IN THE NEWS
First Team Real Estate Jumps in National Sales Volume Rank From 16th to 13th in REAL Trends Top 500
Posted 06/12/2009COSTA MESA, Calif., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Calm, steady focus on strategies to give their customers an edge in a constantly shifting real estate market has resulted in First Team Real Estate leaping several notches closer to being among the top ten largest real estate brokers in the United States.
Despite a turbulent economy that has been especially hard on Southern California's real estate market, Costa Mesa-based First Team Real Estate has gone from 16th place in 2007 to 13th place in 2008 based on REAL Trends' list of the nation's top 500 most successful real estate companies as ranked by sales volume. RISMedia's 2009 Power Broker Survey ranked First Team as the leading independent real estate company in Southern California. Real Data Strategies, Inc., recently reported that First Team sold more homes in Orange County than any other brokerage in the decade 1998 to 2008, and Trendgraphix Inc. reports showed early this year that in 2008, the company sold more homes over $1 million than any other Southern California brokerage, solidifying First Team's Estates brand as the luxury leader in the region.
Founder Cameron Merage, who started the company in 1976 out of a small office in Huntington Beach, said a counter-cyclical approach combined with innovative proprietary tools to increase growth and service, plus agility within the organization that allows for fast response to local markets, helped his company achieve the impressive advance in the national rankings.
"Our fundamental approach is to capitalize on cyclical changes. While others are still being immobilized by new challenges, we're already implementing solutions."
First Team Real Estate and its family of companies now have 56 offices in the Southern California region, an internationally renowned luxury properties arm, First Team Estates, and an in-house commercial real estate side with agents who are veterans in the complex arena of non-residential properties. In addition, First Team boasts an escrow division under Coast Cities Escrow and Hallmark Escrow as well as Western Resources Title and mortgage unit, Banker's Funding. As a result, agents are able to provide a much wider and full range of services to customers than the industry norm.
According to Merage, First Team's unique in-house structuring attracts and retains the industry's most talented agents by giving them a huge Internet marketing presence that is partnered with Realtor.com, Yahoo! Real Estate and dozens more; ongoing training and certification in specialized areas such as luxury and commercial properties; and a degree of autonomy many agents find especially attractive.
First Team has a leading reputation in the industry that reflects Merage's constant quest to anticipate upcoming market cycles and to design market analysis tools and marketing strategies to help educate the consumer and maximize the success of their home buying and selling experience.
The approach has worked so well that it has dependably confirmed Merage's assertion that First Team has always grown its market share in down markets.
Most recently, the general public as well as real estate professionals throughout the region have seen First Team's bold and focused adaptation to the current market in its highly publicized "The NEW Rules of Real Estate." The first rule, said Merage, is to "realize that the old rules no longer apply. Our ten NEW Rules have lifted the selling and buying process to a higher standard."
The NEW Rules are clearly stated items dealing with everything from how quickly today's agent responds to consumer's property inquiries, to how First Team's proprietary data tools can be best used to get extremely accurate and detailed pricing information and forecasting neighborhood by neighborhood.
"Many people think prices are declining further on a nationwide basis, so why go out and buy? With First Team's proven tools and strategies, that concern becomes immaterial," Merage said. "Real estate is a very local business. Prices appreciate or decline in variable that change from community to community."
"I am pleased and proud to see the company advance in the REAL Trends ranking, but I am not surprised by it," he added. "Our company has cultivated what I've come to call a 'culture of invincibility,' and it is contagious. Our agents spread that confidence of being invincible, and it is noticed not just by us, but by everyone who deals with our company. I believe it's why our market share and our pool of talented agents continue to grow even in down markets."
For more information visit www.firstteam.com.