Today we’d like to introduce you to Bret Weinstein.
Bret, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My career in real estate began after several years working at an online university. I worked in the call center and eventually led my own team. I enjoyed the opportunity to talk to so many people every day, and to have leadership responsibilities. But, after a while, I realized that I couldn’t really define what service I was providing to our clients. I realized that I wasn’t providing any sort of tangible value. So I changed that; obviously, there’s ample opportunity in the real estate industry to provide true, tangible value.
So, when I got my real estate license and joined Coldwell Banker in 2012, the question “what are these people getting from me?” stuck with me.
Like most agents, my first year in the business was a challenge. I was completely alone, a lost puppy dog; I had no concept of what it meant to get clients, build my business, to be an entrepreneur. But, I had picked it, and I had to figure out a way to make a living.
At this point, no one in my circle of friends or family was willing to trust me to help them buy or sell a home, so my mission was to become educated. I took every single class I possibly could. Some were great, some were awful, but I took something of value from every single one. I also took every opportunity I had to host open houses and work those open house leads. This was my bread and butter for a while. All of the time I’d spent prospecting on the phone at my previous job instilled some solid relationship-building skills in me, and I was able to put that to work every time a buyer walked into an open house.
My contacts started to grow, as did my business. I could see the value I was providing to my clients as I helped them obtain or sell an asset that was life-changing for them. I earned some awards and accolades that helped propel my business. Family and friends started coming around, and I had referrals coming in. At this point, I started to understand that I was an entrepreneur and that I had an opportunity to build a brand and a business using my value proposition.
I switched from Coldwell to a smaller, boutique firm Vision Real Estate, and started my first team. Here, I wasn’t only providing value to the public, but I was supporting agents. I could provide them with some tools and mentorship that I hadn’t had access to when I started. The team grew, business continued to grow, and I decided to get my managing broker’s license.
In 2015 I took on the role of managing broker at Madison and Company as they were experiencing some aggressive growth. It was a great opportunity, and I learned a ton. My team and I were doing great business, and I really enjoyed supporting all of the other agents at the brokerage as their needs came up. I grew as an entrepreneur and became a better agent myself through this, and watched the agents on my team really flourish and start doing their own business.
So, I decided that The BSW Group should become BSW Real Estate, which we opened in January of 2019. Since opening, we’ve doubled in size and are averaging $3,000,000 per agent in volume this year, which is pretty awesome. I’m a big believer in that value proposition, and it seems to be working well for us.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Absolutely not, no. Unfortunately, this is job exemplifies “trial by fire.” I’ve made more mistakes than I can, or want, to count. And even though there’s plenty to learn from those failures, they put my clients’ well-being at risk.
As I mentioned, I was totally alone when I started out. I don’t know how many miles I walked door-knocking and canvassing neighborhoods with zero success, or how many listings I lost to more experienced agents. Clients I actually did get suffered from my learning curve, too. All of the skills I’m fairly confident in now, are a result of mistakes be it not running comps correctly and advising the wrong offer price for a buyer who that loses that house, or negotiating inspection items or even jeopardizing earnest money – I don’t make too many of those mistakes anymore. But I had to make them upfront to learn from them. Not fun.
As far as starting our own brokerage, we’ve experienced all sorts of obstacles from finding a suitable office space to reigning in monthly costs to figuring out how to best support our agents collectively and individually.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about BSW Real Estate – what should we know?
We are a real estate company that specializes primarily in residential real estate transactions; we help buyers and sellers through the process of acquiring a home and/or selling their home.
We’re best known for our value-first approach to any real estate transaction, building and maintaining great relationships with our clients long after closing, and being extremely well-educated advocates.
That last part, our level of expertise and prioritization of education is what I’d say we’re all most proud of as a company, and I also think it’s what really sets us apart from other brokerages. Our agents collaborate and rely on each other to ensure they’re serving their clients’ needs. We host every kind of class we can in office, and that means bringing in experts to teach and having our own agents teach classes and train in their areas of expertise. We make knowledge and experience as accessible as possible.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
There is a very long list of people who have been invaluable as a source of support and sanity. My wife and kids, my parents, the management team at Madison and Company, Andrew Abrams, Greg Geller, Michael Marcus, and Rhyan Diller come immediately to mind. They’ve all occupied various roles at different stages of my career and life. They all helped me get organized, implement systems and structures, provided (and continue to provide) great mentorships and partnerships, and opened doors and created opportunities for me. They’ve all been amazing friends and thought partners. Any success that I can claim, they have more than a hand in.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bswrealestate.com
- Email: bret@bswrealestate.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BSWRealEstate/
Image Credit:
Tahvory Bunting (Christmas Sweater Photo)
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