Brady Moore has left Dave Perry-Miller (an Ebby Halliday Company) and started his own luxury real estate brand under Keller Williams in Dallas, that will eventually be in Austin as well, adding agents ultimately in both cities.
“It’s just me, for now.” says Brady, “but I have a handful of people who are going to be part of it very, very soon.”
After 14-plus years with Dave Perry-Miller, Brady branched out and created Laguna Residential, backed by KW Luxury Homes International.
“It’s an exciting business venture with new opportunities to best represent my clients and personal growth,” he said.
I like the ability to have my own brand, yet still be supported by a large company, Brady told me. Keller Williams has more than 150,000 agents world wide and offers agents a more flexible affiliation model, sort of a hybrid.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the average income for a Realtor in 2013 was $47,700. Most agents are independent contractors and pay a certain percentage of their commission split to their broker, as well as adding on marketing/office expenses. You might be surprised how little the average agent takes home: $47,700 is the average. That means a huge number of the 1.1 million agents in the U.S. are making less than that. Every commission split, agreement, or fee is different and usually privately negotiated with the broker.
“At KW, you are supported by a large, strong company, but have the ability to take your brand to another city, which we plan to do in Austin,” says Brady, including the possibility of more cities.
He says he actually feels like he has his own brokerage, without the task work. KW takes care of the back office and administrative support an agent would get from a larger brokerage. Important: commission splits are also much more generous.
The move was effective last Wednesday morning. Brady’s new office is at 3500 Maple Ave. in the Heritage Auction building, which has been recently remodeled.
The Laguna Real Estate brand comes because his home town is Laguna Beach, CA, and is a connection to the place where he grew up. It also evokes an upscale, positive image of a beautiful place to live where everyone falls in love with the area when they get there.
“The name was basically a nostalgia thing for me,” says Brady.
Get ready for a slew of agent migration that happened shortly before or after the holidays. I have at least two in the queue to tell you about. Word is that many high producing luxury agents at all three top Dallas brokerage houses are restless and looking for a fresh new alternative, something different, and definitely something that will address all the changes coming down the pike in the industry.
“We haven’t had a strong newcomer in the North Texas real estate market for a long while,” says Brady. “That is exactly what Laguna Residential is all about.”
Most agents seek personal branding or something that gets attention, helps them (and their listings) rise above the crowd, rather than display the same old sign in clients’ yards for years and years.
“It’s been stagnant out there for a long time,” adds Brady.
Keller Williams generally backs their agents’ ability to create self branding and image awareness, and takes a lot less of the agents’ commission, which then frees the agent to apply marketing dollars as they see fit to the best benefit of their clients needs. For example, some brokerage houses have standard media buys and insist that agents shell out certain ratios of marketing dollars for advertising, shrinking the commission split. This is to ensure that agents do market homes properly, but many agents feel the traditional brokers are living in the past when it comes to marketing. At one of the top luxury brokers in town, more than half of the agents lack a private web site.
“Change is coming to the industry,” says Brady, “and we are positioning ourselves as the refreshing new approach to selling luxury real estate wherever we are.”
Laguna-style selling, says Brady, is starting right here in Dallas!”
(Brady can be reached at [email protected].)
