- 2 days ago
On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Rainy Hake Austin, president of The Agency, to talk about scaling a luxury brokerage without losing the culture that made it successful in the first place. Austin explains how The Agency has expanded from roughly 30 offices to more than 160 across 15 countries while staying intentional about hiring leaders who align with the company’s collaborative, creative and people-first mindset.
Austin shares why culture isn’t something that can be delegated to HR or reduced to perks and office games. Instead, she says culture is reflected in every hiring decision, leadership interaction and client experience. She discusses how the brokerage balances boutique luxury branding with global scale, why authenticity matters more than appealing to everyone, and how the company uses AI and technology to enhance — not replace — human relationships.
The conversation also explores the broader wave of industry consolidation, the risks of brokerages becoming too corporate or transactional, and why Austin believes the firms that will thrive over the next year are the ones that stay focused on their core strengths while adapting intelligently to market shifts and technology.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Culture has to evolve as companies grow — not stay frozen in time.
The Agency prioritizes culture fit over production numbers when hiring leaders.
Luxury real estate success still comes down to relationships and client experience.
AI should create more time for human connection, not replace it.
Brokerages that know their identity and core strengths will stand out during industry consolidation.
Related to this episode:
Rainy Hake Austin's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainyhake/
The Agency
https://www.theagencyre.com/
Want more from Tracey? Don’t forget to subscribe to Real Estate Daily.
https://www.housingwire.com/newsletter/
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.
Austin shares why culture isn’t something that can be delegated to HR or reduced to perks and office games. Instead, she says culture is reflected in every hiring decision, leadership interaction and client experience. She discusses how the brokerage balances boutique luxury branding with global scale, why authenticity matters more than appealing to everyone, and how the company uses AI and technology to enhance — not replace — human relationships.
The conversation also explores the broader wave of industry consolidation, the risks of brokerages becoming too corporate or transactional, and why Austin believes the firms that will thrive over the next year are the ones that stay focused on their core strengths while adapting intelligently to market shifts and technology.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Culture has to evolve as companies grow — not stay frozen in time.
The Agency prioritizes culture fit over production numbers when hiring leaders.
Luxury real estate success still comes down to relationships and client experience.
AI should create more time for human connection, not replace it.
Brokerages that know their identity and core strengths will stand out during industry consolidation.
Related to this episode:
Rainy Hake Austin's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainyhake/
The Agency
https://www.theagencyre.com/
Want more from Tracey? Don’t forget to subscribe to Real Estate Daily.
https://www.housingwire.com/newsletter/
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.
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NewsTranscript
00:08the agency has always done a really good job of defining who they are and rainy hake austin she
00:16is the global real estate president for the agency is on the podcast today we talk all things
00:23culture um and we also go into consolidation and what it means for a firm such as the agency
00:29moving forward um she had some really interesting things to say and some really interesting tactical
00:36ways that they drive their culture forward uh so enjoy the podcast rainy thanks so much for coming
00:42on the real trending podcast it's my pleasure tracy thanks for having me back yeah yeah and um for those
00:49of you listening a rainy does regular contributing content to housing wire and has some fabulous
00:55articles on the site so make sure you look for those um so i want to talk to you all
01:00thanks to
01:01the agency though and not contributor content so you're expanding very quickly um and both domestically
01:09and internationally and i wanted to talk to you about like what is um the first thing that leaders
01:15protect when you're growing that quickly um great question um i feel like as we've been growing at
01:22the agency um from a leadership perspective whether it's myself and mauricio the thing that keeps us
01:27up at night is how are we taking what we built in a smaller vacuum and expanding that so that
01:35you don't
01:35lose the magic behind it without making things systematic or allowing them to become stale and so
01:42first it's less about protecting or keeping still the thing that we had but how do we evolve it and
01:48let it
01:48grow and so as part of that you think about the culture and the feel particularly when you start
01:55small and boutique and you want to kind of keep that culture and feel the idea behind it is not
02:01so much
02:01how do you protect it and keep it in a bubble keep it the same thing but how do you
02:05feed it and water it
02:06and allow it to thrive and evolve over time but not lose the essence of what made it special to
02:11begin with
02:11yeah that makes a lot of sense and i know that's a really difficult thing as companies scale to figure
02:16out that magic um how have you seen that your culture evolve through the growth um yeah it's
02:24it's been very organic um and it has right it's been really quite amazing to witness and when i first
02:34came to the agency about six years ago we had like 30 offices and mostly in southern california
02:39we're just sort of expanding internationally we have over 160 offices now across 15 countries
02:45and every time we're going into new market we're evaluating the market you know where capital is
02:51moving and is it a good fit for the brand but we're also saying is there a local leader in
02:57that
02:57marketplace that understands our mission and our vision and is also an expert inside of that market
03:03and it's been interesting in some of the markets where we'll go into i'm like i'm not sure like
03:08if we're too cutting edge a little too spicy or bold and our branding and our messaging and it's
03:15been amazing that from um mallorca to um connecticut we found amazing rich deep roots of people who've
03:25been hungry for the innovation the creativity all of the pillars the collaboration the things that
03:29the brand stands for both internally for agents as well as the outward branding and marketing that
03:34consumers are really sort of hungry for in terms of the creativity and bringing something different
03:38and so we've really grown intentionally around finding the right people and growing our tribe
03:44but also finding markets where our luxury brand and what we bring as a value proposition also
03:51resonates so there's kind of a combination of making sure there's an external connection with
03:55the audience and an internal sort of connection with our brand and our culture and we found that it's
04:01actually thrived in each of the markets that we've grown into particularly if we find the right leader
04:07first that's been essential yeah and i feel like the agency has a very distinct culture or feel to it
04:14um
04:14in fact i was at dinner the other night with another couple and this guy came up to us him
04:20and his wife and
04:20uh he ended up being the other couple's realtor for several houses that they and we talked for a second
04:27and i didn't say anything about you know being with housing wire and he wasn't talking real estate and he
04:33left and i said where does he work and they said oh he's with the agency and i'm like i
04:38could see that
04:39i could see that he like just embodied what i would see as an agency real estate agent so so
04:46yeah i feel
04:47like you have a very distinct culture or feel the company was founded by agents for agents and this
04:54understanding that the industry was not necessarily perceived as being professional or ethical and
05:01also not very collaborative right and so from the very founding with billy rose and mauricio and our
05:06original sort of dozen agents who sat around a folding table it wasn't about so much like the pretty
05:12marketing it was like we're going to do this a different way and we're gonna make it fun as we're
05:17doing it and so there's all of those elements that from day one were like non-negotiables that have
05:22really stuck with us and they've evolved and they've translated into different things the
05:26different things that people do in the different marketplaces it's not prescribed it's not like
05:29well here's how you have fun uh most of the agency offices have um some sort of a a game
05:36or something
05:36from pool tables to ping pong to something in the office but it's not like mandated it's like that's
05:41one of those things that people are like oh i saw that in that office and we want to do
05:44ours and what
05:45do we bring to so everybody takes it and makes it their own but they were able to sort of
05:49lean into the core of being innovative and creative and having fun and being collaborative
05:55and hiring those who also believe in those pieces and equally getting rid of people who don't believe
06:01in those things right so you might bring someone who's not a top producer and you think wow they're
06:05really amazing that they get in and it's you know it's not a culture fit and i'm i'm happy to
06:11say
06:11that our team has made very strong decisions around that's more important and that's also allowed us to
06:17continue to stay boutique internally like our offices might only have 12 top producing agents
06:23in an office versus 100 agents in office but they can still dominate their luxury market because they're
06:28the best 12 in that market and usually what helps them stand apart is that professionalism those the
06:34ethics but they're they're deep-seated belief in that customer experience that they just exude from
06:41them and so they become friends with their clients they have the relationships it's a very much
06:46a people business and they enjoy what they do and they're very good at it and that really i think
06:51is a hallmark of what you see with an with an agency agent they're very polished um but they're
06:56also creative and innovative and they lead with their customer experience yeah definitely and um
07:02you know luxury real estate is very relationship driven all of real estate is of course but luxury
07:09perhaps even more so because they're trusting you with a huge transaction so how do you create like
07:16a global brokerage culture um that still feels personal in each market yeah it really is about
07:23hiring our tribe um and that may be kind of like a cliche term that i think has been maybe
07:29overused in
07:29business books um over the last couple of decades but for us um every time we go into a new
07:36market
07:37like myself marisa we still meet with um the the local global partner that we're interviewing with
07:44in terms of who we're going to hire and when i'm interviewing them like i've got their sheet i know
07:48all their production and all the things they've done we've researched the market to death it's been
07:51multiple months like for them to make it to me they've made it through a lot of rounds of interviews
07:55um and when i'm meeting with them it's culture effect i'm like do you get our mission and our vision
08:00do you understand what it is that we're trying to build and when they get it and you have that
08:06connection with them you know that they're going to attract like-minded people and they understand
08:12what it means to expand because my concern isn't so much that it's rigid and systematic my concern
08:18is that someone who walks into the beverly hills office versus who walks into the montreal office
08:23that they're going to have a similar experience localized um and obviously each individual agent has
08:30their individual relationships as you mentioned with their high net worth clients
08:33you know how they bring property to market might be uniquely special to them but the fact that they
08:38believe in innovation and creativity that they believe in collaboration if we've said in the office
08:43who's like you know this is all about building me and building my team and i don't share that is
08:48a big
08:48red flag for us right and so it's really important for us in order to build that consistency from market
08:54to market and the brand experience because the brand isn't the logo right the brand is the experience
08:59that they're having with the individual person so it's very much a people first approach like real
09:03estate is a people business it starts with selecting the right people and then also having clear
09:08expectations so it's not by accident that they understand the vision and what's expected of them
09:14and then we talk about it all the time we have a monthly managers meeting where people from all
09:18around the globe are getting on and saying this is how we were practicing um our rule number one or
09:24our rule number 10 and you know dreaming big and doing new things and here's what we did
09:29and it inspires the others to do the same and then also to share so it's that shared collaboration
09:34of like oh wow that was an interesting way to do it and so it's not me sitting there saying
09:39here's
09:40your rule book and here's what you follow although we do have a um sort of a brand guide when
09:46you're
09:47onboarded um it's not something we give to clients or customers it's something that we give to someone
09:51who's hired it's something that you earn it's like a gift that says this is what we're about this is
09:55what's expected of you this is what our community is this is what we give to you but this is
10:00what we
10:00expect that you give back and by setting those really clear expectations it allows people to
10:05understand how to think how to act how to live the culture every day rather than me just saying
10:12here's exactly what you need to do because you can never dictate every possible so um you know
10:19situation or combination of situations you have to allow people to be able to think and if you hire
10:23people who have surface oriented hearts who believe in taking care of their clients and that's the most
10:29important thing rather than you know leading with a paycheck or leading by ego then you know that you
10:34have the right people who are making decisions from the right place that's what makes the the culture
10:39go deeper and makes it scalable and really what ignites it to catch on fire when you find other people
10:44who are inspired by that who want to join and participate in it particularly when it's not
10:49what's rampant in the industry so it is a bit of a shining star i love that positioning of your
10:55culture
10:55through rules that aren't it's not like you're saying follow these rules and that's all it is
11:00you're making them culturally appropriate to the agency i think that's that's a really interesting
11:09and tactical way to do it um there i want to talk a little bit about every you know brokers
11:15are chasing
11:16scale right now there's as you've seen a lot of industry consolidation with with big companies um
11:23what are your thoughts on that and um how does it impact your growth strategy moving forward well the um
11:33the consolidation has actually been beneficial to us in the fact that it's allowed us to stand out as
11:39really the last global boutique that's left out there you'll see like the big agglomerations have
11:44really um packed together to create scale and scalability and there's a lot of benefit inside of
11:51that and then you have more of the smaller mom and mom and pop boutiques but they don't have the
11:55international exposure that we do so we're kind of operating in this very unique um bubble right now um rare
12:03air
12:03as i like to call it in that we have only 3500 agents around the globe in the 160 markets
12:10that
12:10we're working in which is like one percent of the size of like the number one brokerage in the country
12:16yet the agency brand is still spoken of and the same reverence um we have same presence on stages and
12:23opportunity in the press and media to have a voice our brand is still well known and so with such
12:28a small
12:29actual scale um that our brand is much larger than that and a lot of it has to do with
12:35our our marketing
12:36and our pr efforts um our social media tactics the way that we market our properties and bring them to
12:41market is very similar to how we bring the brand to market inside of it um but when i really
12:47look back
12:48at the rest of the industry um i can't say that i'm excited about the direction that the industry has
12:53been going in for the last decade or so the consolidation is often um ego driven and not
12:59necessarily focusing on what's best for the client and consumer nor what's best for our agents
13:03many agents have reached out to us lately saying like i feel like a ticket at the deli counter like
13:09i'm just another number like i used to feel like there was something special here like i was here for
13:14a
13:14purpose or a reason and that's like the difference inside of the purpose and function inside of an
13:19organization and and it's a it's a balance and right because you have to be tactical as you were
13:24saying and there's strategy behind it and there's support systems that have to be in place otherwise
13:29it's the wild west but you also have to be grounded in your purpose and if you're making decisions based
13:36from your place of purpose with deep understanding of your why and your pillars then hopefully you're never
13:42going to go so far into being focused on the tactics that you lose sight of that and nor lose
13:47sight of
13:47what's important and again it's back to the people right and so as long as you can continue
13:51to create structure that makes the people feel important that focus on the service of the
13:56individual what's best for them um and i just feel like sometimes our industry loses sight of that
14:02yeah i mean it's it's definitely you know i've been through many many different iterations
14:07of this industry and um there are some things that have happened that i'm like wow i i didn't see
14:14that coming um so yeah so it's really exciting time right now for sure um and now the agency is
14:21known for its strong marketing and kind of lifestyle driven brand so how do you make sure the brand
14:27remains authentic as it reaches more markets and more agents i think authenticity again comes from
14:34understanding where your values derived from and so as we're going into new markets um our strategy
14:41isn't to be the biggest in that market or to service everyone we know who our tribe is our target
14:48market in terms of our agents but we also kind of know what our sweet spot is in terms of
14:53our
14:53clients and consumers and when we're going we're targeting the luxury or the high end or the ultra
14:58high end portions of markets um and then also the individuals inside of those who understand the
15:04experience um so as we're saying as a company our goal is to have a strategy of being a global
15:11luxury
15:11lifestyle company and in order to do that we're also trying to create this collaborative culture
15:16that's scalable and all of that's done by having processes and systems in place that support that
15:23but as we were saying before that are not so systematic that they override that um strategy or
15:31the culture as being at what's at the forefront but also if you have a strategy or a culture that
15:36you're trying to create and you don't have processes and systems that support that then you will go
15:41astray you'll make decisions that aren't driving those things forward and for us we've prioritized
15:46the brand at the forefront like our brand our marketing and the consistency around it the voice
15:51around it having a perspective and a point of view our voice is kind of cheeky it has a little
15:56bit of a
15:57wink in it and that's not for everyone and we're okay with that and so it is about being okay
16:02with that
16:02and knowing that for every person who likes something you do there might be someone who doesn't like it
16:06and not and sort of being unapologetically ourselves is what helps us stay with our authenticity
16:12and really just focus on finding the people who do resonate with it and even as we're looking to
16:17hire new agents or new staff members it's not about convincing them that they want to be at the
16:22agency it's about saying this is what we're about does that excite you and if it does then great this
16:27is your home and if it doesn't that's also okay because as you know there's plenty of other options
16:30out there and i think that's why competition is is good there's there's plenty of options for a
16:36reason and i'm glad that we're not all the same because the more we try to become the same the
16:41more we come become vanilla and that's mauricio's favorite saying it's always like there's you know
16:4536 flavors of ice cream and you can be any flavor just don't be vanilla because you have to stand
16:50for
16:50something and so if you know what you stand for and hold to that it really allows the authenticity to
16:55shine through yeah and you know you talked about systems and processes so how are you or the company
17:02using technology and ai um to support growth without obviously losing that human authenticity
17:11in marketing or in you know and maybe it's back office um so tell me a little bit about that
17:17well
17:17we've always been a very innovative company and that's what's driven the creativity and innovation
17:21from the beginning um really you know developing our own in-house crms and other tools and so
17:26over time we've moved to a sort of a best-in-class partnership and you know we recently launched with
17:32rechat and canva and other tools and we sort of plug them together and create an ecosystem that helps to
17:38support the ability to allow our agents and our staff to be more efficient with their time and so ai
17:47has been
17:47a huge focus um but not necessarily in the way that you're seeing other brokerages do it so most of
17:53the tools i'm seeing instead of real estate are very agent driven and how do you focus on the agent's
17:58time
17:58and things that they're doing and we of course do have agent productivity tools but our focus has actually
18:03been primarily on developing tools for our staff because if our staff can um automate the things that
18:10they are doing that um are repetitive and redundant they don't need them to be thinking um and i'm always
18:17saying like take the things that require your brain your special talents the things that only you can do
18:22spend your time doing that and anything that can be automated or you know put into a box or having
18:28someone else do for you delegate that make sure that that is something that can be systematized and then
18:35that allows them to have more freedom to have customized time with our agents it allows them to
18:41sit down and do business planning it allows them to sit down and say you're launching this property
18:45or this property has been a market for a while what's going on how can you leverage or utilize
18:49this so that of course you know they can run the marketing plan through ai and use other tools that
18:54we
18:54have to um help the agents but it really is about making sure that they have the personalized time
19:00to address it so we've automated so many of our systems and tools um our executive team you know
19:06is using it to make sure that we're streamlining our communications making sure that nothing's
19:10falling through the cracks that we are uh leveraging um everything that is at our fingertips and so it's
19:15very very um centralized in all of our conversations our executive team are sharing wins with each other
19:21this is what our team is doing with it it's almost like a contest we get like super competitive
19:24internally like what are you doing to be as creative as possible with this so again it's like
19:28deriving that culture of innovation and creativity but always on how are you using technology to
19:34enhance the human experience like that's the big win if someone can do something that they're like
19:39and then i was able to do this and then we're like okay you win you get the gold star
19:42like you were able
19:43to create the human experience and so that's typically what we value um at the highest when it comes to
19:49using systems and tools okay so in the next i i asked three to five years and i've i've changed
19:54this
19:55question for everyone that i've asked it too let's go a year from now because so much is changing um
20:01what do you what will separate the brokerages that succeed from the ones that um you know struggle
20:08well i think the biggest struggle or two struggles i think are going to be you know there's the market
20:13conditions which we don't have a lot of control over and then there's the industry shifting the
20:18consolidations which often a lot of people don't feel like they have control over because they may not
20:22be the few people are sitting in the handful of boardrooms that are making those decisions and so
20:27i like often the majority of us are kind of sitting in the middle and we're like you know we're
20:32we're
20:33feeling victim to the industry and victim to the market and so i think it's those who really are
20:38focusing on the things that they can control and not getting caught up in the noise and really
20:43understanding where their unique value is and so if they understand as they're going out there
20:49and their market like is there still a piece of the market for their hyper local market where they
20:54can just be that local mom and pop who does that one thing really well and not trying to get
21:00caught
21:00up and trying to match everyone else's goal to sort of grow and expand um inside of that and and
21:07expand beyond their resources or their means um because they're trying to keep up with the joneses
21:11inside of it but just kind of keep doing what they're doing well but also not fall behind in terms
21:16of
21:17that doesn't mean doing everything the same way that you've been doing for a decade either right
21:21and so um at least for us i mean we're really trying to create an ecosystem knowing that brokerage
21:28has you know compressed margins and so as we're continuing to expand it to what we call core services
21:35a lot of people refer to it as ancillary services um really building a platform company from our
21:41company owned to our global partners across the globe we're focusing on like where can we provide
21:45unique value that no one else is like where are we able to scale experience in luxury where are
21:52we able to scale creative marketing and branding and how can we take that from brokerage and apply
21:58that to mortgage and title or settling in services or even controlling our supply chain so that the
22:05marketing that we're creating has the highest quality because we actually are controlling where
22:08it's coming from and we can bring it to our offices and our agents at scale for less expensive
22:13in a world where prices are continuing to expand with inflation or you know the global events again
22:19they're outside of our hands um so really taking um hold of the things that we can control that drive
22:26our core competencies and not trying to dabble too far outside of those core competencies going deep
22:33in the things that we can do well and looking at innovation of how we can do that better today
22:40and pushing
22:41ourselves to do the things that we do well better to stay relevant um but not to expand so far
22:48outside
22:48of your area of expertise that um you you really sort of in many ways make yourself irrelevant because
22:57you can't be everything to everyone and you're not going to be able to compete at scale to those who
23:01have much deeper pockets and so you're much better off sticking to your deep funnel than you are broadening
23:08out unless you really have the resources and strategy to compete at that level yeah absolutely all
23:13right i'm going to go into a lightning round um so this is kind of first thing that comes to
23:17mind um
23:18most overrated part of brokerage culture um i feel like it's focusing on the perks and the culture
23:27committees and like it's this thing to like manage i i think that culture is everything you do
23:35say practice and it's overrated when you treat it like it's a separate thing one word that should
23:42describe every agency office collaboration okay i thought you were going to say fun
23:49um biggest red flag in a potential expansion market biggest red flag would be if i'm meeting with
23:56a new uh leader a global partner and they're talking about what's in it for me how can i grow
24:00me um
24:02um that's always my biggest red flag when they're already in the like i love this how can we do
24:06this what can how can i bring this to others how can you lift others up that's always i know
24:12we're in
24:12the right direction and the opposite is usually the red flag okay last one one thing leaders should
24:18stop calling culture a thing to do i think goes back to the what's overdone is they look at oh
24:25we
24:25need to do more of that culture stuff we need to do you know we need to do that culture
24:28stuff and
24:28it's like no you need to lead and every choice and decision every communication every person you
24:34hire needs to have a clear vision of what it is that you're doing they need to be empowered to
24:39make
24:39decisions based off of your pillars and understand those and i think that is what needs to be done and
24:46stop looking at it as like this whole separate initiative that's relegated to hr or the people culture
24:54person in the company it's not their job it's all of our jobs and as leaders we have to lead
24:59by example
24:59from that perspective well great well rainy thanks so much for joining the real trending podcast it's
25:05always a pleasure to speak with you i appreciate it thank you thank you so much
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