by markjohnson | Jun 24, 2019 | In The News, JPAR, Real Estate, What's New
By Patrick Kearns | Staff Writer | Inman
JP and Associates Realtors® (JPAR) announced Monday that Geoff Lewis, a veteran executive of RE/MAX, is joining JPAR’s parent company Vesuvius Holdings, LLC. Lewis, who departed from RE/MAX in February 2018, will be serving as president of the company starting on July 1, 2019.
“Our industry is ripe for disruption,” Lewis said in a statement. “Since I left RE/MAX Holdings, RE/MAX and the other traditional companies have been losing agents. I wanted to associate with and help grow a real estate company whose business model is relevant and attractive to brokers and agents competing in today’s highly competitive market.”
RE/MAX has been growing steadily as a whole if you include international markets, reporting year-over-year agent count growth every quarter since Lewis left the company early in 2018. However, in its first quarter results, the company did report a slight decrease in agent count for the U.S. and Canada. Lewis had been with RE/MAX since 2004 and was serving as president of the company when he retired.
In his statement, Lewis also called JP Piccinini, the broker-owner and founder of JPAR, a dynamic and innovative visionary.
The move to add an industry veteran comes at a time of massive expansion for both the brokerage and its franchising business. JPAR was ranked as the nation’s 50th most productive brokerage in transactions by the Real Trends 500, closing 9,790 transaction sides in 2018, a year-over-year increase of 45.8 percent. It was also ranked 83rd in the Swanepoel Mega 1000 list of top brokerages by sales volume, with $2.6 billion in sales and an agent count of 1,500.
While the brokerage business is growing at an expeditious rate, the company also began franchising its 100 percent commission, transaction-fee based model in June 2018. In the last six months, the company claims it has sold 40 franchises in seven states.
JPAR is also leaning into some of the industry trends, giving its agents a propriety technology suite, launching its own iBuyer instant offer program – which nabbed the brokerage an Inman Innovator Award finalist nomination – and by giving its agents access to associate healthcare and retirement plans.
“I am thrilled to have Geoff Lewis on board the JPAR team,” Piccinini said in a statement. “With Geoff’s past industry and franchising success, our already experienced management team expects to accelerate our phenomenal growth.”
“Our transaction fee-based model combined with our proprietary B.O.S.S.S. (Broker One Stop Shopping System) technology suite, world-class training, 24/7 broker compliance support, retirement bonus plan and innovative agent health care are unique in the industry,” Piccinini added. “For the broker, agent and consumer alike, JPAR is focused on exceeding expectations.”
by markjohnson | May 6, 2019 | In The News, JPAR, Real Estate, What's New
By: INMAN CONTENT STUDIO
One of America’s fastest growing brokerages is poised to be one of America’s fastest growing franchisors. Why and how is this even possible?
We asked one of its franchisees to give us some insights:
Recently, I read an article about choosing the right brokerage. It explained why brokerages are geared for agents at various stages of their careers. As I read, I didn’t understand why this was the standard. Why do you have to pick a brokerage to get started, move to another to help you grow, and yet another for you to be successful? Shouldn’t your brokerage evolve to support you at any stage of your career?
As a former agent, and now owner, I’m uniquely positioned to recognize the change agents want to see. Therefore when I was looking for a franchise partner, I was excited to connect with JP & Associates REALTORS® (JPAR).
JPAR founder, JP Piccinini, has established a culture that is agent-centric. As a former top-producer, he built a company based on what agents wanted… and then he did it for franchisees. Same formula: agents first and franchisees first.
When I decided to open a real estate brokerage, I knew we had to have something fresh—a partner company that embraced the same ideas about fees, training, support, and culture. JPAR checked all of the boxes. They are a full-service brokerage on a transactional fee model. Brick and mortar offices plus all this:
1. BOSSS Hub
JPAR constantly brings the latest and greatest tools from vendor partners to their agents. Starting with B.O.S.S.S., the Broker One Stop Shop System that houses everything you need to do business. It’s a direct portal to each resource the company offers. Truly industry leading.
2. Agent Health Care/Retirement Bonus Plan
When was the last time you signed up for health care through your brokerage or received retirement bonuses? JPAR is changing the game on that. Offering health care plans that make sense to agents and are truly affordable.
3. Technology
JPAR doesn’t need to join the hype about being a technology company. It is a real estate company focused on keeping the main thing the main thing: selling real estate. It provides best in class tech to its agents and franchisees giving us an opportunity every day to grow our business.
4. Training
JPAR’s innovative training tracts that can be tailored to any agent at any stage of their career is nothing short of genius. Hundreds of trainings a month are offered. It’s a massive amount of quality, current and relevant educational material for agents.
5. Support
As I was doing research on franchises, I learned it was a hands-off approach for most. ‘Here’s your brand box, go recruit and good luck,’ they’d say. As JPAR franchisees, we are truly supported in all aspects of our business. From recruiting, retention and of course generating revenue.
All of this while maintaining a transactional model with a productivity standard to ensure they are hiring serious agents.
JPAR provides franchisees a brokerage in a box set up that includes:
- Training and tools for recruiting
- Industry-leading technology
- Discounts and supplier networks
- Training and centralized support
- Accounting and compliance processing
And this is just today. They are always evolving and open to ideas to make the brokerage better like the recent rollout of its own ibuyer platform, Instant Offers.
JP is always bringing in the latest technology to give JPAR a competitive advantage. His history as an agent shows in his leadership and it trickles down to the entire staff of the company. When he was laying the groundwork for JPAR, he wanted to build a company that focuses on providing agents with the resources and support it takes to be successful. JP’s vision of what a brokerage should be is evident even into the franchise level.
So, what’s next? JP & Associates REALTORS corporate-owned stores and its to 2,000 agents are already the largest Independent privately held brokerage in Texas for homes sales in just 7 short years. The plan is 50 states by 2023. I am on board this ship and I bet we will get there by 2022.
Learn more about getting onboard with JP & Associates REALTORS.
Source: https://www.inman.com/2019/05/06/jp-associates-realtors-are-full-speed-ahead/
by markjohnson | May 2, 2019 | In The News, JPAR, JPAR News, Real Estate, What's New
By: JIM DALRYMIRE || Staff Writer with Inman
JPAR Instant Offers is designed to be as convenient as an iBuyer but casts Texas brokerage JP & Associates as a facilitator of deals rather than a purchaser of properties
Jim Dalrymple II
Interesting article:
They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and that’s apparently true when it comes to iBuying competition: Frisco, Texas-based brokerage JP & Associates Realtors formally announced Tuesday it has teamed up with a tech company to launch an agent-centric cash offer program.
JPAR Instant Offers is being billed as an iBuyer, though it differs from the type of instant cash offer programs that other, bigger companies have built. Would-be sellers can go online and get an immediate rough offer for their property. Within 24 hours, a JP & Associates representative will come out and visit the home to confirm its value and discuss options with the seller. The property owner can then opt to sell their home the traditional way and have it show up on multiple listing services or proceed with the cash option.
Sellers who opt for cash should have their finalized, official offer within another 24 to 48 hours.
J.P. Piccinini
“We give you the closing that you want,” J.P. Piccinini, founder and owner of JP & Associates, told Inman.
Up to this point, the program resembles other iBuyers, which generally tout the ease and speed of a cash offer. However, what sets JPAR Instant Offers apart is the source of its offers; while major players like Opendoor and Zillow buy properties on their own, JP & Associates sources its offers from third party investors.
“Focus on what you love to do.”
“We’re nothing more than a facilitator connecting the seller with the potential buyer, the investor,” Piccinini said. “We have buyers across the United States.”
Piccinini explained that his company has built a stable of “thousands” of potential investors that includes past clients, hedge funds, home flippers, rental property owners and others. After a seller chooses to proceed with a cash offer, the property goes to a kind of internal, digital marketplace that only JP & Associates agents can view. Those agents can then broadcast listings seeking cash offers to investors.
JP & Associates agents handling instant offer deals are paid by the sellers. Piccinini said that agents can work out their own payment arrangements with sellers, and can opt to receive anything from a flat fee to a traditional commission.
The system has only been live for about a week, but Piccinini said that he expects the response time from investors to be “hours.” He also said that the cash offers will tend to be about 10 percent less than what sellers might have received on the open market, which some people are willing to accept in exchange for greater convenience.
JPAR Instant Offers’ unique setup has a handful of ramifications. For one thing, all the offers that go through the program are handled by a JP & Associates agent, unlike conventional iBuyers, which in some cases are willing to work both with agents or with sellers directly.
Some iBuying programs such as Coldwell Banker’s cataLIST, Keller Williams’ Keller Offers and Redfin Now also rely on agents to guide customers through the transaction process. Many such programs are still relatively new, however, and it remains to be seen how they may fair against now-entrenched disruptors like Opendoor.
Involving outside investors also frees JPAR Instant Offers from the price and property type constraints that other cash offer firms face. Companies like Opendoor and Offerpad, for example, have tended to only buy mid-priced, relatively modern tract homes concentrated in places like Arizona and Texas.
JPAR Instant Offers, on the other hand, has no price constraints and can work with sellers in any of the seven (and soon to be more) states where the company has offices and franchises. According to Piccinini, that’s possible thanks to the diverse list of investors that JP & Associates has compiled; while hedge funds might only be interested in the same types of properties iBuyers want, home flippers or rental investors may be looking for something entirely different.
“We have a very, very large pool of buyers,” Piccinini added, “A very diverse pool of investors.”
JP & Associates isn’t the only independent firm to start an iBuyer. Late last year, Broker Anthony Lamacchia launched Offer Now as part of his company Lamacchia Development. Lamacchia told Inman in March that he started the cash offer program in response to companies like Opendoor, Zillow and Redfin.
Seen together, all of these programs illustrate how widely the appetite for iBuying has spread in the industry.
JP & Associates has teamed up with technology company OfferAI to run the JPAR Instant Offers system. OfferAI first launched last year and created a way for property owners to sell quickly to investors.
In an email to Inman, OfferAI founder and CEO Jack Burns said the JPAR Instant Offers program will “give sellers fiduciary representation throughout the iBuyer experience.” In the future, the partnership will also let JP & Associates set up their own websites and market themselves as iBuyers, Burns said. That program is currently being beta tested, and it will eventually become available to agents at other brokerages as well.
OfferAI charges an administrative fee on the transactions it facilitates for JP & Associates. The company is independent of JP & Associates, though the brokerage’s parent Vesuvius has invested in OfferAI.
News of JPAR Instant Offers was first reported by CandysDirt.com.
A number of companies including Opendoor, Zillow and Redfin have been aggressively expanding their own cash offer programs. Though these companies’ strategies vary, at least some of the bigger players clearly see the value of iBuying as a tool for generating leads. During a recent earnings call, for example, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said that his company’s cash offers are usually rejected but the iBuyer program is nevertheless important.
Piccinini said that JPAR Instant Offers will serve a similar function, with the program’s greatest value being its ability to start conversations with potential sellers. Ultimately, he said he would “be surprised” if cash offers ever accounted for more than 3 percent of his firm’s business.
Competition among iBuyers is also shaping up to be particularly fierce on JP & Associates home turf. Not only are established players like Opendoor and Offerpad operating in Texas, but Keller Williams announced last week that it plans to go live with its iBuyer program in May. That program will launch in the Dallas area — the metro region with the most JP & Associates offices.
Piccinini, however, said that he is not concerned about competition with other iBuyer companies. Cash offers still account for only a small percentage of deals, he explained, and in any case he express confidence that his company could win market share away from its rivals.
“What they’ve done is they’ve paved the road for us,” he said. “I think if anything they ought to be concerned about us.”
Source: https://www.inman.com/2019/05/01/indie-brokerage-launches-unconventional-ibuyer-program/
by markjohnson | Apr 7, 2019 | In The News, JPAR, Real Estate, What's New
“I am incredibly proud of our agents and staff,” said Giuseppe ‘JP’ Piccinini, Founder/President of JP & Associates REALTORS®. “Their commitment to exceeding expectations in an ever changing and evolving industry is the reason JP & Associates REALTORS® now ranks among the top 50 brokerages in the United States.”
Respected as a premier source of residential brokerage news and analysis, REAL Trends recently published their top 500 list of brokerages in the US, naming JP & Associates REALTORS® as the top 50th residential brokerage for 2018 closed transactions.
“Not too many real estate companies experience a 45% year-over-year increase,” said Mark Johnson, Chief Executive Officer. “In an industry known for its turnover, we have created a culture often referred to as, ‘the Top Producer’s final destination brokerage.’ Our strong emphasis placed on productivity and service ensures our agents are consistently crushing their goals while meeting the needs of their clients.”
It’s true, JP & Associates REALTORS® maintains a retention rate of 90% while also upholding a productivity standard of six or more transactions per year.
“As our primary focus is on our agents, we believe their primary focus should be on real estate,” said JP Piccinini. “By upholding our own productivity standard, our REALTORS® are able to thrive in an environment where they are frequently provided the tools and resources to be successful. At the end of the day, both our agents and clients win.”
JP and Associates REALTORS® (JPAR) is one of the top 50 real estate brokerages in the US. A full-service transaction fee based real estate brokerage, it has been recognized as one of the fastest growing brokerages in the country by REAL TRENDS as well as also being a back to back INC5000 nominee. It operates multiple offices across Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, California and Florida, expanding nationwide, offering franchising opportunities for entrepreneurial real estate professionals.
by markjohnson | Apr 3, 2019 | In The News, JPAR, Real Estate, What's New
“West Texas, we’ve arrived!” proclaimed Giuseppe ‘JP’ Piccinini, Founder/President of JP & Associates REALTORS®. “I have always been passionate about our company’s expansion, especially when that means we are growing in our home state of Texas. Under the leadership of Tony Delgado, we will build something special for our agents and clients in El Paso.
JP & Associates REALTORS® continues to expand like wild fire, having now acquired Your Real Estate Experience in El Paso, TX.
“I am thrilled for our agents to have joined the JPAR family,” said Tony Delgado, Owner of Your Real Estate Experience. “JP and I have known each other for quite some time. His vision and business model designed is truly designed for agents, allowing them to serve their clients to the best of their ability. Your Real Estate Experience agents are going to love everything that JP & Associates REALTORS® has to offer, and at little to no cost.”
Your Real Estate Experience also has an office in Fort Worth, TX, which is likewise being acquired by JP’s rapidly growing company.
“Our Texas offices certainly hold a special place in our hearts,” said Mark Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of JPAR. “We are confident Your Real Estate Experience’s agents and the many great agents of El Paso will love the JPAR culture. As the number 1, independent privately held brokerage in Texas, we have all the resources these agents would want or need to support their business.”
JP And Associates REALTORS® (JPAR) is one of the top 50 real estate brokerages in the US. A full-service transaction fee based real estate brokerage, it has been recognized as one of the top 10 fastest growing brokerages in the country by REAL TRENDS as well as also being a back to back INC5000 nominee. It operates multiple offices across Texas and is expanding nationwide offering franchising opportunities for entrepreneurial real estate professionals.
by markjohnson | Apr 1, 2019 | Franchise, JPAR, JPAR News, Real Estate, Texas, What's New
“Since October of 2018, we have opened more than 20 franchises across the United States with more in development,” said Giuseppe ‘JP’ Piccinini, Founder/President of JP & Associates REALTORS®. “However, given the fact that this will be our first franchise in Texas where JPAR was born and made, I am beyond thrilled for what this opportunity has in store for the agents and communities in this bustling market.”
Chris Sears, industry acclaimed, long-time real estate professional has partnered with JP & Associates REALTORS® to open its first Texas franchise in the city of Houston.
“Having witnessed first-hand the success and growth of this company,” Sears stated, “I am both pleased and very excited to open this franchise.”
Mr. Sears’ resume is far from mediocre, which boasts notable titles and accolades, such as CEO and Team Leader of a $1.6 billion sales volume producing brokerage, Trainer, Business Coach and Consultant to 4 of the top 10 brokerages in the Houston MSA (with over a decade’s worth of experience), and most recently, President and COO of the 4th largest real estate brokerage in Houston, TX.
During his 22 years in the business, Chris has overseen 60,000+ real estate transactions in 7 states (and internationally), closed over $9.7 billion in real estate transactions since 2005, served two terms on the Texas Associates of Realtors Commercial Contracts Task Force, with over 16 years as a qualified, corporate sales trainer.
“The Houston market and its agents are in for a real treat,” said Frank Gay, CEO of JP & Associates REALTORS® Franchise Division. “Chris is an incredibly driven, lucrative individual that possesses the skills and ability to create successful Realtors. Without a doubt, there could not be a more suitable person to partner with in opening this new location.”
JP And Associates REALTORS® (JPAR) is one of the top 50 real estate brokerages in the US. A full-service transaction fee based real estate brokerage, it has been recognized as one of the top 10 fastest growing brokerages in the country by REAL TRENDS as well as also being a back to back INC5000 nominee. It operates multiple offices across Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, California and Florida, expanding nationwide, offering franchising opportunities for entrepreneurial real estate professionals.
