Business View Magazine September 2018

132 133 Angela: “Chuck got his real estate license at the end of 1998. I got mine at the beginning of 2001. I met him my first day in the business and didn’t like him right away. So, we didn’t start dating at first. But we got together in July of that year and partnered up in real estate. He was a failure and I joined him in being a failure.Working really hard, getting nowhere. That December in 2001, we started to gain traction, we had five deals in es- crow and all of them fell out. It was a really rough start. He had two kids, I had one, and we literally got on our knees and asked, “What do we do?” God changed it all around so quickly our heads were spinning. “We moved brokerages in 2002 and that year, together, we sold $12 million in real estate. The next year, we sold $17.5 million, the next $22 million, and the next $40 million. Our careers skyrocketed.We attribute it first and foremost to the grace of God. My husband and I are relentless workers, and when we put our minds to some- thing, we’re extreme. Two people joined us when we left the brokerage we were failing at; I don’t know why they came along, we were broke, and didn’t know anything, but we started a team. In 2005, the last year we ran that team, we sold $40 million and they sold $89 million.We modeled extreme prospecting and relationship building and a lot of people came along for the ride. “When we moved to Chandler in 2005, 20 minutes from where we were living in Phoenix, Chuck asked the owner of the brokerage we were working for if he would open an office in Chan- dler, so we didn’t have to commute. The owner REVELATION REAL ESTATE answered, “Why don’t you open it?”And that’s how we started our brokerage. I got my broker’s license; we opened at the end of 2005, and our team of 11 came with us. In 2006, it grew to 80 agents with no office space because it was being built.We currently have about 820 agents and last year we did almost $1.4 billion in sales. This year, we’re on track to blow that out of the water.” BVM: Is it true that you don’t follow the typical owner-operated brokerage model? Angela: “We used to be a franchise office and two and a half years ago we broke off and became independent.At that time,we had 350 agents and then it just exploded. Chuck and I possess an intensity that most people don’t have and we apply that inten- sity to the lives of our agents.” Chuck: “We just have one office–it’s a huge complex that dominates the Valley. You have to understand the whole concept of what we do; it’s not just a big, beautiful building, it has a purpose. Proverbs 27:17 states: ‘As iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another.’ Surrounding ourselves with like-minded people is crucial.Our physical space provides not only a produc- tive place for us and our agents, but also our agents and their clients.Within the building,we have an event center, a bar café, a school and a 7,000-sq.-ft. resort-like patio with a full bar. “It’s a lifestyle here.We have live bands, big sporting events on the big screen TVs; our agents connect with each oth- er, with the staff, and they invite their clients.We’ve created a concept and a culture that nobody else has, and it’s all