Century 21 CEO Mike Miedler On His ‘Relentless’ Pursuit Of NYC In 2024

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Mike Miedler is relentless.

The Century 21 president and CEO’s schedule is jam-packed from daybreak till nightfall, as he juggles conferences with executives, staff leaders and broker-owners from throughout the globe. When he signed into his name with Inman at 9 a.m., Miedler was wide-eyed and energetic — stopping to make a quick remark about being a die-hard Taylor Swift fan — earlier than leaping into his 2024 technique for the C21 model, which hinges on leveraging synthetic intelligence, bullish merger and acquisition strikes, and a concentrate on New York Metropolis.

“It’s been an odd and fascinating market,” he mentioned. “We went from 2021 with essentially the most properties that we’ve offered in a decade — over 6 million — to the next 12 months the place we had the least quantity of properties that we offered in a decade. This 12 months, we’re on tempo to promote even much less. There’s plenty of work we have to do as a rustic and as an actual property trade to enhance affordability and get extra stock on the market.”

“The massive factor we’re specializing in is the proliferation of fine, stable brokers who deal with shoppers like an important factor. They’ll proceed to take their fair proportion of the market,” he added. “That comes by them doing the fundamentals of this enterprise each single day: Doing revenue-producing actions, utilizing their expertise, touching base with their sphere of affect, educating shoppers about the place the market is, and what their {dollars} will purchase them and serving to them by the method.”

Miedler spoke to Intel earlier this month about his twenty fifth anniversary with the brokerage, utilizing AI to recruit brokers, gaining market share in New York Metropolis, and his plan to develop marketshare in 2024.

You began your real estate career with Century 21 25 years in the past because the vp of franchise gross sales. How has the true property trade advanced over that point?

As a lot has modified over the course of my 25-plus years, a lot has stayed the identical, proper? While you take a look at the precise actual property transaction itself, the quantity of data that the client has entry to — the market knowledge and the information that’s available — has completely modified.

And for us as actual property professionals, the transaction has gotten easier over time. I feel again to after I first began, with the fax machine, the BlackBerry and people forms of applied sciences. We’ve clearly leaped ahead, however whether or not you prefer it or not, this enterprise is all about being face-to-face, speaking to folks, and making as many connections and discussions as potential.

The oldsters who’ve had longevity and success over a few years and many years, even, they’re all about taking care of that customer. They’re those who’re incomes that repeat and referral enterprise. So quite a bit has modified in the best way that we method [the transaction], however I feel it at all times retains falling again to actually giving [buyers and sellers] the perfect expertise — you get the job executed and might play to the emotional part, which is the most important a part of the true property transaction in plenty of methods.

Let’s speak extra about expertise. The pandemic accelerated actual property’s journey into the digital age, and this 12 months’s expertise obsession, in fact, has been OpenAI’s ChatGPT. What are your ideas about artificial intelligence and the way it will help (or hinder) the transaction expertise for shoppers and brokers?

The place AI actually turns into fascinating is after we take into consideration knowledge and knowledge privateness. It’s nearly slightly little bit of a double-edged sword.

I imagine that AI merchandise which can be on the market will completely assist us be extra pinpointed, extra correct and extra profitable. In our group, we’re utilizing AI to establish and prospect particular recruits that we imagine in some unspecified time in the future could have larger success within the trade primarily based on the worth proposition that we’ve because the Century 21 model.

Information and data may also assist our actual property professionals discover shoppers who usually tend to transact over time, so I do suppose it factors us to locations the place we ought to be placing extra of our time and vitality into attempting to construct our books of enterprise.

However it’s a little bit scary when you consider it within the quantity of knowledge and data that’s in there, and we’ve acquired to watch out to verify we’re managing it appropriately. It’s going to be fascinating to see because it evolves and what occurs to the trade. However, I do know actually industries are already disrupted by it.

Let’s speak extra about recruiting. The present market has pushed plenty of brokerage leaders to high-quality tune their recruiting and retention technique, and from my understanding, Century 21 has had fairly a little bit of success this 12 months with increasing the model in New York Metropolis and some different key areas on the East Coast. How did this technique come about?

We, clearly, throughout COVID have seen a great reshuffling across the nation. Numerous it was pushed by folks transitioning to distant work, they usually had been shifting to locations that both had higher climate, had been higher from a tax perspective, cheaper to boost households, or locations they at all times needed to go to and or be in.

As life has come again slightly bit to regular, I’ve seen slightly little bit of a swing of a pendulum and people coming again to among the cities that they migrated away from. The massive cities like New York Metropolis, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco — locations the place you will have a big density of inhabitants. We’re seeing people actually wish to be in these areas once more and absorb the tradition, the range and the job exercise and alternative.

So, we’ve been very intentional about New York Metropolis and among the different main markets that we’ve moved into. We’ll proceed to see people actually drawn to locations which can be worldwide hubs and the place the roles are as sectors come again into the workplace and spend extra time collaborating with each other.

What’s the method of figuring out if a possible affiliate is an efficient match? I’d think about that you’ve got plenty of brokers who wish to join themselves to such a longtime model.

In New York City, each couple of blocks is a special market. Town is extremely various, and variety is clearly within the DNA of Century 21. Proper? We’re in 84 completely different nations with 140,000 gross sales professionals worldwide. New York Metropolis is the worldwide headquarters of the USA from a monetary perspective, an arts perspective, a tradition perspective, a trend perspective, and so on.

The Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors ran a report in regards to the improve in residential actual property spending from international patrons, which subsided a bit throughout COVID. That spending is coming again, and having a presence in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and all of those boroughs is tremendous vital.

Now we have an amazing younger, various firm that operates in Manhattan and the Bronx. We’ve gone to Brooklyn, we’ve been in Queens and I feel there’s nonetheless room for us to develop in every a kind of markets. For those who stroll down sure boulevards in in Queens or Brooklyn, the range of individuals and the range of {the marketplace}, you would see an inventory for $678,000 and transfer a pair extra blocks away and also you’re speaking about $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

That’s why it’s tremendous vital for us to make it possible for we’re aligning ourselves with entrepreneurs, broker-owners and brokers who’ve the identical tradition and perception in our model promise. We rebranded ourselves five years ago and together with that rebranding got here a brand new mission assertion for our group — we’re relentless.

Once we’re on the market talking with folks, we speak about a possibility to develop and a possibility to assist convey them options to serve their shoppers higher. They actually need to match with our tradition. We’ve had 80-plus new firms come into the Century 21 system previously 18 months, and there’s not one new firm that I haven’t spoken to to make it possible for they aligned with what we’re attempting to perform. They’ve acquired to have that very same type of mindset round serving the patron and making it an incredible expertise once they ship that dream of homeownership.

I’ve written about New York Metropolis, they usually’ve typically been on the opposite facet of the pendulum. When markets had been experiencing a pandemic increase, NYC was within the midst of a downturn. And when these pandemic hotspots began to decelerate, NYC was on the upswing. Outdoors of that interval in time, I do know NYC is a beast of its personal. How are you ensuring your new associates are profitable?

It doesn’t matter what market I am going to, everyone says, “Our market is slightly bit completely different.” And truthfully, the markets aren’t that completely different. I feel the core of what it takes to achieve success in actual property is totally true. Nevertheless, that mentioned, New York Metropolis is simply completely different. It’s completely different for therefore many causes. There’s the range of the folks, the range of the financial market, the connection of renters and patrons, the property sorts and the neighborhoods. I imply, some neighborhoods have been there for hundreds of years.

One of many issues that we attempt to assist our brokers acknowledge is the core of the enterprise, which surrounds having a constructive mindset, ensuring you’re prospecting and ensuring you’re utilizing your sphere of affect. We’re additionally coaching them to supply nice experiences and nice customer support by offering the perfect instruments, the perfect methods, the perfect advertising and marketing, and the perfect intelligence in order that these brokers can completely serve their prospects in one of the best ways potential.

We’re spending plenty of our time, vitality and energy on that, as I discussed earlier in our dialog about AI. They get shopper suggestions after closing a transaction by our high quality service program, and we encourage them to higher themselves utilizing that suggestions. That’s the place we imagine the rubber hits the street. That’s the place we imagine that you’ve got the longevity of actual property professionals.

As you look towards 2024, what’s in your thoughts? The industry is changing and there’s nervousness about what’s coming subsequent. How do you see C21 with the ability to break by the noise and lead?

Nice query. So I feel at first, we’ve already ramped up our technique for 2024. We’re moving into budgeting season and attempting to determine precisely the place we’ve acquired to place in time, cash and vitality to develop. Whether or not you’re an agent, whether or not you’re a dealer, whether or not you’re a pacesetter of an enormous group, you must clearly go about something with a progress mindset.

For us, it’s all about extending the Century 21 system, each by bringing in new firms, and mergers and acquisitions for a few of our higher, well-established, prepared, keen and in a position firms. We’ve seen consolidation out there, and we see that trajectory persevering with to maneuver within the upward course.

Now we have a robust worth proposition. Now we have a brand new emphasis on our presence within the digital and social area, which has been actually cool. And I feel it’s going to proceed to construct momentum for us by the tip of the 12 months alongside among the massive bulletins that we’re going to make at our convention in March. We proceed to raise the merchandise that we convey to our agent base in order that they change into extra productive, and the Moxi[Works] platform has made an enormous distinction in agent manufacturing. [Anywhere] did a cope with RealScout, which I feel will convey one other profit to the group.

We additionally make investments quite a bit in our coaching and training platforms and take [affiliates] on a path of steady studying all year long to ensure that them to raise their recreation. So we’re simply targeted on progress, whether or not it’s for our system, for our entrepreneur broker-owners, or for our brokers. We imagine after we concentrate on progress good issues will occur to all the C21 system.

Email Marian McPherson