Frisco-based Monument Realty has acquired The Associates, a Dallas-based brokerage led by Robert Elliott. Together, the new firm will boast more than 260 agents.
“We’re looking for the best in the industry and I think that’s exactly what Robert and his team do, not just with residential real estate, but with all of their projects,” Monument co-owner Eddie Burns said. “It’s actually a perfect match. We’re looking for a certain type of agent that’s super professional, the best in the industry, and I think that’s what Robert represents across the board.”
Elliott says that the strength of The Associates will fill in some gaps at Monument and vice versa. He believes that The Associates brings with it a strong brand standard and marketing department. A big factor in his decision was the success Monument has in capturing relationships and providing an unprecedented conduit to internet lead generation, and actually getting those leads to producers.
“We’re ecstatic about it (the merger) because we have all the key components of the boutique high-end luxury brokerage but now we’ve got a partner that understands how to monetize the internet,” he says. “When you couple in the fact that this market will see an influx of out-of-town buyers like we’ve never seen before, the team that controls the internet will control the Dallas-Fort Worth brokerage market.”
Monument Realty was founded by Eddie Burns and his wife, Tiffany, in 2017. They have worked together in real estate since 2004, with her serving as the broker. The two saw changes coming to the market and believed they could capitalize on that. They got office space on the fifth floor of Jerry Jones’ Star development and started with five agents.
“We wanted to create a brokerage where we only have full-time agents that are positive, productive, and professional,” he said.
Last year, the Dallas Morning News named Monument the number one small company in Dallas-Fort Worth. Eddie attributes much of the company’s success to its online lead-generating system. He and Tiffany have developed close relationships with executives at Zillow and Realtor.com. Monument currently receives leads for nearly 3,000 brand new families per month from them. By years’ end, new contracts should increase that number to somewhere between 8,000-10,000 per month, with a significant portion being exclusive leads.
According to Tiffany, it’s not just the number of leads that’s important, but how Monument is using them. A system of internally developed software complimented by a dedicated staff of 13-15 people (including some with real estate sales experience) helps agents convert those leads into deals.
“The reason why I think a lot of agents have a negative view of online leads, or Zillow, or Realtor.com, is become they don’t have the internal system to make it work,” she said. “You need to have both pieces and we were able to create both pieces, which is a rarity.”
Until now the bulk of Monument’s business has come in Collin and Denton Counties. As Tiffany notes, it’s not that they didn’t want to do more in Dallas. Rather, it’s just extremely difficult for most news firms to establish themselves there, particularly in areas like the Park Cities. The Associates has overseen more than 160 high-end homes there, giving the combined company an instant presence in the area.
According to Eddie, Monument is not done yet. With more exclusive leads from Zillow and Realtor.com coming in, he expects to expand to around 450 or 500 agents by year’s end.
“We have so much momentum now, I think you’re going to see us by the end of the year have a very strong presence in Dallas-Fort Worth,” he said. “I think we have the leadership team in place and the recruiting team to really make an impact.”
