jan-2018

186 187 it still wasn’t very common–you would do every- thing, yourself, as a real estate agent.” Nonetheless,Wenner excelled at the job, be- coming the top agent at a nationally-known real estate agency office that had about 150 other agents. He continued to grow his team there, and in 2009 he and his compatriots left Keller Wil- liams and struck out on their own to open DLP Realty, the first of DLP’s half dozen component parts. Now that Wenner owned his own brand, he ramped up implementation of the innovative and disruptive business models and initiatives. “From the beginning, I learned, from reading books by the greatest business minds, that great compa- nies solve problems,” he states. “Our purpose at DLP over the past 10-plus years has been, and remains: living our dream to create prosperity through innovative real estate solutions.” And, if Wenner’s good intentions to offer innovative real estate solutions weren’t enough to induce change in the system, the fact that the Great Recession was in full swing made it more mandatory than ever to approach the market differently. “I earned my real estate license in 2006. That was the peak of the real estate market in our hometown, the Lehigh Valley,” he recounts. “Then, the market changed. Homes started taking longer to sell and prices stopped going up. So, from the first month I was in the business, I started our Guaranteed Sales Program: ‘Your home sold in 68 days, guaranteed, or we’ll buy it.’ That was the solution to the worry of a Catch-22 in real estate, which is: if you buy a home before you sell your home, you’re stuck with two homes; and if you sell first, you have nowhere to go. This approach DREAM LIVE PROSPER (DLP) COMPANIES Plumbing, Heating, A/C, Propane & Fuel Oils 116 Mcta Dr. Swiftwater, PA 18370 | 570-972-0290 | www.fjhess.com “WE ALWAYS SHOW UP!” As a family-owned and family-operated business, F/J Hess and Sons has been providing plumbing, heating, and air conditioning service to residential and commercial customers in northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey for over 25 years. F/J Hess and sons offers a comprehensive range of HVAC and plumbing products and services to nearly 14,000 satisfied individuals and businesses throughout Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg, Poconos, Mount Pocono, Pocono Pines, Pocono Manor, and surrounding areas. 24/7 Service! Fuel delivery by Furino Fuels Let Shelly’s improve your next remodel, new home or commercial construction project! Pennsylvania’s Leading Resource for New Home Builders, Remodeling and Commercial Building Projects. www.ShellysSupply.com Delivery Service Getting material to your job site on time is one of Shelly’s top priorities. With a rolling fleet of over 100, including flatbeds, roller trailers, pickups, vans and piggyback forklift trucks, Shelly’s can deliver to virtually anywhere in Eastern PA, the Poconos, New Jersey and Delaware. Millwork Shop Another of Shelly’s value added services is our Interior Millwork Shop. Whether you are building a custom single home or a townhouse, our sales staff will work with you and our millwork shop to create a comprehensive trim package to fit your job including prehung doors, trim window sills, MDF applications and more. Trusses & Wall Panels Shelly’s truss and wall panel production facility meets today’s builder’s needs by producing high quality products at competitive prices. Shelly’s estimators can take your building speifications, do a complete take off, and supply engineered roof and floor trusses to accomodate your building requirements. Kitchens, Baths, Decks, Windows, Doors & More Contact us today! Call 215-768-6456 or visit our website: www.ShellysSupply.com! solves that whole timing issue, gives you cer- tainty to the sale of your home, and it created a solution when the market was going down. This is the mindset we’ve carried forward over the last decade.” Of course, new problems demanded more new solutions. “We had a lot of sellers who couldn’t sell their home in 2008, 2009,”Wenner continues. “We launched a short sale negotiation company, when people didn’t even know what short sales were and banks didn’t have short sale depart- ments.We said there has got to be a way to sell a house when somebody owes more than it’s worth; there’s got to be a solution.We had people who didn’t want to do a short sale, but they had to sell, and they couldn’t sell because they were upside down.We said, ‘We’ll manage your prop- erty; we’ll rent it out.’We started offering prop- erty management services to solve that problem which, in turn, launched our property manage- ment business.” Meanwhile,Wenner was continuing to flip houses, a routine business that began before he created his own company. “In 2007, I was sitting AT A GLANCE DLP COMPANIES WHAT: A collection of real estate-related companies WHERE: Headquarters in Bethlehem, Penn- sylvania WEBSITE: www.dreamliveprosper.com