By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
The Valley’s hot housing market is creating a buzz among residential real estate brokers, and more brokerages are expanding to metro Phoenix as a result.
New York-based Real Brokerage inc. and Virginia-based Nest Realty are among those setting up shop in the Valley, while a local brokerage called GetYourNest.com is launching in Scottsdale.
Get Your Nest Inc., an app-based home buying experience that provides on-demand home viewings and also puts 50% of the agent’s commission back into the buyers’ pockets.
Homebuyers’ app
Eugene Quackenbush and Brandon LaVallee have teamed up to launch Get Your Nest Inc., an app-based home buying experience that provides on-demand home viewings and also puts 50% of the agent’s commission back into the buyers’ pockets.
After raising $1.2 million in seed funding from friends and family, GetYourNest.com has selected Phoenix as its initial market, with plans to expand to other states.
Securing its brokerage license in April, the company closed on its first home on June 10, securing a $425,000 home for the buyer, who ended up with an extra $5,300, said Quackenbush.
“We want to do one thing and do it exceptionally well and that is to represent the buyer,” he said.
Buyers also will have an opportunity to donate a portion of their closing credit to local nonprofit organizations, including St. Vincent de Paul and Boys & Girls Club, Quackenbush said.
And now that the company is officially launching, plans call for hiring, LaVallee said.
So far, the company has 10 employees, but the goal is to hire 100 over the next year to work out of the company’s Scottsdale headquarters.
As the company expands into other states, agents will be hired in those areas, but the core staff will continue to grow here, he said.
All the agents are W-2 employees, which means they don’t have to worry about making commissions, he said.
Instead, agents will focus on providing the best customer service, whether they’re the “birds” who show up at the doorstep to provide house tours or agents who write up the contracts, LaVallee said.
“We’re trying to create an intentionally smarter homebuying experience,” Quackenbush said.
First Arizona office
Maintaining the nest theme, Charlottesville, Virginia-based Nest Realty, which has 17 offices in the five mid-Atlantic states, is also expanding into the Phoenix market.
Local longtime real estate agent Jono Friedland has opened Nest Realty’s first office west of the Mississippi.
“We take them from a regional to a national brand,” said Friedland, who has been a licensed real estate agent since 2004.
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