How are real estate broker-owners responding, adapting or changing? Here’s what J. Philip Faranda, broker and owner of J. Philip Real Estate, is doing.

Philip Faranda

This is part of “Fighting back,” a new series of profiles on how broker-owners are responding to industry disruption.

J. Philip Faranda is broker and owner of J. Philip Real Estate in Briarcliff Manor, New York, which he founded in 2005.

The firm is, by transaction total, the top-selling true independent Westchester, New York, and Putnam-based brokerage. An industry veteran since 1996, he built the firm from a solo practice into a three-office, 80-agent enterprise.

What is your no. 1 asset in this environment?

Agility. The shifting sands of market forces, consumer attitudes and moves our competitors execute make it necessary to not be married to one way of doing things.

When the market crashed, we did a ton of short sales. When it rebounded, we recruited and trained new agents.

In surveying our agents and asking why they are loyal to the brand, they’ve leapfrogged over “culture” and said the same word often: family. That is humbling.

How do you leverage what you have?

We have provided a ton of resources for the agents for years, all too often underutilized. Then, we started charging them a monthly tech/resource fee. Suddenly, with skin in the game, adoption spiked.

Instead of trying to compete with big flags, we held ourselves out as a better, specialized alternative to cookie-cutter brokerage.

We are always reminding the agents that they are in on the ground floor of something special. They are pioneers, early adopters of a brand that is going somewhere.

That said, extraordinary people are simply folks who do ordinary things with excellence — we are strong on social, strong on known for being independent and effective, and we never shut up about that to both our sphere and anyone who might google us.

We also remind both prospective agents and clients that the superiority of the national brand is a myth. Real estate is such a complicated and infrequent transaction that trust with it belongs with the specialist, not the generalist.

You don’t get married at TGI Fridays. You don’t buy a wedding dress at Walmart. You don’t have your gall bladder removed at an urgent care franchise. It should be the same with a real estate transaction. The letterhead is subordinate to the credentials of the human in front of you.

What new things must you do to compete?

Pay attention. Maintain high standards, never take shortcuts. Live in a continuous inquiry about how to get better.

Never be formulaic. Never think you have it figured out. Keep on the lookout for emerging niches and new opportunities

When you do something right or well, don’t keep it a secret.

Are acquisitions the way to fend off change?

Acquisitions are either an exit strategy or a means of growing. Always looking for the Louisiana Purchase in our market, that acquisition that will catapult us further forward than mere trench warfare of bean counting the transactions.

Change itself has to be kissed on the mouth and invited to Sunday dinner, otherwise you fall behind.

Do you explore alternative business models yourself?

Yes. There is opportunity in seeing what weaknesses an alternative model seeks to capitalize upon. Unfortunately, most other models are simply trading on lower cost or variants of unbundling, neither of which is a threat to taking our market share.

Our ears remain to the ground for black swan events or innovation that could change the game.

Does your technology strategy change?

No, in the sense that the tech strategy has always been to have tech, not for tech to have us.

To the extent that tech makes us better with the humans we serve, we use it as a tool. Tech has never been, nor will it ever be, our business model.

If we find a better mousetrap and the psychic cost of adoption is overall better than status quo, we’ll make a change, but we’ve been lucky in that we’ve chosen vendors with whom we’ve “grown up” together.

A good example is Zillow. We were the first brokerage in our market to syndicate in 2006, paying a third party even before Zillow formulated its pay model. That factored in getting through the crash.

The democratization of tech tools has enabled us to remain independent and appear far more appealing to the consumer than we could have in the analog era.

Email Inman

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×