“You Gotta Work Hard to Get Lucky”: Team Peroff's Formula for Consistency

What does it take to build a real estate team that survives recessions, market shifts, and nearly four decades of change? Well… here is your answer!

Johnder Perez sits down with Team Peroff: founder Steve Peroff, who started in 1989, second-generation leader Eli Peroff, and operations lead Pierre Demers, for a masterclass in real estate business strategies, team building, and longevity. 

From Steve's theatre-industry marketing roots and "reverse marketing" philosophy to Eli's journey of carving out his own identity in a family business, to Pierre's insights on culture and leadership transition, this conversation is packed with real estate agent tips for today's challenging Canadian market. 

Whether you're a solo agent or building a team, you'll leave with actionable strategies for consistency, community, and sustainable growth.

Listen For:

1:32 How did Steve Peroff build a real estate business that's lasted since 1989?

15:14 Why did Team Peroff choose marketing and promotion over cold calling?

32:26 What separates a high-performing real estate team from an average one?

37:31 When should a team leader step back from selling to focus on leadership?

54:27 What advice do veteran realtors have for agents struggling in today's market?

Connect with The Peroff Team: Email | Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

Steve Peroff, Sales Representative | Founder & Team Leader, Team Peroff
Website | LinkedIn | Email Steve | 

Eli Peroff, Sales Representative | Team Peroff
Website | LinkedIn  | Email Eli 

Pierre Demers, Sales Representative | Marketing & Operations, Team Peroff | Founder, REALTORSgive
Website | LinkedIn | Email Pierre |Instagram | REALTORSgive 

Connect with Johnder Perez, Director of Innovation & Business Development | RE/MAX Hallmark®

Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Email 

Transcript

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Steve Peroff (00:00:00):

But I had a work mentality. I've always had that. And I think that that's an important element of being in any business, but specifically in sales because you're working for yourself and you're working for your clients. You're working on a commission. There's never a guarantee of a paycheck at the end, so you have to have that kind of mentality.

Johnder Perez (00:00:23):

All right. Welcome everybody to Real Estate Strategies with RE/MAX Hallmark. And today I have the fortune and honor to be interviewing the Peroff team. And the Peroff team, our very own Micah, Michael Monroe from our leadership team was initially supposed to do this interview. And he's taking care of some things and he's doing well, but I'm honored to be speaking with Steve, Eli and Pierre from the Peroff team. Welcome.

Steve Peroff (00:00:49):

Thanks for having us.

Eli Peroff (00:00:49):

Thank you, Johnder.

Pierre Demers (00:00:50):

Thank you.

Johnder Perez (00:00:51):

It's our honor and pleasure. And what we're going to do is this is a conversation in terms of your team. Steve, you've been in the business since 1989 and then Eli and Pierre came aboard. And of course you've grown your team to where it is today. And what we're going to be doing, sharing with our listeners and our viewers, everybody who's in real estate, aspiring to be in real estate, aspiring to become successful and build a team is your secret of success, which brought you to this point. Let's start off first by introducing each of you. So if you don't mind each of you introducing yourselves, how long you've been in the business and then your main role within the team. And we'll start with Steve first.

Steve Peroff (00:01:32):

Thank you. Well, as you can tell, I'm the oldest guy on the team. I started in February of 89 in York region in Keswick at a time when real estate was a little bit old-fashioned compared to where we are today. Faxes came in at that time. We were still doing six offers on every deal, one for each lawyer, one for each brokerage and one for each of the buyers and one for each of the sellers. So things have really evolved since then, obviously. We didn't even use lock boxes in those days. I could go on and on and on about that, but I don't think I want to bore the listeners.

Johnder Perez (00:02:15):

Well, the doors were just open, I guess. You just help yourselves dug in. That's it.

Steve Peroff (00:02:19):

Exactly. Exactly.

Johnder Perez (00:02:20):

No, we had to go and

Steve Peroff (00:02:20):

Pick up keys from all the

Johnder Perez (00:02:22):

Offices. I was joking. No, of course.

Steve Peroff (00:02:26):

At any rate, back in 89, things were different. I worked as a solo agent, but within two years I found leverage as being a very good way to double up on myself. And I was glad I did. That was probably one of the best things I ever did was leverage myself early on. We had a lot of hardships at that time as well. We entered a period of seven years of downtime. As far as the economy was concerned, we were in a recession through till 1996 and wasn't till really 1997 that things turned around. But the good thing in all of that was because of that, I learned right from the very beginning what it meant to work in real estate because you had to work. I didn't come in at a time where it was easy to write offers and easy to deal with people during hard times.

(00:03:20):

I came in and you had to learn how to do it from scratch. So when things did get better, it was a lot easier for me to operate. And that's when we started to grow the team. I had my first assistant, I guess you could say, in about 1997. And from there we started to really grow the team in 2005. And when I say a team, we're not a big team. There's eight of us on the team. There's seven working agents. We have a full-time admin. We have a part-time admin who is our former employee of 20 years. So I tend to hire people that stay on for a long time, which is great. We're looking to build going forward. I wouldn't say we want to be 20 or 30 agents, but something a little bit bigger than what we are and still continuing to look forward to the future.

Johnder Perez (00:04:18):

That's amazing, Steve. Thank you for that. And I'm sure a lot has changed since you've started in 1989. And the one thing that probably hasn't is your attention to the clientele that you and then now your team serve and how that has compounded over the years. So we're going to learn about that more so later on in our conversation as well. Eli, how about you? How did you get introduced to the team? What's your role and what's been your experience over your 16 years in the business?

Eli Peroff (00:04:46):

Yeah, so the reason I got into the business mostly was through osmosis, to be honest with you. From a young age, I remember being a little boy going to appointments with my dad or getting stuck in the arena for an extra two hours after a game while he talked to his clients in the lobby and stuff like that. I worked some summers through university at the office just doing some administrative work and stuff like that. And then I decided, I guess a year or two after I completed my bachelor of science to get into real estate full-time. And that, as you said, was about 16 years ago. So I've been a part of it obviously through my dad and my mom was also licensed as well, still is, albeit she's more behind the scenes and stuff like that. So I was entrenched in it from a young age.

(00:05:50):

I believe we had multiple uncles, an aunt, a cousin that were all in the business all within Keswick at the time. So it was kind of a family dynamic back in the day. And then 16 years ago, I decided that I really didn't know what I wanted to do after university. And I didn't really fit into the mold of the standard nine till five, three weeks holidays style of business. And Steve had obviously created a business that opened a door for me to step into and to hopefully one day do him proud and carry on the legacy.

Johnder Perez (00:06:39):

Well, there you go exactly. That I was going to say is a legacy because you've seen the change in as well, 16 years of being in the business. You've seen more of the current and things that are currently changing in terms of technology and what's happening nowadays. And it must be a huge shift in terms of how you remember it growing up. But of course you naturally gravitated into the family side of things, the family business of things. So that's amazing. Pierre, so you joined in 2017. So you're relatively newer to the real estate business. I mean, mind you, it's over 10 years now or about 10 years. So how did you get introduced in the business? What's your current role today?

Pierre Demers (00:07:21):

So I start off with marketing operations. That was the role that the team was looking for in late 2017 and then transitioned over to an agent also juggling those roles as well. But knowing our relationship, our family relationship with the parapsicle back way before that, because my wife actually was the teacher and opened up Kaswick High School, and that's the year that Eli came on board. So we knew of Eli and all the good things that he did back then

Johnder Perez (00:07:53):

And

Pierre Demers (00:07:54):

Continues to do. So it's kind of synergistic the way all things came together and it's been an amazing ride ever since. The advantage of I found being on the team was the mentorship from absolutely everybody from Steve, Eli, Kent, all the agents that are involved, Janet's knowledge and expertise when she was on board and now with Maha. So we have something if you're looking at joining a team, there's definitely a great base there to be able to help everybody build their business on it.

Johnder Perez (00:08:29):

Right. So that's amazing. So we're going to learn about how the team came about in terms of your journey from Steve starting out and to where you're at today. So Steve, let's start with you because of course you started early in the business in 1989. You've seen the '90s, what happened in the '90s. I know the market is challenging now, but you probably would be best to compare today's market and what's happening in this market to our newer agents who are in the business or relatively newer agents of the business versus the challenges back then. But I'd like you to go through what was your mindset in terms of when you briefly told us how you got into the business, how you grew it. What was your vision when you got into the business? Did you see yourself building this team to where it is today?

(00:09:17):

What was your journey like and how did you become successful early on when you were in the business?

Steve Peroff (00:09:23):

Well, I have to say that it was almost accidental that I'm still in the business because I never thought I was going to be in as long as I was. Because when you come into real estate, I had no idea the benefits that it would bring into my life. For

Johnder Perez (00:09:43):

As

Steve Peroff (00:09:43):

Hard as we have to work in real estate, it's not all glory because you have to work really, really hard. But when you work hard, good things come your way. I was actually ironically brought in by a Hallmark agent, Dave Breckels, if you know Dave. He was my first real estate agent when I lived in Toronto on Chester Avenue in the Danforth.

(00:10:04):

So I remember I worked in the theater business back in those days in Toronto. And I had called Dave up and I said, "Dave, can we get together for lunch? And I want to ask you a bunch of real estate questions." And he was very gracious and we met and that was the beginning of the beautiful thing. We had moved out of the city. My wife had left her job. She worked in corporate relocation, so she had a real estate background. I left the theater business. We moved up north to Collingwood originally. Got my real estate license when it only took five weeks to get your license versus maybe five years for some people nowadays. So that was an interesting time. And then from Collingwood, we moved to Keswick because we could feel the recession coming on and we didn't want to be in a recreational community, want to be in a more year-round community, which is sort of ironic because Keswick's an old cottage community, but it's only an hour out of the city.

(00:11:02):

So that was fate had sort of put us in the right place at the right time. Keswick was a growing community. Our business was growing. Our family was growing. When we moved into town, Eli was only two years old. Our daughter was born and then my wife and I worked at working what came our way in the business. She was licensed, I believe it was in, she's almost 30 years now, but she's never sold a house, although she sold many for me so to speak. But she's worked in the background and she's sort of been the backbone of our business since then.

Eli Peroff (00:11:43):

Well, and to add to that too, Colleen, my mom, she's an old Kazwick family as well. So she was born and raised here. So I think that partially is what brought you back to this community as well. She had eight siblings, so there were nine total of them that grew up in a small, what, a thousand square foot bungalow in town. And I think that that's ultimately what drew you guys back to the community as well.

Steve Peroff (00:12:12):

So from that time on, I felt very lucky and very fortunate, but I had a work mentality. I've always had that. And I think that's an important element of being in any business, but specifically in sales because you're working for yourself and you're working for your clients. You're working on a commission. There's never a guarantee of a paycheck at the end. So you have to have that kind of mentality coming in. And I felt that coming out of my theater background, I learned about marketing. I learned what it meant to work long hours, which I did in real estate as well. I felt that to open a business, you had to spend money in order to make money. And our business was built on promotion and marketing more than it was on phone calling everything. It was reverse marketing. I sort of had people calling me to come and visit them versus me calling them to try and set up an appointment and it worked out very well.

(00:13:22):

Some people call it buying your business, but I don't look at it that way. I think it's creating a place for yourself in a community. We did a lot of community events and we still do them to this day. And that's been a really strong element in our business is being participants in the community, giving back to the community and creating our success or our image within the community, our brand from volunteering our time, not only in sports and entertainment, but in all levels of the community. And that was really I think our real success that helped us grow our business, just becoming involved and giving back.

Johnder Perez (00:14:12):

Right. And so we're going to get back into marketing as well because I want to compare your experience with the marketing coming from theater that was going to exactly ask how that transition happened and what that helped with. And then we're going to pick on Pierre later on because you do the marketing and all that sort of stuff and of course Eli at different stages of the growth of your team. So Steve, to dig a little bit deep into it as well, because you did mention a distinction between the thought of buying business, which is reverse marketing, or getting people to call you versus going out, the cold calls, the door knocks and all that. Real estate being inherently a sales business and there were real estate trainers and coaches in the 1990s and early 2000s that promoted all sorts of different things. How did you discover that the way you wanted to build this business was based on that versus based on pure cold calling out there and doing old school prospecting in terms of sales prospecting?

(00:15:14):

How did you know that promotion and marketing was the thing for you?

Steve Peroff (00:15:18):

Well, working in the theater, you sort of have that mentality. My brothers and I owned a couple of theaters in Toronto where we produced plays. From there, I went on to work at what was the O'Keefe Center, which is now I believe the Meridian Center. And then I went on to run the theaters at Harborfront. But you had to put bums in seats and how do you get bums in seats, but you promote and you advertise. And that's what I started to do in real estate. In the theater business, we used to have subscription series and they were always structured and there were times of years where you would market your shows and times of years when you would produce your shows.

Johnder Perez (00:15:58):

So

Steve Peroff (00:15:58):

I sort of treated real estate in the same manner. At that time, real estate had more of, if you look at a graph, you got busy in the spring, it sort of slowed down through the summer months, and then I got busy in the fall again. So in the fall before the fall market, I would prepare to get ready for the fall market. And I did that from early on. And then in the spring or in the winter, I would be preparing to get ready for the spring market. It was just sort of something that was innate because that's how we did the theater business as well. It wasn't anything that I though consciously of doing. It just said, "Well, how am I going to do this? " And it just sort of evolved itself.

Johnder Perez (00:16:40):

So it gravitated towards. So thank you for that, Steven. We're going to pick on a couple of more things later on, but we're going to shift to Eli now because Eli, growing up immersed in this business, of course, you've got a different perspective starting out and then you discovered getting into real estate. So you mentioned briefly when we started our conversation, your early moments of remembering how your parents were in the business, what they did and all that sort of stuff. How did the gravitation or how did that pull or the osmosis, as you said, into the business work for you? What sparked that interest? And then starting out, what led to your success early on? Independent of, of course, being part of the family business, but for yourself, how did you discover what you were good at and how you were to be succesful in the business?

Eli Peroff (00:17:30):

Yeah. So out of high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I decided to go to university. I ended up getting a bachelor of science in environmental science with a double major in history. And in my third, fourth year of university, I started to think, what am I going to do when I'm done? I have a passion for the outdoors, stuff like that. We were immersed in it as children. My parents were very much all about going camping and hiking and spending time in the outdoors and that really gravitated towards that. But in my third, fourth year university, I found myself questioning what I wanted to do, looking at my options and stuff like that. I graduated university and really still didn't know what I wanted to do. And I guess I just had an epiphany moment that my dad has built a great brand through his years of real estate, a great team.

(00:18:41):

I find myself to be a social person in a sense. And I just figured why not give it a shot? And I took the horse by the reins and got my license, like I said, about 17 years ago I guess was when I started through the courses and everything. And I just kind of jumped right into it.

(00:19:10):

Obviously as a 24-year-old at the time, I'm 40 now, but as a 24-year-old, you're fresh in the business, you're trying to sell homes, which are ultimately the biggest investment that people are generally going to make in their lifetime. And I really had to show my importance or my expertise as a young kid at the time. I didn't have facial hair. I looked like a babyface. So I think having Steve and we have Kent on our team who's been with us for a long time as well, who's been in the business just as long as Steve, if not maybe a little longer, as mentors to guide me at a young age and turn me into what I have become today. There were a lot of bumps on the road. There was a learning curve for me on how to deal with different people. 24, I wasn't necessarily super mature at the time and stuff like that.

(00:20:20):

So trying to find that work-life balance and in the same token, make it so that it wasn't me just relying on Steve to feed me, albeit I attribute my success to the systems and what he has provided to me as a mentor.

(00:20:43):

I did have to trip along the way and eventually things started to come more natural to me with talking to people, not in big crowds, but one-on-one and learning my scripts and just overall experience, going through different scenarios with different transactions and stuff like that that allowed me to evolve into where I'm at now. Yeah,

Johnder Perez (00:21:15):

Like carving out your own because in any second generation real estate, the toughest thing is of course, how do you overcome or how do you bring it to the next level? Because yes, your parents who have established the business, but of course in trying to build your own identity while within the business you're like, okay, this is great. I can only rely on them for so much. How do I bring it to the next level? And it's so amazing to see what you and Pierre are now going to talk about in terms of bringing the team to that next level and bringing that legacy to what is the next stage of growth. And we're going to dig deep into that as well. So Pierre, let's shift to you because you're the new... Well, among the three of you here, you're the newest. Absolutely. So how did you get thrown into the mix?

(00:22:05):

What's your instrumental role with the team? And then what was your challenge when you first started out? How did you get to the point where you're instrumental in determining where the team's going to go as well now with the three of you? And where do you see yourself going in terms of building out the team further?

Pierre Demers (00:22:26):

Yeah, for me, I'm very grateful because the opportunity was there. And Steve's built a culture throughout the year that really made it open. You can have dialogue, you can bring forward new ideas. Everybody's listened to. Sometimes they might be off the wall. But ultimately, even in my previous career in hospitality and sales for almost 24 years, a lot of things move forward with you. And a lot of those experiences that I had in the past, I was able to come forward with ideas and say, "Hey, how about we try this? Or how about we try that? " But the base was there. The team was advertising, doing pay-per-click campaigns early on, Facebook campaigns early on, still doing when we had our local papers very much involved with that on a weekly basis. There were billboards, there were bench advertising, all the things that built onto where again, you were driving around the corner, coming in the city, leaving the city, you'd like pair off, pair off, pair off.

(00:23:28):

They must be doing something right. Oh and by the way, there was also 20, 25 homes plus listings that were out there that had the team pair off sign out there. So not to say that the job was easy, but we also noticed in the last eight years, at least nine years, the change in technologies, programs, and there isn't any resistance to trying something new. Sometimes you're scratching your head going, why are we doing this? It's because why not give it a try? Because you never know what might pick up. We haven't gone down the TikTok route or the Snapchat route, but they're still there. And we played around with the technologies just so that we understand it. But at the end of the day is who's our target market? Where are buyers coming from? Where are sellers coming from? And how can we just help them out and let them know that Team Perofff is in town?

(00:24:23):

And I think that most of the marketing that you see now is not just this just listed, just sold price adjustment. It's also showing our personalities within the team. And we have some great agents here like Olivia Nikolai, who's really taken charge of Instagram and put herself out there, which is brave as well for somebody who's even newer than me to the industry.

Johnder Perez (00:24:48):

Right. So taking what Steve started out with promotion marketing, getting people to call you, and now doing it digitally in certain respects with the tools that are available today in digital marketing, but also leveraging how the brand grew with listings and the natural growth and organic growth of the team, leveraging that into the mix. So that's really amazing. And any one of you can jump into this. I'm going to ask some open-ended questions in terms of team growth, mindset, disciplines and whatnot. So in terms of the habits, you talked about a lot of different things and it seems to be that most successful real estate teams and real estate professionals in general have certain habits such as being consistent, having specifically defined goal, being passionate about the work because I agree the work is hard. You've got as much flexibility as you want in this business, but then it becomes question mark of what does flexibility mean?

(00:25:49):

It can be both good and bad. So what would you say are some of the habits, disciplines, strategies that made the biggest difference in your growth as individuals within the team? And then of course comprehensively as a team. Maybe when we start with Steve, then Eli and then Pierre, maybe mention one each of either a discipline or a strategy or a mindset in terms of how you felt it affected or impacted you positively. Steve.

Steve Peroff (00:26:18):

I think for me, it was just the mindset of showing up and showing up consistently, which means early on without all the technology that we have today, a lot of things were done manually and they took a lot more time than they do today by getting an offer signed or negotiating an offer. If you're at a client in the city, you'd have to drive down to the city. Your nights were long back in those days. But if I stayed up till 10 or 11 working on a deal, I would still be in at eight or nine the next morning. And that's what I mean about showing up, not just from a physical standpoint, but being prepared mentally about what I was going to do that day and make sure that I was there on a consistent basis. And I still do that today. I'm very often, well, next to Pierre, the first guy in the morning.

(00:27:11):

And I often beat him as well. And maybe being the last one out the door as well.

Johnder Perez (00:27:17):

It's

Steve Peroff (00:27:17):

Nothing to be proud of, but those are work habits that I got into early on and I try to share those with everybody that's on the team because I think that's still very important no matter what kind of technology we have to do business with today. And I think the public realizes it. I think the public sees it as well when they see you everywhere. Yeah,

Johnder Perez (00:27:39):

Showing up, I mean that's pretty much tantamount to success because no matter what you can leverage today and no matter what these things can do, you still got to be there and you still got to - That's

Steve Peroff (00:27:47):

It.

Johnder Perez (00:27:47):

Yeah, you got to put the work in. So Eli, what about you? What is it that you feel has led to your success? Habit, discipline, strategy, mindset?

Eli Peroff (00:27:56):

Well, I mean, I still struggled with that today. I'm sure most people do to stay disciplined and stuff like that. But when I first started, I was very much at the office every single day. It required prior to the systems we have in place now, you had to be there to know what was going on and to stay in tune with things. I think from my early days in real estate, having Steve as a mentor, I had the opportunity to learn a ton and learn a ton quick about the business. But I also learned that I did have to put my own personal touch on it as well, that I'm not my dad. There's obviously some similarities. Maybe we look a little bit alike or the beard, albeit I got a little less gray in it right now, but I think I learned early that there are one plus three equals four, but two plus two also equals

Johnder Perez (00:29:04):

Four.

Eli Peroff (00:29:05):

So there are different ways that are both as effective to get to the finish line. I think for me, it was finding that niche on what worked for me in the best way and staying true to that and consistent I think have been things that have allowed me to be successful through the years.Because the first couple years I wasn't selling a whole lot as a young adult getting into the business and stuff like that. And the longer I'm in it, the more repeat referral clients you get and stuff like that. So just harvesting those relationships and being out there again in the community. I'm 40 now, but I'm still Involved heavily with hockey and

Johnder Perez (00:30:01):

Baseball

Eli Peroff (00:30:02):

And soccer and sports have been a big thing in my life and that's allowed me to meet a lot of people and to harvest relationships and stuff like that as well as everything else that I do within school. And I won't lie, having the pair off name definitely helped, but I had to prove that I wasn't just riding off his coattails, that I was able to do this stuff without him. I needed people to trust me on my own.

Johnder Perez (00:30:31):

Right. So what I'm hearing, no, I mean there is of course the brand legacy of the name as well that's built over years, but carving your own niche, creating your own identity. But what I'm hearing the most is that constant learning, identifying for example, how you carve out your own niche and then just the passion and being social. I mean, it seems to me that's your recurring theme for success, just having that genuine interest in people, being social, being out there, never being afraid to admit that you don't know everything, you just need to learn and to grow constantly. So that's amazing, Eli. Pierre, how about you? What would you say attributed to your success in terms of either a habit, discipline, strategy or mindset?

Pierre Demers (00:31:14):

Yeah, it's the same thread. I think culture is also very important. The culture of the team, what Steve has established as far as minimum standards. Ultimately, we're all responsible for our own actions. But when you have a leader that you see him, like you said, be in the office every day, even though he doesn't have to be right now, he always, whatever system you use, having a checklist that he writes out every day or starts the night before, seeing him do those habits consistently over and over again, that's the secret of his success. And if you're smart and you respect and see the mentorship and see the opportunity, you can use some of those things, whether it's done electronically, whether it's done manually. But I think the culture again is really important because it really determines how the team's working together, how we communicate, how we solve problems and how we serve our clients at the end of the day.

Johnder Perez (00:32:13):

So that's amazing. The culture seeing following, I mean, because that's one of the best ways to be successful is follow somebody else's being successful.

Pierre Demers (00:32:21):

That's right. Yeah, success leaves clues.

Johnder Perez (00:32:23):

There you go. Steve's

Pierre Demers (00:32:23):

Got a lot of clues that we can pick up on.

Johnder Perez (00:32:26):

Yeah. So you know what? Which brings me to this question because you brought up something interesting there because the dynamics of a team of course have something to do with how everybody gets along. And going from an individual agent to becoming a team to becoming a successful team are all different stages of growth. So this can be any of you who answers it, so feel free to jump in. How would you say a high-performing real estate team such as yourselves differs from just the average team? Because you've probably met real estate agents and some of you listening or watching might fall into this trap where you're like, "Real estate teams, they look amazing. I got to start one. I got to start my own team." But then they fall into the trap of either they're still the main person selling on the team as opposed to maybe they still sell, but they also empower others.

(00:33:19):

But then you also fall into the trap where some teams don't ever reach a stage of growth beyond maybe two or three agents and there's constant turnover. As you're having this conversation with me, I can apreciate the fact that each of you, you bring in a team member's name because one example that we're talking about, "Oh, this person's that or this person's great." And so you can really feel the vibe of the dynamics of your team. So what separates a high-performing successful team such as yourselves versus a team that's just average?

Eli Peroff (00:33:52):

Well, I mean, for me, I think for us, I find that we're kind of like a tight-knit family. We're not just colleagues. A lot of us, we all live and work within the same community. We all have connections and stuff like that. For instance, Kent, up until last year, was still playing baseball with my friends being double my age. So we are all kind of - Well, he's

Steve Peroff (00:34:18):

Not double your age. Come

Eli Peroff (00:34:19):

On. Prety close.

Johnder Perez (00:34:19):

You're rounding up, I guess.

Eli Peroff (00:34:20):

That would

Steve Peroff (00:34:21):

Make them 80.

Eli Peroff (00:34:22):

Not double, but we're very tight-knit. I think we're a little bit picky on who we decide to come on the team. We want to make sure that they're a right fit and we're not just bringing them on for the sake of bringing them on. I think we have a certain culture and we want to make sure that the agents that we do bring on kind of fit within that mold, which allows them to grow and allows the team to ultimately flourish in the end.

Johnder Perez (00:34:53):

Do you find that that happens naturally or does it happen sort of... Obviously, how do you find that happens? Are they drawn to your team and become successful and thrive because of who you are, who you represent, just the way you are? Or is there some other secret formula that real estate agents trying to form teams like this can learn such as a blueprint in terms of your culture? I guess what I'm trying to get at is this intentional or does it happen just because of what your team values are?

Steve Peroff (00:35:26):

I think that it is a law of attraction basically, because anytime that we've tried to be intentional about recruiting, it hasn't worked the same way as just dealing with people with fairness. I think all of us on the team, I have to say, are really good-hearted people. Probably them more than me. And that tends to attract other good-hearted people as well. And I think everybody on the team is somebody who's been attracted. We haven't gone out to recruit them. And that's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. It just is who we are. Yeah, we would like to have a couple more agents on our team and hopefully we'll attract those in the next while. And

Johnder Perez (00:36:20):

Especially

Steve Peroff (00:36:20):

Maybe once I... I don't want to say I leave, it's just I step down from my role and let them have the responsibility, let them open their own bank account and operate differently than me. So that would be my answer to

Johnder Perez (00:36:39):

That. Then it's awesome to se that because over time, especially since you've been in the business, Steve, for so long and your philosophies, your mindsets, your habits, of course, through that DNA have translated down to the extension of you essentially within your team and now it's time for new leadership to step up and say, "Hey, look, you know what? We're going to continue this legacy." Which brings me to this question. Are all of you currently still producing as in you're actively selling or do you spend more of your role in a leadership position? And how do you see that transition play a part in how you successfully grew the team? As in, for example, should a team leader step back from their production and say, "Look, I want to spend my time more so in mentorship and cheerleading my team members on and in building their business.

(00:37:31):

How much time should they produce, if any? And is that transition necessary to build success in the team? Any one of you can answer this.

Steve Peroff (00:37:41):

I think every team needs a rainmaker. And up until recently I've been the rainmaker. Things are a little bit more divided now. I think that's just sort of the natural progression of the team. And when we hired Pierre, he came on as a marketing person. He evolved into the operational because that's his natural ability, his natural ability. He's a great operator. And that took a lot of heat off of me because I was getting to a stage in life and in the business where I couldn't operate everything in the team and continue to be the rainmaker. So that gave me a few extra more years to do that. I'd say in the last five years really since COVID, I probably am producing less now. Well, intentionally, I'm stepping back more. I go away more in the winter months, not as much as I want to, but enough to feel satisfied that I'm not married totally 100% to the business, that I do have some ability to pull away and know that when I leave between Pierre and Eli, that things continue to operate and to run.

(00:38:58):

So I think the transactional side of the business is a little bit more balanced now than it ever was because there was a time when I would do half of it and the agents would do the other half and now it's a little bit more balanced.

Johnder Perez (00:39:13):

Right. So there is that eventual trend that as you escalate and grow in terms of your team leadership, you will have to understandably step back from sales because some team leaders think, and I totally agree, when you're starting out a team, as with any startup, there has to be that rainmaker that makes things happen. But over time that could also get in the way in terms of growth. Here, it's great to see that because of that transition and realizing that you've got to step away from it in order to invest time back into building the team that led to the success of that. So Eli and Pierre, how do you see it? Because it sounds to me like in terms of our conversation, you're set up to take on that next generation of leadership. Do you see yourself still actively selling as much as you do now versus maybe shifting a little bit away from that, but now investing more of your time in helping your agents sell more?

Pierre Demers (00:40:05):

I think that's a great question. Steve's really established the leadership. He's set a goal to have really a great environment where people feel supported, challenged, and appreciated. And those aren't small words. There's a lot of action and heart behind that. It's not about having all the answers, but it's really about helping others and helping others build their business. So I think it'll be continuing to that, but with a different flare naturally. And that'll be the challenge is to go, what is the Steve way, which has worked very well for years and how can it be tweaked so that it becomes the Eli way and the next generation of Team Pair Off way? Because it's not only a technology change, but people have changed as well. Expectations has changed as well. But when you're upfront with potential new recruits on what the opportunity is at Team Pair off and how we can help them build their business, it's finding the right culture, the right block to put in our set of Lego.

(00:41:16):

And Eli's a huge Lego fan. So how do we put together the sets so that it's cohesiveness? It doesn't always have to look the same, but we also know about Lego blocks is that you can pull out a part and put another one back in and probably make it even better and even more exciting. So I think the opportunity is really exciting for myself and for Eli.

Johnder Perez (00:41:37):

That's amazing. Eli, you

Eli Peroff (00:41:39):

Don't do that. I don't know what that necessarily is going to look like once Steve steps back and stuff like that yet. But between Steve and I, we deal with a lot of the listings and stuff like that that come in. I mean, obviously our agents also have listings as well, but a lot of the calls we deal with the listing ends because if you don't have signs on the line, you don't generally generate the calls from the buyers to come in as well. So I think I'll continue probably to do that because it's part of what I enjoy about the business. But I think once I step into Steve's role and I think I fully realize what he has on his shoulders, that might change my tune a little bit to how I decide to approach it or how Pierre and I decide to approach it going forward.

Johnder Perez (00:42:31):

I mean it's a big challenge because it is difficult to give up a sales. Let's face it, sales income is difficult to give up in lieu of building business. I mean you know that. But at the same time, it's more so, which brings me to this question actually, which is really interesting that it's came up in this point of the conversation. Almost four decades, if not more, I mean it's roughly about four decades now of business combined. I mean combined way more than that, but cumulatively about that. Has the definition of success changed over time? Because starting out, for example, Steve, moving from Toronto all the way up north, starting a completely new lifestyle and all of that sort of stuff, shifting from being in theater to being in sales. Of course in sales they have the thing, you eat what you kill. I mean you hunt, you cook, you eat it.

(00:43:28):

So that's 100% commission-based business. And so early on, your definition of success is, okay, it might start in terms of survivalship. Do I have enough to feed my family and pay my bills and maintain my real estate license, pay for marketing? But over time, of course, it changes as you become successful, as your team grows. So how has your definition of success, we'll go Steve, Eli Pierre in that order. Your definition of success in this business, how has it changed from when you started to what do you define success as today?

Steve Peroff (00:44:01):

Yeah, so back then, if anybody ever told me, this is where I was going. If anybody ever told me I could make 250,000 a year and I would lose $250,000 in my first four years, I told them they were crazy. And what I mean lose, I mean when I came into the business, I though, okay, I'm going to invest in real estate as well. So I went out and bought four properties and then the market collapsed. So I just had to work like a dog in order to get out of it. And it was living paycheck to paycheck. I don't live paycheck to paycheck anymore, but back then it was difficult. And I would imagine it's difficult for people in the business right now too. We are really fortunate in that we became who we are through hard work, discipline and consistency so that when we're in this market, and I never thought I would be in this market again, not because it wasn't going to happen, but because I would be long gone by the time it happened.

(00:44:53):

But it's happened and we're in it again now. And what we're seeing is we're seeing more business people coming back to us that may not have come to us because they were dealing with their neighbor or their uncle who became an agent or their cousin who became an agent. And they now want to work with the local guys, not just in our team, but even the other local agents. There's three or four really strong agents in the community and I can see their businesses are still blossoming or growing even more. And people are coming back to us because of who we became and who we are within the community, knowing that if they want the job done, they're going to come back to us. So I think that's a little bit different this time around than it was back then. And hopefully everybody in our team is making a decent living and is able to pay their bills and they're not living paycheck to paycheck.

Johnder Perez (00:45:38):

Right. And then so today, how would you define your success?Back then it was literally making it. Today, what is success to you? Well,

Steve Peroff (00:45:45):

It's being able to give it away. We believe in giving locally and serving globally. I mean for I guess 15 years I was involved in a orphanage in Kenya. And in fact, I'm still involved with it as well. It's just that the organization has changed and I stepped down from the board. But there was a monthly contribution that we made as board members to make sure that those orphanages that we supported in Kenya and in Guatemala and in Honduras were successful. So without real estate, I could not have been philanthropic. So the success that real estate brought us allowed us to contribute not only to our community, but outside of our community. And I still have relationships in Kenya and in Guatemala and Honduras because of that.

Johnder Perez (00:46:44):

I love how you put it. Success then was how much you mean. Now it's how much you can give out, how much you can give away and how much you can impact. And you're also involved in realtors give, you did a blood donation drive as well, or a blood donation.

Steve Peroff (00:46:57):

That would be Pierre. You'll have

Johnder Perez (00:46:59):

To - Yeah, we'll keep that to when we get to Pierre. So Eli, for you, starting out in real estate, how did you define success then? And then today, what is your definition of success?

Eli Peroff (00:47:09):

Well, it was a little bit different when I started because I was still living with mom and dad. I didn't have any bills. There was really nothing I had to really worry about. I didn't really know what success... Well, I mean, I knew what success looked like by looking at what Steve put together over the years and how busy he was and the amount of business that he had and stuff. I think now 16 years down the road, I define success as being able to live comfortably for me personally. I have a small family now, a little four-year-old at home. Things have changed drastically in my life over the last four or five years as well. And I think for me, success is being able to support them, being able to provide my wife and my young son with the same kind of lifestyle that I was fortunate enough to have growing up.

Johnder Perez (00:48:16):

Because

Eli Peroff (00:48:18):

Realistically, my mom and dad were, not that we were spoiled per se, but we were very fortunate in how me and my sister grew up and just being able to give that back to my family in

Johnder Perez (00:48:38):

The

Eli Peroff (00:48:38):

Same way, albeit maybe a little bit different, I think for me has been an eye-opener a little bit too.Because back prior to a family living as a bachelor in your own house, it was just let's make some money and have fun with it. And now it's more, what am I going to do, plan for the future, stuff like that. So I think for me now too is that now that I'm out of that stage in my life, it has allowed me to devote more time to business and to really realize what my priorities are and should be going forward.

Johnder Perez (00:49:17):

Yeah, which is really interesting again, how it shifts from you're responsible for yourself, now you're responsible for others. And it's similar to what Justiva just said and then paying it forward. So that's amazing, Eli. Pierre, how about yourself? Starting out a couple years ago and in terms of now, so you're involved in Realtors Given and the blood donation. So how would you have defined success then? How do you define success now?

Pierre Demers (00:49:44):

Yeah, so again, my early on was marketing and then became operation and then as a realtor. So I think my definition of success is what impact do I have on the team? What do I do in my day-to-day that's going to help each one of our team members on what they need and what their needs are at their level of their career? And now I have the privilege of helping families, helping individuals start off their real estate journeys, helping people downsize and sometimes through difficult times. So you learn so much. So success is, like Steve said, it's not just what you get, but what you give away. And that's not always in treasurer money. Sometimes it's experience and knowledge and you start off that way. And then as far as realtors give us concern, I was always a blood donor, became more serious at it in 2018.

(00:50:41):

So just in March of 2018, I said, "You know what? I'm going to get back into it. " My father had a heart surgery when he was 45. So my goal was, "Hey, I'm going to do 45 whole blood donations because complete strangers helped them go through surgery. I think you need about seven pints of blood back in those days." And then I continued on my mentor and that was my own brother who's at 194 whole blood donations. But then came the opportunity to, once I reached my 45, I went, "Hey, how can I help people out? " Because when you do, you're there every seven weeks and here was an opportunity to donate plasma to be there every week. So it just became my thing on Tuesday mornings

(00:51:26):

To drive an hour and a bit to bond, sit there for about an hour, donate, get to meet some pretty interesting people that at their core love to give. And when you're giving blood or plasma or platelets, it's a different kind of give. And then I said, "Well, how can I incorporate that into the real estate world? Because there's so many of us out there, 75,000 plus in the GTA alone. What if we can get 10% of those people to be more aware of what they can do from their communities? We help families in a really meaningful way. Here's a way to... Every donation equals three lives that you save. So last, this past Monday was 151. So the week before that was my big 150 with my pin. So when you multiply that by three, that's quite the impact that you can have. Never went to medical school, didn't have to worry about organic biology.

(00:52:22):

So here's a quick way to help people.

Johnder Perez (00:52:25):

That's amazing.

Pierre Demers (00:52:25):

And I think we've all been also with our own families and friendship group, people that are affected by cancer, people that are affected by other blood disease and it's really easy to give. It takes no time at all and hopefully we'll get the word out.

Johnder Perez (00:52:41):

Right. And just making an impact is one of those things we're blessed with in this business because in as much as sky's the limit, you work hard, you can do as much as you want, you can do as little as you want depending on what your goal is and what your aspirations are, but just the meaningful impact that you all make to yourselves, to your families, and to the community and to the world, that's absolutely amazing. So I've really enjoyed this conversation, but we're not quite finished yet. I know Steve, when we were talking off record when we first started out, you had said that you were with RE/MAX first, then you left for KW and Micah was so instrumental in bringing you back. I want to end off with this, and you can allude to that as well, Steve, and then Eli and Pierre afterwards is Steve, you said it as well.

(00:53:31):

You never thought you'd ever see a period of your life where the same challenges that you had faced back then are currently being faced by the market now. And in fact, realtors watching and listening to our show can attest to that. No matter where you are in the world listening or watching this, market's challenging. It wasn't the sold in less than a day market or order-taking market that we all see and everybody just started getting licensed and everybody was selling homes. You have to really work hard. And what I've always found is anybody who was in the business, Steve, around your time, 80s, 90s, tend to be the biggest and most successful agents today because the habits that they build selling for two, three, $4,000 in this volume within this market obviously translates to even bigger. So what I want to do is ask each of you for a piece of advice.

(00:54:27):

You know what has made each of you successful, you know what built your team to be successful. What we want to do here is inspire those who are watching and listening to us. What advice would you give them amidst the market challenge, amidst the things that they face in their business and in life? What's your piece of advice to them? We'll start with Steve.

Steve Peroff (00:54:50):

I think no matter what the market, whether it's a good market or a down market, I think you have to invest in yourself. And by that I mean if you're starting out or if you're a seasoned veteran and you're having difficulties, I think by investing in yourself, I mean to look at opportunities that are out there for coaching or for mentoring, for other people to mentor you, I should say, like a team, if you're looking to join a team. Don't be afraid to knock on some doors and to talk to people about how they became successful and to follow in their footsteps. I think you also have to give of yourself. If you're going to receive anything back, you must give of yourself. And when people see that you're giving and that you're concerned about them, they'll be attracted to you and they'll use you.

(00:55:54):

If you're just looking for a commission, it's very difficult for you to be successful with that kind of a mindset. So give of yourself and also look for ways to invest in yourself so that you can become better.

Johnder Perez (00:56:10):

Absolutely. Thank you for that, Steve. Eli, how about you? For a real estate agent listening, watching to this, Eli, what advice would you give them to help them navigate this market, become successful and build a career or a business that they're going to be proud of?

Eli Peroff (00:56:26):

Well, persevere I think for me continue to do the things that when the market gets slow, continue to do the things that made you successful before and persevere through those tougher markets and stuff like that. As my dad always says, you got to work hard to get lucky. And realistically, if you're not out there working constantly, then generally speaking, sometimes you'll still get lucky, but you got to work it to do it. So just staying consistent and persevering regardless of where the market is regardless of what's going on and just staying true yourself.

Johnder Perez (00:57:12):

Which is the biggest challenge. I mean, the reason why there's real estate coaching, the reason why there's a leadership team to tell our agents what to do and how to build up their business is because of that, Eli, as you pointed out, is just the consistency and discipline. If everybody had it, everybody would be successful. But I mean, there'd be a lot more competition in the business as well. But the fact that we constantly have to be reminded, but what can't be changed, I guess, to Eli, to your point, is that if you don't have a genuine passion or interest in the business, it's going to be hard to stay disciplined and to stay motivated and to persevere. So somebody to be successful in this business has to have that. So absolutely, Eli, that's amazing.

Eli Peroff (00:57:52):

Well, and you always have to keep learning.

Johnder Perez (00:57:54):

You have toe.

Eli Peroff (00:57:55):

Things will ever change. That's right. You got to keep learning. You got to keep, as he said, invest in yourself, educate yourself with what's going on. We do do team coaching as a group. We've been doing that for as long as I can remember. It's been something very beneficial. Regardless if you already know some of that stuff, it's a good reminder and gets you jumpstarted again.

Johnder Perez (00:58:25):

Yeah. And the success behind your team's evolution and continuous growth is you weren't stuck on 1989, 1990, 2000s. You're bringing it to 2026 basically and constantly learning new things. So Pierre, how about you? What piece of advice would you give to real estate agents right now who might be struggling or need that piece of inspiration for success?

Pierre Demers (00:58:48):

Yeah, I appreciate the softball there. I think joining Team Paraff, which in turn means RE/MAX Hallmark is your number one check on the list, but showing up.

Johnder Perez (00:58:58):

Showing up.

Pierre Demers (00:58:59):

Showing up every day. Number two would be taking action. So whatever your way of collecting leads, if it's door knocking, if it's making phone calls, if it's doing open houses, a combination of all of that, following up with your sphere, I think just do it.

Johnder Perez (00:59:18):

Just

Pierre Demers (00:59:19):

Do the work. The hardest one is always the first one and success leaves clues, but it's also success is boring is another line that I've heard early on because by doing the same thing every day, as long as you're taking action moving forward, helping people without expectations back to your commission breath, but really finding out what their pain points are, why are they looking at selling a house? Why are they looking at buying a house and helping them along and there's no better feeling than when you sign the paperwork and you see the look in their faces and they're like, "Oh my gosh, thank you. Follow up, fill the Google five star review and move on to the next one and keep those relations... Ships. Don't forget them, invite them to events and those types

Johnder Perez (01:00:04):

Of things

Pierre Demers (01:00:04):

That would be part of your system

Johnder Perez (01:00:05):

As well. And I think that's what everybody's just got to remember is you got to love this business, you got to put in the work. You get lucky the more work you put in, you got to persevere, always be learning. And shameless fuck, join Team Perofff, right? I mean, so let's finish off with this then. Anybody wanting to join the team or anybody who wants to send business to your region where you work as a referral? Because we have agents all over the world watching this and somebody may want to send some business to you. How do they reach your team? What are the websites, phone numbers, email addresses? Go ahead and promote Team Pearof.

Pierre Demers (01:00:40):

Yeah, sorry, teamPerofff.com. Either steve@teamPerofff.com, Eli or pierre@teamPerofff.com. We'd love to be able to have those conversations and see if it's the right fit. If not, then we'll definitely encourage you to what other teams of systems do we know, especially Steve and Eli know within either RE/MAX, with Keller Williams before. There's the right fit out there, but ultimately there's no magic bullet. You have to do the work and you have to love and want to do it. But I am biased where I think you can get it done here and do well and make a career and help your family along.

Johnder Perez (01:01:24):

Well, this episode was built for that. Thank you so much. Steve, Eli, Pierre, thank you very much for giving us this amazing opportunity. It's our pleasure to have this conversation with all of us here at RE/MAX Hallmark and of course all of our watchers, listeners, all of our audience of Real Estate Strategies. If you're watching this or listening to this, wherever you're doing that, make sure you like, subscribe, comment, all that good stuff. Reach out to Team Parof. They've sent you their contact information and thank you so much. We'll see you in the next episode of Real Estate Strategies with RE/MAX Hallmark. Thank you.

Steve Peroff (01:02:02):

Thank you everyone.

Pierre Demers (01:02:03):

Thank you. Thanks guys.