Andrew Armata
Andrew Armata
Title: CEO, LAER Realty Partners
Age: 39
Experience: 14 years
Andy Armata has always been interested in real estate and business, so when he met like-minded Stacy Alcorn while both were law school students, starting a real estate company seemed natural. The duo grew the business, then had a messy split with their franchisor. Their new company, LAER Realty Partners, is already larger than the old one, and Armata has plans to make it the biggest residential real estate company in Massachusetts.
Q: The path you took to owning a large real estate company wasn’t a straight one. Can you walk B&T’s readers through it?
A: After I graduated from Northeastern with a degree in both criminal justice and business administration, I started a property management company that handled commercial properties along Route 128. It was my first business. I had a number of employees and did that for a number of years. I had some really good commercial accounts. I realized I didn’t want to deal with contractors all day long, so I went to law school.
I met my business partner Stacy while we were both attending law school. At the time, we bought a small existing franchise; we put a plan together to grow our residential real estate company, and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since. In between, I ran for state Senate in the first district up on the North Shore when I was 24 years old. I won the primary, but lost in the general to (current Minority Leader) Bruce Tarr.
Q: You and Stacy very publicly cut ties with your franchisor a few years ago and settled mutual law suits with them this summer. Is that all behind you?
A: What we went through the last two and a half years was challenging, but also fun for us, and we got through it because we know where we’re going to take LAER Realty Partners. The litigation is all behind us. I live by a simple motto that “the only bad decision is sticking with a bad decision.” You have to keep making decisions, keep moving forward, and whatever happened in the past should stay there. I only carry the good stuff from the past forward with me. Leaving our former franchise to start our own brand was a lot of fun, there were many bumps in the road, and it’s over. We have no restrictions, we’re free to do whatever want to do and we’re relieved and excited. It was an unnecessary nuisance. I knew it would never stop us, it only slowed us down, because it took a lot of time, a lot of energy and a lot of resources. It was a huge headache, but we knew the outcome would be what it is.
We created LAER Realty Partners on April 14, 2014, and today we’re a top five real estate company in Massachusetts. Our trajectory looks good and we’re doing really well. We doubled the size of our company while going through that suit, so with that gone, I’m really looking forward to the future.
Q: What is your role at LAER?
A: I run day-to-day operations and oversee all transactions and administrative staff. I do a lot of office expansion, recruiting, mergers and acquisitions. So I deal with agents every day. I don’t compete with agents, which is one of our big differentiators. Most of our competitors’ owners or managers do compete with their agents.
We’re going to do about 3,000 deals in a calendar year. We try to hire the most experienced agents we can. That’s another big differentiator. We don’t typically hire new agents or solicit licensing schools. We look for seasoned agents who’ve been in the business over 15 years. The vast majority of our agents started with another company. When we hire a newer agent, we typically try to match them with a team that we believe would be a good fit for them.
We have 22 offices and just shy of 400 agents. We just opened an office in Worcester with about 25 agents and we opened an office in Winchester with a dozen or so agents, and we’ll double that in the next couple of weeks.
Q: What are your plans for growth in the short term?
A: We’re going to be opening in Wellesley and Boston soon. The way I look at it, I want to be a really good steward in all of the communities we service. Some companies focus on being niche and high-end. That’s their thing. Our business plan is different. We want to be the No. 1 real estate company in the state, so in order us to do that, we have to sell all types of properties to all people in all areas. So we’re going to go where there’s a great agent population and where there’s enough transactions for us to do and where we think we can be a benefit to the community. Worcester is one of those communities. It’s a big city with a lot of transactions and services a big region. They’ve got the train now that goes right into Boston. I think there are seven colleges or universities in the city. There’s industry moving there.
When you look at all the towns and cities, they all operate differently. The way you get showings in a condo in downtown Boston is different from how you might get a showing in Dracut. Will there be a lockbox on the home in Dracut? Possibly. Will showings in Winchester be accompanied? Probably. It depends on what is customary in the market and what the owner wants, but at the end of the day, the function of a real estate agent is the same. You’re showing property, staging property, negotiating and facilitating the transaction and making sure your customer has a great experience. That’s the same no matter where the property is.
Five Things That Inspire Armata:
- Having wonderful experiences with his family
- Watching his son Justin accomplish something
- Helping others reach their goals
- Reading a great book
- Clearing his mind at the ocean
