points been? You know, I think, because we all have them Right. One of my previous, one of our previous guests is a gentleman named Dave Sanderson. Dave was the last man off the miracle on the Hudson and if it's a podcast you to listen to, dave's a great friend of mine and a great presenter, and his first book was Moments Matter, and what he talks about is every moment that we have on this earth matters, and you never know when you're going to lean in on something that you learned 10 years ago, and he was talking about during that time, when he was sitting in the water frozen, he and 150 others that he had to lean in on all of these lessons that he had no idea he needed until that moment. And so one of the things he does is he asks folks like myself I want the one moment in your life that had the greatest impact, good or bad. Now, that's not an easy question, right, and it goes back to turning point, right? And so I think we always have to ask ourselves questions of what were some of those experiences, what were some of those turning points? How did I leverage it into growth? How did I leverage it into opportunity, which is exactly what you did in 2011.

Speaker 1:

So back to the real estate business 45 years, 1978. I don't even think there were cell phones in 1978. I know there was no internet in 1978. 21 years old, youngest by 25 years in the market. What has not changed, bob?

Speaker 2:

I might shock you, Gary, with the answer is not much. Okay, and I say that to people and they all say what. And I'll be honest with you. The big change has obviously been technology. But if you think about it, we just had a different way of getting buyers and sellers back then. We had homes and land, magazines, we had newspapers. I used to advertise in a penny saver and get a lot of calls. It's just a different way to connect a realtor with a buyer or a seller. And yes, the technology is awesome and it's dazzling and all those kinds of things.

Speaker 2:

But what hasn't changed is that people still need somebody to hold their hand. I remember when the internet first kind of came out and it was really becoming a huge deal, I made a comment that kind of stuck and it was that a mouse and a modem will never replace a hand and a heart. Now I know we don't have modems anymore and we still have a few mouses running around, but for the most part, you know, that's still true and I believe that our business in over 45 years when I say it, hasn't changed that much. The technology has changed. Maybe the contracts have changed and some of the laws and things of that nature, but really the fundamental heart of the business is still holding somebody's hand and giving them your heart and taking them out and giving them great service on that huge investment and very important transaction called purchasing a home. And that has not changed. That has not changed in 45 years.

Speaker 1:

Bob, I want to make sure I got your quote right. A mouse and a modem will never replace holding someone's hand.

Speaker 2:

A mouse and a modem will never replace a hand and a heart.

Speaker 1:

A hand and a heart. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Now, gary, I was going to try to think about. You know, what do we say today? What is it? Is it a website and a Google AdWord? So you can, you get the idea and that's kind of what I see. I mean we again, it's just a different venue. I mean the homes and land, magazines and all those, all those homes, all those things, newspapers, penny saver, every all the things that we did before we're still doing. It's just we're doing it differently.

Speaker 1:

That's all. The rest of it has really stayed the same. So I love your answer. I actually am going to, I'm actually going to use mouse and a modem because I think that gives it this expansive timeframe. Sure, right, yeah, and what we know is all of the mouse and modem has grown in many, many ways, but the hand and the heart hasn't. That's what hasn't changed. That's right Now. I agree with you, not much fundamentally. However, if you had to span 45 years of really great experiences, what is the one thing that change? One new thing? One disruptor, distractor, whatever you want to call it? What is the one thing that you think has had the greatest impact and influence on our business Teams?

Speaker 2:

I would put teams way high on the list. Of course there's more than one thing, gary, because you can also. Then, if you want to go back far enough, you could say you know, you could talk about franchising, you could talk about large regional brokerages. You know, when I back in those, back in those days, I remember the largest company in our town, which was a town of 50,000 people, wasn't small. The largest brokerage had 40 agents and the one that I worked for I thought was huge. They had 16 people.

Speaker 2:

Well, now, today, it's not unusual to hear of a brokerage that has 100, 125 agents. So that's been a big change, and part of that's because of the team thing too. But I think that's a huge change, the advent of teams change the advent of teams. And the reason why is because it was really the beginning of very sharp, productive realtors, in essence, growing a real estate company within the framework of an existing brokerage. And I think that has had, if you think about, all the different ramifications of that. You know there's a lot of them, but beyond that, I don't know, I guess I mean I just think that's the probably the single biggest one that's come into my mind right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So I think that what our listener picks up from that answer is number one. You didn't hesitate. Number two the easy answer would have been the internet, like that would have been the easy one, but I think that you know really a a really great answer.

Speaker 1:

I I tell the story often, bob, in 1998, when I came to the Alan Tate company, there were three teams. There were three teams and I tell this story that Pat and I went to a national meeting and, to your point, the entire three days was what on earth are teams going to do to us, for us, with us or against us? And we get on the airplane to come home and I'm sitting next to Pat and I said Pat, you know, we probably as a company need to decide. You know, are we in or are we out? Like, like we, you can't be neutral. You either have to be all in to be a team friendly or you've got to say to yourself like we're not going there. And he said well, when do you think we need to decide? And I said by the time we land. And I literally said by the time we land, like, we have to be so committed to who our company is or is not, and we you either got to be in and provide an environment and a culture. Their teams can prosper or not. You can't be nebulous, because if you're nebulous, somebody else is going to say we're the team company of the future and so we all and we can go through you and I could go back. We could spend the next hour talking about how that rippled I just got and I'll get it wrong.

Speaker 1:

Today we have 131 teams in our company and I think they do. Last year they did five thousand two7 transactions out of 16,000. So 28% of our transactions. And you know I do think that you know the ability for organizations to provide environments for single agents, teams, partners, big teams, small teams, like it's. One of our values is to provide an environment and a culture and support resources, regardless of which way you want to build and grow your business, cause your job and my job. I always say it. It's easy to understand. Sometimes it's hard to execute and that is our job is to help people meet their personal and professional goals and objectives, whatever they are. That's what you and I do every day. Yeah, that's it, and that is our job is to help people meet their personal and professional goals and objectives, whatever they are. That's what you and I do every day. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2:

And you know, gary, I would also kind of piggyback there with the whole team thing. It's been, you know, back to the fascination of real estate. It's always just been. It's been fascinating to just be an observer and see how, what works and what doesn't work. It's kind of been my life story, what works and what doesn't work. It's kind of been my life story of what works and what doesn't work and what are the attributes of the people who make it work and and and the opposite.

Speaker 2:

And I think we've watched teams really go through a lot of the same evolutions as brokerages have from the standpoint. That it's you know most of the teams and it's back to leadership I think you know most. Most of the teams that I see that sustain and are very successful typically have a big, large producing agent who can feed team members, leads, teach them. Let me go back to ski racing. It's kind of a silly analogy but it's perfectly appropriate. We used to do something called shadowing, which is you get behind some of the world class skiers and you get as close as you can and you literally every move they make, you replicate it. It's called shadowing. They do it in dance, they do it in a lot of things, and the same thing is true, I think, in real estate is that when you have a team, you have a team leader who's a big producer, a lot of success, a lot of history, that they allow the team members to shadow them and teach them the business, and then they're there for them as a coach and a guidance counselor and feed them, leads and things like that.

Speaker 2:

Those are the teams that I see work really well. But I think there's some other teams where you have. You have agents who maybe had five or six sales last year and they're going to suddenly have 20 people on a team. Well, the problem is like any brokerage if you don't have a strong broker, you're probably not going to be around that long. So I think I think there's models of teams that seem to work way better than other models and it's just fascinating to watch.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think about a couple of things. One is you gave an analogy early on in our segment about there were three Remax franchises in the same town and one was hitting it out of the park and the other two were not, and I wrote I write notes during these because I learned so much from everybody and your question was you became very curious as to why, right, like what's the why? What's the why behind the what? Right? And I think another takeaway is if you, if you see you'll be super observant of the things around you, like really be, have an awareness of everything going on, particularly in our business. I wrote down here what works and what doesn't work and why what works and what doesn't work and why.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to give a teeny infomercial, which I typically don't do. But you made a comment about teams and leadership and you know I just want to tell you that yesterday we had our second team leader leadership development program, because, I agree with you, I think everything starts and stops with leadership in any organization. I think it does, I like, why if you've got six branches in a company and four really prosper and two don't, typically the common thread is the four that perform have great leadership and the two that don't may not be the two best, and that's that's kind of anecdotal. I'm not talking about any particular company.

Speaker 2:

Well, it also to to. To make that point, gary, you know, I think everybody would agree a Mercedes is a really well-made car. If you see one in the ditch, was it? Was it the car or the driver? Okay, so it's, it's true, and yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but yeah, I know, I totally agree.

Speaker 2:

It's, that's what it's all about and it is a leadership thing and it's the, I think, the back to passion again, it's the passion to want to help other people. I find that there's a lot of great brokers. This is one of the attributes I I made a lot of notes about was they subordinated themselves. They understood that you know, they were there and they, they were very driven by helping agents become successful. I think it drove them in most cases, including mine. It's, it's a bigger driver, frankly, than the monetary part is the satisfaction of helping. That, you know, maybe you have a single mom and suddenly she, you know she's struggling and all of a sudden she puts two or three deals together and she comes in the office and she's jumping around and hugging everybody. I mean that's beautiful, that's beautiful and I think a lot of us live for that and that's it's true, it's very true.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, You'll love this. My father's first interview question to a potential leader Are you able to live vicariously through the success of others? Yeah, yeah, and he and he then would just be quiet and find out what that answer was. Right, you know, you take a top producing agent and you know I think we have to recognize because I'm a great agent doesn't mean I'm a great leader of people. Just there's not necessarily it's the great athlete who maybe isn't a great coach. We've got some examples of people. Just there's not necessarily it's the great athlete who maybe isn't a great coach. We've got some examples of that. I can name a few people. Or I'm the greatest basketball player on the earth and maybe I wasn't a great owner. I didn't put a good product on the court, albeit I created an investment opportunity.

Speaker 1:

So let's put a bow around today's episode. Bob, I really really appreciate you taking the time sharing some really significant insight, but it is that time of year that so many people want to know what guys like you and I think 2025 is going to be. So I'm not going to go down existing homes and, like I'm not going to go down the plethora of specific questions that we are actually going to talk about Monday on Tate Talk Live. But just what's your sense? Business 2025?.

Speaker 2:

Well, I've always said, you know, people do like living in homes, right. And so with that said, I mean on the, there's no such thing as a national real estate market. It's like saying it's 82 degrees in the United States, you know that whole thing and you know it might be 72 here, it might be 40 degrees, you know, in New England. So it's you know, there's. Every market is going to be different, unique In our case, which is what I mainly focus on is our market. Of course, we are affected by the other markets, but I do think that that 25 is going to be a better year than 24. And I think that's going to happen across the board. For a couple of quick reasons, without going too far down the rabbit hole, and that would be yeah, we're getting more inventory, rates are certainly going to begin to decline, which is going to make housing more affordable. You also have some pent up demand. You got a lot of people out there that have been sitting there saying you know, if the rates ever come down, we'd love to get out of this house, we need another bedroom or we need to downsize, or whatever it may be. So you know, I think there's pent up demand, I think the rates are going to come down. Obviously, look at the stock market. People have a lot of money in savings being in Hilton Head.

Speaker 2:

We think a lot about the great wealth transfer and if you're not familiar with that, you can Google it. But it's this massive amount of dollars billions, trillions of dollars largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, because if my folks were alive right now they'd be in their 90s, you know so, people in their 50s and 60s and their parents are in their 80s. Unfortunately they're passing away. But that generation has, you know, no mortgage on their house. They have a nest egg and a lot of these, a lot of these 60 some odd year old people we're seeing come in here and they come in and they use Toyota and they're from Michigan and they buy a one point eight million dollar second home. It's like, how does this happen? So you know they inherited a bunch of money because mom passed away, so there's a lot of that in the years ahead.

Speaker 2:

I mean, there's a terrible subject to talk about, I get it, but at the same time it's real and if you look at the numbers, the great wealth transfer is going to have a huge effect on resort retirement communities and the Sunbelt, as you see, already happening for years now in Florida and Arizona and places like that. So I'm optimistic. Sorry about the long answer, I'm optimistic. Sorry about the long answer, I'm optimistic. I think overall, even on a larger scale, lower rates, people's retirement funds being pretty thick right now, stock market's almost 45,000 points and you start to look at the pent up demand, more inventory, I think 25, it's not going to be a bust, a banner year, but it's going to be better than 24 in my view, but it's going to be better than 24 in my view.

Speaker 1:

Well, so a couple of things. Number one I think that very few guests, including myself, have talked about the transference of wealth To your point. The last time I looked at it it was like 1.7 trillion and it's probably greater than that. And one of the things that Pat Riley, our chairman, has often said is you know, he's encouraging, particularly for the first time homebuyer, lean in on the wealth of your parents and your grandparents for helping the transfer wealth. Now, and I joke that I hated when he said that because my kids listened to him and therefore they, pat, I said, pat, don't do it anymore, partner, but I think the transference of wealth, the pent up demand, all the thing.

Speaker 1:

And then I think, the other I wrote this down there is not a national real estate market. That might be the quote of the day because you and I know people ask us about. I mean, it is so hyper local, like we have subdivisions, as you do, that have four separate, distinct markets within the subdivision. So I can't even tell you how the market is in Piper Glen, right, because there's townhouses in Piper Glen and there's $4 million in Piper Glen, right? So anyway, bob, I always love this last question and I didn't put it on the prep sheet, uh-oh. What's your one bit of advice to everybody listening out there for 2025? Wow.

Speaker 2:

Early to bed, early to rise, work hard and advertise. That's a Ted Turner quote. I mean my honest thought of that. My answer would be if you help a lot of other people become successful, you will become successful, and there's nothing better. As you go down the career road that I've been down for over 45 years, there's nothing more rewarding than having these people become your really close personal friends.

Speaker 2:

It's a personal thing and I think that my advice for any broker listening is make sure you treat your agents with great respect. Sometimes you got to, sometimes they just need a hug. You know, sometimes they need a little kick in the can, but be there for them when they need you regardless. And the same is true for any agents. It's true of their client base. I know that people become very loyal when you're loyal to them. So I'd say love people. I think my, my wife always says this I feel like I'm I'm not, I don't like bragging, I'm very uncomfortable about bragging about myself, but I think my wife would tell you some of my friends would say you know Bobby loves people and I think loving people is a really important thing in anybody's life, in their career.

Speaker 1:

So you know what's special about that answer? My friend is, I've done 100 of these and that's the first time someone has said love people. And yesterday we did a little exercise and my takeaway was I think we all have to thank people more, tell people we appreciate them more and if we're grateful for them, let them know. It's the same thing you just said, like let's not hide behind feelings or emotions and let's not be afraid to let people know how important they are to us and how much we appreciate them. And thank you for doing that and go the extra mile, and I'm going to leave this. Bob Clarkson 2025. Love people, bob. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2:

Gary, thank you. And for those of you listening, come on down and see us. We're looking forward. We've already met a whole bunch of people from Howard, hanna and from Tate, you know, walked in the office and said, hey, we want to meet you and come on down here. We would love your referrals, we'd love to help you come be on vacation. We know all the good restaurants, we know all the good things to do, so it's great to be part of this family. Gary, I'm so excited. So are the associates and our entire staff. And, gary, to you personally, thank you for sticking with me for a year through somewhat of a bumpy road. But debate is where education always happens, and I think this has been an incredible journey and we're just looking so forward to the year and many years ahead. Thank you so much for having me on your program.

Speaker 1:

Well it's, it had been great. And just happy holidays to you and Rochelle and to your grandchild Right. You have one right.

Speaker 2:

I actually have two. I have two.

Speaker 1:

One recently born during our friendship.

Speaker 2:

Little Charlie stole their hearts, yeah, and Max yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I will leave on this. I got a video today of my twin grandchildren taking their first aqua tots, so I got a view of them dunking their head in the water, and I haven't decided whether the highlight of my day is recording this podcast or watching that video when I'm done, but hey, partner, great to see you Go with the one that's going to make the best memory, Gary. Well, I've enjoyed this very much, my friend. Thanks, man, good to see you. Have a great day. We'll talk to you and see you soon.

Speaker 2:

Look forward to it. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

Take care, partner, you bet bud.

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