Here Comes The Neighborhood!!!

I’m so proud to announce what has been a long time in the making! I was going to do a fancy-schmancy video, but given the sequence of events and how this is all taking shape at new speed levels, I have to do it the best way I know how, now.

As many of you know, almost three years ago, Amanda, Elizabeth, Amy, and I decided to change national brands and we’ve enjoyed and taken advantage of some of the amazing opportunities that are available at Keller Williams Realty. As we transitioned, I wrote a long blog post announcement whereby, among other things, as part of this journey that we’d be taking a step or two back in order to take a jump into the next phase of our careers. In short, we needed to be structured correctly moving forward. We made the decision to shrink to grow. As it turns out, we didn’t take a step back. During this time we’ve also been laying the groundwork for a new Keller Williams Franchise Market Center, and preparing to scale our business. I’m very proud we’ve hovered around the same numbers. Amanda, Elizabeth, and I, year after year, are roughly a 40 million dollar real estate team. Amy (God Bless her!!!) took care of the admin side of the practice.

It is now time to move forward. As we do this, and add members to our team, and begin our expansion network to other cities and states, we feel it’s the right time to change our brand. As we expand into different markets, the letters “F” and “A” don’t translate to “Frankin and Amanda,” and we get that. Some folks say, “fa.” Some say, “FiA.” Some say, “F-I-A.” Some say, “Effin-A.” This is all well and good, but not great for where we want to go. It’s also not the easiest name for Buyer Specialist and Seller Specialist teammates to explain to our clients. F|A was fun, but not practical moving forward.

Beyond the local “F|A,” the larger life opportunity here is that Gary Keller has designed his company such that teams, groups, and networks like us can take our ways of doing business, philosophies, and brands and simply plug into any of 800+ Keller Williams offices throughout the world. It’s quite genius of Gary Keller, and provides an unlimited runway for Realtors. All we need to do is find, The Who. It’s not about what, when, or where. It’s about who fits our mission statement and standards.

On that note, if you saw the picture on Facebook of a larger team, it’s because we’ve expanded our local scope, having some real pros join the firm recently. Tammy Nantz, Mimi Liu, Sarah Penn, Jacquelyn Fauerbach, and Courtney Westerlund are amazing talents and ready to serve your real estate needs. Kristen McKee is our client concierge focusing on contract to close, and Craig Augenstein serves as the Director of Operations. I’ll be typing more about these fantastic professionals soon.

That said, if you know anyone that would like to know more about careers in real estate and work with our company here or any market for that matter, please have them contact us. We’d be happy to explore the opportunity!

Now to the immediate… Follow me here: I’ve shown houses to many of you whereby I’ve heard the phrase, “I like this house, but we would like to be in ABC neighborhood,” or “If this house was in XYZ neighborhood, we’d buy it.” After hearing this time and again, I’ve known for a long time the value of a house is in the neighborhood its in.

Further, every house has the “stuff.” Every house has sinks. Every house has counter-tops. Every house has cabinets, doors, floors, driveways, a roof….all that. Some bigger, some smaller, and some with superior or inferior materials than others, and I get that. What’s the real difference? The neighborhood.

Even Internet giant, Trulia, who is owned by The Zillow Group changed their tagline to, “The house is only half of it.”

Some time ago I heard someone declare on a popular podcast, “Listen… people don’t buy houses. People buy neighborhoods.” My eyes squinted as I tilted my head, and I thought, “Well someone finally said it, and they said it loudly.” A few weeks later I happened across an ancient Proverb that read, “Don’t Buy The House, Buy The Neighborhood.” Well, this hit me in the face. This said everything and more to me.

To my clients, colleagues, and friends, welcome to our new company, The Neighborhood!

Over the last few months this new brand has all been very meticulously thought out, masterminded over, and “beta’d” (if you will), with some of the biggest teams and leaders in the real estate industry. It’s bold, it’s clean, it’s out front forward thinking, and it’s correct. It’s also differentiation, and if you know us, that’s what I’m all about. As I say the word “Neighborhood,” think Amazon. Think Acrobat. Think Progressive, and Universal.

Our new website URL is now www.TheNeighborhoodRE.com , and our handles on social media will be @TheNeighborhoodRE. Check out www.TheAgencyRE.com and www.TheBoutiqueRE.com.

We’ll soon be rolling out our, “Always Be Opening” training (as opposed to Always Be Closing), our LocalRelo affinity product, the “Powered By You” series, our “_______Welcomes You To The Neighborhood” Buyer Specialist program, and hopefully expanding our partnership with Junior League International.

I’m currently producing a podcast that will be called “The State of the Neighborhood” Series (or Show) whereby I will be going into different neighborhoods throughout the Midlands, interviewing neighborhood influencers like business owners, school principals, coaches, elected officials, and big personalities. I’ll be diving deep into the neighborhood subject of that week, rotating accordingly.

Fresh new signs are being distributed, and cool new swag is on the way!

I know this is a lot and thank you so much for reading as I’m looking forward to beginning this new phase in our career. 12 or so years ago I was a single agent running as hard as I could and over the years Amanda, Elizabeth, Amy and I grew into a small business. It was an awesome decade, and it was powered by you. We all went from single agents with different firms and joined together to enter an entrepreneurial phase. Now we’re consciously transitioning from the entrepreneurial stage… to purposeful… as we are not only changing our buyers and sellers lives, we’re also looking forward to enhancing the lives of other real estate professionals.

Thank you for your time, everybody! I’ll let you know when the first podcast will be. We will see you in the schools, restaurants, and businesses in the strip malls of the suburbs and in the towers of Downtown. I’ll see you at the festivals, sporting events, in the streets, and everything in between.

See you in The Neighborhood!!!

Thank You & Always Be Opening,

Franklin Jones

-Powered By You.

Comments

  1. Congratulations, Franklin! Onward and Upward to my favorite team!

  2. I love it!

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