Broker of the Month

Jim Napier

Napier ERA
Midloathian, Virginia

Interview

Q: How many agents do you currently have working on your team?
A: I currently have 115 agents in 5 locations.

Q: What are your recruiting goals?
A: I want to have each office full of productive agents. I look at my growth in terms of additional earnings per office rather that numbers of recruits per year. My focus is on productivity and quality of hires rather than the number of agents, but we can easily grow up to 175 agents with the space we have.

Q: What have you implemented to help you reach these goals?
A: By far the most important thing is that my managers' bonuses are tied to increases in productivity. However, when it comes to recruiting we use two basic approaches: 1) Single Shot recruiting where we focus on existing and new agents and 2) Mergers and Acquisitions where we merge with a smaller company that already has some presence in the local area. We focus heavily on providing enhanced training for existing agents and we try to capture the interest of new recruits by using tools like the Real Estate Simulator.

Q: What kind of success have you seen so far with the Real Estate Simulator"
A: I use the Real Estate Simulator to drive people to my website. When they sign up to use it I, get their contact info and follow up with them. I've already captured 64 leads in 2 weeks! I feel like it's a great way to attract new comers and identify people who we would not have found otherwise.

Q: What would you recommend to a broker who is interested in recruiting, selecting, and training stronger agents?
A: Good hard work. You need to know what you are recruiting for and you need to understand what kind of agent you are looking for before you start. It's important to have a systematic process in your recruiting efforts so that you can successfully separate the wheat from the chaf. I also recommend that you take advantage of the new technology that is available out there like e-recruiter and the Simulator - these kinds of things help you capture the interest of your candidates and help you to keep infront of them on a regular basis.