Los Angeles
Douglas Elliman Real Estate has launched a boot camp for new agents in California. The five-day training and orientation program is meant to give new brokers the tools for success, and it is the first step in educational services offered by the residential real estate company. Elliman's director of training and development, Jeffrey Scott Stanton is spearheading the project.
"It starts with a one-day orientation, which focuses on our business with our tools and processes and our history," Stanton tells GlobeSt.com. "The next four days is focused on operations and how to run your business like a true business. So, we give our agents strategy and systems so they can generate business."
Elliman is looking to grow the company and gain marketshare, but is focused on strategy more than mass hiring. The firm wants successful producing agents, and in some ways, took a cue from the commercial playbook, which has historically focused more on internal training and education. "A lot of companies are more interested in hiring agents than developing those agents," adds Stanton. "We really see it as the opposite way. We want to develop agents. The commercial side is a lot more technical than the residential side, and that is why you see more training on the commercial side."
Elliman's New York offices have had training programs, but the California division didn't follow suit. "When I moved to California in 2015 to grow our business, I was told that most of the agencies on the Westside don't hire new agents, and I was surprised by that," Stephen Kotler, the CEO of Douglas Elliman's Western Region, tells GlobeSt.com. "I don't know how you grow a business if you don't bring new agents into the business and make them your next superstars. So, we have been thinking about this for a while."
Kotler wanted to take a strategic route to the firm's expansion and build a team of superstar agents. This was the impetus for the training and development bootcamp. "There has been a commoditization of agents with a lot of new start-ups, so the business has really focused on the headcount," says Kotler. "That has been the problem with this industry. We don't believe in the commoditization of agents. We could be double in size, but we would rather bring people through a program to develop producing agents. We are really about taking people that have the ability and the desire to do this and giving them the tools to be successful."
The program doesn't end with the initial orientation either. The firm is dedicated to ongoing training, education and mentorship to keep agents moving forward in their careers. They even have a restart program for agents that left the industry and want to return. "We check in with new agents every week, and we have continued coaching and mastermind workshops in our California business," says Kotler. Those workshops include panels with top names in the industry, like Josh Altman, Fredrik Eklund and Ivan Estrada.
So far, the new agent training has been a hit. "We had an unbelievable response," says Stanton. "Internally, we have gotten a lot of buzz and we have had agents ask how they can get into the next class."
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Kelsi Maree Borland
