#isg campaign
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Somnus is in some kind of awful situationship with a nihilistic nightmare druid who wants him to kill his loved ones and won't let him die. and she's everyone's favourite.
the sketch of them on the right is based on the painting 'Splynutí duší' by Max Švabinský
feat. my concept art for Somnus as a storm herald (with control over his powers, in contrast to Tempest era)
ID (copied from alt text): The first image is a page of sketches showing the nightmare druid and Somnus. In the top left corner is a portrait of the druid from the waist up. She is a thin, pale white woman with long, wavy blood red hair. Most of her face is in shadow, but her pale green eyes are inhumanly reflective. She has black lips and a sleepy smile, and is wearing earth-toned leather traveling clothes with no sleeves. The background is a dark briar-filled forest.
On the right is a sketch of Somnus sitting down with a thousand yard stare, and the druid embracing his head while standing up, with her cheek resting on his crown. She has a serene smile with her eyes closed. Somnus is a dark-skinned Asian person with black eyes, dark chin-length wavy hair, some stubble, and a heavyset build. He is wearing a black doublet undone at the collar, exposing a pale lightning-like scar reaching up his neck. There is blood on his hands and right cheek (viewer's left) which is pressed against the druid's chest. The druid is wearing earth-toned traveling clothes and her red hair cascades down her own back as well as Somnus'.
In the bottom left corner is a doodle of the druid and Somnus in chibi style, both lying on their stomachs with their feet kicked up. The druid has her chin resting in both hands, smiling, while Somnus is holding a book in both hands and frowning. The druid says, "How big that dick," and Somnus replies, "Small leave me alone."
The second image is art of Somnus channeling storm power. His hair and eyes have turned into white crackling lightning, reaching up towards the sky. He is wearing a plain silver breastplate over his black doublet, and his dark blue cape is being whipped up by the wind. He has old bruises and cuts on his face, and is grimacing. The background is dark, his hair and eyes seemingly the only light source.
/end ID
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US CAMPUS PROTESTS | It’s Not a Crime to Oppose Genocide and War
US CAMPUS PROTESTS | It’s Not a Crime to Oppose Genocide and War
Below is the text of a leaflet being distributed on US campuses by the Independent Socialist Group (ISG – that stands in political solidarity with the CWI). Drop All Charges Against Protestors! On 27 April, […] Special financial appeal to all readers of socialistworld.net Support building alternative socialist media Socialistworld.net provides a unique analysis and perspective of world events. Socialistworld.net also plays a crucial role in building the struggle for socialism across all continents. Capitalism has failed! Assist us to build the fight-back and prepare for the stormy period of class struggles ahead. Please make a donation to help us reach more readers and to widen our socialist campaigning work across the world. Donate via Paypal
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Indigenous groups are urging the Senate to quickly pass legislation to cement provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Canadian law — and they're taking aim at what they call the use of "shameful" stalling tactics by some members of the Conservative Senate caucus that could kill the bill.
The enabling legislation was first introduced as a private member's bill by NDP MP Romeo Saganash, who was also part of an international team that helped craft the declaration. It has been stuck in the upper house for nearly a year after quickly passing through the House of Commons with little resistance.
UNDRIP recognizes the right of Indigenous peoples to legal equality, self-determination, the preservation of their language and control of traditional land, among other rights.
Former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced in 2017 the government would simply back Saganash's bill rather than introduce separate government legislation. The Liberals promised to implement UNDRIP in the last election campaign.
That choice could now prove problematic as the government's representative in the upper house, Peter Harder, has fewer tools at his disposal to ensure an NDP bill is passed. He can invoke time allocation on government bills to shut down debate, for example, but government legislation typically takes precedence over private member's bills when it comes to Senate committee study.
And with only seven sitting weeks left before the summer recess, the pressure is on to pass bills before an expected fall election.
If the UNDRIP bill — which could have wide-ranging effects on Canadian law if fully implemented, doesn't pass by the end of June it will die on the order paper. That would mean new legislation would have to be introduced in the next Parliament to actually implement UNDRIP.
Some Liberal and Independent Senators Group (ISG) senators are eager to send the bill to committee for the necessary study but, so far, members of the Conservative opposition have prevented such a vote through a series of procedural manoeuvres.
Continue Reading.
#Canadian Senate#UNDRIP#Indigenous#cdnpoli#canada#canadian politics#canadian news#canadian#first nations#Metis#Inuit#CPC
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5 artificial intelligence (AI) types, defined – The Enterprisers Project
Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the enterprise’s notions about extracting insight from data. Indeed, the vast majority of technology executives (91 percent) and 84 percent of the general public believe that AI is the “next technology revolution,” according to Edelman’s 2019 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Survey. PwC has predicted that AI could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
Understanding the types of AI, how they work, and where they might add value is critical.
AI, in short, is a pretty big deal. However, it’s not a monolithic entity: There are multiple flavors of cognitive capabilities. Understanding the various types of AI, how they work, and where they might add value to the business is critical for both IT and line-of-business leaders.
[ What’s next? Read also: 10 AI trends to watch in 2020 and How big data and AI work together. ]
Five important kinds of AI
Let’s break down five types of AI and sample uses for them:
ML is perhaps the most relevant subset of AI to the average enterprise today. As explained in the Executive’s guide to real-world AI, our recent research report conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, ML is a mature technology that has been around for years.
When facing a situation in which a solution is hidden in a large data set, machine learning is a go-to.
ML is a branch of AI that empowers computers to self-learn from data and apply that learning without human intervention. When facing a situation in which a solution is hidden in a large data set, machine learning is a go-to. “ML excels at processing that data, extracting patterns from it in a fraction of the time a human would take, and producing otherwise inaccessible insight,” says Ingo Mierswa, founder and president of the data science platform RapidMiner.
ML use cases
ML powers risk analysis, fraud detection, and portfolio management in financial services; GPS-based predictions in travel; and targeted marketing campaigns, to list a few examples.
ML learning can get better at completing tasks over time based on the labeled data it ingests, explains ISG director of cognitive automation and innovation Wayne Butterfield, or it can power the creation of predictive models to improve a plethora of business-critical tasks.
Deep learning
An explainer article by AI software company Pathmind offers a useful analogy: Think of a set of Russian dolls nested within each other. “Deep learning is a subset of machine learning, and machine learning is a subset of AI, which is an umbrella term for any computer program that does something smart.”
This branch of AI tries to closely mimic the human mind.
In our plain English primer on deep learning, we offer this basic definition: the branch of AI that tries to closely mimic the human mind. With deep learning, CompTIA explains, “computers analyze problems at multiple layers in an attempt to simulate how the human brain analyzes problems. Visual images, natural language, or other inputs can be parsed into various components in order to extract meaning and build context, improving the probability of the computer arriving at the correct conclusion.”
Deep learning uses so-called neural networks, which “learn from processing the labeled data supplied during training, and uses this answer key to learn what characteristics of the input are needed to construct the correct output,” according to one explanation provided by deep AI. “Once a sufficient number of examples have been processed, the neural network can begin to process new, unseen inputs and successfully return accurate results.”
Deep learning use cases
Deep learning powers product and content recommendations for Amazon and Netflix. It works behind the scenes of Google’s voice- and image-recognition algorithms. Its capacity to analyze very large amounts of high-dimensional data makes deep learning ideally suited for supercharging preventive maintenance systems, as McKinsey pointed out in its Notes from the AI frontier: Applications and value of deep learning: “Layering in additional data, such as audio and image data, from other sensors – including relatively cheap ones such as microphones and cameras – neural networks can enhance and possibly replace more traditional methods. AI’s ability to predict failures and allow planned interventions can be used to reduce downtime and operating costs while improving production yield.”
[ Get our quick-scan primer on 10 key artificial intelligence terms for IT and business leaders: Cheat sheet: AI glossary. ]
NLP enables computers to understand, interpret, and manipulate human language.
When you take AI and focus it on human linguistics, you get NLP. SAS offers one of the clearest and most basic explanations of the term: “Natural language processing makes it possible for humans to talk to machines.” It’s the branch of AI that enables computers to understand, interpret, and manipulate human language.
NLP itself has a number of subsets, including natural language understanding (NLU), which refers to machine reading comprehension, and natural language generation (NLG), which can transform data into human words.
But, says ISG’s Butterfield, the premise is the same: “Understand language and sew something on the back of that understanding.”
NLP has roots in linguistics, where it emerged to enable computers to literally process natural language, explains Anil Vijayan, vice president at Everest Group. “Over the course of time, it evolved from rule-based to machine-learning infused approaches, thus overlapping with AI,” Vijayan says.
NLP might employ both ML learning and deep learning methodologies in combination with computational linguistics in order to effectively ingest and process unstructured speech and text datasets, says JP Baritugo, director at business transformation and outsourcing consultancy Pace Harmon.
NLP use cases
Natural language processing makes it possible for computers to extract key words and phrases, understand the intent of language, translate that to another language, or generate a response. “The enterprise literally runs through communication, either the written word or spoken conversation,” says Butterfield. “The ability to analyze this information and either find intent or insight will be absolutely critical to the enterprise of the future.”
Any area of the business where natural language is involved may be fodder for the deployment of NLP capabilities, says Vijayan. Think chatbots, social media feeds, emails, or complex documentation like contracts or claims forms.
Now let’s move on to the last two key types of AI: Computer vision and Explainable AI:
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from abangtech https://abangtech.com/5-artificial-intelligence-ai-types-defined-the-enterprisers-project/
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M1 A2 - Is private really private?
Romillene S. Nosotros, Comm 10, Sec 4
Your sister wanted to borrow your phone because she wanted to watch Mukbang videos on YouTube. Being the good sister you are, you let her borrow it, only to come back to YouTube full of videos of people eating, other Mukbang videos and advertisements about food. It took only one video and suddenly your YouTube algorithm differs.
Definitely, most of us experienced this kind of phenomenon. Not to mention the fact that your YouTube account uses your Gmail account which you are using on different sites, resulting to same sets of advertisements. This can be accounted to the trend of personalization of data in almost all media platforms. Personalization of data allows achieving a more personalized experience while providing specific information. The data collected from our personal tastes, preferences and even search histories are what marketing and content campaigns feed on.
To gain our trust and keep our loyalty to them, marketing strategies include walking between personalization and privacy. Privacy must be a part of an organization’s operation (Sinha, 2019). However, when these sites appear to have too many insights about our personal lives, we freak out, which makes us engage less with these sites in fear of spilling our private information.
As much as this issue has been going on, increase in the volume of personal data gathered by these sites is not parallel to the amount of people concerned about its threat to privacy (Jacobson, n.d.). Personalization of data has been necessary for customers and service providers but what is needed is to close the gap between personalization and privacy. Customers must be presented with recommendations utilizing information which benefits them during different experiences. Having various options and using first-party permissions and giving them the decision to control the kind of personalization they want create a win-win situation.
List of sources:
Jacobson, N. (n.d.). Striking the Balance – Data Privacy vs. Personalization. Retrieved September 6, 2019 from
https://isg-one.com/consulting/strategy/articles/striking-the-balance-data-privacy-vs.-personalization
vs. Personalization
Sinha, S. (2019 January 28). Privacy versus personalization. Retrieved September 6, 2019 from https://www.the-future-of-commerce.com/2019/01/28/privacy-versus-personalization/
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“In a notice posted overnight, the government outlined its own amendments, which include many that were put forward by the Independent Senators’ Group (ISG) but virtually none of the Conservatives ones,” the Globe and Mail reports. The ISG formed in March 2016 to promote a “functioning independent, non-partisan Senate”, became the biggest bloc in the Red Chamber in 2017, has held a voting majority since 2018, and put forward its share of amendments after the Senate Transport Committee, led by fiercely partisan Chair David Tkachuk (C, SK), spent more than a year dissecting and essentially campaigning against C-69.
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ISG’s Craig Studnicky and ex-wife embroiled in legal tussle over commissions and damaged reputations
Natalie Brabner and Craig Studnicky
It took Craig Studnicky and his ex-wife Natalie Brabner about nine months to wrap up their divorce proceedings. Yet, two years later, the former couple’s legal drama rages on.
Studnicky, the principal of International Sales Group, one of South Florida’s prominent real estate brokerages, and company affiliate ISG Muse LLC, sued Brabner in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Aug. 6 for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. The complaint alleges she orchestrated a personal vendetta, engaged in fraudulent acts, secretly spied on her ex-husband while they were married, stole trade secrets and then shared them with a rival brokerage, among other accusations. Studnicky and ISG are also seeking that Brabner repay advances on commissions for condo deals that fell apart.
Meanwhile, Brabner recently won a key ruling in her 2018 civil lawsuit against her ex-husband and ISG, in which she claims she is owed more than $200,000 in commissions and that Studnicky defamed her.
On July 20, Miami-Dade Judge Veronica Diaz denied Studnicky’s request to keep his college transcripts confidential after Brabner succeeded in obtaining the records from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly known as Virginia Tech. According to a July 15 letter from the university, Studnicky never completed his degree. Studnicky’s bio pages on several online real estate broker databases and on RelatedISG International Realty’s website claim he did.
Brabner’s lawyer Michael J. Schlesinger said his client is not surprised by “the desperate attempts” to discredit her. “She has stood up to his and his company’s attacks,” Schlesinger said in an emailed statement. “As a resilient, hardworking, principled, and moral person, [she] understood that in bringing her lawsuit to recover compensation lawfully due her, she would be met with these types of retaliatory claims.”
Robert Stok, the attorney representing Studnicky and ISG Muse, said the lawsuit’s allegations are easily provable and supported by statements Brabner made in depositions in connection with her complaint. “She tried to shake down my client for commissions and attempted to extort him using confidential information she obtained illegally,” Stok said in a phone interview. “The divorce proceedings were finished when his ex-wife started legal proceedings against him and his company. She wanted to continue a vicious campaign of litigation and harassment against her ex-husband.”
Stok said Brabner and Schlesinger sought Studnicky’s Virginia Tech transcripts to embarrass him and damage his credibility. Stok explained that Studnicky had financial issues his last year in college and wasn’t able to complete his last semester. “She knew that was something he was very sensitive about,” Stok said, adding Studnicky has more than enough college credits to obtain his degree, but hasn’t done so.
In 2013, Brabner joined ISG, which counts The Related Group and Property Markets Group among its developer clients, at Studnicky’s behest, according to her complaint. Brabner alleged that she, Studnicky and other ISG officers had a clear understanding that she would never have to pay back her commissions even if her buyers didn’t close on their units or projects were canceled.
In the midst of their divorce, Studnicky allegedly began a campaign to deprive Brabner of her owed and earned commissions, according to her suit. She claims ISG owed her $214,395 in earned commissions for unit sales at Echo Brickell, Echo Aventura, Muse Sunny Isles Beach and W Residences Fort Lauderdale. Brabner also accused Studnicky of making and republishing false and disparaging statements about her to business partners and colleagues, her lawsuit states.
Studnicky, in his lawsuit, accused Brabner of “surreptitiously and illegally” spying on him throughout their marriage, including “maliciously” accessing his computer and iPhone so she could transfer information to herself for her financial gain. Brabner also sought to expose Studnicky’s secrets to his business and social community as a way to damage his personal and professional reputations, along with using it as leverage to extort money out of him and ISG Muse, his complaint alleges.
Following her departure from ISG, she sought employment with rival brokerage One Sotheby’s International Realty, and offered to share confidential trade secret information that she obtained from her ex-husband’s company, Studnicky’s lawsuit alleges. Brabner allegedly had lists of potential buyers and interested parties that included valuable, non-public details about their specific needs and desires. One Sotheby’s President Daniel de la Vega did not respond to a request for comment.
Schlesinger said Studnicky’s lawsuit is without merit. “My client and I are highly confident that when the smoke clears, the truth will be crystal clear,” Schlesinger said in his statement. “Her ex-husband’s latest attacks will be exposed as petty and legally and factually frivolous.”
The post ISG’s Craig Studnicky and ex-wife embroiled in legal tussle over commissions and damaged reputations appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.
from The Real Deal Miami & Miami Florida Real Estate & Housing News | & Curbed Miami - All https://therealdeal.com/miami/2020/08/18/isgs-craig-studnicky-and-ex-wife-embroiled-in-legal-tussle-over-commissions-and-damaged-reputations/
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ISG’s Craig Studnicky and ex-wife embroiled in legal tussle over commissions and damaged reputations
Natalie Brabner and Craig Studnicky
It took Craig Studnicky and his ex-wife Natalie Brabner about nine months to wrap up their divorce proceedings. Yet, two years later, the former couple’s legal drama rages on.
Studnicky, the principal of International Sales Group, one of South Florida’s prominent real estate brokerages, and company affiliate ISG Muse LLC, sued Brabner in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Aug. 6 for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. The complaint alleges she orchestrated a personal vendetta, engaged in fraudulent acts, secretly spied on her ex-husband while they were married, stole trade secrets and then shared them with a rival brokerage, among other accusations. Studnicky and ISG are also seeking that Brabner repay advances on commissions for condo deals that fell apart.
Meanwhile, Brabner recently won a key ruling in her 2018 civil lawsuit against her ex-husband and ISG, in which she claims she is owed more than $200,000 in commissions and that Studnicky defamed her.
On July 20, Miami-Dade Judge Veronica Diaz denied Studnicky’s request to keep his college transcripts confidential after Brabner succeeded in obtaining the records from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly known as Virginia Tech. According to a July 15 letter from the university, Studnicky never completed his degree. Studnicky’s bio pages on several online real estate broker databases and on RelatedISG International Realty’s website claim he did.
Brabner’s lawyer Michael J. Schlesinger said his client is not surprised by “the desperate attempts” to discredit her. “She has stood up to his and his company’s attacks,” Schlesinger said in an emailed statement. “As a resilient, hardworking, principled, and moral person, [she] understood that in bringing her lawsuit to recover compensation lawfully due her, she would be met with these types of retaliatory claims.”
Robert Stok, the attorney representing Studnicky and ISG Muse, said the lawsuit’s allegations are easily provable and supported by statements Brabner made in depositions in connection with her complaint. “She tried to shake down my client for commissions and attempted to extort him using confidential information she obtained illegally,” Stok said in a phone interview. “The divorce proceedings were finished when his ex-wife started legal proceedings against him and his company. She wanted to continue a vicious campaign of litigation and harassment against her ex-husband.”
Stok said Brabner and Schlesinger sought Studnicky’s Virginia Tech transcripts to embarrass him and damage his credibility. Stok explained that Studnicky had financial issues his last year in college and wasn’t able to complete his last semester. “She knew that was something he was very sensitive about,” Stok said, adding Studnicky has more than enough college credits to obtain his degree, but hasn’t done so.
In 2013, Brabner joined ISG, which counts The Related Group and Property Markets Group among its developer clients, at Studnicky’s behest, according to her complaint. Brabner alleged that she, Studnicky and other ISG officers had a clear understanding that she would never have to pay back her commissions even if her buyers didn’t close on their units or projects were canceled.
In the midst of their divorce, Studnicky allegedly began a campaign to deprive Brabner of her owed and earned commissions, according to her suit. She claims ISG owed her $214,395 in earned commissions for unit sales at Echo Brickell, Echo Aventura, Muse Sunny Isles Beach and W Residences Fort Lauderdale. Brabner also accused Studnicky of making and republishing false and disparaging statements about her to business partners and colleagues, her lawsuit states.
Studnicky, in his lawsuit, accused Brabner of “surreptitiously and illegally” spying on him throughout their marriage, including “maliciously” accessing his computer and iPhone so she could transfer information to herself for her financial gain. Brabner also sought to expose Studnicky’s secrets to his business and social community as a way to damage his personal and professional reputations, along with using it as leverage to extort money out of him and ISG Muse, his complaint alleges.
Following her departure from ISG, she sought employment with rival brokerage One Sotheby’s International Realty, and offered to share confidential trade secret information that she obtained from her ex-husband’s company, Studnicky’s lawsuit alleges. Brabner allegedly had lists of potential buyers and interested parties that included valuable, non-public details about their specific needs and desires. One Sotheby’s President Daniel de la Vega did not respond to a request for comment.
Schlesinger said Studnicky’s lawsuit is without merit. “My client and I are highly confident that when the smoke clears, the truth will be crystal clear,” Schlesinger said in his statement. “Her ex-husband’s latest attacks will be exposed as petty and legally and factually frivolous.”
The post ISG’s Craig Studnicky and ex-wife embroiled in legal tussle over commissions and damaged reputations appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.
from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/2020/08/18/isgs-craig-studnicky-and-ex-wife-embroiled-in-legal-tussle-over-commissions-and-damaged-reputations/
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Anti-development activists warn locals against selling to prospectors in Little River
The Miami City Commission is expected to vote on the proposed 8.2 million-square-foot Magic City Innovation District project at the end of March.
It isn’t every day that a food hall with 15 restaurants opens just a few blocks away from the bedroom municipalities of Miami Shores, El Portal and Biscayne Park. So when Nick Hamann celebrated the grand opening of the Citadel at 8300 Northeast Second Avenue in late January, the event attracted hundreds of people eager to sample cocktails, pizza slices and gourmet tacos. And when Hamann threw another party a few weeks later, this time celebrating the food hall’s “official” grand opening, dozens of folks flocked to the building once again.
Hamann, who owns four properties nearby, was always attracted to this part of Miami. “The corridor north of 82nd Street in particular had an amazing tree canopy, and the streetscape was very charming,” Hamann explained in an email to The Real Deal. “It is also a main artery connecting Miami neighborhoods from North Miami to the Design District and beyond to Downtown/Brickell.”
That artery falls within the neighborhood of Little River, an area that is roughly bounded by Northeast Fourth Avenue, Northwest Seventh Avenue, 62nd Street and the winding Little River waterway. Back in the late 19th century, it was a kind of suburb of Lemon City, a frontier settlement of a then-sparsely populated South Florida. After being annexed by the city of Miami in 1925, Little River evolved into an industrial area. During the 1970s, it was an affordable place for Haitian immigrants to live and set up businesses. As a result, most of Little River became known as Little Haiti.
Yet in recent years, developers and investors are seeing Little River as a cheaper alternative to the Design District and Wynwood, where retail rents can range between $40 and $300 per square foot per month. On and near the unofficial southern border of Little River, one team of real estate investors is hoping to get the Miami City Commission to approve an 8.2 million-square-foot residential and commercial project called the Magic City Innovation District.
But most other Little River investors are purchasing homes and apartments, upgrading retail plazas and office buildings and turning warehouses previously used as storage space, mechanics’ shops and artists’ workshops into high-end retail and office spaces.
Many of these developers also tend to embrace the Little River label — something that infuriates many local activists who believe these investors are trying to remove the Haiti moniker to make the area more marketable.
For example, Hamann’s Citadel event in late January didn’t just attract foodies from the Shores. It also attracted picketers carrying signs declaring that this neighborhood was still Little Haiti. This was in response to press materials sent out by Hamann that declared the Citadel was located in “historic Little River.”
The Citadel and most of the Little River area are indeed located inside the officially-designated Little Haiti neighborhood. On May 2016, after years of lobbying by Haitian activists who resented developers pushing the Little River and Lemon City labels, the Miami City Commission proclaimed an official Little Haiti neighborhood with borders that extended as far south as 54th Street, as far west as Northwest Seventh Avenue, as far north as the Little River waterway and as far east as Northeast Fourth Avenue.
Hamann said both he and Little Haiti activists are right. “Little River is a neighborhood within Little Haiti,” he said.
Turning up the heat
Identified as a hot market for house flippers by RealtyTrac in 2016 and by Zillow Group in 2017, Little River and Little Haiti are seeing homes continue to appreciate. Ines Hegedus-Garcia, a Realtor affiliated with Related ISG International Realty, said MLS data indicated that Little River home prices increased 156 percent, from $64 to $164 a square foot, in the past five years. In the entire official Little Haiti neighborhood, housing prices went up 233 percent, from $51 to $170 a square foot, in the last five years.
The reason for the price jump is simple: Homes in Little Haiti had been cheap. “The single-family home market under $350,000 is a hot market anywhere in Miami-Dade County because the inventory is hard to find,” Hegedus-Garcia explained. “Affordable areas start morphing into more affluent areas, and price ranges are only bound to go up. This makes it an extremely attractive market, especially because the area is just starting to see positive changes in its commercial corridor.”
Commercial sales transactions are also on the rise. About $113 million in commercial sales took place in Little River between 2011 and 2018, according to an analysis by Colliers International of data provided by Real Capital Analytics. Last year saw $26.1 million worth of commercial deals in Little River, according to Colliers. The year before, in 2017, there was $10.1 million in commercial property transactions in the neighborhood.
Mitash Kripalani, vice president of capital markets at Colliers’ Miami office, said the increase in sales volume is being driven by rising property values farther south in areas like Brickell, the Design District, Edgewater and Wynwood, as well as places east of Little River like the MiMo District and the Upper Eastside. Real estate investors, Kripalani suggested, are following the advice given by famed retired hockey player Wayne Gretzky: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”
“The puck has been gradually moving in the direction of Little River,” Kripalani said.
Compounding that migration is the displacement of small-business owners and startups from the downtown area and Wynwood. “People are getting priced out of rents in Wynwood and the Design District,” Kripalani said. In addition, he added, such tenants are finding the same gritty and edgy atmosphere they once enjoyed in Wynwood in Little River, “except the rents are more reasonable.”
Tony Arellano, managing partner of Dwntwn Realty Advisors, agreed that businesses displaced from Miami’s core are migrating toward the new office space that’s available in Little River. In fact, affordability was the reason Arellano set up the offices of Dwntwn Realty within the Morgan Reed Group’s Rail 71 retail center in Little River. In Wynwood, office rates range between $40 and $80 a square foot. “In Little River, it might be $24 a square foot, so there’s a big difference,” Arellano said.
Another factor driving investment activity in Little Haiti and Little River is the promise offered by one of the country’s newly designated Opportunity Zones, economically distressed areas in which investors can develop properties and save taxes on their capital gains, especially if those investments are held longer than five years.
Mauricio Zapata, broker associate and principal of Chariff Realty Group, admitted he’s been getting a lot of phone calls about Little River due to it being located in an Opportunity Zone.
“It’s still a new concept, but it’s driving people right now and putting more eyes on this area,” Zapata said.
The gentrification debate
The Magic City Innovation District, if approved by the Miami City Commission, is the sprawling project that could change the Little River the most. The proposed community would have buildings as tall as 25 stories on 17.8 acres of land and would include 2,246 residential units, as well as offices, hotels, retail and educational uses. Its development team includes Tony Cho, president of Metro1 Companies; technology and real estate investor Robert Zangrillo; Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté; and condo developer Plaza Equity Partners. (Zangrillo was one of several prominent individuals charged by federal prosecutors in mid-March with taking part in a sprawling college admissions and testing scheme.)
The project is facing resistance from local activists. Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Family Action Network Movement, said Magic City threatens to speed up the pace of gentrification that’s already taking place in Little Haiti. She noted that older apartment buildings near the innovation development that once offered rental rates below $1,000 a month are already being demolished. As for the new apartments that Magic City plans, Bastien said an individual will need to make $60,000 or $70,000 a year to afford living in them, an amount beyond the reach of most Little Haiti residents.
“Of course [Magic City] will lead to [more] gentrification. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that,” said Bastien, who is leading a coalition of activists campaigning against Magic City’s approval.
But it isn’t just renters who are threatened by gentrification. Bastien said that brokers are already “harassing” elderly homeowners in Little Haiti in order to “pressure” them to sell.
Fellow Realtor Hegedus-Garcia agreed that the approval of “megaprojects like Magic City are factors for increases in pricing.”
Cho, however, said he and his partners have made efforts to reach out to the surrounding community in order to build a “culturally sensitive urban development that is intended to be a job creator, an innovation hub, everything we were asked for.” Magic City’s developers have embraced the Little Haiti “moniker” and given donations to local nonprofits. They’ve also promised to hire people residing in Little Haiti first if the city approves the project’s special area plan.
During a Feb. 28 City Commission meeting, Magic City’s developers made another offer: In exchange for the city’s approval of the entire Magic City Innovation District, they will give $31 million to a not-yet-formed Little Haiti Community Revitalization Trust that will provide affordable housing and other community enhancements and programs in the neighborhood.
The innovation district has some support from Haitian residents and activists affiliated with Concerned Leaders of Little Haiti, a group that is mentioned in the development agreement with the city.
Leonie Hermantin, a consultant for nongovernment organizations on Haitian matters, is a board member of Concerned Leaders of Little Haiti. Hermantin said she shares Bastien’s concerns over the future of Little Haiti, as well as about the exodus of Haitian residents due to high rents and the overall poor condition of the neighborhood. “It was a fight to get a bus shelter,” Hermantin said.
Still, Hermantin said her group sought to mitigate the “negative impacts” of Magic City. “[Bastien] says no to development, and we say that development cannot be stopped,” said Hermantin, later adding: “We welcome and respect her voice, but we’re looking for solutions.”
Those solutions include educating homeowners not to sell their houses so cheaply as they used to do. “They’re selling out of ignorance,” Hermantin said. “Their mom died. Their grandmother died. And they live in Atlanta and they’re not aware of what’s going on.”
But thanks to the efforts of activists like herself and Bastien, Hermantin claimed, Little Haiti homeowners aren’t falling prey to lowball offers made by real estate agents quite as often. “We’ve been actively educating homeowners about speculators,” she said.
Political consultant Rulx “Ringo” Cayard said his family still owns properties in Little Haiti. The Citadel building used to be one of the properties Cayard co-owned until he and his partners sold it for $535,000 in 1997. Cayard insisted that projects like the Citadel and Magic City are the best things that have ever happened to Little Haiti and Little River. “Property values will go up, which means somebody who bought a house for $60,000 or $100,000 is now going to get $200,000 or $400,000,” he said.
Cho, who has been investing or brokering deals in Little River and Little Haiti for the last 17 years, said the increased investment in the area is part of the “natural progression [of development] taking place along the eastern core of Greater Miami.” But Cho said investors shouldn’t expect a quick profit.
“It requires long-term thinking to come into these types of neighborhoods; this is not a place to get in and get out,” Cho said. “It takes longer than one would hope. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s something that requires a lot of stamina.”
from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/little-river-miami-real-estate/#new_tab
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Associate Systems Engineer Khobar
Associate Systems Engineer Khobar
Associate Systems Engineer
Competitive salary
Khobar Saudi Arabia
People make Dell so wherever in the world they work everyone is rewarded for their contribution. Ready to develop your career in a truly global company? Within the Presales Unit at Dell we are looking for a Senior Systems Engineer to join our team in Saudi Arabia Riyadh.
Dell is a collective of customer obsessed industry leading visionaries. At our core is a commitment to diversity sustainability and our communities. We offer unparalleled growth and development opportunities for our team members. We believe that technology is essential for driving human progress and we?re committed to providing that technology to people and organizations everywhere so they can transform the way they work and live.Key Responsibilities Technical generalist providing high level technical expertise in support of partner pre sales activities in the assigned market. Coverage of the full DELL EMC ISG portfolio.
Responsible for the technical development of partner pre sales in the assigned market.Assists partner pre sales in the analysis design and development of fully integrated technology solutions. Technical emphasis is on hardware capabilities software requirements and systems integration. Makes technical and sales presentations to partner's technical staff and senior technical management. Understands DELL EMC and competitive technology and business applications within the assigned market. Assists partner pre sales in conducting research answering questions and removing objections that arise in a sales campaign.
Accelerates DELL EMC incremental revenue through partners by direct and programmatic technical development of partner pre sales.
Engages together with partners teams to translate customers business and technical needs into solution sales campaigns that are consistent with DELL EMC's strategic business focus.
Assumes responsibility for technical development of partner pre sales in assigned market. Develops amp maintains relationships with partner pre sales and account teams in support of channel sales team objectives.Engages and leverages corporate resources abilities budgets and personnel as appropriate. Provides partially support in partner led projects as means to enable amp develop the technical resources of the involved partner.
Presents and markets the design and value of proposed DELL EMC solutions and business case to partner and DELL EMC management teams.
Possesses strong detailed product technology industry knowledge. Knowledge of job associated software and applications. DELL EMC Proven Professional Certification or similar desired. Educates coaches mentors partner pre sales on the value of EMC products and solutions across the portfolio including Converged Infrastructure Core Storage Emerging Technology Data Protection Server Technologies and Networking.
Carry out targeted technical programs focused on technical development of Partner pre sales. Establishes trusted solution advisor relationships with assigned partners and customersEngages on key opportunities and sales initiatives to ensure valid and differentiated. DELL EMC solutions are proposed to customers.Ensures assigned partners receive appropriate levels of DELL EMC Presales support for complex solutions that are beyond the capabilities of that partner to design and position
Essential Requirements
Results Oriented and Detailed product knowledge.
Partner focused.
Strong mentoring amp coaching skills.Strong Communication skills. Ability to present to all levels of IT from Ops to technical C level mgmt.Ability to work effectively with senior management.
Ability to manage in a matrix environment. Strong ability to influence others to achieve results. Strong presentation public speaking skills Sets goals amp executes on them self paced learning amp development.
Consultative selling skills and proven ability to work with customers and partners.
Benefits
Our people are the most critical component of our long term success and their health and wellbeing are our priority. You will enjoy a comprehensive locally competitive benefits package
Dell is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color religion sex including pregnancy sexual orientation gender identity and or expression national origin protected veteran status disability genetics or citizenship status when otherwise legally authorized to work and will not be discriminated against on the basis of such characteristics or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Dell encourages applicants of all ages. * راتب مجزي جداً. * مكافأت و حوافز متنوعة. * توفير سكن مؤثث أو بدل سكن. * أنتقالات أو توفير بدل عنها. * توفير تذاكر السفر لمن يشغل الوظيفة و عائلته. * نسبة من الأرباح الربع سنوية. * أجازات سنوية مدفوعة الراتب بالكامل. * مسار وظيفي واضح للترقيات. * بيئة عمل محفزة و مناسبة لحالة الموظف. * تأمين طبي للموظيف و عائلته. * تأمينات أجتماعية. التقدم و التواصل مباشرة دون و سطاء عند توافر الألتزام و الجدية التامة و المؤهلات المطلوبة علي: [email protected]
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Building and construction sector unites to support workers with cancer
Macmillan Cancer Support is uniting with six companies from the building and construction sector, to raise awareness of cancer and encourage men to get support. Benchmarx Kitchens & Joinery, ISG, Selco Builders Warehouse, Travis Perkins, Topps Tiles and Wolseley UK, have joined forces with the charity to tackle the stigmas that prevent men from talking about their health.
The campaign will build on the success of last year’s inaugural campaign which saw Macmillan bring together companies from the industry to improve the health and wellbeing of their male workforce. Following the campaign, the charity has had a continued presence in the industry in the form of ‘Macmillan Neighbours’, employees from the sector who have volunteered to be trained to provide cancer support to their colleagues. This year’s campaign signals a continuing commitment from the industry to put aside commercial differences to support their staff.
The importance of the campaign and encouraging men to talk about their health, is underlined by a new Macmillan survey, conducted with the cooperation of Toluna UK, of 536 ‘Construction Cancer Coalition’ male employees, which reveals almost two in five men (38%) from the sector who report being in good health believe that as a man it is important to keep emotions in check so others view them as strong. This data also reveals that almost one in five men (18%) who work in the industry and have a serious illness such as cancer, feel like less of a man since being diagnosed.
From 12 – 25 June, Macmillan Cancer Support will have a visible presence in branches and sites of the ‘Construction Cancer Coalition’ partners, with posters and leaflets signposting men to support, and encouraging those with health concerns to Just Say the Word, and talk about cancer. Employees at all levels will also spend the two-week period fundraising for Macmillan, raising money to help the charity provide support to people living with cancer across the UK.
Macmillan Cancer Support/Toluna survey of 536 UK adults employed in the construction industry. Fieldwork was undertaken between 4 – 25 April 2017. The survey was carried out online.
Natasha Parker, head of corporate partnerships at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We are delighted to be working with our partners from the construction sector once again, to help combat the barriers that stop men talking about their health and cancer. We know that many men with cancer struggle with the emotional burden of the disease, but feel they have to cope alone. With our partners support we can make Macmillan’s support visible to men who may not know where to find it, and don’t feel able to ask for help.”
Vanessa French, general counsel, Wolseley UK said: “We are immensely proud of our ongoing partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, and the ‘Construction Cancer Coalition’ is another great opportunity for our colleagues and customers to make a real difference to people’s lives. By working together across the construction sector, we can do our bit to improve awareness of cancer and change attitudes towards health. Supporting the work of Macmillan means an awful lot to our colleagues, and we will enthusiastically do all we can to encourage men to take control of their health.”
For more information about the campaign and the support services Macmillan Cancer Support is offering, visit macmillan.org.uk/SayTheWord.
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Swell Vision - Riding the Wave to Success
It began with a phone call. Out of the blue? No. Inquiries such as these come from your silent weapon that never sleeps or eats or wants time off - the website. Luck? Again, no. So long as your web content is smart and good looking luck plays no part. At least that’s what the marketing wonks tell you. Luck? That’s for web-less, content-less chancers. Real companies sport beautiful messaging with analytics tucked in their back pocket.
It was a familiar conversation. The voice on the other end explained his foray into garment production spending thousands of dollars for poor product that was late if ever materializing at all. “Welcome to manufacturing overseas,” I thought. The caller’s Waterloo? China, that great dichotomy of opportunity and disaster.
Happily, the conversation moved beyond this and onto what we could do for him and his Swell Vision brand - purveyors of bamboo sunglasses and watches, and soon-to-be adding men’s button down shirts and boxers. That’s right, he’d gotten burned and now was ready to put his blistered toe back into the water. He wanted another chance to test his courage to see his brand make it to market.
Swell Vision’s family of boxer shorts (photo courtesy of Swell Vision).
So many brands never get past the ideation stage or the first round of prototypes or an initial crash-and-burn because mistakes, poor funding or diminishing nerves hijack the plan. But not this guy. Not Allen Saum. He was intent on seeing this through. He wanted his boxer shorts made of bamboo fabric and his shirts in organic cotton and hemp to bust the market wide open. “Hell,” he said. “If it doesn’t work, we can always roll up the shirts and smoke ‘em.” Needless to say, entering the world of apparel also takes humor.
The Swell Vision brand at play (photo courtesy of Swell Vision).
We shared stories, got comfortable with one another and decided this new partnership could work. We hung up, having promised to send a contract his way followed by payment for design work sent back to us. This was in May, 2016. Nine months later, Swell Vision is launching its apparel line at the Atlanta Gift and Home Furnishing Market. And boy do their garments look fabulous. Gorgeous hand feel, cool looking motifs (ever worn boxers with shark fins on them?) and all the design touches that set them apart and gives the brand a cohesive look. What more could you want? Actually, plenty. Nice gear is great. But that won’t get it done. That won’t ensure sales. That won’t recoup the investment or hit the projected earnings. Sales and marketing strategy get you that. And Swell Vision has it. They have sales rep groups - ever heard of Fieldstone? Big...like monster big. They have online sales as well as West Coast reps beating at their door (ever worn boxers with campfires on them? Thought not.), a public relations firm and, again, an owner with nerves of Samurai steel.
Swell Vision at the Atlanta Gift and Home Furnishing Market.
Private label is many things; great ideas; bad ideas; superb taste; no taste at all; big vision; not a snowball’s chance in hell. I suppose that’s true for every industry and their gamut of clients. Once in a while, however, you come across an individual or young company who put their faith in you; allow you to help shape their ideas, welcoming you in on their plans, and at every turn when the bills start coming in: mold charges; dye lot charges; new design fees; re-design fees, and the miscellaneous charges that all add up, have the courage to carry on with only CAD drawings as proof that something that is in the works thousands of miles away will actually bear fruit. These, in our experience, are the people who succeed...who make a dent in a marketplace saturated with good ideas and hip brands built to draw attention and sell product. For Swell Vision, this Millennial brand from South Carolina started by a family with great intention and intuitive collaboration, they are on the cusp. The market awaits. The court of public opinion is in session. Time to swallow hard and put those nerves once more to the test. Good luck Allen, Ellen and Mitchell. You deserve it.
L-R: Michael Persson (iSG), Mitchell Saum, Susan Krueger (iSG), Ellen Saum and Allen Saum.
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TRD‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties
(Illustration by Jungyeon Roh)
Real estate brokerages in South Florida are facing tumultuous times.
The industry is changing: Companies are being bought and sold, stocks of publicly traded firms like Realogy are falling, and disruptors such as Zillow Offers and other iBuying firms that bypass the agent are entering the market. “There are just seismic shifts that create uncertainty,” said Beth Butler, Compass’ director of new development in the Southeast. “And [agents think,] ‘Maybe I need to move. Should I look at other things?’”
With sales in a slump, the top brokerages in the region are playing offense, whether they’re adding ancillary services for customers as a way to enhance profitability, or growing by acquiring smaller firms or agent groups or luring high-profile agents by boosting incentives.
“We’re playing a game of musical chairs,” said Phil Gutman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Miami. “We’re at a difficult time. The market is just doing so-so, and when the market is doing so-so, the agents start to look around because their first inclination is that their brokerage is the issue, instead of market conditions.”
In fact, competition between brokerages for the best talent is tougher than ever before, said Gutman and others, including Butler. Compass, which has raised $1.5 billion in capital, is largely viewed as among the most aggressive in luring agents since it launched in South Florida four years ago. It now has 800 agents in nine offices across four counties after doubling its agent numbers in just the past year.
“I don’t remember this kind of environment existing at this level in the 30 years I have been doing this,” Butler said. “It really has become an environment where top agents can shop their offers and come up with whatever suits them best.”
Indeed, top producers can catapult a firm’s sales volume. The Real Deal’s latest brokerage ranking analyzed the top residential brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, based on closed sales from July 15, 2018, through June 15, 2019. TRD obtained the data from multiple sources and confirmed the sales totals with the brokerages themselves. The findings showed that in Miami-Dade, One Sotheby’s International Realty took the lead spot with $1.46 billion in volume. In Broward, Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate led the list with $1.54 billion in volume, and in Palm Beach County, it was the Keyes Company with $1.76 billion in volume.
Recruiting top agents is a key to growth. “People go into the market and grow aggressively quickly, because you have to hope to make it up in volume — that is the only way to compete in South Florida,” Butler said.
To get top agents, without a doubt, money talks.
In South Florida, agents with strong production may get a range of incentives from brokerages, including upfront cash incentives, big marketing budgets, cash to offset lost commissions from changing companies, a free assistant or a year-paid assistant, office space and/or a guaranteed number of referrals, Butler said. The overall compensation package also includes high splits, which brokerages say can range from 80 to 90 percent for the agent.
It all points to a highly competitive industry, brokers say.
“Big players are pouring a significant amount of money to grow, and grow not necessarily profitably,” said Edgardo Defortuna, founder, president and CEO of Fortune International Group.
“That creates a very significant pressure on both agents and companies,” he added. “Agent splits are at a high 80 to 90 percent for top agents, and some companies are also willing to pay a signing bonus.”
Indeed, recruiting can cause friction, and Gutman calls some firms’ recruiting methods “questionable.” Some have tried to recruit some of his agents, “claiming we were for sale. We are not for sale,” he said. “Most of us that have been here in the real estate industry for the past decade have a mutual respect and don’t actively poach each other’s agents … Recent firms that have infiltrated the market don’t show the same respect.”
The huge splits are a short-sighted incentive, according to the president of One Sotheby’s International Realty, Daniel de la Vega.
“Once some of these companies start to realize that they cannot be profitable giving away the house the way they do, they have to adjust to reality,” he said. “We all have desk costs, fixed costs, and a brokerage firm simply cannot operate at a 90 percent split structure. It’s not possible unless some of these companies start changing their split structures and offering ancillary services.”
Buying up the boutiques
While representatives from Compass say they aim to have a 20 percent market share in the region by the end of next year, other firms, too, are looking to show off their market muscle with more robust headcounts. For many, that means acquiring smaller brokerages and broker teams. One Sotheby’s International Realty, for example, is planning to make three acquisitions in the next two months, according to de la Vega.
“They are companies that have like-minded agents that specialize in luxury,” he said, declining to disclose the firms. With the acquisitions, One Sotheby’s will go from about 900 agents to close to 1,000, he said. That’s in sync with its strategy to expand into new markets, boost its digital presence and improve its market share on the general side of the business as well as in new development, de la Vega said.
Similarly, firms can grow by “fold-ins,” or incorporating teams from other firms. The Keyes Company, for example, recently brought over the Coloney Group’s 30-person team in Fort Lauderdale, said Mike Pappas, Keyes’ president and CEO. The team left Related ISG International Realty.
Fortune International Group recently brought on 10 agents from a small, independent firm, which had covered Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach. They closed their office and joined Fortune, Defortuna said, declining to name the firm.
Douglas Elliman, which now counts 1,200 agents in 22 offices in Florida, brought on David Siddons and his five-agent team from EWM Realty International in July. That same month, Elliman picked up the four-agent Cassis Burke Collection team from Brown Harris Stevens Miami. In 2014, Elliman had $300 million in sales and 100 agents; it now has 12 times the number of agents and is on track to close $5 billion in sales, including new development, this year, said Jay Parker, CEO of the Florida brokerage.
“We’re always looking to expand into the markets that fit our strategy of being in all the markets our clients want to be in,” Parker said. “So we’re looking at the west coast [of Florida], pockets on the east coast [of the state] — considering areas north of Jupiter, looking at Aventura and the Sunny Isles market.”
Coldwell Banker, for its part, has added such high-profile agents as Denise Rubin in Aventura, who joined Aug. 30 from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty; and Judy Zeder, Nathan Zeder and Kara Zeder Rosen, who left EWM Realty International in March to join the Jills at Coldwell Banker, creating the Jills Zeder Group. Coldwell Banker has also signed leases for more space at its Miami Beach office and at an office in West Delray Beach in addition to recently expanding its Boca Raton office, said Nancy Klock Corey, regional vice president for Southeast Florida. Her region now includes 16 offices and 1,600 agents.
For a brokerage to compete today, branding is also paramount, experts say.
Though EWM Realty International sold to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in 2003, it was only this past June that it changed its name to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. The firm currently has 10 offices and about 800 agents in South Florida. President Ron Shuffield said the move allows the firm to better compete with large brokerages.
“While we have been part of the Berkshire Hathaway family for the past 16 years, EWM elected to enhance our brand by enlarging the font size of our name,” Shuffield said. “What that has done for us is give us immediate recognition of being aligned with major brokerages in New York and California and other places in the world, so when people see the Berkshire Hathaway name, they see that this is the same company I am seeing in these other markets.”
Coldwell Banker, too, promotes its vast presence across markets to attract buyers. “Whether they are coming from this country or outside, they see Coldwell Banker and they trust that name. They have seen it before,” Corey said.
Everything but the kitchen sink
Brokers are also trying to become one-stop shops to fatten their bottom lines. Offering clients a full-service home services operation loaded with ancillary products is increasingly considered a winning competitive strategy among local brokerages.
One Sotheby’s is in the process of creating an insurance company that will offer property and casualty coverage by the end of the year, de la Vega said.
“We’re trying to be as vertically integrated as we can be,” he said. “It’s the way brokerages are going to survive in the future, in my opinion.”
Berkshire Hathaway already offers mortgages as well as title and property insurance, Shuffield said. Keyes offers mortgages, insurance and property management and will soon offer “post-closing” services like cable, internet, phone and security hook-ups and home improvement services for the seller through a partner, Pappas said.
Similarly, Compass has launched Compass Concierge, which fronts the cost of home repairs for sellers.
Taking care of agents by providing marketing support, social media and public relations support, as well as direct campaigns and linking agents to New York, are also important, said Gutman, whose firm has 187 agents in Miami-Dade and 100 in Palm Beach County.
At Coldwell Banker, agents are coached on sales skills and time management. The firm provides customer relationship and database management, and even offers top agents wealth management counseling services.
“Retention is as important if not more important than recruiting. If you do so much to bring them in, you want them to stay,” Butler said. “The environment that you cultivate and the culture that you create is what makes people stay. Someone can be offering them more money, but if they feel that this is the place they belong, it’s the glue that keeps people there.”
Amid changing dynamics, aside from attracting and retaining top talent, the advent of iBuying and the specter of shrinking profitability are also expected to remain concerns in the industry.
“The challenge of profitability is shared — everybody has this concern,” Butler said. “For every dollar of commission, if you are keeping 15 or 16 cents, and you’re paying all the expenses, and rents are rising, and you have sales managers and staff, you have to grow fast to have the volume to sustain that. But you also have to identify other sources of income to supplement the brokerage income.”
The post <i>TRD</i>‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.
from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/resi-rulers-the-top-firms-in-south-florida/#new_tab
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TRD‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties
(Illustration by Jungyeon Roh)
Real estate brokerages in South Florida are facing tumultuous times.
The industry is changing: Companies are being bought and sold, stocks of publicly traded firms like Realogy are falling, and disruptors such as Zillow Offers and other iBuying firms that bypass the agent are entering the market. “There are just seismic shifts that create uncertainty,” said Beth Butler, Compass’ director of new development in the Southeast. “And [agents think,] ‘Maybe I need to move. Should I look at other things?’”
With sales in a slump, the top brokerages in the region are playing offense, whether they’re adding ancillary services for customers as a way to enhance profitability, or growing by acquiring smaller firms or agent groups or luring high-profile agents by boosting incentives.
“We’re playing a game of musical chairs,” said Phil Gutman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Miami. “We’re at a difficult time. The market is just doing so-so, and when the market is doing so-so, the agents start to look around because their first inclination is that their brokerage is the issue, instead of market conditions.”
In fact, competition between brokerages for the best talent is tougher than ever before, said Gutman and others, including Butler. Compass, which has raised $1.5 billion in capital, is largely viewed as among the most aggressive in luring agents since it launched in South Florida four years ago. It now has 800 agents in nine offices across four counties after doubling its agent numbers in just the past year.
“I don’t remember this kind of environment existing at this level in the 30 years I have been doing this,” Butler said. “It really has become an environment where top agents can shop their offers and come up with whatever suits them best.”
Indeed, top producers can catapult a firm’s sales volume. The Real Deal’s latest brokerage ranking analyzed the top residential brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, based on closed sales from July 15, 2018, through June 15, 2019. TRD obtained the data from multiple sources and confirmed the sales totals with the brokerages themselves. The findings showed that in Miami-Dade, One Sotheby’s International Realty took the lead spot with $1.46 billion in volume. In Broward, Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate led the list with $1.54 billion in volume, and in Palm Beach County, it was the Keyes Company with $1.76 billion in volume.
Recruiting top agents is a key to growth. “People go into the market and grow aggressively quickly, because you have to hope to make it up in volume — that is the only way to compete in South Florida,” Butler said.
To get top agents, without a doubt, money talks.
In South Florida, agents with strong production may get a range of incentives from brokerages, including upfront cash incentives, big marketing budgets, cash to offset lost commissions from changing companies, a free assistant or a year-paid assistant, office space and/or a guaranteed number of referrals, Butler said. The overall compensation package also includes high splits, which brokerages say can range from 80 to 90 percent for the agent.
It all points to a highly competitive industry, brokers say.
“Big players are pouring a significant amount of money to grow, and grow not necessarily profitably,” said Edgardo Defortuna, founder, president and CEO of Fortune International Group.
“That creates a very significant pressure on both agents and companies,” he added. “Agent splits are at a high 80 to 90 percent for top agents, and some companies are also willing to pay a signing bonus.”
Indeed, recruiting can cause friction, and Gutman calls some firms’ recruiting methods “questionable.” Some have tried to recruit some of his agents, “claiming we were for sale. We are not for sale,” he said. “Most of us that have been here in the real estate industry for the past decade have a mutual respect and don’t actively poach each other’s agents … Recent firms that have infiltrated the market don’t show the same respect.”
The huge splits are a short-sighted incentive, according to the president of One Sotheby’s International Realty, Daniel de la Vega.
“Once some of these companies start to realize that they cannot be profitable giving away the house the way they do, they have to adjust to reality,” he said. “We all have desk costs, fixed costs, and a brokerage firm simply cannot operate at a 90 percent split structure. It’s not possible unless some of these companies start changing their split structures and offering ancillary services.”
Buying up the boutiques
While representatives from Compass say they aim to have a 20 percent market share in the region by the end of next year, other firms, too, are looking to show off their market muscle with more robust headcounts. For many, that means acquiring smaller brokerages and broker teams. One Sotheby’s International Realty, for example, is planning to make three acquisitions in the next two months, according to de la Vega.
“They are companies that have like-minded agents that specialize in luxury,” he said, declining to disclose the firms. With the acquisitions, One Sotheby’s will go from about 900 agents to close to 1,000, he said. That’s in sync with its strategy to expand into new markets, boost its digital presence and improve its market share on the general side of the business as well as in new development, de la Vega said.
Similarly, firms can grow by “fold-ins,” or incorporating teams from other firms. The Keyes Company, for example, recently brought over the Coloney Group’s 30-person team in Fort Lauderdale, said Mike Pappas, Keyes’ president and CEO. The team left Related ISG International Realty.
Fortune International Group recently brought on 10 agents from a small, independent firm, which had covered Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach. They closed their office and joined Fortune, Defortuna said, declining to name the firm.
Douglas Elliman, which now counts 1,200 agents in 22 offices in Florida, brought on David Siddons and his five-agent team from EWM Realty International in July. That same month, Elliman picked up the four-agent Cassis Burke Collection team from Brown Harris Stevens Miami. In 2014, Elliman had $300 million in sales and 100 agents; it now has 12 times the number of agents and is on track to close $5 billion in sales, including new development, this year, said Jay Parker, CEO of the Florida brokerage.
“We’re always looking to expand into the markets that fit our strategy of being in all the markets our clients want to be in,” Parker said. “So we’re looking at the west coast [of Florida], pockets on the east coast [of the state] — considering areas north of Jupiter, looking at Aventura and the Sunny Isles market.”
Coldwell Banker, for its part, has added such high-profile agents as Denise Rubin in Aventura, who joined Aug. 30 from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty; and Judy Zeder, Nathan Zeder and Kara Zeder Rosen, who left EWM Realty International in March to join the Jills at Coldwell Banker, creating the Jills Zeder Group. Coldwell Banker has also signed leases for more space at its Miami Beach office and at an office in West Delray Beach in addition to recently expanding its Boca Raton office, said Nancy Klock Corey, regional vice president for Southeast Florida. Her region now includes 16 offices and 1,600 agents.
For a brokerage to compete today, branding is also paramount, experts say.
Though EWM Realty International sold to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in 2003, it was only this past June that it changed its name to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. The firm currently has 10 offices and about 800 agents in South Florida. President Ron Shuffield said the move allows the firm to better compete with large brokerages.
“While we have been part of the Berkshire Hathaway family for the past 16 years, EWM elected to enhance our brand by enlarging the font size of our name,” Shuffield said. “What that has done for us is give us immediate recognition of being aligned with major brokerages in New York and California and other places in the world, so when people see the Berkshire Hathaway name, they see that this is the same company I am seeing in these other markets.”
Coldwell Banker, too, promotes its vast presence across markets to attract buyers. “Whether they are coming from this country or outside, they see Coldwell Banker and they trust that name. They have seen it before,” Corey said.
Everything but the kitchen sink
Brokers are also trying to become one-stop shops to fatten their bottom lines. Offering clients a full-service home services operation loaded with ancillary products is increasingly considered a winning competitive strategy among local brokerages.
One Sotheby’s is in the process of creating an insurance company that will offer property and casualty coverage by the end of the year, de la Vega said.
“We’re trying to be as vertically integrated as we can be,” he said. “It’s the way brokerages are going to survive in the future, in my opinion.”
Berkshire Hathaway already offers mortgages as well as title and property insurance, Shuffield said. Keyes offers mortgages, insurance and property management and will soon offer “post-closing” services like cable, internet, phone and security hook-ups and home improvement services for the seller through a partner, Pappas said.
Similarly, Compass has launched Compass Concierge, which fronts the cost of home repairs for sellers.
Taking care of agents by providing marketing support, social media and public relations support, as well as direct campaigns and linking agents to New York, are also important, said Gutman, whose firm has 187 agents in Miami-Dade and 100 in Palm Beach County.
At Coldwell Banker, agents are coached on sales skills and time management. The firm provides customer relationship and database management, and even offers top agents wealth management counseling services.
“Retention is as important if not more important than recruiting. If you do so much to bring them in, you want them to stay,” Butler said. “The environment that you cultivate and the culture that you create is what makes people stay. Someone can be offering them more money, but if they feel that this is the place they belong, it’s the glue that keeps people there.”
Amid changing dynamics, aside from attracting and retaining top talent, the advent of iBuying and the specter of shrinking profitability are also expected to remain concerns in the industry.
“The challenge of profitability is shared — everybody has this concern,” Butler said. “For every dollar of commission, if you are keeping 15 or 16 cents, and you’re paying all the expenses, and rents are rising, and you have sales managers and staff, you have to grow fast to have the volume to sustain that. But you also have to identify other sources of income to supplement the brokerage income.”
The post <i>TRD</i>‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.
from The Real Deal Miami & Miami Florida Real Estate & Housing News | & Curbed Miami - All https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/resi-rulers-the-top-firms-in-south-florida/#new_tab
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TRD‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties
(Illustration by Jungyeon Roh)
Real estate brokerages in South Florida are facing tumultuous times.
The industry is changing: Companies are being bought and sold, stocks of publicly traded firms like Realogy are falling, and disruptors such as Zillow Offers and other iBuying firms that bypass the agent are entering the market. “There are just seismic shifts that create uncertainty,” said Beth Butler, Compass’ director of new development in the Southeast. “And [agents think,] ‘Maybe I need to move. Should I look at other things?’”
With sales in a slump, the top brokerages in the region are playing offense, whether they’re adding ancillary services for customers as a way to enhance profitability, or growing by acquiring smaller firms or agent groups or luring high-profile agents by boosting incentives.
“We’re playing a game of musical chairs,” said Phil Gutman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Miami. “We’re at a difficult time. The market is just doing so-so, and when the market is doing so-so, the agents start to look around because their first inclination is that their brokerage is the issue, instead of market conditions.”
In fact, competition between brokerages for the best talent is tougher than ever before, said Gutman and others, including Butler. Compass, which has raised $1.5 billion in capital, is largely viewed as among the most aggressive in luring agents since it launched in South Florida four years ago. It now has 800 agents in nine offices across four counties after doubling its agent numbers in just the past year.
“I don’t remember this kind of environment existing at this level in the 30 years I have been doing this,” Butler said. “It really has become an environment where top agents can shop their offers and come up with whatever suits them best.”
Indeed, top producers can catapult a firm’s sales volume. The Real Deal’s latest brokerage ranking analyzed the top residential brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, based on closed sales from July 15, 2018, through June 15, 2019. TRD obtained the data from multiple sources and confirmed the sales totals with the brokerages themselves. The findings showed that in Miami-Dade, One Sotheby’s International Realty took the lead spot with $1.46 billion in volume. In Broward, Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate led the list with $1.54 billion in volume, and in Palm Beach County, it was the Keyes Company with $1.76 billion in volume.
Recruiting top agents is a key to growth. “People go into the market and grow aggressively quickly, because you have to hope to make it up in volume — that is the only way to compete in South Florida,” Butler said.
To get top agents, without a doubt, money talks.
In South Florida, agents with strong production may get a range of incentives from brokerages, including upfront cash incentives, big marketing budgets, cash to offset lost commissions from changing companies, a free assistant or a year-paid assistant, office space and/or a guaranteed number of referrals, Butler said. The overall compensation package also includes high splits, which brokerages say can range from 80 to 90 percent for the agent.
It all points to a highly competitive industry, brokers say.
“Big players are pouring a significant amount of money to grow, and grow not necessarily profitably,” said Edgardo Defortuna, founder, president and CEO of Fortune International Group.
“That creates a very significant pressure on both agents and companies,” he added. “Agent splits are at a high 80 to 90 percent for top agents, and some companies are also willing to pay a signing bonus.”
Indeed, recruiting can cause friction, and Gutman calls some firms’ recruiting methods “questionable.” Some have tried to recruit some of his agents, “claiming we were for sale. We are not for sale,” he said. “Most of us that have been here in the real estate industry for the past decade have a mutual respect and don’t actively poach each other’s agents … Recent firms that have infiltrated the market don’t show the same respect.”
The huge splits are a short-sighted incentive, according to the president of One Sotheby’s International Realty, Daniel de la Vega.
“Once some of these companies start to realize that they cannot be profitable giving away the house the way they do, they have to adjust to reality,” he said. “We all have desk costs, fixed costs, and a brokerage firm simply cannot operate at a 90 percent split structure. It’s not possible unless some of these companies start changing their split structures and offering ancillary services.”
Buying up the boutiques
While representatives from Compass say they aim to have a 20 percent market share in the region by the end of next year, other firms, too, are looking to show off their market muscle with more robust headcounts. For many, that means acquiring smaller brokerages and broker teams. One Sotheby’s International Realty, for example, is planning to make three acquisitions in the next two months, according to de la Vega.
“They are companies that have like-minded agents that specialize in luxury,” he said, declining to disclose the firms. With the acquisitions, One Sotheby’s will go from about 900 agents to close to 1,000, he said. That’s in sync with its strategy to expand into new markets, boost its digital presence and improve its market share on the general side of the business as well as in new development, de la Vega said.
Similarly, firms can grow by “fold-ins,” or incorporating teams from other firms. The Keyes Company, for example, recently brought over the Coloney Group’s 30-person team in Fort Lauderdale, said Mike Pappas, Keyes’ president and CEO. The team left Related ISG International Realty.
Fortune International Group recently brought on 10 agents from a small, independent firm, which had covered Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach. They closed their office and joined Fortune, Defortuna said, declining to name the firm.
Douglas Elliman, which now counts 1,200 agents in 22 offices in Florida, brought on David Siddons and his five-agent team from EWM Realty International in July. That same month, Elliman picked up the four-agent Cassis Burke Collection team from Brown Harris Stevens Miami. In 2014, Elliman had $300 million in sales and 100 agents; it now has 12 times the number of agents and is on track to close $5 billion in sales, including new development, this year, said Jay Parker, CEO of the Florida brokerage.
“We’re always looking to expand into the markets that fit our strategy of being in all the markets our clients want to be in,” Parker said. “So we’re looking at the west coast [of Florida], pockets on the east coast [of the state] — considering areas north of Jupiter, looking at Aventura and the Sunny Isles market.”
Coldwell Banker, for its part, has added such high-profile agents as Denise Rubin in Aventura, who joined Aug. 30 from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty; and Judy Zeder, Nathan Zeder and Kara Zeder Rosen, who left EWM Realty International in March to join the Jills at Coldwell Banker, creating the Jills Zeder Group. Coldwell Banker has also signed leases for more space at its Miami Beach office and at an office in West Delray Beach in addition to recently expanding its Boca Raton office, said Nancy Klock Corey, regional vice president for Southeast Florida. Her region now includes 16 offices and 1,600 agents.
For a brokerage to compete today, branding is also paramount, experts say.
Though EWM Realty International sold to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in 2003, it was only this past June that it changed its name to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. The firm currently has 10 offices and about 800 agents in South Florida. President Ron Shuffield said the move allows the firm to better compete with large brokerages.
“While we have been part of the Berkshire Hathaway family for the past 16 years, EWM elected to enhance our brand by enlarging the font size of our name,” Shuffield said. “What that has done for us is give us immediate recognition of being aligned with major brokerages in New York and California and other places in the world, so when people see the Berkshire Hathaway name, they see that this is the same company I am seeing in these other markets.”
Coldwell Banker, too, promotes its vast presence across markets to attract buyers. “Whether they are coming from this country or outside, they see Coldwell Banker and they trust that name. They have seen it before,” Corey said.
Everything but the kitchen sink
Brokers are also trying to become one-stop shops to fatten their bottom lines. Offering clients a full-service home services operation loaded with ancillary products is increasingly considered a winning competitive strategy among local brokerages.
One Sotheby’s is in the process of creating an insurance company that will offer property and casualty coverage by the end of the year, de la Vega said.
“We’re trying to be as vertically integrated as we can be,” he said. “It’s the way brokerages are going to survive in the future, in my opinion.”
Berkshire Hathaway already offers mortgages as well as title and property insurance, Shuffield said. Keyes offers mortgages, insurance and property management and will soon offer “post-closing” services like cable, internet, phone and security hook-ups and home improvement services for the seller through a partner, Pappas said.
Similarly, Compass has launched Compass Concierge, which fronts the cost of home repairs for sellers.
Taking care of agents by providing marketing support, social media and public relations support, as well as direct campaigns and linking agents to New York, are also important, said Gutman, whose firm has 187 agents in Miami-Dade and 100 in Palm Beach County.
At Coldwell Banker, agents are coached on sales skills and time management. The firm provides customer relationship and database management, and even offers top agents wealth management counseling services.
“Retention is as important if not more important than recruiting. If you do so much to bring them in, you want them to stay,” Butler said. “The environment that you cultivate and the culture that you create is what makes people stay. Someone can be offering them more money, but if they feel that this is the place they belong, it’s the glue that keeps people there.”
Amid changing dynamics, aside from attracting and retaining top talent, the advent of iBuying and the specter of shrinking profitability are also expected to remain concerns in the industry.
“The challenge of profitability is shared — everybody has this concern,” Butler said. “For every dollar of commission, if you are keeping 15 or 16 cents, and you’re paying all the expenses, and rents are rising, and you have sales managers and staff, you have to grow fast to have the volume to sustain that. But you also have to identify other sources of income to supplement the brokerage income.”
The post <i>TRD</i>‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.
from The Real Deal Miami & Miami Florida Real Estate & Housing News | & Curbed Miami - All https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/resi-rulers-the-top-firms-in-south-florida/#new_tab
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Text
TRD‘s annual ranking of the top brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties
(Illustration by Jungyeon Roh)
Real estate brokerages in South Florida are facing tumultuous times.
The industry is changing: Companies are being bought and sold, stocks of publicly traded firms like Realogy are falling, and disruptors such as Zillow Offers and other iBuying firms that bypass the agent are entering the market. “There are just seismic shifts that create uncertainty,” said Beth Butler, Compass’ director of new development in the Southeast. “And [agents think,] ‘Maybe I need to move. Should I look at other things?’”
With sales in a slump, the top brokerages in the region are playing offense, whether they’re adding ancillary services for customers as a way to enhance profitability, or growing by acquiring smaller firms or agent groups or luring high-profile agents by boosting incentives.
“We’re playing a game of musical chairs,” said Phil Gutman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Miami. “We’re at a difficult time. The market is just doing so-so, and when the market is doing so-so, the agents start to look around because their first inclination is that their brokerage is the issue, instead of market conditions.”
In fact, competition between brokerages for the best talent is tougher than ever before, said Gutman and others, including Butler. Compass, which has raised $1.5 billion in capital, is largely viewed as among the most aggressive in luring agents since it launched in South Florida four years ago. It now has 800 agents in nine offices across four counties after doubling its agent numbers in just the past year.
“I don’t remember this kind of environment existing at this level in the 30 years I have been doing this,” Butler said. “It really has become an environment where top agents can shop their offers and come up with whatever suits them best.”
Indeed, top producers can catapult a firm’s sales volume. The Real Deal’s latest brokerage ranking analyzed the top residential brokerages in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, based on closed sales from July 15, 2018, through June 15, 2019. TRD obtained the data from multiple sources and confirmed the sales totals with the brokerages themselves. The findings showed that in Miami-Dade, One Sotheby’s International Realty took the lead spot with $1.46 billion in volume. In Broward, Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate led the list with $1.54 billion in volume, and in Palm Beach County, it was the Keyes Company with $1.76 billion in volume.
Recruiting top agents is a key to growth. “People go into the market and grow aggressively quickly, because you have to hope to make it up in volume — that is the only way to compete in South Florida,” Butler said.
To get top agents, without a doubt, money talks.
In South Florida, agents with strong production may get a range of incentives from brokerages, including upfront cash incentives, big marketing budgets, cash to offset lost commissions from changing companies, a free assistant or a year-paid assistant, office space and/or a guaranteed number of referrals, Butler said. The overall compensation package also includes high splits, which brokerages say can range from 80 to 90 percent for the agent.
It all points to a highly competitive industry, brokers say.
“Big players are pouring a significant amount of money to grow, and grow not necessarily profitably,” said Edgardo Defortuna, founder, president and CEO of Fortune International Group.
“That creates a very significant pressure on both agents and companies,” he added. “Agent splits are at a high 80 to 90 percent for top agents, and some companies are also willing to pay a signing bonus.”
Indeed, recruiting can cause friction, and Gutman calls some firms’ recruiting methods “questionable.” Some have tried to recruit some of his agents, “claiming we were for sale. We are not for sale,” he said. “Most of us that have been here in the real estate industry for the past decade have a mutual respect and don’t actively poach each other’s agents … Recent firms that have infiltrated the market don’t show the same respect.”
The huge splits are a short-sighted incentive, according to the president of One Sotheby’s International Realty, Daniel de la Vega.
“Once some of these companies start to realize that they cannot be profitable giving away the house the way they do, they have to adjust to reality,” he said. “We all have desk costs, fixed costs, and a brokerage firm simply cannot operate at a 90 percent split structure. It’s not possible unless some of these companies start changing their split structures and offering ancillary services.”
Buying up the boutiques
While representatives from Compass say they aim to have a 20 percent market share in the region by the end of next year, other firms, too, are looking to show off their market muscle with more robust headcounts. For many, that means acquiring smaller brokerages and broker teams. One Sotheby’s International Realty, for example, is planning to make three acquisitions in the next two months, according to de la Vega.
“They are companies that have like-minded agents that specialize in luxury,” he said, declining to disclose the firms. With the acquisitions, One Sotheby’s will go from about 900 agents to close to 1,000, he said. That’s in sync with its strategy to expand into new markets, boost its digital presence and improve its market share on the general side of the business as well as in new development, de la Vega said.
Similarly, firms can grow by “fold-ins,” or incorporating teams from other firms. The Keyes Company, for example, recently brought over the Coloney Group’s 30-person team in Fort Lauderdale, said Mike Pappas, Keyes’ president and CEO. The team left Related ISG International Realty.
Fortune International Group recently brought on 10 agents from a small, independent firm, which had covered Aventura and Sunny Isles Beach. They closed their office and joined Fortune, Defortuna said, declining to name the firm.
Douglas Elliman, which now counts 1,200 agents in 22 offices in Florida, brought on David Siddons and his five-agent team from EWM Realty International in July. That same month, Elliman picked up the four-agent Cassis Burke Collection team from Brown Harris Stevens Miami. In 2014, Elliman had $300 million in sales and 100 agents; it now has 12 times the number of agents and is on track to close $5 billion in sales, including new development, this year, said Jay Parker, CEO of the Florida brokerage.
“We’re always looking to expand into the markets that fit our strategy of being in all the markets our clients want to be in,” Parker said. “So we’re looking at the west coast [of Florida], pockets on the east coast [of the state] — considering areas north of Jupiter, looking at Aventura and the Sunny Isles market.”
Coldwell Banker, for its part, has added such high-profile agents as Denise Rubin in Aventura, who joined Aug. 30 from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty; and Judy Zeder, Nathan Zeder and Kara Zeder Rosen, who left EWM Realty International in March to join the Jills at Coldwell Banker, creating the Jills Zeder Group. Coldwell Banker has also signed leases for more space at its Miami Beach office and at an office in West Delray Beach in addition to recently expanding its Boca Raton office, said Nancy Klock Corey, regional vice president for Southeast Florida. Her region now includes 16 offices and 1,600 agents.
For a brokerage to compete today, branding is also paramount, experts say.
Though EWM Realty International sold to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in 2003, it was only this past June that it changed its name to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. The firm currently has 10 offices and about 800 agents in South Florida. President Ron Shuffield said the move allows the firm to better compete with large brokerages.
“While we have been part of the Berkshire Hathaway family for the past 16 years, EWM elected to enhance our brand by enlarging the font size of our name,” Shuffield said. “What that has done for us is give us immediate recognition of being aligned with major brokerages in New York and California and other places in the world, so when people see the Berkshire Hathaway name, they see that this is the same company I am seeing in these other markets.”
Coldwell Banker, too, promotes its vast presence across markets to attract buyers. “Whether they are coming from this country or outside, they see Coldwell Banker and they trust that name. They have seen it before,” Corey said.
Everything but the kitchen sink
Brokers are also trying to become one-stop shops to fatten their bottom lines. Offering clients a full-service home services operation loaded with ancillary products is increasingly considered a winning competitive strategy among local brokerages.
One Sotheby’s is in the process of creating an insurance company that will offer property and casualty coverage by the end of the year, de la Vega said.
“We’re trying to be as vertically integrated as we can be,” he said. “It’s the way brokerages are going to survive in the future, in my opinion.”
Berkshire Hathaway already offers mortgages as well as title and property insurance, Shuffield said. Keyes offers mortgages, insurance and property management and will soon offer “post-closing” services like cable, internet, phone and security hook-ups and home improvement services for the seller through a partner, Pappas said.
Similarly, Compass has launched Compass Concierge, which fronts the cost of home repairs for sellers.
Taking care of agents by providing marketing support, social media and public relations support, as well as direct campaigns and linking agents to New York, are also important, said Gutman, whose firm has 187 agents in Miami-Dade and 100 in Palm Beach County.
At Coldwell Banker, agents are coached on sales skills and time management. The firm provides customer relationship and database management, and even offers top agents wealth management counseling services.
“Retention is as important if not more important than recruiting. If you do so much to bring them in, you want them to stay,” Butler said. “The environment that you cultivate and the culture that you create is what makes people stay. Someone can be offering them more money, but if they feel that this is the place they belong, it’s the glue that keeps people there.”
Amid changing dynamics, aside from attracting and retaining top talent, the advent of iBuying and the specter of shrinking profitability are also expected to remain concerns in the industry.
“The challenge of profitability is shared — everybody has this concern,” Butler said. “For every dollar of commission, if you are keeping 15 or 16 cents, and you’re paying all the expenses, and rents are rising, and you have sales managers and staff, you have to grow fast to have the volume to sustain that. But you also have to identify other sources of income to supplement the brokerage income.”
from The Real Deal Miami & Miami Florida Real Estate & Housing News | & Curbed Miami - All https://therealdeal.com/miami/issues_articles/resi-rulers-the-top-firms-in-south-florida/#new_tab
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