Century 21 is entering a new era.
Though the brand has been around for years, two decades ago it became a part of the company that would end up as Anywhere. And that means it now has a new owner once again: Compass.
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Like other marquee brands in the Compass International Holdings (CIH) family, Century 21 isn’t about to disappear. But being part of Compass does change things. It means agents working under the Century 21 banner will ultimately have access to Compass’ technology. It means they’ll get to plug into a larger network. And it means they’re poised to benefit from new partnerships, such as the ones CIH struck with Redfin and MRED.
To get the lay of the land, and to understand how consolidation may impact real estate, Inman recently spoke to Mike Miedler, president and CEO of Century 21. Miedler said that he sees more consolidation on the horizon, and he advised agents during these difficult times to focus on the positive. He was also bullish on Century 21 itself.
“I think that our big differentiator is that our entrepreneurs, our brokers, our owners, our agents are literally living, breathing, sleeping in their marketplaces,” Miedler said.
What follows is a version of Inman’s conversation with Miedler that has been edited for length and clarity. (Note: This interview took place before the announcement of Real’s acquisition of REMAX, so that topic was not addressed.)
Inman: One of the things we’ve been talking about is consolidation and what it means for agents and brokers. Walk me through your perspective.
Mike Miedler: When you look at the top 10 brokerages and top 10 brands out there, I think you’re going to see more consolidation over the next couple of years.
Obviously an announcement you guys covered was our partnership with MRED. It has to continue to happen because this business is so fragmented from market to market, state to state. And I think that AI technology and the customer need for a simpler transaction is going to force all of us to try to figure out how to leverage scale and size and all those other things to be able to provide a better experience for everybody involved.
Inman: We’ve seen some consolidation with a company like Compass picking up other brokerages. But there’s also another branch where the quintessential example in my mind is Rocket. They were mortgage, but now they’ve got Redfin, which is a portal and a brokerage, and Mr. Cooper, which is a mortgage servicer. I’m curious where you see the potential for that kind of vertical, cross-disciplinary type of consolidation.
When I just look inside of the Century 21 system, I see our larger brokers getting larger and having to add those ancillary services in order to monetize the amount of agents and transactions they’re doing.
I have to think at some level, Compass was extremely attracted to Anywhere for the verticals that we have outside of the brokerage area, which are the largest relocation company in the world, and one of the most sophisticated title services groups. And this is where there’s a lot of heavy lifting that happens in any merger that gets done.
I feel like with the margin compression that the industry has been under, you don’t go backwards from that. And so I think you really have to figure out how to branch your tentacles out around the business that you serve.
Inman: I also want to ask about Century 21. You guys have a very storied brand. Talk to me about that. Make the case for why this brand in particular matters right now.
I think that our big differentiator is that our entrepreneurs, our brokers, our owners, our agents are literally living, breathing, sleeping in their marketplaces. They’re invested in something bigger than what I would call the brokerage. When you deal with a Century 21 company, you are dealing with people whose kids go to school in the same market that your kids will be going to.
The other big differentiator that we have is our global reach and global touch and global scale.
What separates Century 21 is that we are trying to really drive value for the agents so that they can achieve more. At the end of the day, there’s more money on their 1099.
What I think is really the next generation here, and why it’s ultimately so exciting, is because you can have all that comes with the local entrepreneur that’s got 52 years of brand recognition. But now we’re being brought into this kind of new evolution of the industry with technology, AI and this platform that I believe is going to help support our agents be even better in the future.
Inman: Well, our time is quickly wrapping up. To conclude, what advice do you have for agents?
Some people are finding the market to be a little difficult, troubled, maybe choppy, because of mortgage rates. In my mind, there are three things that agents really should be focusing on right now.
Focus on what you’re really good at. Whether that’s open houses, prospecting on the phone, whatever it is. Spend 33 percent of your time focused there. Don’t worry about where leads are coming from. Don’t worry about who’s finding you on the internet. If you’re really good at social, do 33 percent of your time on social and all that content. So, really be focused on your strategy. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. So that’s number one.
The second one is, if you want to become stronger and more effective in this business, you have to hang around people who are strong and effective. Maybe that’s in your office, hanging out with other big agents because you’re going to get some type of hack from them on how they’re doing business. I think you’ve always got to surround yourself with people who are doing bigger and more, and you eventually will get that mindset of doing bigger and more.
And then I think the last thing is, just continuously having that positive mindset. Your customers don’t want to hear about how hard the market is. Your customers don’t want to hear about how difficult it is to get to the finish line. They want somebody who’s super positive.
And that’s what I love about this industry. Most of the people, they’re big dreamers. They believe that anything is possible. They believe they can reach the goals that they whiteboard for themselves. They are super positive. But they’ve got to act that way, not just with their customers, but with the other agent on the other end of the deal, and in every interaction that they have.
Just staying super positive in this business, I think, is sometimes one of the hardest things. And if you can do that, it’s going to be a lot easier road.
