Construction Interviews Past Issues September 2018

Revelation Real Estate – #RevelationDomination

September 6, 2018

Revelation Real Estate

#RevelationDomination

Business View Magazine interviews Angela and Chuck Fazio, co-owners of Revelation Real Estate, for our focus on top achievers in the American real estate sector.

Based in Chandler, Arizona, Revelation Real Estate’s owners and team members are counting their blessings and enjoying every minute of the journey to the top. Building on a history of excellence, Revelation has been ranked by the Phoenix Business Journal as one of the top residential real estate companies for the last ten years and by the Wall Street Journal as One of the Top 10 Single Office Brokerages in the Nation. They have the highest production and market share of any single office brokerage in Arizona’s Valley.

Owners of Revelation Real Estate, Angela and Chuck Fazio, have founded their Christian-based company on strong beliefs, an exceptional work ethic, and a healthy infusion of humor. Business View Magazine recently spoke with this down-to-earth power couple about their beginnings in the business and what the future holds. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.

BVM: What prompted you to start Revelation Real Estate? Was it love at first sell?

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 escrow 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 something, 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 Chandler, so we didn’t have to commute. The owner 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 intensity 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 productive 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 other, with the staff, and they invite their clients. We’ve created a concept and a culture that nobody else has, and it’s all based on relationships – forming bonds during and after work hours.”

BVM: In what other ways are you different from the competition?

Angela: “I’m the designated broker and my husband and I lead. We are totally immersed in this business. God guides us to pour ourselves into the lives of our agents. For years, we’ve been doing a Monday Morning Mindset, where Chuck and I talk to our agents and our Facebook audience about all kind of things related to mindset issues. It gets their week started off right. We even wrote a book called Mastering Your Real Estate Career that our agents say has really helped them.”

Chuck: “We run the company as if it’s our family. We don’t look at this as business, we look at it as life, and we’re there for our agents as teachers and mentors in real estate. I get to work with my wife/best friend and we’re together 24/7. Together we share the talents that God has given us to bless other people. We are excellent at teaching and mentoring and we know how to help agents build business. We even talk about our marriage, how we keep it strong (we have six kids, two are adopted), and we talk about life. And people connect with us because, sometimes, they think these so-called super-successful people don’t experience the same things as them. We bring reality back into this environment and world we have, which is Revelation Real Estate. People actually ask us if we do marriage counselling – and we have! We invest ourselves into our agents’ lives. Our agents are from all backgrounds, denominations, beliefs, and ages. We believe that you love everyone, and you don’t judge.”

BVM: Any other initiatives that are getting you noticed?

Angela: “We’re really excited about ‘Moms in Real Estate.’ It’s a Facebook group where we do a live show, and we’ve just started creating podcasts. We interview women from all over the country who are moms working in real estate, with our companies and others, and we have a very relaxed conversation about life; their challenges, victories, successes, failures. Through that avenue, we want to encourage and empower women and make them stronger. That’s an overarching theme with all our businesses – the relationship part.

“We have comprehensive training for new agents, experienced agents, agents trying to get to the next level. And we do unique, fun things. For example: continuing education classes might be in the form of a game show. They’re educational but extremely engaging and interactive. We get upwards of 100 agents attending those. We do classes almost every day, with bigger productions once a month. Every day Chuck and I ask God to send us people to bless and we attract talent.”

Chuck: “Angela and I are the entertainment division and we’re really funny comedians! We are driven to improve the lives of others and we’re good at it. One way we do this has to do with relationships. Building and sustaining relationships is the number one thing the National Association of Realtors (NAR) puts out, statistically, that agents should be doing. We know that because when we were top producers that’s how we built our business. But a lot of agents are just buying and selling and moving on to the next client. NAR stats also report that 80 percent of all home buyers and sellers would use their agent again and refer them out, yet only 20 percent do that because agents don’t keep in touch with their clients.

“So, we created the Platinum Club as a system that could work the agents’ database for them. In the future, we’re looking to make that system so unbelievable that clients are going to say, ‘Wow, look what my agent offers me above and beyond real estate.’ It’s a program the agents put their clients in, like a concierge service. Clients can call in or bring their Platinum Club card to certain businesses we’ve partnered with to get a discount. Or, they can show up here at our building for free or discounted ‘big’ entertainment events, and other perks. The program is currently running and is improving the business/life of our agents and their clients.”

BVM: In such a hectic industry, what keeps you inspired?

Chuck: “One thing that has taken our business to a whole other level is working directly with Dave Ramsey’s company out of Tennessee. He trains leaders to lead and surrounds them with other big leaders.”

Angela: “We align really well, philosophically, with him. We attend events and take his training. We’ve met him several times, personally, and that’s been a huge source of inspiration for us in terms of mentorship. In fact, out of the thousands of businesses that work with him, last year we won the Momentum Award. Not only do we work on ourselves, we bring the leadership training back to all our team – both our staff and our agents. We’re constantly challenging each other to grow our minds because being stagnant is as good as going backwards.

“Believe it or not, Chuck and I aren’t the best goal setters in the world. We just see something and go after it. We don’t ever feel that we’re going to arrive, that’s not our expectation. We’re so driven and focused to achieve, because it’s fun, that we’re always finding new challenges and attacking them.”

BVM: What does the future hold?

Chuck: “We are excited about the future. Of course, we will continue to enrich Revelation Real Estate here in the Valley but God has called me to do more. I know that I can positively affect a lot more agents. Some people have asked us, ‘Will you expand Revelation Real Estate to other locations?’ What we have here is not duplicatable. But I do have plans through another vehicle to attract a team of talent nationwide and invest into their business with the same intensity as I do here locally. That vehicle is eXp Realty.”

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