Howard Lorey on real estate consolidation and talent development

Today, we welcome Howard Lorey to the show! Howard is the Executive Vice President and Brokerage Manager of Nourmand & Associates with 24 years of real estate experience. He and his team at the LA-based Nourmand & Associates closed over 380 transactions this past year with a total sales volume of over $693 million to date.  

Tracey and Howard discuss how he transitioned from being a professional musician to working under his father in real estate, and the interesting similarities he’s found that have helped further his real estate career. They also talk about recruitment and training strategies, the future of agent compensation, and balancing pursuing consolidation and developing your existing assets.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Transitioning from a career in music to real estate requires a similar approach to branding and business development.
• Attracting talent involves identifying underutilized or underappreciated individuals and offering personalized business development support.
• Real estate will see more consolidation, streamlined transaction mechanics, and a continued focus on the agent-client relationship.
• Leadership in real estate involves continuous learning, perpetual growth, and a focus on developing and retaining talented agents.

Here’s a small preview of today’s interview. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt:  Recruiting and retracting talent is one thing, but then increasing productivity and retaining those agents is a whole other ball game. So, talk to me about some of the strategies that you implemented or really focus on based on your strengths.

Howard Lorey: Around 2010, I felt like there was a component missing because we were teaching them all of these amazing things about legal things, but I felt like the business development, we just weren’t teaching it. We weren’t teaching agents how to be agents. We were teaching them how not to get sued, which is important. But we weren’t really teaching them how to build their business and we weren’t helping them get clear about what they wanted and what their goals were.

I do it through a series of sessions with the agent. We look at data first. We source business. We figure out where their business is coming from. And then we have a series of qualitative exercises and discussion. Talk about strengths, weaknesses, goals, motivators. It gives me a much deeper understanding and better relationship with the agent where I can really be invested in what they’re doing and what they’re excelling at, and then helping them eliminate things that they may be wasting time and energy and money on.

The RealTrending podcast features the brightest minds in real estate. Every week, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts share their success secrets, trends, and lessons learned navigating this ever-changing industry. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by Elissa Branch.