How MarketView Broker Helped Top-Ranked Realty Group LLC Grow its Agent Base and Business in 5 Years

Before Realty Group LLC adopted ShowingTime’s MarketView Broker software in 2019, the Minneapolis-based brokerage had not placed in the top 2,000 of RealTrends’ annual ranking of U.S. independently owned brokerages.

Today, the firm is No. 1 and No. 52 among RealTrends’ ranked independently owned brokerages in Minnesota and U.S., respectively, according to Long Doan, CEO and Founder of Realty Group LLC.

“Of the approximate 142,000 brokerages in America, we’re in the top 150,” says Doan. 

According to Doan, the recruiting and retention analytics in MarketView Broker have helped the brokerage, which now employs a total of 700 agents across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Florida, to onboard between 150 and 180 agents every year by targeting the right people they want to have conversations with, says Doan, who personally meets with eight to 10 agents a week as potential recruits.

“I attribute much of that to MarketView Broker because I’m coming into the interview more prepared to ask the right questions,” he says.

In fact, MarketView Broker plays such a critical role in this broker’s real estate recruitment strategy, if a state doesn’t have the software, Doan says, “We’re not going in that market.”

Leveraging Data to Identify Rising Star Agents 

One of those agents uncovered for Realty Group LLC by MarketView Broker was a Spanish-speaking immigrant who had come to the United States from South America. As many agents new to the industry, he was struggling to make his mark in real estate.

While initially the agent didn’t want to leave his former brokerage, he agreed to meet with Doan for a consultation. He was inspired by Doan’s personal story about how the broker had come over to America alone at the age of 13 on an overcrowded refugee boat following the Vietnam War. 

He read about how Doan had been taken in by an uncle in Minnesota who sponsored him and went on to found one of the country’s most successful independently owned brokerages. And he never forgot those left behind.

Doan advised the agent to lean into his Spanish-speaking background and explained how technology and social media marketing could help him grow his business. 

Three months after the consultation, Doan says the agent joined Realty Group LLC and tripled his production within six months.   

That agent is now one of many who have joined Realty Group LLC and was first introduced by MarketView Broker’s recruiting insights and competitive analysis. 

A firm believer that there’s no one-size-fits-all for agents, the broker uses the software to search for agents who produce a minimum number of transactions every year, but he also uses the data to identify agents showing upswings and downswings in their productivity trends. 

“We have different messaging for the people we target. If the agent is on an upswing, they may need team-building support. If they’re on a downswing, they may need a change,” he says. 

“If an agent was doing three transactions a year but is now doing nine transactions a year, something needs to change for them to grow,” Doan says. “They may need more support or training on how to grow their business or maybe a better CRM, so we can craft that message in our recruiting. We have a whole recruiting strategy, and MarketView Broker plays a large role in it.”

Knowing an agent’s production level also gives Doan a source of truth that he can bring with him to the interview table to help fact-check the veracity of an agent’s claims. 

“If someone says they do this many transactions, I know whether they did so right away and whether they’re a good fit for us because we’re big on integrity.”   

From Recruiting Watch Lists to Opportunities for Growth

Before Realty Group LLC began using MarketView Broker, the firm had been using several different platforms to help recruiting efforts. However, Doan really liked the many ways MarketView Broker could pull production data on every agent, office and firm from the local MLS data and present the data in an easy-to-read format. 

“We bring in about seven agents a week, and I attribute much of that to MarketView Broker because I’m coming to the interview more prepared to ask the right questions based on the information I get from MarketView Broker,” says Doan, who personally handles about 95% of the meetings with new agents.

He can search for agents by name, office or neighborhood, and he can review his firm’s sales activity versus the competition. With the agent’s demographics and brokerage information, he can then target top candidates using his social media channels, send mailers to their personal addresses and add them to his CRM. 

Doan can also track competing brokerages, knowing how many agents they lost and how many they’ve gained. “If a broker in my market is starting to lose agents, I want to know if I should target them and capture some of those agents,” he says. 

Internally, the broker says he leverages MarketView Broker analytics for retention and growth. “So we know when an agent is having success or if they’re struggling,” he says. “I get the data monthly and will reach out if someone went from this production level to this level. Usually, it’s something that’s happening in their lives and we listen. When retention leads to growth, agents appreciate that and refer other agents to us.” 

According to Doan, about 81% of the brokerage’s new agents are referred by existing agents.  

The software reports’ easy-to-read formatting and graphics also help facilitate his interview preparation. Every week, before Doan meets with an agent he’s identified through MarketView Broker, his staff prints out a report for him to give him the quick summary data points on a candidate.

“I’m visual and really like having a printout that lets me see over the last three years the up/down production of an agent, the market they serve, their transactions, the volume they closed and their active listings in quick graphics. Whereas, some other platform formats were using spreadsheets, which wasn’t as easy or user-friendly for me,” says Doan. “My staff sends me a snapshot report from MarketView Broker before my meeting with a new potential agent and “within 30 seconds, I already have a game plan of how I’m going to talk to this person.”

Other useful MarketView Broker features that have helped Realty Group LLC grow its business include the software’s advanced mapping tool, which lets Doan and other users draw their own target geographic area.

Additionally, setting up custom recruiting watch lists help Doan track the sales of top-performing agents in his area. With this information, he can create agent audiences, which he exports and targets with a drip campaign that’s tailored to their production trends and the resulting messaging they’ll receive. 

“We run quarterly agent production reports to see the trends – whether they’re up or down. We may do a 25% to 50% change in production, which helps us target the right message when we get in front of them,” says Doan. 

The ability to review inventory, sales production and growth gives the broker a cursory glance at the overall market before diving deeper into MLS reports. “Because the data comes from ShowingTime, we also use this to submit to Inman and RealTrends for recognition as part of our ranking,” he says.

MarketView Broker’s 17 different filters help Realty Growth LLC sort by unit, volume, percentage share, percentage change, property type, construction (new or resale) and more. A filter that shows the number of agents in a brokerage, for instance, allows Doan to target other firms that may be amenable to joining Realty Group LLC, like the 42 teams that used to be part of other brokerages and are now part of this brokerage’s family. 

“We can say, ‘We’re a best fit for brokerages that have five to 15 agents,’ and then we can go straight to the broker and say, ‘Why do you want to own your own brokerage with the liability and business expenses? We also see a trend of agents leaving you. Come join us as a team,’” says Doan.

If you ask the broker what drives him and his brokerage success, he may tell you it’s about a lifetime commitment to helping people.

 “We work for our agents, not the other way around. At Realty Group, each agent is treated as the CEO of his or her company, and we are here to provide support in everything they do.” 

With MarketView Broker on his side, finding and optimizing agent performance makes the vision a reality.

The statements, opinions, and thoughts provided above reflect the real experience of a MarketView Broker Customer. This individual’s account has been voluntarily provided, and the customer has not received compensation, financial or otherwise, in exchange for these statements. This account reflects one customer's experience which is unique and individual and experiences may vary per customer. Realty Group LLC is a current subscriber of MarketView Broker.