At a time when large real estate corporations are gobbling up smaller independent firms and there is increasing consolidation in the marketplace, some brokers would shudder at the thought of starting and operating their own business.
But three years ago, after only a year selling real estate in a Brookline office, broker Matt Bless took the plunge and established Vanguard Realty in Brighton.
Last year, Vanguard handled $22 million in condominiums sales, and represented either the selling or buying side in 65 condo transactions, making it one of the top-producing real estate offices in Brighton.
Bless, who has experience in technology and marketing, acknowledges that building his own real estate business was “scary” at the beginning.
When he first started his business, it was just him and his wife, Fay, sitting at two desks in their newly renovated office in Brighton Center. “It was pretty quiet,” he said. “When you open a real estate office nothing is happening. There are no phone calls.”
Bless also found it tough to recruit real estate agents to work for him. But Bless didn’t let those initial challenges discourage him.
Having run a sandwich shop on Beacon Street in Brookline with his wife for three years, Bless had gained enough entrepreneurial experience to know that perseverance could ultimately pay off.
Today, Vanguard, which primarily serves consumers in Brighton, Allston and Brookline, has 11 agents. Most of the agents have between three to five years experience in real estate, although at least one agent has been in the business for a decade.
The sleek real estate office – with high ceilings, exposed brick walls and the latest in wireless networking, high-speed Internet and modern furnishings – rivals offices in the Back Bay.
Bless said consumers have been impressed. “They get a good feeling about the office when they come in the door.”
‘A Cooperative Business’
While
large real estate franchises can boast that they have hundreds of
agents and listings and a strong brand name, Bless said there are a
good number of consumers who prefer a locally owned and operated real
estate company where they can talk directly with the owner.
For them, size doesn’t matter.
Even though larger companies like Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and Hammond GMAC Real Estate still hold the biggest market share in many communities, Bless doesn’t believe that smaller companies are at a disadvantage because Realtors generally cooperate with each other.
“That’s the beauty of this business. It’s a cooperative business,” he said.
However, the strong cooperative spirit that exists in some markets hasn’t always been shared in Brighton, where there are 38 different real estate offices, according to Bless.
There were cases in Brighton where real estate agents would get a new listing for a property and instead of advertising it on the multiple listing service, they would call prospective buyers directly or seek to keep the sale in-house, Bless explained.
“I think it was every man for himself,” he said. “That’s changed.”
Three years ago, Bless said he saw an opportunity to open a real estate office in Brighton that used technology and did a more effective job at marketing. The real estate offices in Brighton “were a little outdated” in the way they conducted business and in the way that they approached real estate and marketing, says Bless.
“I noticed there were these large national real estate franchises that had a good brand name but really didn’t do a good job with marketing,” Bless said.
Bless, who had done marketing and promotion for a cousin’s sportswear marketing company and had offered technical and system support as a Microsoft-certified engineer for Ernst & Young, decided he could establish an independent company and do his own marketing.
He purchased office space on Washington Street in Brighton Center, significantly renovated the premises and began hiring agents and building a client base for Vanguard Realty. A year ago, Bless, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, purchased a home located behind his business, so he can literally walk to work.
Vanguard Realty has operated during a booming real estate market. Condo and prices in Brighton, Brookline and Allston have risen significantly since 2003.
The median selling price for a condo in Allston increased 22 percent to $318,000 last year from $260,750 in 2003, while the median condo price in Brookline reached $459,000, up 17 percent from $392,500 during the same period, according to The Warren Group, parent company of Banker & Tradesman.
Brighton’s median condo price was $274,500 last year, 16.8 percent higher than the $235,000 median of 2003.
Even though a slowdown in the housing market is expected, Bless doesn’t appear too concerned. He feels that any market shift is more likely to affect speculators and investors, rather than the type of clients he serves – consumers who have to buy or sell because of life changes.
If anything, Bless theorizes that large franchises may have a tougher time riding out a market slowdown because they have enormous fixed costs, and aren’t as flexible as smaller independent real estate offices.
Still, Bless knows that starting and maintaining a small business can be “pretty nerve-wracking.”
“You stretch as far as you
can financially, energy-wise and emotionally,” he said. “And then you
find you have to stretch even beyond where you thought you would need
to go. But that’s the exciting part.”