Jeff and Gary Tullman are two brothers who both started off working on the investment and development side of real estate. But their latest venture is a new, stripped-down brokerage for part-time agents, Colony Real Estate Group.
Launched earlier this spring, Colony’s targets are former agents who have left the business during the recent downturn but maintain an active license, and licensees in related industries like development or real estate law whose main job naturally creates referral opportunities.
Gary Tulman
Title: Broker/Owner, Colony Real Estate Group; Boston
Age: 38
Experience: 14 years
Jeffrey Tulman
Title: Broker/Owner, Colony Real Estate Group; Boston
Age: 35
Experience: 13 years
So what led you to create Colony?
Jeffrey: We [started] when real estate wasn’t popular, right after the crash in the late 1980s, early 1990s. Over time we realized that a lot of our friends were leaving other industries to join in this real estate gold rush. It seemed like more people we knew were getting into real estate, either in brokerage or on the investment side. Then as soon as they jumped in, the market cooled, and they left.
Gary: [Many were] people that were maybe forced out for practical reasons, but still had that pulse of what was going on, still had that network of clients or family and friends that were doing real estate deals, selling property, maybe even buying property. And they wanted to stay active, but couldn’t be active under that traditional model – you go into the office, you’re associated with that office, you go into the office every day, you commit. It’s more of a full-time brokerage model, and under those terms, it wasn’t cost effective for them to stay in the business. There’s a lot of opportunity for a lot of people who want practice on a part-time basis… [so we thought] let’s create this opportunity for them to use their license. So that’s how it kind of evolved into a more specific business model.
Experienced agents might have a relationship with an old broker who’d let them do a deal or two. Why would they hook up with Colony instead?
Jeffrey: First of all, we give them the opportunity to have a very flexible schedule. We allow agents to participate as often as they want, whether it’s very often or seldom. They can register and when and if something comes up, they’ll do it. It doesn’t have to be a conversation [every time]. The other thing is, we provide them both the resources and the corporate identity, whether they’re living on the Cape or in Newton and Wellesley, they can have that identity and be in a bunch of different locations. The other thing is, we try to tailor the commissions. We realize that brokerage offices are only as successful as the agents are happy. So we’ve tried to create a commission schedule that really rewards the efforts of the agents … if someone were to be listing a property, listing the property will give them 90 percent of the split, on the listings side. What we’re trying to do is give them the opportunity to participate more than in any other situation, because we know that in order to go down the commission ladder, in a traditional brokerage shop you might start 50-50, and then if you get $3 million in sales you might get a 70 percent split, and there’s no way as a part-time broker you’re ever going to meet that. [With us] if you list your property, and it’s a $300,000 studio in Boston, you get 90 percent. The effort’s the same.
Gary: I think also, an established broker-agent relationship, I think are one circumstance where of course they’re going to have an ability to work under their broker. What we try to do is open it up to everyone else that maybe doesn’t have a strong broker relationship.
What’s the reaction been?
Gary: Just for fun, we put out an online ad, just to gauge [interest], specifically for attorneys. That demographic would be an interesting measure, since most of them are licensed by definition.
Jeffrey: As we were discussing posting this, I think we both thought we’d get zero response. Or we’d get a bunch of spam from it.
Gary: Long story short, we posted the little online ad. And then when it turned on, it was one of those things where every five minutes we would get another e-mail. And that was one of those things that got us excited, people were getting it…[Because] it’s different from what everyone knows a brokerage firm to be in terms of structure.
The reality is, technology has allowed everyone to practice with all the same tools from wherever they are, whatever’s convenient for them. Aside from sitting down with a client at a closing table, or to make sure everyone’s on the same page, you really have everything you need in your kitchen, in your car, or wherever you work everyday. And that’s really I think what’s opened up this industry for all these people that felt that they weren’t able to participate before, and that’s where a lot of our success is coming from, people realizing that.
Jeff & Gary’s Top Five Tips For Licensees Looking To Stay Fresh:
- Keep up with your continuing education.
- Maintain your network – let people know you’re still involved in real estate, and open to giving advice.
- Keep a finger on the market – track sales and prices in the neighborhoods you’d like to cover
- Go to open houses – seeing current, for-sale property is essential to knowing your competition.
- It’s not as hard as you think.
