Inside the Playbook: Brandon Wells on culture, AI and growing an independent brokerage

HousingWire

On this episode of the RealTrending Podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with Brandon Wells to talk about leadership, brokerage culture and how independent firms can compete in a rapidly consolidating real estate industry.   Wells reflects on stepping into the CEO role at The Group Real Estate, a Northern Colorado brokerage founded in 1976, and explains that the company’s long-term success comes down to a simple principle: invest in the brokers. Through training, education and the brokerage’s connection to the Ninja Selling philosophy, Wells says the firm has built a culture focused on productivity, collaboration and shared success.   As an employee-owned brokerage, that culture is reinforced by a sense of ownership among agents. Instead of competing internally, brokers share strategies and knowledge because everyone benefits when the company succeeds.   The conversation also explores broader industry shifts, including brokerage consolidation and the growth of independent firms. Wells sees opportunity in the current environment, arguing that technology, automation and AI are lowering barriers that once favored large companies. Smaller brokerages, he says, can now access powerful tools that allow them to remain competitive while maintaining the flexibility and local expertise that many agents prefer.   Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:   Brokerage growth strategies   Technology and AI in real estate   Industry misconceptions and consumer perceptions   Related to this episode:   Brandon Wells LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonwells1/  The Group Real Estate  https://thegroupinc.com/   The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Transcript

00:09as a regional independent um the group which is also the home of ninja selling has done a

00:16phenomenal job with growth and most of it has been organic today i had the pleasure of speaking with

00:22brandon wells he is the ceo and president of the group and we talked all things from private

00:29listings to the portals to um brokerage growth recruiting retention and as always he is a thought

00:37leader in all and you will really enjoy the podcast so thanks for listening brandon it's been way too

00:43long uh welcome back to the real trending podcast yeah no thank you for having me tracy it has been

00:49a while and i'm so grateful for the opportunity to get to chat with you today yeah yeah i'm excited

00:54because um you know you're always kind of a thought leader in the industry so i want to pick

00:59your brain a little bit about um things that are going on but we'll start with the group so you've

01:05always been a dominant player in um northern colorado and i want to go back to like some of

01:12those choices you made um as a ceo that you think really allowed you to grow like you have or

01:20they

01:20were maybe aha moments or just um decisions that you made yeah well i think i would be uh i

01:28think i'd

01:28be wrong if i took credit for everything because i walked into a pretty substantial legacy of excellence

01:34at the group um you know being founded in 1976 i stepped into this role in about 2018

01:40um and i think realistically the success has been driven to the things that i continue to invest in is

01:46is really investing in the brokers um it's training and education and i think in an industry that

01:52sometimes fails to provide the skills the tools the systems and the resources you know we're very

01:59benefit we benefit from the fact that ninja selling was born and bred inside of the group and i think

02:04really providing a system and a structure which ultimately leads to a culture is the thing that we

02:10continue to focus on and has continued to you know keep our our results very high in terms of

02:16productivity per agent and i think doing the right thing by the brokers is always going to be the

02:22the brokerage success model for us yeah absolutely um and so you lead an employee-owned brokerage

02:29correct and so um how do you scale that while protecting culture and keeping agents kind of engaged as true

02:36stakeholders yeah i think it's interesting because i think in a typical independent contractor setting

02:43you know there's a lot of scarcity there's a lot of people that want to hide their trade secrets and

02:48there's less abundance i think one of the benefits of having an ownership model where you know everybody

02:54has a vested interest in not only their own personal success but the brokerage success it's created this

03:00abundance of sharing um you know of what are people doing that works in different market dynamics what

03:07tools and resources truly are making a difference and from a brokerage perspective you know we can

03:13provide those things but really that institutional law knowledge and creating a learning organization

03:19has really been the thing that has helped us propel forward and grow and scale effectively because

03:25we're doing it in the right way everybody is invested in the results and the betterment of the company

03:30and so that truly has helped us build a legacy um and it's not so much about what we're doing

03:35it's

03:36about what we're fostering and creating as a result yeah absolutely and i know um with the brokerage

03:42rankings i kind of want to get into the consolidation and um you know the the growth of independence we've

03:50i think they grew 28 percent or 20 or 2 percent in market share this past year um and that's

03:57private

03:57obviously private independence um you know we've had some now we have the mega you know compass

04:03anywhere um you know i'm sure there'll be more big acquisitions to come so how do you know how do

04:11what how do you look at this consolidation and where do you find the opportunity in it for your brokerage

04:17yeah i mean i'm always an eternal optimist so i don't necessarily default to looking at the negative

04:23side of things or the threats that might be out there i'd look at well what does this ultimately

04:27mean and what's the opportunity and benefit for me i think independents are in a really strong position

04:33because if there's one thing that i've learned uh in my you know 20 plus years in this industry is

04:38that

04:38not everybody likes to especially independent contractors as salespeople they don't like to be

04:43lumped into uh the same kind of um offering and they like their independence they like their own

04:51creativity and they really like to differentiate and so i think for independence there's a big

04:55opportunity with the consolidation that's occurred the other thing that i think is interesting is you

05:00know the small guy uh with a lot of technology changes with automation and artificial intelligence

05:06what was once uh really hard to obtain or to achieve or to be able to provide as resources i

05:14think has

05:14become a lot more accessible for the small guy which gives a a big competitive advantage back

05:20into the court of the independence so look at the end of the day consolidation is going to continue

05:26to occur but i also think there's some massive strengths to be had specifically for brokerages

05:31like ours who offer some unique offerings really tied into the community really independent and flexible

05:37and nimble um and so we see it as a as a big um you know opportunity for us into

05:44the future of how do we

05:45captivate some of those brokers that are interested in not necessarily being lumped into one size fits

05:51all yeah yeah absolutely i think it's a huge opportunity for independence right now and you

05:57talked a little bit about technology so um how do you balance technology and relationships like where do

06:03you draw the line with efficiency and or over automation um today yeah i i think people lose sight of

06:12what the north star is and for us it's how do we help people sell more real estate period like

06:18our

06:18brokers how do we help them build a career that's successful and technology plays a part but i think

06:24we get enamored in oh you know shiny object syndrome and what problem are we really solving

06:30and so for me if i go back to and say okay if we are able to create effectiveness and

06:36the ability for

06:37our people to sell more real estate to add more value to a consumer that's where we look at those

06:43opportunities but if we're just chasing things because we want to attract or appease agents because

06:50we think that's what they want and it doesn't really have a return on investment um to me that that's

06:56a

06:56that's not even a starter for us so technology for the sake of technology is just a waste of everybody's

07:02time and attention and it really needs to be truly measured on how is that impacting end-of-day

07:08results for the agents and for the customers they serve i will say just as an interesting side note

07:14i think we're in a really interesting period of time where software as a service is in trouble

07:20because you know we used to go out and we had so many vendors trying to sell us tools and

07:26and well

07:27this is going to solve problem x for you as a brokerage it's a big you know six figure or

07:32five

07:33figure contract well realistically with a lot of the tools we have today from vibe coding to other

07:39things those have become very very accessible um you need to have some internal knowledge and

07:45intelligence but if you're doing it from how do we help solve problems in the system or the process

07:50for our agents or for the customers they serve um i'm really excited about these next five years of

07:58what that means for brokerages like ourselves and what are you doing right now um as far as ai is

08:05concerned yeah so quite a bit but a lot of it is in like the non-attractive stuff uh right

08:11so we've

08:11got you know agents that constantly ask the question you know well when are we going to get more ai

08:16tools and i i think there's a lot of ai slop out there i think there's a lot of vendors

08:21that are

08:22just you know putting large language model tools into their existing software and i don't really know

08:28that that's accomplishing anything where we're using it more as you know hey we've got an idea or a

08:34better way uh for example managing our goals managing our agent goals are uh our team's productivity

08:41and we're vibe coding those types of platforms so rather than having to go out and find a vendor

08:47that has a product and does it fit our need we're just building it internally using simple tools like

08:53cloud code um and i think that's really exciting you know things that some other areas we're using it

08:59are you know helping our brokers better manage their day whether that's their warm list or their hot list

09:05developing tools that make that easier and more effective for them and i don't have to go find

09:11some software vendor to create that if you can think it if you can speak it it's accessible to be

09:17able to

09:17develop it on an individual basis um and i think that opens a world of opportunity of how we better

09:24service agents and better service the customer yeah absolutely and when we talk about recruiting and

09:30retention what's working right now and what are some things that you know maybe brokerages are hanging

09:37on to that have changed they need to change yeah i think honestly what's working is true genuine care

09:45of the success of the agents that are within your walls um i i think you know brokers can sniff

09:51that

09:51out pretty quickly if they are part of a model that really isn't invested in the education

09:57in the training um about the different market dynamics that exist today uh unfortunately i think

10:04our industry has a bad rap of looking as at people as objects whether that means they're you know a

10:10revenue number for them or just a body count and for us what really works in recruiting is that genuine

10:17care on wanting to help brokers understand what is working um from shared experiences of their peers

10:24how do we better train and educate them on the landscape that they are embarking on so you know

10:30the market shifted things have gotten a little bit tougher um you know we're having to educate a lot

10:36a lot around financing um you know helping guide sellers on seller concession we talked about you know

10:43technology tools and and helping bring them along on the journey and i think they sense that you know

10:49there's truly as somebody invested in my well-being and and my outcome uh that to me there's no secret

10:56sauce there's no like one thing that we're doing that is really tipping the scale it's genuine care

11:02and living out the values of your culture um and they can sense that and people want to be in

11:09an

11:09environment of others who are trying to accomplish the same thing and so our job is to make sure that

11:15environment is clear that environment is healthy um and it's getting the results because then we can

11:21point back to the results and it becomes undeniable yeah yeah have you changed your strategy as far as

11:28the consumer other than what you've had to do obviously with like the settlement and that um what i

11:35keep hearing is that obviously as a brokerage you always consider the um the consumer but your focus

11:43is really on serving agents um have you found that you've had a dual focus more lately um and have

11:51you

11:51changed that strategy at all to meet consumers needs in a different way than in the past yeah i think

11:59right

11:59now for us the the approach of the consumer is honesty um you know the the market conditions and dynamics

12:05are are different and i think we have a a level of responsibility where we have to help guide sellers

12:14in this marketplace and the way we do that is obviously our conduit is our agents so the information

12:19that we share with them the perspectives that we give to them the ideas of how they approach things

12:25they ultimately translate that down to the end consumer and yes we've got a vehicle where we can

12:30communicate through normal channels um i think the biggest thing is letting them know that you know

12:36you can't just rely on headlines blanket headlines about market condition it's really about trying

12:42to help guide the consumer to an end result we got to know what ultimately they want to accomplish

12:50whether that's what they net on the sale of their home whether that's meeting a certain timeline

12:55and so i think being very clear on what our involvement in the process is how we're going

13:01to help them get to that end result and making sure agents are able to articulate that both on behalf

13:07of

13:07the brokerage and themselves is really how we're approaching the consumer because at the end of the day

13:11that's what we're trying to service is their needs goals and wants um and we just happen to do that

13:17through our agents and how they approach the process with them so it goes back to training and

13:22education for us of making sure they are um approaching those conversations intelligently

13:28and with the most resources possible yeah absolutely and that kind of goes into my next question about

13:34private listings that's been a huge topic in the industry with you know lots of um polarizing articles

13:42going out and op-eds and and things like that um and so what is your take on private listings

13:51and um you

13:53know they've always they've been a part of real estate for a long time it's just the strategy has somewhat

13:58changed so tell me your thoughts on that yeah so i go back to a fundamental teaching of ninja and

14:05that is uh this is

14:07that number one we as a real estate brokerage and brokers control the process the customer controls

14:14the decisions and that resounds true here every time i hear you know different perspectives i always

14:21go like who's the center of the focus or the attention so number one i do not think you can

14:26convince

14:27me in a world that having you know listings be solely private is of benefit to sellers because i believe

14:34in any product maximum exposure to the vast largest audience that we can reach is going to always

14:41warrant uh the best results now there are very many circumstances yes where i understand private

14:48listings could be of benefit to a certain party but but i struggle to understand that that's a benefit to

14:54all and i think it's more riddled in risk because i think that is more about what is in the

14:59best interest of

15:00the brokerage than i think is what's in the best interest of uh the customer at hand so the way

15:06that we're looking at it is look when a seller comes and hires our broker and our brokerage to to

15:13ultimately represent them there is a period of time where they're getting that property ready for the

15:18market uh it may not be in the condition it needs to be in we may not have a you

15:23know totally sound

15:24pricing strategy yet and i think there's a huge advantage to being able to say yes we're going to

15:30do an office exclusive uh we're going to gather some feedback and information and we're going to try

15:37to get this property ready so that when it goes on the market we've got a dialed in pricing strategy

15:43we've taken care of all the potential objections that we think might come and look we've got an agent base

15:50of 250 agents that can provide incredible intelligence to that seller so i think that's a

15:56distinct advantage however i think it's a big risk to suggest to that seller that not putting that on

16:04the open market and the seller again controls the decision they can choose if they got an offer during

16:09that period of time that was of benefit to them and they were good with the terms great that's their

16:14decision ultimately i think we have to be very careful of making sure the seller understands the

16:21pitfalls and the potential benefits um and our job is just to manage that process so you know to answer

16:29your original question i see some benefit to private listings i think it's different than the context a lot

16:36of brokerages are putting forward and to me there's a lot of true cards being shown on the table of

16:42are you in it for what's in the best interest of the brokerage or your customer and i will tell

16:47you we will default to what's in the best interest of the customer every time yeah um there so what

16:54do you see is kind of the biggest misconceptions that consumers or agents have right now about the

17:00industry in general and it's both separate consumers and agents so yeah i think uh there's just

17:07there's some interesting perspectives around technology like let's just say artificial intelligence i

17:12think you know agents are fearful oh my gosh the consumer is going to have so much leveraged

17:17information at their fingertips um and i think the consumer is misguided and thinking that you know i

17:23think we've done a disservice to them by um not truly and clearly exhibiting our value and so look i

17:32think

17:33our job is to be the trust layer like as as a real estate brokerage and as brokers this world

17:38we're

17:39embarking on uh information is going to be freely available at all turns um most consumers are going

17:46to be using ai platforms to double check the work the guide the guidance and the feedback i think it's

17:53really important to showcase where those things can go awry and where you need a trust layer in the

18:00middle to help interpret those things and so i think everybody's caught up in the um the shiny object with

18:08these you know kind of grandiose statements that agents aren't going to be relevant or the consumer is

18:13going to just not need brokers i think that is completely overstated um however i think it's

18:19understated for the fact that people that are not paying attention um and and truly operating as that

18:25trust layer is the most important thing today and so that's what i would say is the biggest misconception

18:31out there for a lot of people and what what would you say um makes the group stand out um

18:39you know

18:39what what is your value proposition and has that changed at all i i think again it goes to that

18:47trust

18:47layer i think we've got you know we just celebrated 50 years uh in and around our communities i think

18:54people

18:54know that we're a relationships first business that um they you know they've leaned on us for

19:01years and decades to be able to provide guidance that guidance has been pretty sound um we're leveraging

19:08those relationships into making sure they understand like yeah this brave new world that we might be

19:14embarking on that it's not going to change our core focus of essentially helping people get to

19:20the place that they want to go on their timeline and i i think we're having to kind of restate

19:26that

19:27and also you know consumers want to work with uh a company that is innovative that is doing things that

19:33others aren't um are you providing information and intelligence that they can't get elsewhere um and

19:40that's what we strive to do of um you know leave it undeniable in their mind that if they're going

19:45to

19:46sell a house in northern colorado that the first stop would would hopefully be with us and we know

19:51there's lots of great brokers out there but that's how we kind of etch our our future legacy of paying

19:58attention to what the consumer's end goal is how we best service that and listening you know listening

20:05to where the gaps are for what the consumer wants where they felt like our process could use improvement

20:11um i think for us that's that that's essentially the guiding light of how we embark is is really not

20:17driven by somebody else's narrative of what we should be doing but ultimately what our customers and

20:23our agents believe that we should be doing yeah i i love that and um you know it makes it

20:29makes a lot

20:30of sense and it's something that i guess i guess it's some it's something anyone can do but it seems

20:37like the

20:37independent brokerage kind of has um you know a leg up in that kind of hyper local service and

20:46relationships and again it could be a franchise it could be a brand or it's you know brokerage

20:53any of them can do the same thing but i feel like with an independent it's just you just have

21:00a little

21:00bit of an edge with that yeah and i'll give you a perfect example we're there you know i think

21:05the word

21:05that i keep going back to is nimble um you know we we expanded into steamboat springs uh we had

21:13an

21:13acquisition in 2021 of a great standing company colorado group realty and you know steamboat springs

21:19since uh kind of 2020 the covet pandemic the the community's changed a lot there's been a rapid influx

21:25of money um the it's a resort town and it you know it's price points have jumped dramatically and one

21:33of the things we quickly noticed is hey we we need to up level our luxury presence presence the the

21:38messaging the kind of brand awareness of community and the type of clientele and demographic we're

21:44servicing well you know as an independent we have that kind of you know that ability to be very

21:51flexible and change and recognize and be able to adapt and that's something that we're currently

21:56undergoing now of how do we how do we speak and operate to add value to that clientele in that

22:01community where it may have been different five years ago and i think that's a that's a huge benefit

22:06of an independent versus larger where they don't have as much flexibility and i i you know i'm grateful

22:12for that opportunity for us to be able to kind of hit it a little bit where in a normal

22:16uh entity we

22:18you may not be able to yeah and now talk to me about the growth levers that you're pulling right

22:22now

22:23um you you know you said you had that acquisition several years ago are you looking at just opportunistic

22:30type of mna um and really focusing on recruiting or tell me a little bit about um what your growth

22:38strategy is yeah you know i i give a lot of credit out there to people who uh mna is

22:44you know a real

22:44strong uh growth driver mna is tough um and i will say i would always tend to lean to the

22:52side of organic

22:53growth versus merger and acquisition growth just because trying to preserve culture and continuity

23:00uh through mna i i mean somebody can give me their playbook but uh i i would far rather uh

23:07grow very

23:09intentionally through the attraction of people that see the values of the brokerage as opposed to forcing

23:16the brokerage's values on somebody else i think that's a very challenging um dynamic and so that's

23:24really how we're looking at it like look we don't have aspirations of world domination larry kendall one

23:29of our you know our original founders um once wanted to be very impactful have a very high productivity

23:37uh company inside of northern colorado and and that is truly where we are trying to

23:44make sure that we grow with our region um and be the trusted advisor for people who've come to trust

23:51us over 50 years and so i i don't i think we're a little bit more gun shy on just

23:57large mna uh because

24:00of the cultural component and culture is so important to our organization that yeah i hesitate to to disrupt

24:07that um through just massive growth yeah yeah it makes a lot of sense i mean i think mna is

24:13not for

24:14everyone um and if an opportunity arises that makes sense obviously you go after it um and larry

24:21certainly built a um national footprint with uh ninja so so there's that um in fact i interviewed him not

24:30long ago at leading re um and and it was what's fascinating to me is how the programs evolved because

24:38you

24:39know he used to write for real trends all the time and i edited all of those articles and i

24:45hadn't talked

24:46to him for a while so when i talked to him it was like all new you know not new

24:51but it had involved

24:52several of the things that he doesn't and i love it i think that it's a great program so so

24:58yeah i mean

24:59the the core the core tenants are are very similar to what they've always been and there's again it goes

25:05back to there's there really isn't a secret you know a secret sauce or something it's it's the

25:11things that we've known all along but yeah i i agree and that's and that's honestly been one of the

25:16things that's allowed us to have uh better organic growth is because people really believe in those

25:22ideals they believe in the way that system works and how they approach to business yeah absolutely all

25:29right so i'm gonna do a lightning round this is kind of first thing that comes to mind so one

25:34trend

25:34agents are overreacting to right now yeah i said it before but ai is ai is gonna replace us and

25:42we're

25:42doomed and i think that's the biggest i think that's the biggest thing that they're overreacting

25:47to i'll add one caveat you said one but can i get a second i get a second one here

25:51yeah market

25:52conditions look i think so many people are out there saying that you know their results are a

25:57product of the market conditions uh the truth is as you look one office down and you see somebody

26:02having their best year yet it's predicated on the effort that brokers are putting in

26:06not the market conditions yeah absolutely so one trend they're underestimating one trend they're

26:13underestimating um consumer expectations uh i think the consumer has really high expectations and i think

26:22we're still uh behind the curve on what we're offering as an industry and truly listening to the consumer

26:28journey uh i think it's confusing i think it's cluttered i don't think it's uh as sound as it

26:34could be so i think consumer expectations are only going to expand okay private listings net

26:40positive or net negative for the industry and i know i'm gonna say net yeah i'm gonna say net

26:46negative if unchecked i said without guard i mean i think without any sort of guard rails it it tilts

26:52certainly towards brokerage benefit over consumer benefit um so i do think there are use cases where

26:59it is valuable to a sense um but i think it's a net negative if unchecked okay um biggest mistake

27:06brokers make when trying to grow uh neglecting culture for revenue i i think i i think people get

27:14enamored with growth for the wrong reasons and it comes as a cost of uh the company core culture that

27:20eventually may take time but it it devolves the core and essentially the identity of who the brokerage

27:27is okay last question if you could change something in the industry overnight what would that be

27:34i would raise the licensing standards uh i think our i think our industry gets a bad rap because i

27:41think

27:41the barrier to entry is too low um and i think for the people who are truly running this like

27:48a

27:48profession i think they get harmed pretty badly in the eyes of the consumer uh due to the hobbyists

27:54yeah yeah absolutely that one i've heard for years now so so not sure anything's ever going to change

28:01but yeah it wasn't a very unique answer but i i mean being in this industry for more than 20

28:07years

28:07that's the one thing i go back to of man i wish the licensing standards were were higher yeah well

28:14brandon

28:14thanks so much for speaking to me today and coming on the real trending podcast it's always a pleasure

28:20yeah no the pleasure was all mine tracy and thanks for having me it's great to see you

28:24and i wish you nothing but the best in the remainder of the year thanks so much brandon all righty

28:34you

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