Share
One comment I’ve heard about Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Go Realty that stands out to me is, “Everyone seems to like each other a lot.” It makes me smile every time I think of this statement because it’s very true.
Our agents, managers, and staff don't get along because we're all the same. We definitely are not. It’s because we put our culture at the forefront of our company, and we protect it fiercely and celebrate it daily. Here’s how we do it.
For starters, we call the first week of new-agent training Culture Week. This is when we teach the mindset behind everything we do. Jim Garman, our founder, tells the story of why he started Go. We explain that we greet customers with a hearty “welcome to Go” when they walk in the door and don’t call our spaces “offices.” We also go over how $100 from every closing goes to a local charity that the agent chooses ($50 from them, $50 from us). And we wrap the week up with a volunteer day.
We show love for our agents with “date nights” and celebrate everyone (not just the big producers) at our monthly company meeting, which is aptly named “The Go Show.” Every day, we work to create a culture that helps our agents through the rough days, celebrates the great days, and gives them a place to do their best work.
Our agents and staff are diverse in age — millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers. Our offices are full of young singles figuring it out, empty nesters, moms and dads in the midst of raising kiddos, and everybody in between.
Each and every person in our company is charged with being a protector of the culture. Are we perfect at it? Of course we are! OK, not always. But we strive to keep it top-of-mind and help each other when we go off the rails a bit.
I’ve been a real estate professional for 15 years and worked at two other companies before I found my tribe at Go. Today, I’m the broker-in-charge of Go Realty’s Holly Springs office. I can attest to the fact that our culture is different and magical. It’s always funny to see folks walk into our office for the first time and be caught off-guard by what they find. You will not see a receptionist at a desk (or a desk at all). You will see a group of collaborative agents sitting around a table like it’s Thanksgiving. You will be greeted with a big smile from one of our “angels” (which is the job title of our office administrators), and, if we’ve done our job right, you will feel really good about being where you are.
There are many little details and nuggets about our culture, and each quarter I plan to share a bit of it with you here in REALTOR® Magazine's Broker to Broker section. I hope it inspires and encourages you, and I hope it helps you do your best work, too.
