John Casmon

Building a $100 Million Brokerage with Chris Watters, Episode 46

From sleeping on his girlfriend’s couch, Chris Watters built Watters International Realty, a team-based brokerage that has catapulted to the top of the Austin market. Focused on a team-based approach, Watters International Realty began opening branches across Texas and partnered with other successful agents and team leaders to close over $100+ Million in sales. Watters International Realty has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal and Inc. 5000. On this episode, Chris shares how he scaled the brokerage and why his model helps newer agents close more deals.

Key Market Insights

In 2009, became a prospector by calling on expired listings
Built a team model …real estate broker with hundreds of agents, where they focus on the number of agents
Net income of seven figures back in 2015
Replicated in a different market and took an agent from doing 25 deals to over 100 in first year, then 250 the second year
Created a franchise system – Better Homes and Garden, Remax, Century 21
Not really putting systems in place or investing in the agent
Average agents sells 80-125
Three main components of the team model: 1st is generating leads, 2nd is sales people, 3rd is training to close, 4th is closing and follow ups
Marketing coordinator overseeing 1st base, inside sales team overseeing 2nd base, 3rd base meeting clients and giving presentations, Home plate is client follow up, along with client concierge
Created an online training module to help agents
Started by building a network of 22 real estate business owners and had vendors put money into a marketing kitty ($1,000 – $2,500 month)
Looked to see who was advertising to generate leads and offered a direct marketing
Flips 40-50 deals in Austin annually
Problem is a lack of inventory right now
Success is based on generating qualified distressed leads and closing them
Spends $1MM annually on marketing in Austin alone