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Six years ago, Oscar Teran worked fulltime in marketing for a housing developer. But when he decided to move over to the selling side and hang his license at Avanti Way Realty in Miami, his life changed dramatically.
He did $15 million in sales with more than 30 transactions in his first year. Teran’s business has grown each year since, now amassing more than $250 million in sales since 2013.
Andres Korda and Enrique Teran (no relation to Oscar) founded Avanti Way Realty 14 years ago. “Thanks to Avanti’s vision of growth, hands-on weekly training, and innovative technology, I have enhanced and established my team as one of Miami’s top-selling groups,” says Oscar, principal and associate broker.
Korda and Enrique Teran emphasize education, up-to-date technology, and, above all, entrepreneurship. Korda, who has an MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship, and Enrique, a management information systems expert, wanted to develop a whole new experience for the real estate industry.
“We can upgrade the agent to ‘agentpreneur,’ who is tech-driven, data-driven, and collaborative,” Korda says.
The duo started out just as the housing market was taking a plunge in 2006, and to stay competitive, they designed and trademarked the idea of “agentpreneurs” to attract and keep top agents. The program trains agents not only to be their own entrepreneurs but also to make a positive impact on each of their clients’ lives with honest advice and dependable commitment, Enrique says.
How the Program Works
Living by Avanti Way’s core values of fostering relationships, building trust, and empowering agents and employees, a collaborative culture has developed with the goal of helping everyone, says Korda. They are also continuously building or tweaking proprietary software to improve the real estate transaction process.
“We are very well-known for getting an agent from 0 to 100 quickly. We take them from incubation to acceleration,” Korda says.
Avanti Way Realty has also begun “branchising” its business model for its agents and investors by creating offices that are between a franchise and a new branch. Enrique Teran says an agent can work with Avanti Way to open up a new office as a branchisor without the liabilities of being a broker-owner or franchisee, plus, they can collect revenue from the agents they recruit.
With seven offices in Miami today, Enrique and Korda are looking to open up in other Florida markets. The leader of each office rents the space and sets up the storefront. They pay for the costs of the office along with a monthly fee based on market value, which gives them access to Avanti’s AVEX tech platform.
The cloud-based program, designed by Korda and Enrique, provides a paperless management system, handling everything from transaction documents to marketing materials, and connects users to a check printer, so agents can get their commission checks quickly. Contracts are easy to create with integration with the local MLS, Korda says. And because everyone uses the same platform—agent, brokers, and staff—everyone has the same information on what’s going on.
Concierge Services for Agents
“In the real estate world, you have to be very agile and respond to all your clients’ needs, but you have a limited amount of time to do things,” says Enrique Tevan. That’s where the company’s concierge service comes in. They provide agents with an assistant who will answer their emails and phone calls. The assistant can also schedule showings and update agents’ profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, their website, and more. Agents can pay for all available services or pay à la carte for the services they need the most.
The assistants are all employees of the company, a savings for agents who don’t want to hire their own assistant. Most of the top producers in the company, however, still do hire their own full- or part-time assistant.
There’s also a large library of written and video materials, some provided by real estate trainers, that can be accessed through the company’s AVEX University website. Agents who are stuck on or uncertain about certain elements of a transaction can research the information they need.
Giving Back
Korda and Enrique wanted their company to also have a social responsibility mission. So, for every property sold in Miami, the company makes a donation to Techo, a nonprofit organization building homes and transforming impoverished communities across Latin America.
“Thanks to the Avanti agents’ contributions and our clients’, our donations have already helped build more than 20 homes,” Oscar says.
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