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Real estate conference season is heating up, with multiple real estate brands descending on Las Vegas to gather agents and brokers for what will undoubtedly be a challenging year. Century 21 is the latest agency to roll the dice in Sin City, with its annual One 21 Experience taking place in Fontainebleau from March 4-7.
Mike Midler
Despite a morning filled with meetings, C21 President and CEO Mike Miedler was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, gushing about the venue and the billion-dollar The resort’s history is linked to today’s market.
“The Fontainebleau broke ground in 2007 and has since changed hands four or five times,” he said. “(Famous investor) Carl Icahn even bought it for $100 million,” he added. “In the end, Fontainebleau (brand) spent nearly $4 billion to buy it back and finally opened it nearly 20 years after the first transaction.”
“It’s a classic real estate story,” he added. “This is an example of perseverance.”
Miedler said agents and brokers must maintain the same spirit in 2024 as the industry faces multiple macroeconomic challenges, the rise of artificial intelligence and the fallout from multiple buyer-broker commission lawsuits.
“(Our subsidiaries) don’t have to sell the C21 brand,” he said. “They don’t have to sell the trust and confidence that the 21st century brings – they just have to sell themselves and how they become experts in their local market.”
“Your to-do list should be much longer than your to-do list,” he adds. “With all the news and everything, we sometimes want to do a little bit of everything. But when you stay focused and stay true to your game plan, you’re going to find the most success.”
Inman: The One 21 experience begins Monday. What are you most excited about for this year’s conference?
Midler: I’m so excited – it’s convention season, a great start to celebrating our accomplishments last year, and the start of the spring home buying and selling season. We made some changes (to the conference) this year, which is really cool.
Of course, we have great keynote speakers like Mike Ferry, who is the godfather of the real estate coaching industry and has probably created more millionaires than anyone else in the industry. Then we have Jon Taffer, a renowned entrepreneurial guru from “Bar Rescue.” (Taver) tells you that’s what it is, and he’s going to give all of our agents some real entrepreneurial wisdom about working in their business versus working in their business and really having a plan and a focus.
I’m excited for (Ferry and Tarver), but more importantly, what’s going to move things forward for all of us is that we listen to our agents and our agents — they want to hear each other opinions, and we have so many different sessions hosted and curated directly by our agents and owners. They are the people who are on the front lines, on the street, servicing buyers and sellers every day.
Having said that, meetings can become overwhelming in many ways, so my top tip for everyone attending is to focus on one or two things that resonate and help drive business forward. You could write pages and pages of notes on a meeting like this and then go back and do nothing.
An important part of our business is taking what you can from a knowledge standpoint, but applying it to your business and doing it consistently. So hopefully that’s what people will do.
One thing you said that caught my attention is working “for your business” vs. working “in your business.” What exactly does this mean, especially in the context of spring home buying and a first look at what the industry might look like in 2024?
We saw a lot of green shoots. There is more and more inventory on the market, and (home) prices are holding steady or even climbing. Being so sensitive to interest rates, like we are from a real estate industry perspective, it’s interesting to see (mortgage) rates go up and down. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and even the National Association of Realtors expect rates to fall, possibly even below six percent. But who knows, right? The direction of interest rates determines how the market will fall.
The good news is, last year we saw the slowest market in 30 years, and I think it’s going to go up from there. If we as real estate professionals commit to our business, connect with people, talk to our sphere of influence and potential homebuyers and sellers, there will be a lot of pent-up demand and we will likely have a positive year. Year. Agents and brokers who stick to the basics, focus on the few things that matter most to their business, and don’t get caught up in the noise, can have their best year ever and get more of their fair share. market.
So, what is the foundation of your focus for the 21st century and its growth in 2024? We discussed your recruiting strategy in the Northeast in November, and a few weeks ago the 21st Century was named one of the top 500 franchises in the country. What’s in the bullseye now?
As markets continue to fluctuate, one thing I’ve been talking about is that not all growth is created equally. We want to continue to bring in brand new companies and great entrepreneurs. We just signed a (new affiliate) last week – a diverse agency of two girls in Baltimore with over 20 agents. They’ve been voted one of the best places to work in Baltimore, so we’re excited to announce the team and bring even more growth-minded individuals into the organization.
However, as the market continues to evolve, there will be disruption and many brokers and agents looking to expand will look for merger (and) acquisition opportunities. They want to join forces with larger companies to help their agents provide better tools and systems to serve (and) serve their customers.
Our focus is on helping existing 21st century clients grow their businesses through these (M&A) opportunities. But not all brokers are ready, willing and able to grow. It requires an investment from a resource perspective and a dollar perspective, but for those who are ready, we’re putting a lot of effort into mentoring them.
As 2024 continues, it will be an interesting year as we see the industry continue to consolidate. But I’m always excited about bringing in new companies and helping entrepreneurs.
I know our time is limited. The final question is, when you think about the One 21 Experience agenda, what are one or two key takeaways that you want attendees to remember? What impact do you hope these points will have on their business this year?
They must remember and always understand that when they sit down at the table with consumers, they have been the number one brand in industry awareness and respect for 25 years. So they don’t have to sell the C21 brand. They don’t have to sell the trust and confidence that the 21st century brings – they just have to sell themselves and how they become experts in their local market.
The second thing is to hone your focus. What one or two things can help you improve? Maybe you want to become a better listing agent this year. Use the session to focus on these things and learn about tools that can help, like our Moxi technology, which will get you more listings if you learn to use it well.
I always tell real estate professionals, “We don’t want to boil the ocean, right?” We don’t want to try to do a little bit of everything and apply it to our business and think it’s going to work. We want to choose one or two things that will help us drive the career and personal goals we want to achieve.
A board member at Anywhere (Real Estate) said to me a few years ago, “Your to-do list should be much longer than your to-do list.” With all the news and everything, we sometimes think Do a little bit of everything. But you’ll have the most success when you stay focused and stay true to your game plan.
Email Marianne McPherson
