Corey Hasting: Christie's International Real Estate First Coast

REE #290 Transcript

[00:00:00] Corey Hasting: There's no such thing as a perfect brokerage, right? There's no such thing as a perfect agent. I think a lot of brokerages in this town do a lot of things really, really well. I think what we do works really well. I think it's just a matter of trying to figure out what exactly you were missing and what brokerage solves that problem for you.

[00:00:50] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to Real Estate Excellence Podcast. In just a few short years, this young, ambitious broker took a bold leap, launching a [00:01:00] boutique franchise in Jacksonville Beach with nothing but vision, drive, and a hunger to build something exceptional.

He didn't just grow it—he scaled it. Scaled it fast, from one shop to five across Northeast Florida. From a newcomer to winning one of the most prestigious brokerage awards in the network: the Engel & Völkers America's Cup, naming his team the 2024 Shop of the Year. National record, elite recruiting, unmatched growth.

But just when most would settle in and celebrate, he chose to make another bold move.

Today you're going to hear why—why he made the decision to leave it all behind and transition his entire brokerage—five shops, a full team of agents—into a new chapter under one of the world's most powerful luxury brands.

This is the story behind the rise and shift, and the vision of Corey Hasting and his brokerage game-changing move to Christie's International Real Estate First Coast.

Corey, welcome to the show again.

[00:02:00] Corey Hasting: Thanks for having me. It's always great to be here. It's always great to hear. This is exciting news. This is—I mean, obviously, as people are learning about it across town, I'm sure it's the talk of what's going on and—

[00:02:12] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:02:13] Corey Hasting: I'm interested in—I'm sure you're gonna put recruiting on overdrive again, because you're very good at it, and now you have a new flag.

[00:02:14] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:02:15] Corey Hasting: Yeah, yeah. No, it's been amazing. I mean, excited to tell the story today. I appreciate you having me on. It's always great. This is my third time on the podcast.

[00:02:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:23] Corey Hasting: So a little different this time. You know, last time I was here back in May, this was in the works, but it wasn't finalized yet. But now we can really come and tell the whole story behind it.

[00:02:30] Tracy Hayes: In May, did you think it was gonna happen or were you still like iffy? Or what was—was it...?

[00:02:34] Corey Hasting: So we were here at the beginning of May. I think that it was probably a 70% chance it was gonna go through.

[00:02:39] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:40] Corey Hasting: There was still a lot of things we had to work out, obviously.

[00:02:42] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:43] Corey Hasting: But we were able to obviously get to the finish line and obviously make the transition just last week.

[00:02:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So, I don’t know—is the basic, coming the simple questions that I'm sure you get a lot—people ask, “Did they approach you? You approached them?” How did this actual conversation start?

[00:02:56] Corey Hasting: So it's kind of a long story, to be honest with you. This whole entire [00:03:00] process started about 18 months ago, to be honest.

You know, Engel & Völkers—let me just start with this—they were amazing, right? They gave a 27-year-old kid an opportunity that realistically he didn't deserve. I mean, there's very few franchises, especially a global franchise, that will sell a franchise—and a huge territory—to a 27-year-old kid. Never been a broker before, never had experience before, whatever.

So I am, first and foremost, extremely grateful for my time at Engel & Völkers. They were an amazing platform for us. We accomplished some of the greatest things in my professional career while we were there.

But at the same time, you know, as we saw real estate changing, as we saw innovation and technology really leading the charge, I started to become a little bit frustrated with the lack of innovation and the lack of technology and the lack of being able to expand into new markets.

So backtrack about 18 months ago— a lot of these things are coming to fruition and we're starting to have some of these issues where, well, why can't we come here? Or why can't this [00:04:00] work? Or why—why can't we do this?

And so, you know, I'm a big firm believer that if we don't have what's best—or if I don't believe that we are the best in something, right—then I'm gonna go and find out who is, or I'm gonna go research what is, essentially.

And I think that's where our process started. And so we started—you know, I started talking to multiple different brands, because I went in a moment, number one is: What's out there? Right? 'Cause you just don't know what you don't know.

But at the same time, I wanted to go and research, okay, well if we're not the best in this category, then who is?

And throughout this 18-month process, we started interviewing with multiple brands, doing all these things. And I approached Christie's, to be honest.

[00:04:45] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:46] Corey Hasting: And because obviously I've always knew the brand. You know, didn’t know necessarily that much, but I knew of the brand—obviously with the auction house and a lot of other things as far as the luxury, you know, brokerage, boutique.

[00:04:55] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:56] Corey Hasting: So, you know, I met with them, and to be honest with you, I was absolutely blown away.

My conversations with Christie's started in November of 2024. And that's how long this process really took to iron out, because I knew the severity [00:05:00] of making a change like this. You know, I was telling people last week at our launch event—RealTrends Media named our brokerage 314th out of 88,000 brokerages...

[00:05:13] Tracy Hayes: I remember that.

[00:05:14] Corey Hasting: Yeah. We talked, yeah. In North America. So when you go through a change like this, there's extreme pressure. And, you know, all of our agents are looking at me and saying, “Why are we doing this? What does this mean?” You know, all these things.

And so you go through a process like this, and it’s something that takes significant time because number one, you want to make sure that every single obstacle that you think you're gonna come across, there's a reason behind it, there's a solution behind it.

And we did that. And through about eight to ten months of this transition, it was just one thing after another that Christie's checked a box for. Yes, they have this—the best technology, the best branding—and so I'm very excited to show you that or tell you a little bit about that today. Yeah, it’s been a long time in the works for sure.

[00:05:50] Tracy Hayes: Well, I mean, I think the “wow” that anyone looking at—'cause how many agents are right now in your brokerage?

[00:05:55] Corey Hasting: We have 138.

[00:06:00] Tracy Hayes: 138 agents. You have multiple locations. You're doing some changes, but basically averages out to five.

[00:06:05] Corey Hasting: Yep.

[00:06:06] Tracy Hayes: You'll get it set back down to five with your new corporate office. You got obviously, well, the physical thing of changing over the offices—that's just money.

[00:06:14] Corey Hasting: Right, right.

[00:06:15] Tracy Hayes: But 138 agents. I mean, did anybody—did you lose anybody?

[00:06:18] Corey Hasting: So that’s what's also amazing about this process. So whenever we were going through this conversion—you know, there’s this 80/20 rule, right? Anytime you convert companies, you wanna keep 80% of your employees, of your agents, whatever.

And throughout this entire process, you know, we only lost one person.

[00:06:34] Tracy Hayes: Wow.

[00:06:35] Corey Hasting: So for us—and there was obviously reasons why she left, which is fine. I support her in that.

[00:06:39] Tracy Hayes: Do you think it actually had to do with the change, or just...?

[00:06:41] Corey Hasting: No, I don't think it had anything to do with the change, to be honest.

[00:06:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:06:44] Corey Hasting: And you know, what's best for her is what's best for her, and I have no problem whatsoever, and I still love her to death.

But yeah, we only lost one person out of 138. And also on top of that, we have 14 full-time employees that came over, and nobody left and nobody transitioned.

Now, the real work starts now, right? I mean, obviously we've transitioned and people are excited about doing this—but can we keep 'em?

[00:07:00] Tracy Hayes: Right, right.

[00:07:01] Corey Hasting: The work starts now. We've been telling our team that for the last few weeks—yes, we can get through the transition, yes, everybody likes the new shiny toys. But the next 60 to 90 days are really what's gonna keep this to fruition.

[00:07:10] Corey Hasting: Right. And that's where I think we're at now. And we're very, very excited about what the future holds and where we're going forward. And you know, I can't wait for other—

[00:07:17] Tracy Hayes: Because you can overwhelm people, you know, the change in—I know from changing lenders to technology—

[00:07:22] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:07:22] Tracy Hayes: —how they—the process of how, well, loan officers are a little different from what happens at corporate after we hand the file in. But from a real estate standpoint, the fact that your core employee—the 14—

[00:07:32] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:33] Tracy Hayes: —that really kind of hold things together, right?

[00:07:34] Corey Hasting: Oh, absolutely.

[00:07:35] Tracy Hayes: —are bought into the move.

[00:07:37] Corey Hasting: Yeah. No, I mean, so there's been some people who have known about this for about four months. There's been a core group of about four or five of us that have known from the very beginning: “Hey, this is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm believing in. This is why I want to do this.” And those core people—we worked on this transition every single day for four and a half months.

[00:08:00] And realistically, we didn’t start telling our agents until about 30 days before the launch.

[00:08:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:06] Corey Hasting: Because you have to be very careful, right? You don't want it to leak, you don't want information out. Also, legally, you gotta be very careful about what they do know, right?

[00:08:13] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:14] Corey Hasting: And on top of that, I wanted all of our agents to hear it from me. I thought that was really, really important—because I wanted them to hear the reasons why, the vision, what's in it for them, what's gonna change for them. You know, all of these things that go into a change like this.

And so I met—either I met with everyone in person, small groups, or phone call, or quick, or an email—every single person in like two weeks.

[00:08:40] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:41] Corey Hasting: 150 people. It almost killed me. But it was worth it, right? And, you know, it was a lot of long hours, but it’s so important for me to—for them to be a part of this transition, which I also think really helped with our retention rate. Because if I just sent out an email and said, “Hey guys, tomorrow’s a new day, we’re gonna transition,” there'd be so many questions, and it would've gone terribly.

[00:08:56] Tracy Hayes: Well, how do you feel—because everyone I've had on the [00:09:00] show, they have obviously a high respect for you and how you lead them. You're winning. Volckers—your First Coast was a winning franchise.

[00:09:07] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:09:08] Tracy Hayes: It wasn't like you were in the dumpster and you're trying to jump to another ship.

[00:09:12] Corey Hasting: Right.

[00:09:13] Tracy Hayes: You were in control. You’re making the moves. But what were some of the reactions, concerns that some of the agents had?

[00:09:20] Corey Hasting: Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, what was crazy about this whole entire process is I went into each interview or each conversation understanding that there's probably gonna be some shock, probably some awe, probably some not understanding as to why.

But to be honest with you, it was the complete opposite. It was absolute excitement. And I think once people started to understand the who, which was Christie's—

[00:09:43] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:44] Corey Hasting: —the why, which we're gonna get into in a few minutes, and then what the direction of the company was—everybody was so on board, and everybody was all in on it.

And, you know, because Christie's is an amazing, amazing brand. And everybody knows the brand—either from the auction house, or from the real estate, or whatever it is.

[00:10:00] Because there's really only two luxury brands in the entire world: there’s Sotheby’s and Christie's.

[00:10:06] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:07] Corey Hasting: Because they’re the only two companies who have auction houses on a global scale. And so with that, I was making sure that everybody understood that from Engel & Völkers to Christie's, this is an extreme level-up.

And there's a lot of reasons—for branding, for technology, all of these things. And so for us it was just a matter of getting that information to them—

[00:10:27] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:28] Corey Hasting: —and really getting them to understand it. And I think, you know, part of the transition process is just the pure excitement from all of our agents, which has been great.

[00:10:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Yeah, because I would just think that is—that’s your number one concern. You can talk about tech and all this stuff...

[00:10:37] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:10:38] Tracy Hayes: But it really comes down to people.

[00:10:39] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:10:40] Tracy Hayes: And, you know, the value of your move to Christie's and, you know, that whole part—but your value is the people that are gonna follow you. And if you had 50% of your agents say, “Screw it, we’re just gonna go somewhere else..."

[00:10:51] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:10:52] Tracy Hayes: But Engel—it wasn’t like Engel & Völkers was staying. I mean, Engel & Völkers—now someone could come in and buy that franchise if they wanted to, but...

[00:11:00] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:11:01] Tracy Hayes: But I just—again, talking to all of your agents that I’ve had on—you are the buy-in. You were—you were Engel & Völkers to them.

[00:11:07] Corey Hasting: Thank you.

[00:11:08] Tracy Hayes: Obviously you'll be—you’ll be Christie's moving forward, but—

[00:11:10] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:11:11] Tracy Hayes: Let’s go with that big question: the why.

[00:11:13] Corey Hasting: Yeah. So—just really quick to what you just said.

[00:11:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:11:17] Corey Hasting: What was funny about the whole thing is, whenever I'm telling all of our agents and stuff, really the first question that they asked me was, “You're gonna be here, right?”

And I’m like, “Yes. I promise you—like, this is even gonna probably have me more involved.” Like, this is not a sale whatsoever. I'm still 100% owner. I'm still 100% of the brokerage and all of these things. I'm very, very involved in it. And so I think once they understood that, they were like, “Okay, I’m in.”

But I think the biggest reasons why—I really have felt—and this is not an indictment on Engel & Völkers whatsoever. Like I said, they’re an amazing product, amazing brokerage. But I had really felt for the last 18 months that we have really plateaued there.

[00:12:00] You know, because there comes a certain point in time where, when you become a brokerage that’s truly regional, like we are, you need different support than just the mom-and-pop, or one-shop or two-shop type of operation.

I mean, when you start having six office locations that span over 900 square miles, you start having almost 150 agents doing a billion dollars in sales, you need different level everything.

And on top of that, you know, I am always in a growth mode.

[00:12:16] Tracy Hayes: Give us an example of that though. I can sort of imagine, but give us something—like a challenge that you had at Engel. A service or whatever it was at Engel & Völkers—'cause you're talking about different price points, different needs for those agents.

[00:12:30] Corey Hasting: Yeah. Well, I’ll equate it to this. So, whenever I opened Engel & Völkers back in 2018, our number one obstacle was brand awareness.

[00:12:39] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:39] Corey Hasting: The closest Engel & Völkers shop was 250 miles away. A lot of people couldn't pronounce the name. A lot of people didn't know what it was—a real estate company, whatever else.

Fast forward seven years later—that was still our number one obstacle. People still didn’t know what we were. Even though we’ve done a lot of really good things, we’ve achieved a lot of exciting goals, right, locally and nationally—people would still ask our customers, our clients, our agents:

[00:13:00] “I’m sorry—who is that? Is that an insurance firm? Is that this, is that...?”

And so that was always gonna be our number one obstacle. And so that was something that literally kept me up at night trying to overcome. How do we get over this? How do we do this?

And that was one of the biggest transition points—because, you know, Christie's has probably the best name in real estate. But at the same time, if you don’t know what it is—international real estate’s in the name.

[00:13:11] Corey Hasting: So if we can already overcome our number one obstacle by just the brand, what can't we achieve?

[00:13:17] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:18] Corey Hasting: So that was one of the many things, obviously. But on top of that, you know, I'm always in growth mode. I want to expand, I want to recruit, I want to grow—all of these things. And, you know, Engel & Völkers really didn’t have any more territory for us.

We couldn’t go north into Georgia. We couldn’t go south because there’s already an owner in St. Augustine. And it really became this kind of bottleneck where, if we’re not gonna grow, and we’re not getting what we need—then what are we doing, right?

[00:13:45] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:46] Corey Hasting: And we were doing a lot of great things and we still accomplished a lot of great things. But with Christie's, one of the best things about [00:14:00] this is I’m gonna own the entire Northeast Florida territory. So I own from St. Simons Island, Georgia, all the way to deep Flagler Beach.

So that’s multiple new markets that we now can expand into over the near future. We can obviously recruit more in those markets. And so for that, it just allows you to grow. And, you know, my dad used to always tell me that if you're not growing, you're dying—

[00:14:23] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:24] Corey Hasting: —in one way, shape, or form. Right? In business, but also in life.

[00:14:26] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:14:27] Corey Hasting: And I believe that. And I live by that. And so, you know, we are already, I think, number three market share in all of St. Augustine without even having an office there. And we've tried to recruit there for a long time, and we’ve done a really good job. But without having a local presence in St. Augustine—

[00:14:44] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:45] Corey Hasting: —it’s very difficult to go after that market.

[00:14:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:14:48] Corey Hasting: Well now, we have the opportunity to. And so our number one focus on growth and expansion is getting in St. Augustine within the next four to six months.

[00:14:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:14:56] Corey Hasting: Because that's such an untapped market for us. And it's also a very international market—which Christie's International Real Estate resonates with. So that's going to be fantastic.

But also expanding into Georgia—we have a [00:15:00] ton of agents in our Amelia Island office who are dual-licensed in Georgia and Florida. So getting into that market.

So it just became this unwavering, “Why are we waiting to do this?” Right? And I think that’s what it became over several months. And then it just became a matter of: how can we execute this the right way? And that’s what we did.

[00:15:18] Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that you're seeing in the industry now? And I go back to—you made some statements early on about, you know, things that you felt needed, or maybe needed to be tweaked, whatever they were.

Did the management at Engel & Völkers—and not to blame, and again, not to put them out there—but I think it's... you can see this in corporations or in brokerages. Because, you know, I always talk about choosing the right brokerage, right?

[00:15:44] Corey Hasting: Of course.

[00:15:45] Tracy Hayes: And it's so important for the agents to choose the right brokerage. But a broker who may be on top of his things now—like, they were asking, “Are you going to stay?”

[00:15:53] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:15:54] Tracy Hayes: “Is this a move and then you're going to get promoted and we're going to have somebody else in here?” That was their concern. They wanted to continue to follow you—

[00:16:00] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:16:01] Tracy Hayes: —because you're a mover and shaker and you're always looking to—you’re cutting edge and you got the energy.

But some companies—brokerages, whatever—they just lose their luster, or management moves on. Were there some changes like that that made people feel like, “No, this is the way we've always done it” kind of attitude starting to come out?

[00:16:18] Corey Hasting: Well, you know, I don’t know. I mean, so the way that Engel & Völkers works is—you know, obviously Engel & Völkers Florida is separate from Engel & Völkers Americas. I still have great relationships on a national scale at the Americas headquarters, and also still in the Florida headquarters.

And I just think—it was time.

[00:16:38] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:16:39] Corey Hasting: You know, we were there almost eight years. We accomplished a lot of great things together. You know, I would never be sitting here today making this transition without them. So I can’t speak to different changes and this and that. I just think—it was time.

[00:16:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:16:56] Corey Hasting: And I think, you know, in life sometimes you have these moments where you need to kind of move on. And change is a great thing. And I think that’s where we're at. And I think change is going to be a great thing for our company and for me personally.

I can tell you that I [00:17:00] have more energy in the last two or three months than I’ve had in the last two years. And, you know, I’m very motivated now—which we joke all the time is probably a bad thing for most people. But I absolutely am addicted to the work.

And I think I’ve just found this new energy on life and new energy on business. And I think that’s contagious.

Because I think success can do two things to you, and I always tell people this. Number one is, it can make you kind of content—because you’ve achieved success, and you kind of get a little bit lazy.

[00:17:30] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:31] Corey Hasting: Or it can make you strive for more success—because you’re addicted to the success.

And one of my biggest fears in life is becoming content. And I think—not that we were there—but at the same time, we were becoming comfortable. Because, you know, we achieved X, Y, and Z, and all these other things.

Well now, we have to kind of start over in a way. But we have so much ability to grow. So much runway. And we have a kind of a joke with our team—that this transition, we are truly going to “take it to the moon.” Because that is really our biggest goal now, and that’s where we want to go [00:18:00] with this.

And we’re not doing this transition to stay the same, right? We’re doing this transition to grow. We’re doing this transition to go from $1 billion to $1.5 billion. We’re doing this to open new markets, to create new technology, new marketing platforms—all of these things that are really going to help our agents grow and hopefully make their life easier.

[00:18:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. One of the topics you had is “elevating luxury in Northeast Florida.” Tell us about that. I mean, I think a lot of agents want to get into it—they're like, “What is luxury?” Some say it's not the price point, it’s the service.

[00:18:30] Corey Hasting: I disagree.

[00:18:31] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So—although I think everyone should be treated with great dignity and so forth...

[00:18:35] Corey Hasting: Of course.

[00:18:36] Tracy Hayes: But obviously this was one of the topics you thought was important. Tell me about Christie's and what your vision is there, in bringing and elevating the luxury in Northeast Florida.

[00:18:47] Corey Hasting: Yeah, so—our brokerage, in the last four years, has either finished first or second in highest average sales price in the entire city, from companies who have closed over 500 transactions or more.

And we are doing this transition because I want to absolutely dominate the luxury space. I think Northeast Florida is in a position now where it’s never been before—with prices. We’re starting to see a lot of money come into Northeast Florida.

You know, we’re seeing $15 million sales in Atlantic Beach, $22 million sales in Ponte Vedra Beach—all of these things.

[00:19:18] And so there needs to be a dominant luxury brokerage. And I think we were kind of already that, in a way, with Engel & Völkers. But now, moving over to Christie's, where it's a brand identity that exudes luxury—with the auction house and just over on a global scale—it’s ripe for the taking. And we are going to take it.

And so we are going to position ourselves—not only with our agents currently, for other listings with marketing material and going after different people in those higher-end thresholds or zip codes—but also in recruiting.

You know, we want to recruit agents who live and work in the luxury space. Which—like you said, every agent kind of wants to get into it, but it is very difficult.

And in the luxury space, branding matters. Because exposure matters. And not every brand has the same exposure, and not every brand has the same marketing to get that exposure.

Christie’s—we are blessed to have the global platform, the relationship with the auction house—not only with the technology and the SEO for websites and all of these things—but we have some really, really exciting things for our local market too, which I can’t wait to get into.

[00:20:19] Tracy Hayes: One of the things—the global reach, which you just were talking about—and it's on here as, and mixed in with the luxury...

[00:20:25] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:20:27] Tracy Hayes: There’s talk about—you can say a lot of those things, of course—but is there the stats behind it? I imagine you dug into a little bit of that to see if the flash—there was a bang behind the flash, and a flash behind the bang there.

[00:20:40] Corey Hasting: Of course. Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, everybody—you know, there’s a lot of companies who say they’re global. There’s a lot of companies that say they’re luxury, whatever else. All I know is that there’s two companies who have auction houses in the world, and there’s one company who, for the last five years, has been the number one auction house in the world—and that’s Christie's.

They have 12 auction houses around the world—in all different major cities you can think of. So whenever you're [00:21:00] traveling, or whenever you have high-end clients, or whatever else, they know Christie's as a whole. And those customers want to work with a trusted advisor that knows, sells, and understands luxury.

And that’s where I think our positioning is gonna be—not only in Northeast Florida, but that’s where the Christie's brand positioning is around the world.

[00:21:22] So I was just in the south of France for my birthday two weeks ago. And you know, I’m in Monaco, I’m in St. Tropez, I’m in Nice. Everywhere we go—there’s Christie's on every corner.

[00:21:33] Tracy Hayes: On the corner.

[00:21:34] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm. So it's like—you know, you're walking by the yacht show, you look over and there's a Christie's there. You're walking in Monaco, right next to the casino—there’s a Christie's right there. So I mean, even—I didn’t even know they were there, but when you see it, it’s like, “Okay, this makes sense.”

[00:21:42] Tracy Hayes: You see the yellow—you buy a yellow car, all of a sudden every car's yellow.

[00:21:45] Corey Hasting: Right. So that was really cool. And you know, but I just think, you know—any market that you’re looking at, I mean just let’s take some markets close to us. Let’s take Atlanta, for example.

Atlanta—the Christie's there is Ansley. Ansley is the number one market share for luxury. They have 500 agents, 7–8 offices, and last year they did $4.1 billion in sales.

[00:22:00] Just in Atlanta. So if you look at feeder markets for us—you know, obviously Atlanta is a big feeder market for our Amelia Island office, but also Jacksonville as a whole. That right there itself is gonna lead to so many referrals because they have the number one luxury market share in a huge city like Atlanta, doing $4.1 billion.

That’s where we can then cross. Same exact thing with John R. Wood in South Florida. He owns from Key West all the way to Palm Beach. They have 26 offices. Last year they did $6 billion in sales.

[00:22:32] Like—those markets are just such a difference whenever you talk about comparison from brokerages, to companies, to whatever. And so that’s where I’m really excited. I’m really excited to get into the network. I’m really excited to get referrals back and forth—but also just learn from people.

You know, last year, if you look at RealTrends—last year with Engel & Völkers, we would have finished first in brokerages as far as sales volume. Christie's—we would have finished ninth.

So we have people to learn from. We have other owners I can call up [00:23:00] and say, “Hey, what are you doing?”

[00:23:01] Tracy Hayes: It’s being that fifth person in the room.

[00:23:03] Corey Hasting: Exactly, yeah. I mean, 'cause think about that—we did almost a billion dollars in sales. Ansley in Atlanta—they’re four times what we are.

[00:23:11] Tracy Hayes: Right. Which is insane.

[00:23:12] Corey Hasting: Right. But—they’ve all been where we are now. And, you know, so my biggest thing—and I’ve been calling them and meeting with them constantly, and a couple other owners—“How did you get from $1 billion to $2 billion? How’d you get from $1 billion to $3 billion? What are some of the obstacles you faced? How did you guys recruit differently?”

Because there’s no brokerage handbook, right? And I think that’s the biggest thing people don’t understand. Like—it’s all learning from people who have been there before.

And, you know, I loved my time at Engel & Völkers, and I still have great relationships there. But I wanted to learn from people who are at the $3, $4, $5, $6 billion numbers that I can call up and say, “Give me your number one—or number two—lessons that you wish you would’ve done differently, or that you wish you would've known to get you here.”

And I think that is truly invaluable. And as a broker-owner, there’s no [00:24:00] price for that—because it's impossible to get that information unless they’re willing to give it.

[00:24:03] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You mentioned a few minutes ago—YouTube.

[00:24:06] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:07] Tracy Hayes: You started a YouTube channel here. What is Christie's—and you mentioned SEO, that was kind of something that attracted you. Tell us a little about what you're doing there.

[00:24:15] Corey Hasting: Yeah, so—the biggest thing with this is, you know, it’s such a huge transition. Brokerages don’t just transition, right? I mean, this is very, very rare for a company of our size.

I mean, there’s a lot of conversions of small companies, people doing this and that—but you don’t have companies our size, national scale, converting to other companies.

And so, you know, when I was going through this whole process—there’s truly 10,000 steps we had to go through, both legally and in the shops and signs and agents and all this stuff that people would never see.

So I wanted to build a—it’s kind of a docuseries behind the scenes, and launch a YouTube channel where our agents, but also other people, can just watch it. Because it’s fascinating, in [00:25:00] my opinion.

[00:25:01] And, you know, we just dropped our first episode yesterday on my YouTube channel. We're gonna do two episodes—

[00:25:05] Tracy Hayes: What is the name of the YouTube channel? Plug it up.

[00:25:07] Corey Hasting: It's just Corey Hasting.

[00:25:08] Tracy Hayes: Just on your personal page?

[00:25:09] Corey Hasting: Just on it, yeah. We're gonna drop two episodes a week for the next five weeks leading up to the launch. Because there’s just so much that goes into it that people never see.

You know, we joke that people see the end product, right?

[00:25:21] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:22] Corey Hasting: And they see the launch, and they see the new signs, the new business cards, all of that. But they don’t see the 10,000 hours it took to get there. They don’t see how much time, energy, and effort our admin staff, our managing broker Jimmy Lewis, was putting into all of these things.

Well—I wanted to bring you in. And I want to show you it. Because it's fascinating.

But also, I wanted it for myself, right? This is probably the most important transition or decision of my entire professional career. So I wanted to document it, even if it's just for myself, and say, “Look what we were able to achieve.”

[00:25:57] But I really think people are gonna enjoy looking at it—because we give the inside scoop to a lot of things. A lot of conversations. A lot of headaches that came up throughout the process that you would just never [00:26:00] know were there. Because they see the final product and they’re like, “Oh wow, this must have been easy.”

[00:26:03] Tracy Hayes: I imagine you’ve probably already thought of this, but I could see—you know, obviously condensing it down to a shorter form when you have all these things—when you’re recruiting.

[00:26:11] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:26:12] Tracy Hayes: Your why, and how much sweat and tears and stress that you put in to make this move—and obviously to talk about why all these agents followed you over there—as part of that series. And I think as a little five-minute highlight reel...

[00:26:25] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:26:26] Tracy Hayes: ...would be awesome.

[00:26:28] Corey Hasting: Yeah, yeah. No, I think once we have the content—which that’s what we’re getting now—you can really do everything with it.

And, you know, we want to also—once we grow the channel—we want to highlight some of our marquee listings around Northeast Florida, with our agents, you know, having them show the property on a big—

[00:26:30] Corey Hasting: ...channel. So we’re gonna use it multifaceted. You know, right now we’re just gonna do the launch. We’re gonna bring everybody behind this, but we’re gonna continue the channel throughout. We’re gonna use it a lot as our brokerage, we’re gonna use it a lot as a platform for our agents, and really just grow it that way.

People around Northeast Florida, but also nationally, they can see [00:27:00] what it's like to be a part of a billion-dollar brokerage—because there’s only about 314 to 315 around the entire country that produce the way we do. So it's very unique, and I think people will like the perspective that we give.

[00:27:12] Tracy Hayes: You need to watch my episode from a few weeks ago with Katie Spank.

[00:27:14] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:15] Tracy Hayes: She has 60-some thousand followers on her YouTube channel.

[00:27:18] Corey Hasting: Very cool.

[00:27:19] Tracy Hayes: And obviously, she gets referrals from all around the country.

[00:27:22] Corey Hasting: Of course.

[00:27:23] Tracy Hayes: Her channel is just focused on sellers.

[00:27:25] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:27:26] Tracy Hayes: But we don’t use YouTube—agents don’t use YouTube enough.

[00:27:30] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:27:31] Tracy Hayes: And they’re not consistent enough on there—because that stuff will come.

Talk—let's, you know—obviously, the big talk when an agent’s moving from a brokerage to a brokerage—and obviously you’re moving an entire, you know, 138 agents over—but something that you mentioned earlier that caught you was the technology and innovation of Christie's.

Tell us a little bit about what caught your eye there.

[00:27:53] Corey Hasting: Well, I just think in 2025 and beyond, there are a lot of core principles you have to have, right?

[00:28:00] As an agent, you have to have a working website. You have to have a website that, whenever the seller Googles your address, you’re one of the top three or four links on Google. You have to have SEO. You have to have a cutting-edge mobile app. You have to have all these things.

And I’m not saying we didn’t have those at EV, but—I didn’t believe they were to the full potential as they should have been, we’ll say.

And with Christie's, it’s completely different. You know, we are now powered by Luxury Presence websites, which—if anybody knows websites—it’s the best money can buy in all of real estate. It is truly amazing.

All of our agents get their own subdomains, all of that—where now, when the seller Googles their address, they’re one of the top three links on Google. We can do SEO, we can do pay-per-click ads—it’s incredible.

But on top of that, we have our own branded luxury mobile app called First Coast Luxury, which all of our agents are gonna get as well. And it’s just cutting-edge when it comes to exposure, but also marketing.

[00:29:00] Print marketing is not dead. If anything, it is alive and thriving.

And so, you have to have great marketing pieces—especially in the luxury bracket—where when they walk in, they can see that it feels luxury, they can see that it feels different.

You know, we’re just going from a brand that was very templated—we’ll say—to a brand that has a lot more freedom. And that gives a lot more freedom to the agents. It gives them more variety so that not everybody always looks the same. But also, everything is approved. Couple different color choices, those types of things.

And so I can’t wait for everybody to see it. But I think our agents are really, really excited—not only about the technology, but the marketing, and just kind of combining it together.

[00:29:27] Tracy Hayes: That was one of the things that someone I know closely—

[00:29:30] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:29:31] Tracy Hayes: —when talking about—you know, I was recommending for them to talk to you...

[00:29:34] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:29:35] Tracy Hayes: ...they weren’t a fan of the EV’s marketing.

[00:29:38] Corey Hasting: I get it. Yeah. I mean, it’s something we faced, right? I mean, it served its purpose. And, you know, I think whenever something's templated like that—I think it works in certain varieties.

And we talked about earlier how I felt like we outgrew the brand a little bit. That was one of the ways I thought we did.

And it's no knock on them, right? It’s worked since 1977. You know, it works really, really well. But we do need [00:30:00] some variety in 2025, 2026 moving forward.

We do need different templates, with different marketing platforms—but also just things that agents don't even know are out there. Like agent brand books, and agent “Join Us” books, and being able to talk about market insights, and being able to have mailers that are all different sizes—all different trifolds.

Like just having stuff that agents go, “Wow, I didn’t even know we had this.”

That’s what Christie's does.

[00:30:23] Tracy Hayes: If I’m hearing you correctly—and agents who might be listening to this right now—

[00:30:26] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:30:27] Tracy Hayes: —and might say, “Hey, maybe we need to—you want me to talk to Corey about Christie's…”

But it sounds like you have the brand—Christie’s—

[00:30:34] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:30:35] Tracy Hayes: —but you also have the ability to brand yourself within the brand.

[00:30:37] Corey Hasting: Within the brand. Absolutely. And don’t get me wrong—like, you know, it's not like we’re a free-for-all. There's no, you know, pink and gray templates, right? Everything is still structured.

But at the same time, you have more variety within the structure. And I think that’s really important because—you know, when you go to the Cheesecake Factory and you look at the menu, sometimes you get overwhelmed because there's too many things to choose from.

[00:31:00] Yeah. We want to make sure that we’re gonna cut that down. So instead of you selecting from 100 things, there’s 20—but it’s still more variety than you've ever had before. And everything is approved, everything is beautiful, everything is built for you.

But yes—there is some customization now that you have as the agent that really, in my opinion, no other brokerage has.

Because you combine the really luxury marketing we have, the great technology we have, but also just the brand name in the luxury space—we’re really excited to get started and, you know, spread the word.

And, you know, I think the market is also excited. I mean, some people have been reaching out and commenting, and a lot of our agents have been getting calls from other agents and stuff.

So I think everybody’s excited, and I think—I can’t wait to see what the next three to four months look like for us. And yeah, sky’s the limit for sure.

[00:31:42] Tracy Hayes: Alright, so you told me a little earlier—you’re doing some rearranging of the locations.

[00:31:46] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:31:47] Tracy Hayes: And you’re opening a new headquarters—an actual...

[00:31:48] Corey Hasting: Headquarters office, yep. So we’re super excited. I mean, we are now in the process of closing our Jacksonville Beach office and our satellite Neptune Beach office—condensing those into a brand-new [00:32:00] headquarter office in the heart of Atlantic Beach.

If those of you who are listening or watching—it’s gonna—

[00:32:03] Tracy Hayes: Still give a retail front?

[00:32:05] Corey Hasting: Yeah, it is. So—it’s right behind Coop 303 in the brand new building. It’s got Elite Med Spa, ATP Headquarters Tour, it’s got The Grand Bar there now, a couple other things.

So we were just over there yesterday—it’s coming together. We’re probably 30 days out, I’d say. So the goal is to be in there before November 1st. But we’re really excited.

I think, you know, right now we’re either number two or number three in market share of all of Atlantic Beach. And we believe that getting over to Atlantic Beach, having our headquarters office there, is really going to increase our market share.

Because we already have a lot of agents who live and work there. But now we have that space. I think it's gonna be really cool.

[00:32:42] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Expansion—you mentioned all the way down to Flagler.

[00:32:45] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:32:46] Tracy Hayes: But the Old City is your focus right now.

[00:32:48] Corey Hasting: It is. So, like I said before, we have a lot of agents who already live and work in St. Augustine. We’re already, you know, one of the top market share companies there.

So our focus is trying to get a space that makes the [00:33:00] most sense.

[00:33:00] Corey Hasting: You know, obviously St. Augustine is a little unique, right? You have the old town and the downtown markets, so you kind of have to decide—do you want to be there and kind of give up parking in a way? Or do you want to be at the beachside, or whatever makes sense. So—

Right now, we’re in the process—we're gonna find a great location. We're not in a rush, but at the same time, we want to make it work.

And we’ve already had a lot of agents who’ve reached out to us—because we’ve never really recruited in that area much before, 'cause we weren’t really allowed and all these other things. We've already had several St. Augustine agents reach out to us privately and say, “When are you opening?” or “What do you got? What's your plan here?”

And so I'm excited for that. And, you know, there’s a lot of companies who have strong St. Augustine offices that fit really well with who we are. So, you know—we’ll see. My goal is to have—

[00:33:42] Tracy Hayes: I’m really curious, 'cause I know some agents—and some of them have been on the show—

[00:33:45] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:33:46] Tracy Hayes: —that are in that St. Augustine Beach area.

[00:33:48] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:33:49] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause there's some dollar amounts going up there.

[00:33:51] Corey Hasting: There is, yeah. I mean, it’s a big market. And for us, you know, it’s an untapped market. And I think that’s what makes it really exciting.

So our goal is to have something there [00:34:00] on or before the end of quarter two in 2026. Obviously, things have to align—we’re not going to rush it. But we believe we're going to be able to find something that’s going to fit, and I think people are going to be really excited about it.

And I think it’s going to really just unify our whole entire region, because that’s also one of the biggest reasons why we’re doing this. I wanted one vision, one region, one culture, one company.

And that was really, really big for us. And we did a great job doing that with Engel & Völkers, but we were so bottlenecked—we couldn’t grow here, couldn’t grow there. And so we’re going to continue that, and we’re going to have the same company culture, the same agent culture, and just begin to open new markets.

And I think there’s going to be a lot of cross-referrals from agents from Amelia Island to St. Augustine, or Jacksonville to St. Augustine, or whatever else—

[00:34:49] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:34:50] Corey Hasting: —because believe it or not, not every agent works every market. But for us, I think it’s going to be really, really strong. And I think that’s what we’re looking forward to.

[00:34:56] Tracy Hayes: I would imagine the PO—Greater Palm Coast, Flagler County—is another?

[00:34:53] Corey Hasting: It potentially could be. Absolutely. Yeah.

I mean, my whole thing is—I love the Ryan Serhant saying, “Expansion always, always.” Whatever makes sense, we’re going to do.

And that’s always been kind of our motto. So, you know, if we can get a big team, or a market, or a developer, or whatever else in those markets—we’ll definitely go after it.

[00:35:10] Tracy Hayes: Do you see yourself going a little further north to the Georgia line? You said St. Simons Island is your north border?

[00:35:15] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, probably the end of 2026, we’ll start focusing on St. Simons—if not before. St. Simons is an absolutely beautiful area. It has Sea Island there, which is the only five-star resort in the entire state of Georgia.

But also there’s a lot of cross-sales between St. Simons and Amelia Island, or St. Simons and Atlanta, or whatever else it may be.

So it’s great. I mean, I think it’s really, really going to do well for us. And it’s just a matter of getting everything—

Right now, we are in the process of building the foundation of the house, right? We want to make sure that we have everything set. We have all the support systems, all the—everything that the agents need right now—and then we can start building the walls, and we can start putting the drywall up and doing all those things.

And that’s kind of what our plan is over the next three to four months.

[00:35:55] Tracy Hayes: For those agents who are not on Christie's roster [00:36:00] yet—

[00:36:01] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:36:02] Tracy Hayes: What do you say to them? Because obviously—you are... every—again, one of the other things is, every agent I’ve had has said, “Why did you sign up?” “Why’d you sign up with Corey?” And it’s because—Corey.

And you prep yourself really well for the interviews, from what I understand.

[00:36:15] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:36:16] Tracy Hayes: I imagine you have some sort of recruiting goal. I imagine that’s kind of your... you have a business plan here as your launch with Christie's?

[00:36:21] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, our goal is—we want to get to $1.5 billion. Right? We want to get from $1 billion to $1.5 in a year, 18 months—whatever it takes.

And we don’t necessarily always care about agent count—we care about agent production. And we’re never going to lose sight of that.

So, yeah—I mean, if agents are out there—and I’m not, I don’t want to solicit by any chance—but if agents are out there and they’re interested in hearing more, obviously you can reach out to me on social media. A lot of people obviously have my phone number, or know an agent that works for us—we can always connect a meeting.

But it’s going to be exciting. And I think we’re going to make headway when it comes to recruiting. I mean, we already were with Engel & Völkers. So it’s just exciting times for our entire team, exciting times for our agents—because there’s been so many [00:37:00] agents who have called me or texted me over the last week since we launched, where—it’s success stories from their seller, or from their buyer, or maybe one of their clients saw one of our new signs go up around town and they’ve said:

“Oh my gosh, congratulations—I know Christie's from Connecticut,” or “I knew Christie’s from South Florida,” or whatever, right?

And so I think our team is really excited about it. And—you know, I keep using that word because it’s just an exciting time. There’s so many things that went into this.

And also—I believe we’re the biggest conversion in Christie's International Real Estate company history. So that came with a lot of pressure, right? Because we want to make it run.

But also, it came with so much support. Christie's gave us so much. And their entire team has been absolutely terrific. I mean, Thad Wong, the CEO, was down here all last week for our launch. Their president, Gavin Swartzman, he was down here all last week.

All their support staff—being at the launch, doing hands-on training the days after—they made it feel like we were important.

[00:38:00] Which—I can't even stress to you how much that means to me. Because it’s not every company that does that. And it comes to the culture, it comes to the leadership, but also I think it comes to the appreciation of who their client is. Which is all of us.

And I think a great leader understands who their client is from the very beginning. Just like, you know, my clients are all my agents. I’m here to problem-solve for them. I’m here to give them solutions. I’m here to help their business in whatever way I can.

Thad Wong and Christie's leadership understand that their client is myself. And they’re here to problem-solve for me, they’re here to give me resources, they’re here to help me grow and help my business—whatever way I need.

And I’m just super excited to have that partnership with them, and be able to grow together.

[00:38:41] Tracy Hayes: You know, you mentioned something there—and I heard it in just a talk this week, and you reminded me—but it’s not something I’ve never heard before. And that’s the importance of...

We talk about real estate agents, and a lot of times we like to think—you know, and then you’ve got some great ones that would just—they would be [00:39:00] successful no matter what.

But to get a little attention from those people—you know, maybe they hear about you, or they see you on their computer, you make a video or something, or write an article, or whatever it may be—but they actually showed up.

[00:39:15] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:16] Tracy Hayes: And spent days here. They weren’t in town for a couple hours, you had an event, they spoke, and they left.

[00:39:22] Corey Hasting: Right.

[00:39:23] Tracy Hayes: They actually were here. And how much that actually means—it meant a lot to you—

[00:39:26] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:39:27] Tracy Hayes: —but it meant a lot to the agents, I bet, on your team.

[00:39:29] Corey Hasting: Yeah. No, absolutely. I mean, very rarely do CEOs of companies Christie's size fly in for a launch—especially on a Wednesday.

[00:39:30] Corey Hasting: Morning, you know—when the president comes, and the head of affiliate services, and all these things—

[00:39:36] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:37] Corey Hasting: That’s very rare. That’s very rare.

[00:39:40] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:39:41] Corey Hasting: And I just need people to understand that. And I also think that our agents and advisors appreciated that because they know it’s rare.

And you know, I very much value Thad’s time, Gavin’s time, the entire Christie's team. So it meant a lot. And you [00:40:00] know, it just shows that—we’re in a true partnership with them. And they want us to succeed just like I want to succeed. And I think that creates this level of trust, creates this level of knowing that they're in the foxhole with us, right?

And for that, I think it’s going to be a great partnership. And I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us together.

[00:40:18] Tracy Hayes: Well, it just—I imagine there is a level of stress, of course, you’ve obviously gone through. But even your lowest-producing agents are going through stress. They’ve got to rebrand themselves.

[00:40:30] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:40:31] Tracy Hayes: Or, you know, there’s just that thing like, “Well... why did you leave Engel & Völkers?”

[00:40:36] Corey Hasting: Right.

[00:40:37] Tracy Hayes: That’s a question they’re gonna get at the cocktail party.

[00:40:39] Corey Hasting: Of course.

[00:40:40] Tracy Hayes: So they gotta explain that and know—and I think there’s a great explanation, obviously, and we talked about a lot of it here—but that’s a stress to everybody. So having those people there—

[00:40:50] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:51] Tracy Hayes: —at the time of transition to field their calls or talk to them, be in the room... And yeah, I imagine a technology changeover...

Give me two or three [00:41:00] things. Again, if agents who are listening right now might be going, “Hmm, what’s all this about Christie's?” Luxury—because, you know, they all want to hustle, sell the higher price points and all that kind of stuff.

What’s the talk? What are two or three things that you think—if you’re recruiting right now someone who doesn’t know particularly anything about Christie's other than the name—that you think are on the cutting edge that they need to know?

If you’re selling Christie's to somebody, this is the team you need to join. What are two or three things you would mention?

[00:41:29] Corey Hasting: Well, I think the biggest thing is—you have to understand the agent you're recruiting. What do they believe their business is lacking?

Right? Is it—“Hey, I’m at a boutique firm, I’m looking to increase my price point, but I don’t really have a brand I can leverage right now?”

Well, for us, that’s very easy—you’re going to have the best brand in the entire world behind you, supporting you, and being able to leverage it through all of our marketing, our technology, our global exposure, our listing enhancements, etc.

If it's, “Hey, I’m at a company who maybe isn't tech-forward,” well—no problem. We [00:42:00] have the best websites. We have the best cutting-edge technology when it comes to branded mobile apps for you and your clients, your best CRM—all of these things that can combine it.

Some agents are just, “Hey, I need better marketing,” or “I need better support,” or “I need better [something else] because I don’t have time to do it myself.”

Well, we have 14 full-time employees. We have a full marketing staff that runs everything for you. We have three in-house transaction coordinators that run all of your business and transactions with you.

So, my goal has always been—if you’re a top-producing agent, you don’t need to learn real estate. You need more time.

What I think we do really well is—we create time for our agents and advisors.

We’re going to handle all of your marketing in-house so that you don’t have to spend 3 hours building an open house flyer.

We’re going to handle all of your transactions in-house so that you don’t have to stay up till 10:00 PM trying to get that disclosure signed.

We’re going to be able to put you in more places so you can do more money-producing activities.

Because top agents, like I said—they don’t need to learn real estate. Yes, they may need a contract change here or there, maybe they need to understand the NAR stuff a little bit better—whatever—which we’re going to do that as well through our training.

But they need systems. They need to be more productive. They need the ability to problem-solve without knowing what the problem technically is.

[00:43:00] And I think that’s what we do really well. And I think we’ve always done that well as an organization—but now, aligning with Christie’s, with the best technology, the marketing, and all of these things—it’s going to take that to new heights.

So I think if agents are out there—I would... my first question would be: What do you think you’re lacking?

Because sometimes it’s the agent, right? They don’t want to hear it, but it is. Sometimes it’s the brokerage. Sometimes it’s a mixture of both.

But the thing is—look, there’s no such thing as a perfect brokerage, right? There’s no such thing as a perfect agent. I think a lot of brokerages in this town do a lot of things really well.

I think what we do works really well. I think it’s just a matter of trying to figure out what exactly you are missing, and what brokerage solves that problem for you.

[00:43:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Many—well, I wouldn’t say many—but some people that I think are credible in the space—and I think you’re in this category as well—you know, that agent right now that’s sub-$10 million, $7 to $10 million in our region, they’re doing good, but they’ve hit a lid.

Many believe the next move—making a move—could get you to that $14, $15, $16 million range, and so forth.

And I would imagine if an agent in that category right now is hitting that lid—what are you saying to them? What would Christie’s bring them so you could take them from that $7–$10 million to hopefully $15–$20 million?

[00:44:36] Corey Hasting: Yeah. Typically whenever agents are at that cusp and they don’t have any help—they do everything on their own—they are maxed out. They don’t have time to do more business. They don’t have time to do anything.

And so when I meet with agents like that—which we do a lot of—it’s all about maximizing.

What can we take off your plate, and what can the brokerage do for you?

So again—we talked about our in-house marketing team, our in-house transaction coordination. We talked about technology, where we can build you systems so that your database can now hear from you 40 times a year—without you having to do anything. It’s automation through systems, and also understanding what systems are out there.

[00:45:00] While piecing that with a global luxury brand that works with you, not against you.

So I think it just depends on—once again, goes back to the recruiting thing I talked about—what do you believe your business is missing?

99.9% of agents who are at that $10 million and want to grow—it’s all about time.

Because they have the connections. They have the business. They understand how to work it—but there’s not enough hours in the day.

Because they’re also moms, husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends—they’re all these things that we also have to have, which is called life, right?

And that’s usually the number one thing that real estate agents sacrifice—is the loved ones at home. Because they’re working when other people are off work—which is nights, weekends, all these things.

If we can automate some of that, so that your business is working for you, not against you—it becomes a very enjoyable time.

And you know what I love—our averages in 2024 per advisor were about $8.8 million in sales volume and over 14 closed transactions a year, which is by far the highest in the city.

And I think we attract top producers because we have that structure that is built for the top producer.

Not every brokerage has that. You know, there's a big difference between the type of broker a new agent needs and the type of broker a top producer needs.

Everything we do is built for the top producer.

That’s why we have the volume threshold of $3 million to join us. That’s why we only take full-time agents on board—because you just don’t know what you don’t know, right?

And the top agent needs more support, needs more systems, needs more ability to streamline their business.

They don’t need to go to real estate 101. Like—they understand the purchase and sale agreement. They understand the different changes and all that. That’s not my job.

I mean, yes, we do some of that through continuing education. But my job is to maximize their time. And I think that’s what we [00:47:00] do really, really well.

[00:47:02] Tracy Hayes: Me or the audience really—not me. Well, I'd like to hear it too.

[00:47:06] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:47:07] Tracy Hayes: You're dealing with some of the best agents in Northeast Florida.

[00:47:10] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:47:11] Tracy Hayes: And I had a reel recently do well—can’t say I had one go viral, like millions of views or anything—but it was talking about, don’t focus on the split.

[00:47:19] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:20] Tracy Hayes: Focus on the deliverables. You know, what the brokerage—you’re—what you're gonna do. We have, I think, a lot of teams out there, or people who are trying to create teams.

[00:47:28] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:47:29] Tracy Hayes: And they're not—you know, they'll get two or three agents, kind of followers, and they're good agents. But what can you and Christie's bring to someone who may have a group of three or four agents and help that little team really grow and reach their potentials?

[00:47:55] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, the number one thing that real estate agents—I think where they go [00:48:00] wrong—is they chase splits.

Because splits don’t always mean value, and splits don’t always mean return on investment, we’ll say. You know, obviously there’s a lot of 100% brokerages out there, there’s a lot of capping brokerages out there that do things well—and that’s fine.

But for us, we want to maximize—what can we take off your plate? What value can we give your business so that you can grow your business?

’Cause at the same time, you know, let’s say you’re a $5 million producer and you're at a capping model or whatever else—if we can grow your business from $5 million to $8 million, then isn't that a good thing?

[00:48:36] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:48:37] Corey Hasting: You’re making more money, even though you’re not at a capping place. And that’s the whole entire goal. Like 89% of our advisors increase their production within the first six months of being a part of our firm.

And people always ask me, “Well why? Why? Why?” And it’s like—well, there’s a hundred reasons why. Because every agent needs something different.

It could be more technology and you want more lead flow. It could be better marketing because you need to take it off your plate. Could be more support, coaching, accountability, whatever.

[00:49:00] And I think that’s what we do really well—is we can kind of take any agent, any need, and provide them with a solution.

And that really helps their business grow. ’Cause we have about 138 agents. All of them have different needs. All of them have different wants. But also, all of them have different goals.

Believe it or not—not every agent wants to be a $25 million producer. And that’s fine, right?

But we can change and we can adapt based off what they want, by giving them what they need.

And I think brokerages sometimes lose sight of that because, you know, for the longest time—I tell our team all the time—they can work at any brokerage in the entire city. But while they’re with us, we are going to do everything in our power to give them the best resources, the best marketing, the best technology.

And at the core of that, that's the reason why we moved—because I felt we weren’t at that anymore. And I never wanted to give them a reason to have that very difficult conversation with me and say, “You know, Corey, I love you, but…” you know, or “maybe,” or “why isn’t this working the way that it’s supposed to be?”

[00:50:00] And so at the core of this transition, that is the methodology of it. And that is the reason. It's for our agents.

And I’ve told every single one of them that—without them, there is no me. There is no Christie's. There is no nothing. And so we will never lose sight of that. And I think they really resonate with that.

And I think everybody who works with us hopefully can feel that appreciation that our brokerage has for them.

[00:50:22] Tracy Hayes: I think you would agree with this as well, but I want your comment on it. In evaluating—you know, I see many agents around Northeast Florida, which I—we’re just a microcosm of the country or, you know, real estate in general.

You can have all this technology—

[00:50:36] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:50:36] Tracy Hayes: And, you know, you can be bought into that at a very low split, and like, “Man, look at all this tech.” But just like social media can take up your entire life—sitting there watching reels all day and never get anything done—

[00:50:49] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:50:50] Tracy Hayes: I think there’s a group of agents out there that—they get overwhelmed by the technology. And there are some of these companies that have some great technology.

[00:50:58] Corey Hasting: Of course.

[00:50:59] Tracy Hayes: But if you don’t have someone helping you [00:51:00] utilize that—or you’re not—you know, maybe there’s one thing that you could maximize yourself. And you spend an hour a day and it maximizes—so you could spend the front-forwarding face time.

[00:51:11] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:51:12] Tracy Hayes: ’Cause that’s really what it comes down to. You’ve got the Christie’s brand. You’ve got great technology. You’ve got a staff in-house to help you use this technology—

[00:51:19] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:51:20] Tracy Hayes: —to maximize it. But ultimately, what’s it doing for Holly and Tiffany and Debbie and all those others that you have?

[00:51:26] Corey Hasting: Yeah.

[00:51:27] Tracy Hayes: It’s giving them more time to spend with their clients. Quality time. Quality conversations.

[00:51:32] Corey Hasting: Exactly. And you know, we talk all the time—my job is to make our advisors two places at once, which is very difficult to do.

But if we can strive to make them two places at once by handling their marketing, handling their transactions, handling a lot of the things that they spend time away from clients doing—then they’re gonna be happier because they’re going to be closing more business.

Top agents, like I said before, don’t need to learn real estate. They just need more time to network. They need more time [00:52:00] to go on buyer consultations, go on listing presentations.

And they need things done for them. Like when they come by the office—they want a listing presentation printed and customized for them—our team builds it. Boom. Done. They’re in there five minutes and it’s gone.

Some people don’t even have a listing presentation—let alone one built for them, customized for them, bound for them, etc. So right there—it’s just a different level.

And that’s where I talked about before—like every agent has different problems. It’s—do they actually search to find the solution to those problems? Or do they find the solution on... let’s say, splits, when in reality their issue is not a split problem. It’s: “How can we maximize and grow your business?” problem.

[00:52:42] And, you know, I just think... different agents value different things. Which is fine, obviously.

But like you said—it’s a microcosm of the United States and just our general, you know, real estate industry as a whole.

[00:52:50] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Angela Walker said it, described it really well.
[00:52:54] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:52:55] Tracy Hayes: Being a more seasoned agent in her years and so forth, she didn't want to, you know, having to change companies.
[00:53:00] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:53:01] Tracy Hayes: And, you know, the technology things that you do, and every time you change a—
[00:53:04] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:53:05] Tracy Hayes: You know, whether it's a brokerage or corporate America or whatever, they do things different. You know, and she just—I know she felt, boom, she plugged in. She's recognizing: "Get a transaction coordinator?" What? You're providing that for—
[00:53:17] Corey Hasting: Yep.
[00:53:18] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause she didn’t want to have to spend the time away from her clients to learn this stuff again. Where she was at in her career, she was just ready to plug in and continue doing what Angela does best, and that’s forward-facing.
[00:53:31] Corey Hasting: Yeah. And so what we call it in our office is—we are extreme white glove service.
[00:53:35] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:53:36] Corey Hasting: And, 'cause in brokerages there’s kind of two models. There’s the, you know, the capping, the 100%, the virtual model—or the white glove, full service brokerage. And I think where a lot of brokerages—not just here, but nationally—go wrong, is they really don’t know what category they’re in. They’re trying to be a little bit of both or whatever.

We understand—and we are full-fledged into the full white glove, full service brokerage—and we never deviate from it.

And so there’s a lot of things that we give of value that some agents may not see as value. It’s important to them in other ways, whatever else. But to our agents, what we offer—it’s special.

And I think that’s why we’re able to retain, you know, 138 of our agents through this transition. Because the biggest thing, like I talked about is—“Corey, are you leaving?”
“Is our marketing team gonna be here?”
“Is our shop staff gonna be here?”
[00:54:30] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:54:31] Corey Hasting: “Is our—”
“Is it? Okay, then I’m in.”
[00:54:35] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:54:36] Corey Hasting: “Okay, tell me more.”
And so, it’s because they just didn’t—they wanted to make sure that the core foundations of their business, of you know, what they joined a year ago, five years ago, some even eight years ago now—which is insane—is still gonna be there.
But now it’s just gonna be enhanced.
[00:54:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:54:54] Corey Hasting: And I think we’re very excited to kind of get started in that. A lot of our team is, you know, already in the training process, already doing a lot of that.

But also, I want to give Christie’s a shoutout too. You know, not only were the CEO and all of them there at the launch—they also stayed for two full days after and led corporate trainings in-house, in person, to all of our team.

And we also have trainings almost every single week for the next few months—looking at the new products, the CRM platform, the CMA platform, all of these things—because we don’t want to just throw everything at one time.
[00:55:30] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:55:31] Corey Hasting: You know, this is not a throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks industry. Especially not when we're talking about top producers and their business and all that.

So we have a very strong methodology of how we’re going to roll things out, what’s coming in the next few months, and really building the foundation so that the agents understand it.

You know, you used the word technology, right? Technology is a great thing. But if you don’t know how to use it—or where to find it—then it’s irrelevant.
[00:55:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:55:37] Corey Hasting: And you know, I can sit up here and I can say, “We have the best technology of X, Y, and Z,” but if we don’t have any training programs, or we don’t have any academies online, or we don’t have anywhere for people to find anything—then what’s the point of even having it?
[00:55:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:55:48] Corey Hasting: And so, I think Christie’s is doing a great job rolling it out. But also, our team is being trained on everything.

We’re having small groups, we’re having small mentorship programs inside of our company to make sure that everybody feels comfortable. Because listen—some agents, we have one end of the spectrum that doesn’t even know how to copy and paste on their computer—
[00:56:00] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:56:01] Corey Hasting: —other people are, “Hey, can I have the Wi-Fi or my coding email for my website?”
[00:56:05] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:56:06] Corey Hasting: And we can do everything in between, right?

So if you’re a sprinter—let’s let you sprint. If you need to crawl—we’ll crawl with you.

And I think we’re doing a really good job at that throughout the rollout. Just one week in, and we’re gonna continue to do that.
[00:56:24] Tracy Hayes: Awesome. Yeah.

Well, I see you’re excited. I think your group is excited. I see all their posts—everyone was obviously hitting up their LinkedIn, changing their colors—
[00:56:33] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:56:34] Tracy Hayes: Putting a new jersey on, right?
[00:56:35] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:56:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, you gotta put a new jersey on.

Anything you’d like to add? I mean, we covered—I mean, we had a whole list here. We went through it all. Is there anything you think we might have missed?
[00:56:42] Corey Hasting: I don’t think so. I mean, obviously, you know, there’s a lot of information out there.

More information’s gonna come in the next two, three months as far as what we’re doing and a lot of different special programs.

I would just encourage, you know, if there’s anybody who has any questions, or wants to find out more, or whatever else—obviously you can contact myself directly, contact one of our agents in our office.

We’d love to meet with you, love to talk to you about [00:57:00] it. But we’re definitely in the process now of getting the word out there.

And we’re doing this with intention.
[00:57:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:57:06] Corey Hasting: Our intention is to dominate the luxury space, grow the Christie’s brand here locally. So we’re very, very excited about that, and I can’t wait to continue to roll this out.
[00:57:15] Tracy Hayes: Yep. Corey, I appreciate you coming on.
[00:57:17] Corey Hasting: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
[00:57:18] Tracy Hayes: Thank you.
[00:57:18] Corey Hasting: Yeah.