Today we’d like to introduce you to RJ Avery.
Hi RJ, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I personally only think a complete Psychopath would grow up wanting to be a Real Estate agent. It definitely wasn’t the dream, it was something I had never considered, even though I had built a For Rent website called RentDenton.net that I eventually sold to Denton Tx Broker Scott Brown when I was 18. I built that site in 1999 the same year Realtor.com went online and throughout that entire process never once considered becoming a Real Estate Agent.
I graduated UNT in 2003 with a Degree in Sociology with the intent initially to go into Drug and Alcohol Counseling. However I personally just chose to stay in the service industry after college as idealistically I had a lot of issues with how the System works(ed) ultimately meeting the mother of my first child at a Restaurant I was managing in my mid 20s.
It was during that time a Regular knowing that I was going to become a father and was growing disenchanted with the Service Industry suggested I look into Real Estate. Without much thought I took his advice got my license and found my self walking into Scalinis, a great East Dallas eatery that I was managing at the time to the news of the 2007 Financial Crisis on the TV…
While there is no set commissions or pricing structures in Real Estate at the time I got into the industry the unspoken agreement and arguably until this day was that 6% was how much it cost to sell your home and that generally speaking half of that was kept by the agent who listed the home and worked for the seller and the other 3% was offered to a buyers agent.
I saw an opportunity to work for a smaller non corporate brokerage, which meant I didnt have a shiny “respected” name behind me but I kept considerably more of my money. What I found out early in Real Estate was what many agents find out is that brokers do not send you leads and often can be much more burdensome than they are helpful. With that knowledge and arguably a little more technical savvy then most of my competition I started charging 4% to list homes keeping 1% for myself and offering 3% to a buyers agent.
My hypothesis then and belief now is that with the advent of sites like Realtor.com in 1999 is that Real Estate changed and the general public had access to all the homes on the market regardless which MLS that was in. Good pictures, good price and if the market is moving the home will sell.
I combined this with a program that would rebate buyers a % of the commission I made on their purchase and it was off to the races with my first Real Estate Company Avery Realty Group.
In 2012 I became a father of twins with my now wife and sold nearly 100 houses because of this business plan and answering my phone and doing the job of Real Estate…. In 2013 I became a single father for a couple of years and in that time I sold my office in Forney, My home in Forney and moved in with my mother in Garland to help with the twins in early 2014.
I completely stopped marketing like I was and really didn’t focus on Real Estate as I had for obvious reasons. My numbers dwindled until finally in 2018 I sold no homes. By that time was working back in the Service Industry as a server and Bartender for multiple around town between 2018 and 2020.
I never let my license go back however I did rescind my name as Broker of Avery Realty Group and my father took the name and ran it as a brokerage in the Cedar Creek Lake area of East Texas. I had started a small brokerage myself and was content with my job and just being a part time agent selling a few homes a year for people I just ran into or was directly referred to.
In 2021 I moved back to Forney to be near my first daughter as she started in High School with the plan to just be a part time Agent. At that time I was approached by my now Marketing parter, Robert Portillo. He initially offered his digital marketing services. I had been burned pretty bad in 2018-19 by a local digital marketing company losing nearly 25k and getting no results so I was at first not interested. However with some talking and some time we decided to start a new company called Flex Group Real Estate.
The plan was simple. I would offer the same 1% listings. Robert would do all the online marketing etc and I would answer the phone. At the time, late 2021, the market was reaching a fever pitch. Homes were selling for thousands above listing prices and had skyrocketed over the previous 2 years and we were super excited about getting into it.
Then in March of 2022 Rates drastically went up and just like in 2007 the party was over for lack of a better description.
However since we started in 2022 we have grown business doubling year over year while many other brokerages and agents have been downsizing and leaving the industry as things have greatly slowed down from the peak and the market has normalized.
In August of last year a major lawsuit that has now been followed by multiple other lawsuits has rattled the Real Estate Industry and we feel has placed us in a great place to provide a great value to people who are looking for service and expertise in Real Estate but being able to pay in forms that are more set to their needs and not just a cookie cutter form that the Big 5 or 6 brokerages sell.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth is definitely not the word. The numbers in Real Estate are real in that 75% of folks who get a license don’t make it to 2 years and by year 5, 95% or more are no longer selling have a license.
Most of my challenges really came from my personal life and trying to keep family first and be there for those in my life who needed me to the best of my ability while working a “job” that quickly stops becoming a job if you don’t put work into it every day. Any entrepreneur or solo business owner can attest that a lot of the work isn’t even the work its finding the work to begin with.
Also in 2011 I had a complaint filed against my by a local Coldwell Banker office with TREC that ultimately was all dismissed but was really just bullying as they were not happy about my meteoric rise to being the top selling agent in the 75126 zip code by quite simply just charging 2% less on average.
Throughout my entire time as a Real Estate Agent I have dealt with being called a “Discount Realtor” and to imply that our services were less than many conventional Agents. Which in some very rare cases may be true. But for the most part it certainly does not as our marketing and photography etc is very much on the same level as all the National Brokerages and the Agents that work for them.
The irony is that the industry was sued basically for fixing prices at 6% and some other things. To which they would say they didn’t, however my experience as a “Discount Realtor” feels like these big brokerages very much did this in as many ways as possible. The very implication that an agency that charged a different amount is discount would mean there was an agreed upon fixed rate. Which by state law legally cannot be a thing.
Becoming wildly successful and going back to zero just as fast taught me a lot about balancing work and home life through mostly not being able to do it correctly and am happy that at this point I have found a nice zen place that I would love to see grow into something much larger.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I Run a Full Service Real Estate Brokerage. We offer assistance in Selling, Purchasing, Managing or Renting Properties. We are a non traditional brokerage. That means commission negotiable and we structure our pricing to each individual persons needs and arent stuck to any traditional %’s or formulas for Doing Business.
I am definitely proud that I was able to build an initial successful career solo. Now, with help, over the past 4 years in a downward trending market. We have reached the financial goal that we set for 5 years, and we have been able to do this in a market that has been trending downward the entire time. In total I have been a Licensed Real Estate Agent and Broker for almost 20 years.
I have always done my own photography for all of my career. At this point while I wouldn’t say I am a master at it. The pictures I deliver are great quality and I started offering these services to other agents and the general public in 2022.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I was actually very luck because when I made the jump from working for Century 21 to a small independent Broker, like myself. I was blessed to because of FB I had reconnected with my UNT Dorm Mate, Chandler Crouch.
Chandler was great not only because he charged a drastically lower amount for my split. At C21 this amount was 50/50, with Chandler it was markedly less. He was available in real time for me to ask questions and help me answer the questions I couldn’t and point me in the right direction when he himself didn’t know the answer.
He saw through the complaint filed against me and helped me fight that as well.
When it comes to finding a RE mentor. My advice would be to find someone who can actually show you their success in sold units on paper.
Be weary of ones who talk a big game or use professional recruitment tactics. The Scam of Real Estate really is in these larger brokerages capitalizing on that 70 to 95% failure rate I mentioned.
Teams or leaders in even those companies who are asked about their production if it is real will have no problem showing it.
As far as networking… Real Estate is one of those businesses literally everyone needs at some point, especially if you include rental services. Stay away from networking with other people in the business… Lenders, Builders etc.. Unless you just want to play with being an alcoholic and getting free drinks and snacks. Or if you are a truly extroverted person who enjoys socializing you will most definitely be able to be busy every night and lunch time of the week.
The best networking you can do in my opinion is to and in communities you truly are in. IE if you are a runner promote your RE when you are running or if Church is your thing promote it there.
Obviously these days brands can be built over night via Social Media so figuring out how to hack that matrix may be the best way to network bar none for new or agents wanting to grow.
Pricing:
- There are no set standards in Real Estate
- It is not Illegal for Sellers to pay Buyers Commission
- Ethical Realtors have to have a signed buyers Agreement to even show you a home
- Interviewing multiple agents before you choose to work with one is the best way to not have a bad experience. Dont always just take that referral unless you check their credentials
- RE is not a service that has to be approached with a lot of Pomp and Circumstance. Technology and the internet has made marketing and selling a home much easier than ever before and it has put information at buyers finger tips that also makes our jobs easier. The industry is in need of a true change in the way things are done.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flexgrouprealestate.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flexgrouprealestate
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flexgrouprealestate
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rj-avery-b29ba3375/
- Twitter: @TXrealtybroker
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@flexgrouprealestate9100
- Other: @captainsavesomedough on Tiktok
Image Credits
My profile photo is one I generated with Chat GPT so I can use that one… The others are shots I have taken for my Real Estate Photography business which I also do for myself of course but also other agents or anyone needing landscape photography.
