Corey Hasting: Broker/Owner Engel Volker First Coast

REE #263 Transcript

[00:00:00] Corey Hasting: The thing about real estate is it's a copycat industry. If you can put your ego aside and truly evaluate somebody who may be doing something better than you, or maybe something that you want to get to, most people will help you get there. It's just a matter of, can you ask, right?
[00:00:41] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast, where we highlight the best of the best in the real estate industry. Today's guest is a powerhouse entrepreneur who has redefined luxury real estate in northeast Florida. After relocating for a better lifestyle, he built something truly extraordinary, opening multiple real estate shops, recruiting
[00:01:00] some of the region's top-producing advisors, leading his company to explosive growth. Under his leadership, his brokerage has been recognized as the fastest growing real estate company in Jacksonville, earned over a dozen awards, and even captured the prestigious EV America's Cup, the highest honor within Engel & Völkers network. The former Division I athlete, with a strong foundation in leadership, discipline, and teamwork—he has taken those skills off the field and into building one of the most dominant real estate brokerages in northeast Florida. Let's welcome the dynamic force behind Engel & Völkers First Coast, Corey Hastings, to the show.
[00:01:33] Corey Hasting: Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.
[00:01:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, you liked that intro?
[00:01:36] Corey Hasting: That was great.
[00:01:38] Tracy Hayes: That was—chatGPT at its best.
[00:01:40] Corey Hasting: That was great. That was good.
[00:01:42] Tracy Hayes: Oh, it makes me sound good.
[00:01:43] Corey Hasting: Me too.
[00:01:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Good to have you on, because like I said, I've had a lot of your agents on—we were talking pre-show—and, I mean, just some amazing numbers. And during a period of time where we're seeing, you know, some good agents in 2021 are
[00:02:00] fading away—
[00:02:01] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:02:02] Tracy Hayes: —where other agents are excelling, and a lot of 'em are on your squad.
[00:02:05] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, we have an amazing group. I mean, 2024 was obviously a very difficult year for, I think, everybody in real estate. But we were blessed to have actually our greatest year ever as a brokerage. We sold just under a billion dollars in sales. We missed it by about $12 million, with 136 people.
So, I mean, not every agent obviously had their greatest year, but a lot of our agents still grew—you know, maybe not 20%. Maybe they grew 12% instead. But I think the common theme is that everything is hard, right? No matter if you're a top producer or if you're a part-timer, everything is very difficult.
But I do think that the top producers are gonna continue to really grow in market share, because even though the transactions are down about 8 to 10%, they're not just going away, right? I mean, there's still transactions being done. I just think that the top half of the agents are the ones grabbing a lot of that market share from everybody else.
[00:02:55] Tracy Hayes: We talked a little bit—you know, probably the first thing we came in—we were talking about the amount of cash
[00:03:00] going on. And this is just something that came to my head when you were making that statement: the Engel & Völkers presence being international—
[00:03:05] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:03:06] Tracy Hayes: —have you saw that being a percentage of your production—
[00:03:09] Corey Hasting: Oh, absolutely.
[00:03:10] Tracy Hayes: —because of that logo, that—
[00:03:12] Corey Hasting: Brand. Yeah. I mean, absolutely. I mean, obviously Engel & Völkers is one of the world's largest international companies, you know, all the way around the world.
You know, last year we finished with the highest average sales price in the city of any brokerage that sold over 500 transactions or more. So we definitely do very well in the luxury space, but obviously we sell everything. And that's, I think, a huge factor of just the brand itself. Yeah.
I mean, if you go to Europe, to Spain, to Germany, to anywhere overseas, you're only going to see us. And so a lot of our clientele are the ones who are going overseas and traveling and also to other major cities inside the United States. So that obviously helps huge with brand recognition, for sure.
[00:03:48] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I'm gonna do my little promotional here. Obviously, you're gonna get one of these here. I got one for you here, but it's got the show logo. Remy Graphics is on there. And as I tell many of your agents—you want
[00:04:00] one-off? She's local. You want, “Hey, John and Sally, welcome to Jacksonville Beach,” you know, your new home—she'll make these and all laser engraved gift. But Remy Graphics—remygraphics.com.
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[00:05:00] And we were talking a little bit about AI—
[00:05:01] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:05:02] Tracy Hayes: —and to lead into that, one of the great questions that I had chatGPT suggest here to go deep with you is: What are some of the things that we're seeing in technology? What is Engel & Völkers doing? Because that's always evolving.
[00:05:14] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:05:15] Tracy Hayes: And you, being that broker who is always adding value to your agents—and you've got high-quality agents—
[00:05:20] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Tracy Hayes: So you gotta stay cutting edge. What are some of the things you guys have got coming down the pipe or using right now?
[00:05:25] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, one of the things I love most about this brand is that we're very technology-based. And I feel like technology is such like a funny word in real estate. It's like, “We have tech. We have tech.” Yeah. But, you know, technology is useless if you don't know how to use it or don't know where to find it, right?
So I think our brand does an amazing job integrating it to where it's very user-friendly. And by user-friendly, I mean agent-friendly.
Because, like I said before, some agents inside of our firm don't know how to copy and paste. Other agents want to code their own website, right? So you kind of have to have the support staff and the ability to do everything in between.
But if you're not using some sort of AI, then you're falling
[00:06:00] behind pretty quickly. Yeah. And so we have a lot of things coming out within the next few weeks—not gonna share it on the podcast—a couple things that are really—my sole job is to make our advisors’ life easier. My staff’s job is to make our producers be two places at one time.
And so everything that we do as an organization is built around that mindset. And so we are integrating a lot of AI. We're getting ready to launch a couple new systems internally that hopefully, with a couple strokes on the keyboard, will have all the market data, all the MLS information—literally everything that you want to do and more—will be at the palm of your hand.
Because what used to take an hour now can take five minutes. And it's just a matter of do you have the right system, do you have the right information, and then how do you implement it? And I think we're gonna do really, really well at that.
[00:06:45] Tracy Hayes: Well, I—you know what you just said, your ideology as the leader—
[00:06:48] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:49] Tracy Hayes: —and your support staff, you're supporting these agents. For some reason, not every brokerage has that kind of—
[00:06:56] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:06:57] Tracy Hayes: —which, to me, is like—that's like common sense. It should be like the cornerstone of every brokerage, right? Isn't that what a broker's supposed to do?
[00:07:04] Corey Hasting: I mean, I can't speak for—I can't speak for others, right? I mean, I know for us, you know, in 2024, our average agent sold $7.2 million in sales volume. And the average agent closed 11.5 transactions.
If you look at the recent NAR study that came out the end of 2024—
[00:07:20]

[00:10:41] Corey Hasting: ...what are they doing that we can bring back and install and implement? But also, I think my entire mindset is always: what does the top producer need? Right? You know, I was a top producer in the city for a number of years, top 50 agent. And so maybe that kind of helps me understand, like, what do they need? What are they looking for? What is the brokerage really giving them? And so it kind of allows me hopefully to relate to that person who just wants systems and tools.
Yeah. I just wanna make my life easier.
[00:10:46] Tracy Hayes: Are some of the—you know, the years that you've been in the business—have the actions or the... you know, obviously the term—obviously everyone should be prospecting—
[00:10:56] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:57] Tracy Hayes: ...you probably have an idea what they’re spending time on. Is it just
[00:11:00] the tools to do it better, faster, more efficiently have changed, but have those basic actions really changed in real estate?
[00:11:10] Corey Hasting: Not really. Yeah, not really. I mean, the thing is, is like, you know, we preach all the time—always focus on your basics, right? Because if you don't have a database, you don't have a business, number one. Right?
And newer agents, it's obviously more difficult to have a database because you just don't have that many transactions yet. You just don't have that many people you know. But if you've been in the industry—let's call it five years, six years, seven years—right? You should have that repeat business beginning to come on if you're doing it correctly.
So you can have all the gadgets and widgets and AI and everything that you want to use in the world, but if you're not truly connecting with your customers, you don't have a business.
[00:11:47] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:11:48] Corey Hasting: Because you get caught hiding behind it.
[00:11:49] Tracy Hayes: Exactly.
[00:11:50] Corey Hasting: I mean, at the end of the day—and I always say this—like this is a customer service industry. We can have all the great, you know, flashy toys, we can have all the tech, all this stuff, but you're still dealing with people.
And people will buy people before they buy product any day of the week. And so people want to see that you actually
[00:12:00] care about them, that you're real, that you're knowledgeable, competent—all of these things. So you can have all the flashy toys, but if you're not connecting with them or touching your database or telling them thank you or appreciating what they're doing for you and your business, then you're never gonna make it work.
[00:12:14] Tracy Hayes: What do you think right now—you know, it was May of '22, so we're coming up on three years now when rates jumped up—so it changed everyone's little mindset. Some people took a step back. March was what, supposedly the slowest month in real estate in—
[00:12:30] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:12:31] Tracy Hayes: —whatever, a couple decades or whatever it is. But right now, what have you noticed maybe over the last 90 days—
[00:12:36] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:12:37] Tracy Hayes: —that you're trying to stay out in front of? What are your agent’s needs?
[00:12:43] Corey Hasting: So I think everything is difficult. And I think it's becoming—for the... we're a listing company. Last year we were about 52% listings sold compared to buyers, which is great. And I want to be a listing company because listing companies can truly dictate the market.
But with that, you have a lot of
[00:13:00] pushback on sellers right now. "Why isn't my home selling? I don't want to cut the price down. Well, a house down the street sold for X," right?
Everything is a little bit difficult, and I think it's becoming a very difficult market for sellers to understand—but also accept. Right?
Because you have all this uncertainty in the market right now with tariffs and global economy and interest rates and blah, blah, blah, right? And everything that I have read and everybody that I trust in the industry is telling us: quarter two, just get through it. It's not getting better. Right?
Hopefully quarter three, things will kind of settle down across the world, things will kind of slow down, and people can get back to kind of what quote-unquote "normal" is. But quarter two, we just gotta get through it, right?
And so we're trying to truly train our advisors about having those expectations, having those hard conversations with the seller.
You know, the average days on market right now is 87 days. Like, that’s really, really high. And also, prices are starting to come down a little bit now, which is the first time in a long time—which means buyers have all the power.
[00:14:00] But I say that, and we're still seeing multiple offers, we're still seeing highest and best, we're still seeing all these things. So it's a very confusing market.
I think Jacksonville is very neighborhood-ish, where, you know, say Marco Market is completely different than Jax Beach and so on and so forth. But you have to truly be an advisor and market specialist inside of that network and inside that market to say, "Mr. and Mrs. Seller, this is what the market is telling us," not just what I want you to hear.
[00:14:21] Tracy Hayes: Well, you know, men talked earlier—a lot of cash.
[00:14:24] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:14:24] Tracy Hayes: So the cash buyer—you know, kind of, would you agree, comes in with—can come in with a lot—with an attitude of, "Hey, I like that home. I like that street. My wife likes it. I'm buying it."
[00:14:35] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:14:35] Tracy Hayes: "I got the cash." They’re not thinking about $20,000, $30,000, $50,000—not really a factor because they have this pile of cash.
[00:14:43] Corey Hasting: Well, yeah. And I think also those buyers today are the ones who are coming in and saying, "Alright, Mr. Seller, let's use round numbers—$500,000. I'll give you $420,000. Show me that you wanna sell." Right?
And it’s obvious. And the sellers—that’s where I think a lot of our conversations are happening—is the sellers are like insulted by it. Like, "How could they ever do that to
[00:15:00] me? My neighbor sold a year ago for X."
It's like, yeah, but the market changes so fast that your house is truly worth what someone's willing to pay for it. And I’m not saying that you should take the $420,000 offer—I'm just saying that that's usually how a lot of our negotiations are starting out.
Because if I was a buyer with cash right now, why wouldn’t you do that? You have power now for the first time in five years. Right?
And you know this—it’s been a seller’s market really ever since COVID. And so now buyers are truly coming back and saying, “This is my time.”
And we don’t know what house appreciation’s gonna be like over the next 12–24 months. I mean, you would think that once—hopefully—the interest rates come down back into the fives...
[00:15:40] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:15:41] Corey Hasting: ...you know, supply and demand industry—I think 5.875%, we're gonna have a frenzy.
[00:15:45] Tracy Hayes: I mean, we have now more inventory than we’ve had in five years.
[00:15:47] Corey Hasting: Yeah. So I would agree with you. Yeah. And I think that’s whenever prices will go up again. Because everything in real estate’s always supply and demand. And right now we just have so much supply and not that much demand because buyers are just waiting.
[00:15:55] Tracy Hayes: Well, I imagine—a discussion you guys are having a lot at your meetings or gatherings,
[00:16:00] whatever it may be—
[00:16:01] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:16:02] Tracy Hayes: —is, "I've got listings that are sitting."
[00:16:03] Corey Hasting: Yes.
[00:16:03] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. What is some of the strategies—'cause you have a lot of high-level people there—
[00:16:07] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:16:08] Tracy Hayes: —which I imagine probably lead a lot of your conversations.
[00:16:10] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:16:11] Tracy Hayes: 'Cause some of 'em have a decade more experience than you do in the business—
[00:16:14] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:16:15] Tracy Hayes: —and, you know, obviously have consistency of selling high level. What are some of the tips that some of the listeners might—some of the agents might be listening—that you guys are having in these conversations on some of these houses that are sitting?
[00:16:27] Corey Hasting: Well, I think, number one, everything starts with price. Right? And, you know, I hear all the time, "I'm priced right." It’s—priced right to win, right? Are you priced right six months ago? Are you priced right three months ago? Are you priced right three days ago? Because that's how fast the market is changing.
So if you're priced right six months ago, you're not priced right in today’s market. Yeah. So everything drives by price.
But also on top of that: What are you doing to stand out more than the other 12 houses in the neighborhood? Because majority of places right now—if you look at big neighborhoods or the big communities—there's 10, 12, 13,
[00:17:00] 30 properties for sale. So why—if I'm a buyer in your price range and they're all pretty similar—why am I picking your house over their house?
So are you doing staging? Are you doing professional photography? Are you doing walkthrough tours? Are you doing any one of the boosts on the third-party websites? Right? What are you truly doing to stand out? Or are you just putting it on the MLS and hoping it sells?
[00:17:19] Tracy Hayes: Good point. That's exactly what I wanted to draw out of you. Yeah.
[00:17:21] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:17:22] Tracy Hayes: I think—you know, knowing some of these agents personally and in the top-level agents from all over—whether they're with Engel & Völkers or others—is going that extra mile.
[00:17:31] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:17:32] Tracy Hayes: Like you said, doing a little bit of staging, having that hard conversation, decluttering, whatever it is. But they're putting a little extra polish on their listing.
[00:17:40] Corey Hasting: They have to. Yeah. And by polish—AKA that means agents are paying out of pocket for it.
They're paying out of pocket for staging. They're paying out of pocket for pre-inspections, right? Pre-listing inspections. They're paying all these things because the agent knows they need it. It's the seller that’s saying, “I don’t want that. I'm not paying for that. I'm not doing that. Da-da-da-da-da.”
And it’s like, okay, well, the top
[00:18:00] agent is going to tell that person, "Hey, I just sold the house down the street by doing X, Y, and Z. You have to listen to me."

[00:18:24] Corey Hasting: Is it really worth it? Right. I mean, there's so much business out there right now.
[00:18:28] Tracy Hayes: There's a reel out there—actually, I saw two different reels—where the agent's talking about the seller trying to negotiate the commission part of it. The agent saying, "You need to just reply back, 'Is this how you want me to negotiate your house?'" Just go ahead and, you know...
[00:18:47] Corey Hasting: There's a few. So I go on a lot of listing presentations with a lot of agents in our office, and there's some who have really just done an amazing job handling the whole compensation thing, right?
Back on August 17th, everybody thought the world was falling—"How are we gonna do this? What's gonna go on with our payment?" All this stuff, right?
We're actually seeing that agents are making more now than even before, because now I know my value. I can think, this is my—I can tell you, this is my value. I can sell you, this is my value. And it's up to me to negotiate with you as far as what that is.
And we have a lot of top agents who have been in the industry for a long time that will kind of kill that compensation question with—well, you know, let's say I'm asking for three, and the agent's like, "Well, I'm only paying you two and a half." Right?
90% of agents will just say, "Okay," because they're afraid of having that conversation. But the top, top agents will say something along the lines of, "Okay, well, this is where I start to show you how good I am at negotiating. My fee is three, and here's the reasons why."
And you start to have that conversation. But I think where agents go wrong is they’re so afraid to lose the business that they’re just "yes men" or women, right?
"Yes, I will do that. Yes, I will do that. Yes. Yes. Oh, anything you want," right? And then whenever push comes to shove six months in, they're not selling—the seller's like, "Well, why didn't you tell me this before?"
[00:20:00] 'Cause they were afraid of that conversation. And that's where setting expectations in today's market is so important.
Because yes, I would love to have a $25 million listing, right? But if it's never gonna sell, then what is the point of having it?
[00:20:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:20:12] Corey Hasting: It’s headache. It’s coming out of pocket anyway—headache and stress. Like, what are we doing, right?
And so I think just having that conversation, but also having that confidence in yourself, knowing what you do as an advisor, what you do as a seller or a buyer—whatever it may be—is so important. And we try to just instill confidence in all of our people, a lot.
[00:20:22] Tracy Hayes: I was thinking about that negotiation—sitting there, going in for a buyer's consultation or listing appointment. I think a lot of agents—although the statistics are there—
[00:20:35] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:20:35] Tracy Hayes: The person who you're probably competing with:
A. probably didn't answer the phone, right? Isn't that the number one complaint?
[00:20:41] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:20:41] Tracy Hayes: B. probably showed up late.
[00:20:43] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:43] Tracy Hayes: C. showed up, you know, wearing jeans or whatever—and, you know, whatever. Just personality didn't even match with the seller.
Who knows? Whatever it is. They may be fine with you coming in in jeans and whatever, that type of thing and be casual—but personalities also.
[00:21:03] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:21:03] Tracy Hayes: And I think—would you agree, having been in sales—when people start actually poking you, they really just want to see how you respond.
[00:21:11] Corey Hasting: Well, that's everything, right? I mean, not only are they interviewing you, but you're also interviewing them.
And I think—you know, you only have one chance at a first impression. And that’s why, like, we teach drastically when it comes to listing presentations, as far as the step-by-step process.
Like, people show up to a listing thinking that it’s just, "I'm just gonna go tell them what their house is worth." It’s not that. It’s actually a very, very scientific approach, if you think about it.
Like, you know, when do you show up? Are you gonna bring value? What’s the presentation look like? How do you look? What are you bringing with you? What type of personality are you? What type of questions are you having?
And so there's actually a method to the madness, as we always joke.
[00:22:00] And that’s why—we have so many listings. I mean, we have over 312 listings as an office with 136 people. So I mean, we are one of the—I think we just finished fifth in market share out of 1,700 brokerages last year in Business Journal.
So I mean, we do really, really well with listings because not only do we have great systems and tools, but also because the advisors that we have understand how to pitch value, which I think is so important.
[00:22:10] Tracy Hayes: The average consumer thinks they can go on Zillow and get their value.
[00:22:13] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:22:14] Tracy Hayes: I mean, you think—'cause that statement you made—that’s a lot of agents I think have that kind of attitude: "Yeah, let me just go in and wing it," instead of taking, you know, whatever, an hour doing some real research.
[00:22:22] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:22:23] Tracy Hayes: You know, as you present your brokerage, you're rattling off figures to me.
So if I’m a potential agent that you’re trying to recruit—
[00:22:30] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:22:31] Tracy Hayes: —and you’re telling me, "Hey, this and this and this," you sound like—I don’t even have to... I’m not even questioning you.
[00:22:38] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:22:39] Tracy Hayes: Because you rattle it off with so much confidence.
[00:22:42] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:22:43] Tracy Hayes: And that’s really what they want to hear.
[00:22:44] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:22:45] Tracy Hayes: "Why is that value?" Well, hey, I’ve looked at all these houses down here, this is what’s going on right now. That one I checked out has a pool or has a bigger backyard, smaller back—you know, all those things.
[00:22:56] Corey Hasting: Right.
[00:22:57] Tracy Hayes: And you sound like you actually did some due...
[00:22:58] Corey Hasting: Diligence. That’s huge. I mean—
[00:23:00] and the thing is, people want to... People are terrified right now of being taken advantage of.
[00:23:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:06] Corey Hasting: That’s why I think buyers are waiting, ’cause they don’t want to, you know, buy at 6.99 when they think that it’s gonna come down to fives later this year. So they’re afraid of making that financial risk.
Sellers are terrified right now of leaving money on the table—because everything is hard. Like, the economy’s hard. Job force is hard. I mean, everything is difficult.
So people are very afraid of either being taken advantage of, leaving money on the table, whatever else.
And so whenever you walk into somebody’s house and you have to tell them, "Hey, your house is actually worth $50,000 less than what you think it is," their first question is, "No, it's not. Prove it."
If you can do that—through data, price per square foot, solds, and all these things—you can hopefully naturally start to build or tear down that barrier that they have.
Because people aren’t just gonna walk in and believe you because you are who you are, right?
[00:24:00] You have to get them to understand how you got to that process. And once, hopefully, you can do that well enough—they might not always agree—but at least they'll understand. And that’s what we try to get.
[00:24:11] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:24:11] Corey Hasting: 'Cause if you can understand it, then now we’re on the same page.
[00:24:13] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:24:14] Corey Hasting: And if you can’t understand it, I’ll explain it again, you know?
[00:24:17] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:24:18] Corey Hasting: And so it’s not a matter of, do you agree with this? Because that allows you to have somebody say no to you. But it’s a matter of, do you understand how the math got there?
Do you understand why your house is priced at $200 a foot compared to down the street that’s $215 a foot, right? They have a pool, they're 200 square feet bigger, blah, blah, blah, whatever it may be, right?
And I think right now, price is the driving factor to everything. So if you’re a good price specialist for listings, you’re gonna do really well in this market.
[00:24:43] Tracy Hayes: I caught this interesting... it was a news clip or whatever—on social media. But they’re making the statement about the builders.
They feel, you know, in the market right now, the builders have a corner on it, obviously with their incentives, which I think is part of the reason why the values are staying up—because they're still... they’re
[00:25:00] getting the appraisals. But yeah, $30,000 of that is for their incentives and everything else, of course.
But they felt that they're actually gonna start probably building 150–200 square foot smaller homes just to keep the price point down.
[00:25:14] Corey Hasting: I mean, yeah. I mean, I think that no matter if you're in the industry—no matter what facet, right?
If you're in a title company, mortgage, lending, builder, brokerage, whatever—you have to pivot, right?
And so, I mean, the market is moving so quickly that if you believe the market's gonna be where it is today a year from now, you're wrong.
And so every single facet of the industry has to adapt, has to change. And so, I mean, I wouldn’t doubt it. Because I think the builders are gonna say, "Hey, we’re still gonna build a great product. I still need this number, right?
But what can we do? Is it incentive-based? Can we buy the rate down? Can I throw in a free fence, free fridge?" Whatever, right?
But the sales price still says this. And so there’s always a way to get around that, I think.

[00:27:00] Corey Hasting: We are gonna give you better than marketing than ever, better support than ever, better systems and tools than ever. And we're gonna be able to run your business as a business—not just answer the phone when it rings.
And usually agents who are at the top level—that's really all they need. I don't need to teach them real estate, right?
[00:27:17] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:18] Corey Hasting: They just want to know: if they call me at seven o'clock on Saturday because they have a fire, I'm gonna answer, right? Our support team is gonna be there for them. Our marketing team is gonna be there for them.
And so I think it's just the whole ideology that, you know, we truly care about our people. And the thing is too, is like, you know, we're still so boutique enough to where—I mean, I have personal relationships with every single person.
You know, we only have 136 people. So, you know, there are weeks that I don't have any recruiting meetings. And so all the time, in my office, I'm sitting down with them—business planning, or listing presentations, or just going to lunch with them or coffee and saying, "You know, how's everything going with your daughter in college?"
[00:28:00] So I think it's just a whole level of—it’s just a different style than brokerages that have really ever been here before. And I think that's why a lot of the top producers are really drawn to us.
[00:28:04] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Veronica Willing was on not too long ago. I asked her point blank, "What was it about Corey? What was..."
And the fact that when she came in, you already had an agreement or whatever you guys signed—ready to go. Like, "Hey, you know, here." And that impressed her.
[00:28:18] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:28:19] Tracy Hayes: And I think it goes—you know, it goes back to not only did you do that at the point of sale, at the point of recruiting them—
[00:28:23] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:28:24] Tracy Hayes: —but also continuing. You did your due diligence on it. Which I can guarantee you, there's so many brokers—someone gets in front of them—they don't even know their numbers.
[00:28:32] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:28:33] Tracy Hayes: And can't even speak to them about it or get to know them. Doing a little due diligence before they even come in—
[00:28:40] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:28:41] Tracy Hayes: —you're trying to recruit this person. Do you want them to come on? You think you might wanna like... know something about them a little bit?
[00:28:46] Corey Hasting: You would think. I mean, just like I told you about how the listing presentation is—there's a method to the madness, right?
Recruiting, for me, is the exact same way. It's one plus one equals two. And I think where brokerages go wrong is they just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. They’re gonna mass call, cold call, all this stuff. "Oh, you got whoever? Come. Okay. Yeah, sure."

[00:29:00] For us—and for me—I only take meetings if I already know that I want the person. So whenever they come in and they're gonna give me an hour of their time, we're gonna figure it out. And you're gonna know everything that possibly I can tell you about the brand.
And we're gonna have conversations, we're gonna have questions, we're gonna show you every piece of technology—we're gonna do all of these things because I want you to be able to leave that meeting being able to make your decision.
Not always does—like, we can always have a second meeting, whatever else—but, you know, people's lives are very busy. So if they're giving me an hour, I'm gonna maximize that hour and we're gonna go through every single step of the way.
And also the thing for me is, like, why are we recruiting people that you don't want? I never understood that from brokerages. So I'm only having meetings from agents that I already know that I want, already know that'd be a great fit.
And I would say probably 90 to 92% of all of our recruiting is all organic anyway. You know, this agent comes over, they left X, Y, Z brokerage. Agent at X, Y, Z brokerage calls them, "Hey, why'd you join? Tell me all about it." "Oh, let's meet with Corey."
[00:30:00] And it just begins to build that organic growth, because just like in real estate—a hot referral is more valuable than anything.
Well, in recruiting, it's 10 times more valuable than everything. Because I can tell you whatever the agent wants to hear—but if their friend or their peer or whoever is like, "You know, I came over, I increased my price point. This is the great systems. He's amazing"—then the agent’s gonna take that meeting.
And then it's up to me to then just fulfill that and say, "Hey, this is what we actually do." Right? And so I just truly live in the black and white.
And I think that’s where a lot of agents respect that. But also for me, it just—you know, I'm busy, they're busy. I don’t want to fluff them, right?
And I want to make sure they know what they’re getting into and what we expect from them as well.
[00:30:48] Tracy Hayes: One of the challenges I think a lot of agents have—many of your agents have broken at least through the initial lid—
[00:30:53] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:54] Tracy Hayes: I talk about the lid a lot on the show, ’cause there’s a lot of agents who are top producers, and they’re in that—I think it’s somewhere between $6–9 million, depending on the price point they may be working at.
[00:31:07] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:31:07] Tracy Hayes: But they’re doing everything themselves.
[00:31:09] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:31:10] Tracy Hayes: So they’re hitting this lid, and really with a little bit of coaching, mentoring, advice—whatever it may be—can really be doing $13–15 million.
[00:31:21] Corey Hasting: That's everything.
[00:31:22] Tracy Hayes: Right. What are some of the things that—because I imagine you're probably recruiting some of these people—
[00:31:26] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:31:27] Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that you're doing at Engel & Völkers to help them take it to the next level?
[00:31:32] Corey Hasting: Yeah. Well, I can’t give you all of our secrets—but... no, just kidding.
[00:31:36] Tracy Hayes: Tell us! A story would be good.
[00:31:37] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I have a few. But I think the biggest thing is: agents—the agents who are doing $6–9 million—there's no reason they can't be doing $13 or $15. They’re doing the exact same work. But the issue is, they don't have enough time.
So my job—and my support staff’s job, everybody that works in our organization—is to allow that top producer more time. Be two places at once.
[00:32:00] Being able to maximize the front end with our marketing team. Back-end with our transaction coordinating. Everything.
So we're the only brokerage in the entire city that has an in-house transaction coordination division, where they're employees of our company. They only service our company. And they're at a fraction of the cost of a normal transaction coordinator—because that’s typically what top agents need first.
Then we have an entire end-to-end marketing team that literally, from a push of a button, can handle all of your marketing for you in less than five minutes.
So we never want our agents in front of a computer at 6 PM at night building a Facebook flyer or open house flyer. Let us do that in five minutes for you.
So our entire focus to our agents is: I only want you to do money-producing activities. I want you to network, to bridge, to talk to your database, to go on buyer presentations, listing presentations.
On top of that, we're gonna give you better marketing than ever, better support than ever—being able to put you in places where you need to be.
Once you kind of combine that stuff, it’s very easy for the top producer to then grow.
[00:33:00] Because like I said, they’re not needing real estate knowledge—they already know it. It’s just: how can you maximize it, right?
And I think—you look at a lot of our producers who come over—I mean, 89% of our advisors increase their production within the first six months being part of our firm, which is my favorite stat we've ever had.
Because for us, that's everything. Making a transition in this industry, if you're a top producer, can be very: "I don't know... I'm a little nervous. I don’t want my business to stop..." All that.
So we are very dialed in from the very first day you're with us. From our onboarding team, to our marketing team, to getting everything installed and integrated with you.
And the entire first two to three weeks, we’re handholding you with our marketing team and making sure that you just have everything.
But we just have amazing support staff, amazing systems to really build and to help the agent, right?
A lot of agents—depending on where they work—everything is on them. From their website, to their CRM, to their lead generating, to whatever it may be. It's all on them.
[00:34:00] And that’s very scary in 2025. And I think being able to have a full-service brokerage like we are—where you literally come in and everything is done for you—there's nothing like it.
[00:34:03] Tracy Hayes: I had someone I know and love recently—I just kind of asked her a general question about, you know, her. ’Cause I know—like I said—a lot of her stuff comes organically.
[00:34:11] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:34:12] Tracy Hayes: She's not paying for Zillow leads or anything like that. But one of the things is time.
[00:34:17] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:34:18] Tracy Hayes: She said—amazingly—her statement, and the business she’s doing: she said she didn’t have time for a lot of follow-up.
[00:34:24] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:25] Tracy Hayes: Like, taking care of those clients that have already been closed. You know, having—as Buffini has—the little events or whatever. Just doing these little extra things to really nurture those people.
When you're talking with your marketing team, what are some of the things that these agents—like we were just talking about—who are doing it all themselves, now they’re coming in and now they’re starting to use the marketing team—
[00:34:47] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:34:48] Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things that they’re doing and seeing almost, probably, pretty immediate results?
[00:34:53] Corey Hasting: Oh, immediate. Absolutely it is.
[00:34:55] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:34:56] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, I think it just depends. It depends on what exactly the agent is doing themselves, and what
[00:35:00] are they trying to offset?

[00:35:00] Corey Hasting: ...who are their clientele? Do they have a database, right?
[00:35:04] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:35:05] Corey Hasting: Because you'd be surprised how many agents don’t have one. So that's step number one: we have to get your database in place. If it's emails, if it’s past customers, if it’s whatever it is, right? We have to get you on some type of drip campaign where those people are hearing from you without you doing anything.
So we want automation, right? But also—do you have a social media presence? Because social media is free. It's the best way that people can hear from you as much as possible. And also—do you have all of your customers on social media?
I don’t really understand this: they would rather have a business page without inviting their clients to it, to post real estate on it. But they’ll invite their...
[00:35:40] Tracy Hayes: The first thing you do is friending them.
[00:35:42] Corey Hasting: Right? I mean, that should be—yeah. And it's like, okay, well this person also needs to then know that you're in the industry.
[00:35:47] Tracy Hayes: Yes.
[00:35:48] Corey Hasting: Not—you don't need to only show that you sell houses. But staying top of mind is very important. And if you're looking for referrals and all those things, you know, there’s been a study years ago that said people have to see you and hear from you nine times to remember you.
[00:36:00] In real estate, it’s probably like 15 times—because they’re already going to know three other Realtors. So why are they remembering you?
Right? And so what are you doing inside those touches? So we do a lot of business planning in our brokerage. We spend about three months on it at the end of the calendar year. And we go through a big brand book about:
What are your 40, 30, 20 touches into your A's, B's, and C's?
[00:36:20] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:36:21] Corey Hasting: Well, here’s some ideas that we can go through. What is going to be automated for you? From our Client for Life program to all of these things—where, with a click of a button and some automation done, we can have 30 touches for each individual agent without them doing anything.
That is unheard of. Right? And so then it comes down to: okay, are you writing quarterly thank-you cards? Are you doing a client appreciation event? Are you writing them happy birthday or home anniversary cards?
You know, all of these things that agents would love to do, they’ve always wanted to do—they don’t have time to do.
[00:36:49] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:36:50] Corey Hasting: Well, now we give it to them.
[00:36:51] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:36:52] Corey Hasting: And so I think that's what really makes us unique, to be honest.
[00:36:54] Tracy Hayes: Well, it’s that whole ideology that you have—that you’re there to serve them.
[00:36:58] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.
[00:36:59] Tracy Hayes: You’re living a better lifestyle because they’re living a better lifestyle.
[00:37:01] Corey Hasting: Of course.
[00:37:02] Tracy Hayes: And being that person who clears the obstacles—
[00:37:05] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:37:06] Tracy Hayes: Time. You're giving them more time to be face-to-face to make more money.
And you know, it is easy to be the supply sergeant—but you actually have to be a proactive supplier.
[00:37:17] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:37:18] Tracy Hayes: If you're sitting back waiting for them to ask you for something—they’re too busy to think about what they need to ask you for.
[00:37:25] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean—and I think we mentioned national conferences and stuff like that before—I think that’s...
I don’t know if there’s anyone who’s more dialed into the industry than I am. And I think that’s part of my job.
Yeah, we need to figure out: okay, what does Redfin have coming down the pipe with all this Mr. Cooper stuff and all this Rocket Mortgage stuff? What is that gonna look like in six months?
Okay, what is all this clear cooperation stuff gonna end up happening? How’s that gonna affect us with NAR?
[00:38:00] And that is my job. My job is to update our advisors and say, "Hey, here’s what’s going on in the industry. Here’s what this market delayed listing syndication is gonna be looking like." All of these things.
So whenever they come to the sales meeting, it’s, "Wow, I didn’t even hear about that stuff," and they can go right back into it.
And I think that’s why we have such a high attendance rate for our in-person and also online—both sales meetings and also our trainings—because I think people walk in there and they say, "I know I’m gonna learn at least one thing."
And that’s always been kind of my goal. And we have probably 92–94% attendance rate, which is fantastic.
[00:38:24] Tracy Hayes: Oh wow. Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, as I’ve mentioned many times with the agents that you’ve had on—the golden nuggets—because you have such a group of high-level people, something’s liable to fall off their cart and you might be—
[00:38:40] Corey Hasting: Oh, absolutely.
[00:38:41] Tracy Hayes: You come up with a great idea that they might even not—they just had the idea, they used it a little bit, you might go, "Oh my God," and take it to the end zone.
[00:38:48] Corey Hasting: Right. Well, and I think that’s the thing is—and, you know, I don’t know everything, and I’m definitely not the smartest person in the room—so I empower our advisors to do panels internally, to do trainings internally, to talk about different things that they’re doing when it comes to listings and to buyer agreements and—
[00:39:00] "Hey, what are you guys doing for prospecting right now?"
And so I think the idea and the mindset of a good leader can walk into a room with 10 different people, motivate 10 different people 10 different ways.
But also, I think a great leader listens. And they make sure that people are heard—but then also that the messaging gets delivered out to the other people as well.
And so we do that really well.
[00:39:22] Tracy Hayes: I think that segues into this next great question that chatGPT had:
A lot of brokers struggle to maintain culture as they grow. How have you scaled from one shop—
[00:39:32] Corey Hasting: Four.
[00:39:33] Tracy Hayes: Right—to four now.
[00:39:34] Corey Hasting: Six.
[00:39:35] Tracy Hayes: Six now!
[00:39:36] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:39:37] Tracy Hayes: I don’t know. They must’ve read the bio—it must have been an old bio, got updated maybe. Six shops—without losing the tight-knit, high-performance culture of agents that you’ve created?
[00:39:43] Corey Hasting: So I think it’s an absolute discipline of never altering who and what we are. And you know, I told you our three criteria earlier, and I always lead with culture.
Culture, to a million different people, means a million different things, right?
And I always tell this old story where, you know, whenever a broker first opens their company—if it’s a franchise or if it’s XYZ or whatever it may be—they have this destiny when they go out and they say, "Hey, I want to install this, and I want to be this," right?
[00:40:00] But then they don’t recruit as well. Maybe they’re not growing as much. But the expenses are still coming in. And it’s like, "You know what, I just have to add people," right?
The second you make that decision, you just lost everything you were trying to build.
So we’ve never, ever, ever deviated from who we are, what we’re looking for, the culture that we have.
And so we've never deviated from those three points.
Sometimes we have agents who want to join us that aren’t a fit for whatever reason—could be production, could be whatever—and they go off and have amazing careers. They're a $30 million producer and we look back and say, "Crap, that kind of bit us," right?
But we've also dodged a lot of bullets as well, where people wanted to join, and we tell them kind of, "No, not yet," type thing—and a year later they’re out of the industry.
So the thing about it is—we’re not always trying...
We’re never trying to be the biggest. We’re never trying to have the most agents, the most offices, the most this.
We just want to be held to a higher standard.
[00:41:00] And the culture that we have is the level of professionalism—full-time agents, all of these things that are building into the industry.
And I think we’ve done a fantastic job at that. And I think it starts, obviously, with just the amazing advisors we have.
Without them, there’s none of me. There’s no Ed.
[00:41:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:41:17] Corey Hasting: There’s nothing, right?
[00:41:18] Tracy Hayes: Exactly.
[00:41:19] Corey Hasting: And so it starts and stops with them. And we have amazing company culture of accountability—being able to be there for each other—and just the collaboration.
You know, I think—whenever I was a top producer and the brokerage I was with—I would walk into the office as a young agent, and the top producer would close the door and say, "Don’t bother me."
[00:41:36] Tracy Hayes: Right.
[00:41:37] Corey Hasting: Which—I mean, they’re busy. I don’t blame them, right? And that’s usually the culture of other places, hypothetically.
But with us, it’s doors open.
What are we doing? Small groups meeting. Because every single person that works for our company—like I told you before—is averaging $7.2 million in sales volume, which is by far the highest in the city.
So every single person that you’re gonna walk into and see in the office—they can help you, or you can help them, or you guys can collaborate.
"Hey, what do you think about this?" And that’s where I
[00:42:00] think what really makes us unique is just the level of collaboration among top professionals.
If you’ve been in the industry 25 years or three years, or if you do $70 million a year, or if you do $5 million a year—there’s something that you can take from everybody every step of the way, which I think is really, really important.
[00:42:16] Tracy Hayes: Just looking back—say in the last year—and the people that you’ve brought on, are most of them you reaching out and saying, "Hey, I like what you’re doing," and bringing them in? 'Cause you talk about the culture...
[00:42:29] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:42:30] Tracy Hayes: ...versus how many have come to you and said, "I want in," that you’ve actually brought on?
[00:42:35] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:42:36] Tracy Hayes: I imagine a lot of people call you all the time—
[00:42:37] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:42:38] Tracy Hayes: —want to come on, but you don’t necessarily always entertain.
[00:42:40] Corey Hasting: Correct. I mean, I would say—I think 90% of all our recruiting is organic in some way, shape, or form. Either this person comes on board, they reach out to the agent, or one of our top producers who’s a big industry leader—somebody reaches out to them from their brokerage:
"Hey, so why do you like it over there?" or "Hey, how do I get in touch with Corey?"
I
[00:43:00] would say I don’t really reach out to that many people pre-meeting.

[00:44:01] Corey Hasting: And they can always mislead, and they could say, “Hey, I'm a great person, this, this and that.” But what we want to know is: what are they like in the sales meetings? What are they like in the trainings? What are they like whenever you do a deal together? What are they really like, right?
And that—we rely heavily on our advisors for that.
And you know, there's also—I mean, we’ve been in this industry a long time—so there are a lot of people that I know as well. And some people are just naturally not the right fit.
Some people we really, really want, right? And so it just depends kind of who they are, where they’re coming from.
But we rely heavily on that word-of-mouth and saying...
For me, it's the best thing—our advisors care who works here, who doesn’t work here. And you know, I think for me, they have more pride sometimes than I do, it seems like—because they take it very seriously. “Hey, I work for Engel & Völkers, and we are held to a higher standard,” and all these things.
And so typically, by the time that I start asking my first or second agent about this other person who wants to meet, it's either:
“Corey, stay away from that person. No.” Or,
“Corey, you need this person. I’ll call you.”
[00:45:05] Tracy Hayes: Do you go back and look at some history? See if anybody’s done a transaction with them and see how it went?
[00:45:09] Corey Hasting: If I don't know the agent—which I said, it's pretty rare these days—I will for sure.
[00:45:13] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I can imagine it’s a good source.
You're recruiting in an ultra-competitive market with major national brands everywhere. What’s your secret sauce when you’re sitting across the table with a top agent deciding where to hang their license?
[00:45:26] Corey Hasting: Well, I think you have to understand—in 2025—what are the agents looking for, right?
And you know, if it’s just split-based—"I want to make as much money as possible"—they're never going to come to us anyway.
We are... So about two and a half years ago, we looked ourselves in the mirror and we said, "Hey, here’s where we’re at in the market. Here’s where our competition is." And we wanted to completely invest—indulge, whatever you want to call it—into full-service brokerage, because we feel that what we do, no one else can really compare with.
Right?
And there’s a lot of cloud-based and cap and all this stuff. And we’re not that. We’re never gonna be that.
We want to be full, 100% full-service.
[00:46:00] And so the type of agent that we are going after—and that wants what we have—is completely different than the capping model, the online model, whatever.
Which is fine, right?
There’s enough agents to go around.
But the agents who want to go full-service—we are going to deep-dive into that.
We are going to build our value proposition.
We’re going to do everything in our power to get them to understand: here’s how we can grow your business.
One plus one equals two.
It’s not this hard math problem that no one can figure out in technology—you can’t process—and all of these things. It’s very simple.
And that’s where we always tell everybody, "We’re not for every agent," which is fine—we don’t have to be.
But the agents who want what we have—we are going to do everything in our power to get them to our brokerage and to get them to succeed in that.
[00:46:49] Tracy Hayes: Well, it kind of puts together—in my mind—just listening to you talk about that. You know, obviously you want agents at some level of production, so they have some maturity in the business.
[00:47:00] And sometimes, you know, the new agents coming in—they’re just thinking about that split all the time.
[00:47:05] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:47:06] Tracy Hayes: But then they reach these lids that we’re talking about. And now it’s like, “Oh, I need some help. I need someone that’s going to help me bridge that gap.”
[00:47:12] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:47:13] Tracy Hayes: Some of them can do it themselves.
[00:47:14] Corey Hasting: Many of them can’t.
[00:47:15] Tracy Hayes: Many of them can’t.
[00:47:16] Corey Hasting: And I think the reason we don’t recruit new agents, and the reason we don’t do any of that whatsoever, is because—you just don’t know what you don’t know.
[00:47:23] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:47:24] Corey Hasting: Right?
If you’re new in this industry, if you’ve only been in it for one or two years and you’re only doing one or two million or whatever it may be—you don’t know the strength of having a transaction coordinator.
You don’t know the strength of having a broker on call pretty much 24/7.
You don’t really get the value of the lead generation, the IDX feed websites—all of these things that you don’t know that you need.
Whereas if you’re a top producer, you’ve been in the industry 10 years or 5 years, and you’re doing $9–10 million a year—that’s the number one thing you think about.
[00:48:00] “How can I make my systems... How can I make my business more successful without spending more money?”
And I think that’s why our agents are who they are—and just how long they’ve been in the industry.
And I think that’s what makes us unique, too. You know, there’s a lot of brands here. There’s 1,700 brokerages in Jacksonville.
And one of the things I think makes us unique is—we study our competition just as much as we study ourselves.
And so if I’m recruiting somebody from a certain brokerage or from a certain platform or whatever it may be, I already know what they’re there for—or I have an idea what they’re there for.
Are they there for splits? Are they there for brand recognition? Are they there for technology?
So when I’m recruiting that person, I can at least relate to what I know they’re looking for—most of the time.
And you know, it’s not going to work every time, right? Because there are certain things that are very, very important to people that we just can’t deviate from.
But more times than not—it'll work.
[00:48:45] Tracy Hayes: I just figure the hang-up I can see a lot of them having is—you know, yeah, they’re doing that $9 or $10 million. “Oh, he’s gonna take a little bit more, but okay.”
But how much more are you going to be able to do?
And giving them that confidence. Saying, “Hey, you might have to do $12 million to make what you did doing $10 million at that brokerage you’re currently at.”
[00:49:05] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:49:06] Tracy Hayes: But really, our goal is to get you to $15–16 million and beyond.
[00:49:08] Corey Hasting: Well, so my thing is too—real estate is a very lonely business.
And if you’re a top producer, and you’re doing everything on your own, and you have a family and kids—
majority of the time, guess who’s getting left out?
[00:49:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.
[00:49:23] Corey Hasting: The family and kids. Because there’s no such thing as work-life balance if you’re doing it all—if you’re a top producer and all that.
So one of the things I try to instill is—not only are we going to try to increase your production, we’re going to try to give you at least 1–2 transactions a year based off what we do very, very well.
But also—we’re going to give you time.
Which is so important in today’s world. Because mental health is an absolute huge thing today.
[00:50:00] And with everything—all the combativeness and all the stuff in our industry—it can be a whole rollercoaster.
And for whatever reason, the people that we sometimes take it out on are the people closest to us.
[00:50:10] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:50:11] Corey Hasting: It’s just natural.
And so it’s more than just money. It’s more than just, “I want to grow, I want to do this.” It’s a whole different lifestyle we’re trying to give you.
We’re trying to give you more time to be able to take that vacation.
More support to be able to say, “You know what? After 7 o’clock, I’m done tonight. I want to go to my son’s baseball game.”
Whatever it may be, right?
But if it’s just all on you—you don’t have any of that.
And once again—you just don’t know what you don’t know.
You don’t know how good a transaction coordinator can make your life.
You don’t know how having a great CRM can make your life.
And I think for us, that’s why we don’t have—
[00:50:32] Tracy Hayes: Barely...
[00:50:33] Corey Hasting: —any turnover. Like, we barely lose any agents in 7+ years.
[00:50:35] Tracy Hayes: Well, it’s like this person I was talking to earlier—she said she didn’t really have time for a lot of follow-up.
[00:50:40] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:50:41] Tracy Hayes: Well, now you got some people doing some follow-up. However generically it is—something’s going to come from that. You might get an extra deal or two a year.
And that’s going to offset these possible other costs that you might have.
[00:50:48] Corey Hasting: Yeah. And the thing is too—like, when you really boil down the numbers—they’re not that different.
Like, I don’t care if you’re at a capping model, if you’re at 100%, if you’re at one of the other box brands or whatever else—there’s so many ways
[00:51:00] to skin the cat these days.
Majority—if you look at the net—it’s one or two deals different max. Like, it’s really not that unique.
But it’s a matter of how do we make the math work, right?
And there’s creative ways for it and all that. But at the end of the day—if an agent’s not transitioning to us with the intention and mindset to grow their business, then they probably shouldn’t transition anyway.
Because they’re not going to put the time, work, energy, and effort that goes into it—wherever they are.
And I think that’s one of the biggest things we have in our recruiting meeting:
I really want to know what motivates them.
What are your goals?
What do you really want to accomplish?
Because here’s the thing—and it was very difficult for me to learn this—not everybody wants to be a $25 million producer. They just don’t.
And that’s okay.
They don’t have to be.
But that $25 million producer’s satisfaction could be the exact same as the $10 million producer who’s home at 5 every day to see their kids.
And that’s okay.
And it’s my job—and our job as their brokerage and as their company—to
[00:52:00] understand what motivates each and every one of them.
Because different people are at different parts of their life.
We have some agents who are all-in—growing, investing their time, energy, effort—all of this to grow and do everything.
And we have some agents who maybe are on the back half, that just say, “Hey, I still make a really good living. I still have this amazing life that I want to live.”
And maybe they’ve already kind of had their growth phase, and now they’re just doing all the things that they want to do.

[00:52:24] Tracy Hayes: That’s okay. Or they’re just waiting for the kids to get out and then they’ll turn it up. They’ll—
[00:52:27] Corey Hasting: Turn it again. Yeah. I mean, and I think, you know, I think brokerages—and once again—go wrong in this: they forget that brokerages are built by the agents, right?
Without the agents, there is no brokerage.
And so I think, for whatever reason—I don’t know when this whole shift happened—but a lot of brokerages started kind of taking advantage of the agents, either with hidden fees or changing structures or making them not feel as important or... whatever it may be.
And I think that’s where a lot of these brokerages have high turnover—is because the agent’s like, “I don’t even feel valued here anymore. Why am I spending all this money? Why am I working all this stuff?”
Because
[00:53:00] at the end of the day, the brokerage logo is out there because of the agents.
And I think we will never, ever lose sight of that. And I think that’s really, really important.
[00:53:08] Tracy Hayes: Because it’s so hyper-local. You know, when it comes down to Engel & Völkers in San Antonio—as you were talking earlier—has a different reputation than you do.
[00:53:16] Corey Hasting: Completely.
[00:53:17] Tracy Hayes: Completely. So hopefully there’s agents that are listening to this—maybe they’re not, or, you know, they’re striving to hopefully entertain the level of agent: $3 million or more in production.
What advice would you give a new agent—or maybe an agent who’s in that $1–2 million area, that you were talking about before—to be looking for in their brokerage?
Because you’re at these meetings. They’re not all Engel & Völkers meetings, right? These are Inman—everybody’s there.
[00:53:44] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:53:45] Tracy Hayes: What are some of the things, even here locally—they just gotta find that brokerage that really fires them up. That is sharing and adding value to them. Giving them the things they don’t know.
[00:53:56] Corey Hasting: So I’ll break it in two buckets for you.
Number one: if you’re a brand new agent off the
[00:54:00] street, you have to search, find, and discover a training. Because if you don’t have the foundation of the home, the home is gonna crumble.
And if you have no idea what you’re doing, or you have no idea how to navigate the contract or what a CRM is or what an open house is, or the importance of all these things—you have nothing.
So if you’re a brand new agent:

• Find a brokerage that you can find the training, you respect all of that.
• And also: find a top agent you can work for, for free.
  Because you are going to learn more in 3–4 months following that agent around—just by the way they talk, the way they handle objections, the way they present themselves—than any classroom you’ll ever be in.

So that’s their first bucket.

Second bucket is the agents who are between, let’s say, $500,000 to $2.5–3 million in production.
It depends.

Number one: how long have you been in the industry?
Are you brand new, or have you been in it for 5 years—it’s just not clicking?

Also, I think you really need to deep-dive into:

• What do you believe you need?
• Is it lead generation, because you're not having enough client acquisition?
• Is it systems, because you’re really good with tech but you don’t have a good website to lead generate off of?
• Is it agents inside your brokerage you can do open houses for?

Everything stems—and starts and stops—with client acquisition. That’s really what real estate is all about.
[00:55:00] The best agents in the world aren’t the ones who know the contracts the best—they’re the ones who know the most people.

So you have to know people. You have to have a great client acquisition concept.
So if you’re someone who is at $2 million a year and you really want to go to $5 million—what are you doing for lead generation?
And I’m not just saying “buy leads”—it’s not the only lead generation aspect of it. There’s a million different ways you can do it.

We put them in two buckets:

• Paid lead generation
• Sweat equity

There’s a lot that you can do.

But also I think you really need to decide on where do you want to be?
Because if you want to be a $5 million producer, but you only have a $2.5 million work ethic—it’s not going to meet.

You’re not just going to get lucky in today’s market.
The $5–10 million producers—they are some of the hardest-working people in our entire industry.
So:

• Are you willing to adapt to that?
• Are you willing to invest into your business to put that time, energy, and effort into it?

And I think you really
[00:56:00] have to look for: what brokerage allows you to grow?

• Are there other agents inside your brokerage who are who you want to be, production-wise?
• Are there other agents in your brokerage who are doing the things that you want to do?

So, if you want to get into luxury real estate, let’s say—are you the top producer at your brokerage at $3 million?
You are the five people you surround yourself with. You’ll be the sixth.

And I really, really believe in that.

And I think that’s what makes us unique.
And I think that’s why people are so drawn to us.

Because the five people you’re around in our brokerage are all at $7.2 million in sales volume on average—so you’ll hopefully be that sixth.

And that’s the whole concept.

But whatever brokerage you’re at—there’s a lot of really, really good ones out there.
It’s not just us. I’m not saying that whatsoever.

But you have to figure out what’s important to you as an agent.
[00:56:42] Tracy Hayes: They have to have—and if you’ll comment on this—they have to have the confidence to ask those things that you just rattled off.
All those different things—and to put them into their world—and be drilling these brokerages or agents that work for that brokerage to find out:
[00:57:00] really, what’s going on and what’s going to be delivered when you show up that first day.
[00:57:05] Corey Hasting: The worst thing anyone can do in real estate is get their license and go and work at XYZ Real Estate because their friend does.

That is 100% wrong.
That’s like hiring a listing agent—if you’re a seller—because your friend used that person.

You should still interview three other people—because you want to make sure that personality that worked for your friend, works for you.

Same thing in the real estate space.
[00:57:27] Tracy Hayes: Or ask your friend why they actually thought it was successful.
Some of them just take the referral—“Okay.”
But why?
What is it they did for you that you think they’re so great?
[00:57:35] Corey Hasting: That’s everything.

And don’t get me wrong—I mean, I think that if your friend’s in real estate, it’s a great way to start.
I mean, go and meet with their broker.

But I think—everybody’s different, right?
And I think you should seek out 3–4 different brokerages—from big boxes, to local, to cloud-based—to whatever’s important to you.
And really begin, “Okay, where do I see myself growing?”

Because you really don’t want to be a jumper, right?
You don’t want to be at one place one year, the next place the next year...
[00:58:00] You want to be somewhere you can grow—and build your brand.
[00:58:01] Tracy Hayes: You make a good point there—because a lot of times the girlfriend is not really producing.
[00:58:05] Corey Hasting: Or boyfriend.
[00:58:06] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. That friend is not producing.
So when you surround yourself with five people—well, you’re typically going to go to the office and you and your friend, that’s the first person that’s going to be connected with you.
So if they’re not where you want to be—that may be the reason why you don’t go there.
[00:58:22] Corey Hasting: Yeah. And that’s where—I mean, I’m obsessed with Ryan Serhant, a lot of those guys.

You know, he will always tell people:
The best way to get started in real estate is—find the top producer in your market and follow them for free.

[00:58:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.
[00:58:36] Corey Hasting: And I can guarantee you that every top producer in the market will let you work for them for free.
[00:58:39] Tracy Hayes: Because we all need it.
[00:58:40] Corey Hasting: Right.
[00:58:41] Tracy Hayes: Especially right now with all the listings.
[00:58:42] Corey Hasting: But you’re going to literally learn so much in a short period of time—that that person’s going to do and say and how they handle business—than you’ll ever learn in school.
[00:58:46] Tracy Hayes: All right. This is a high-level question here. I really like this one.

The market has shifted from red hot—well, it says to “normalized.”
I don’t know—are we considering this a normalized market?
[00:58:56] Corey Hasting: I think it’s—you call it normalized. Normal-ish.
[00:58:58] Tracy Hayes: Normal-ish. Yeah.
[00:58:59] Corey Hasting: Yeah.
[00:59:00] Tracy Hayes: How has your leadership style or office strategy evolved to keep your agents motivated and productive in this environment?
[00:59:06] Corey Hasting: Well, I think for everything in life—but definitely business—it’s all perspective-based.
And I think, you know, when I’m standing in front of our team at a sales meeting—they’re looking at me for guidance, but they’re also looking at me for confidence.
And so I think—everything in life, and I actually just posted this on my social media the other day—life is never as bad as it seems or as good as you may think.
It’s usually in the middle, right?
[01:00:00] And the market is the exact same.
The market is never as bad as you may think, and it’s never as good as you may think.

So if we can find that happy medium—and there’s always a positive mindset in every single piece of information—

Things are still. And you know, we talked about the rollercoaster industry as a whole.
If you allow yourself to start thinking negative and start being negative, you are gonna be negative the entire year. And you're gonna blink, it's gonna be August, you're gonna blink, it's gonna be December. And you're gonna say, where did this year go? But if you allow yourself to start thinking positively, be around positive people—and I'm not saying that everything is rainbows and all of these things, right?

Yeah.

Life is hard. We get that. But it's it—you make it harder on yourself, then it's gonna be even worse.

Yeah.

So I think it's just the mindset of that everything will be okay.

[01:00:54] Tracy Hayes: In the beginning stages of building Engel & Völkers First Coast, what was the hardest leadership lesson [01:01:00] you had to learn the hard way, and how did it shape the way you operate today?

[01:01:05] Corey Hasting: That's a great question.

[01:01:06] Tracy Hayes: I love that one.

[01:01:08] Corey Hasting: Um. Okay. Well, I mean, I can give you what I think our biggest obstacle was. So, you know, obviously we came in this market back in March 30th, 2018. We opened our first shop location in Jacksonville Beach. And you know, people didn't even know who the brand was.

I mean, people were going to Engle and Volkswagen—who, you know, what is this insurance firm? You know, what is going on, right? And so I knew very quickly that our number one obstacle will always be brand awareness. And that's part of the reason that we have this recruiting strategy where we only go after top producers, because we knew the fastest way to grow brand recognition is bring agents on board who already had it.

And they can align with us. And they have the listings. The more for sale signs in the yards you have, the more brand recognition you're gonna give.

Yeah.

And here we are seven and a half years later, whatever it may be. And that's still our number one obstacle. Every single day that I'm in the office, my goal is to accomplish [01:02:00] brand recognition and brand awareness.

And I don't think we're ever gonna be the neighborhood office, which is okay. We don't need to be. But my biggest thing is whenever you get a call or a buyer or get a call from one of our agents and they say, "Hey, this is Corey Hasting with Engel & Völkers," their first question's not, "Who's that?"

Right? And I think we've done a fantastic job getting into that. And we're gonna continue to do a fantastic job through all the channels that we have—from social media, to video, to everything we're doing. Right. And that's the goal. But that's always gonna be our biggest obstacle.

[01:02:29] Tracy Hayes: Well, that's a great answer, but the question I think it was leading to is the hardest leadership lesson you've had, because you've gone from 20-something to 30-something

[01:02:40] Corey Hasting: Yeah. I mean, I think... to be honest with you, I think the hardest lesson that I have is, you know, everything. So I'm a very, very big believer that, you know, business is personal. And because I'm doing business with people that I personally want to be in business with, it's kind of Jeff Bezos' mindset, right?

Where, you know, people [01:03:00] always say it's business, it's not personal—it's business, not personal. For me, it is personal.

And so I think for me it's, being that how involved I am and being able to still, you know, have my own life, my own personal things that's going on—all of this—but not completely wrapping my entire life around the business, the brokerage, all of that.

And I think it's something that I daily struggle with, because I go back to that first thing I said—what I want people to know, right?—is that I care.

Mm-hmm.

And so literally, I mean, I'm 24/7 available. I'm 365. I'm always there for them, always working for our brand and all of these things.

And I don't know if that's the answer to your question, but it's something that I have struggled with, I think, just because I am obsessed with the process. And, you know, that's something that I'm constantly learning from each and every day, each and every month, and kind of trying to adapt and change my leadership style to where—

You know, 'cause I opened this brokerage at 27. You know, I was the youngest licensed partner in company history. Here I am, 34 now, which [01:04:00] seems very old to me, but I think it's still young.

I've learned a lot over my journey.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, I've learned a lot of amazing lessons. I've learned a lot of hard lessons. I've learned a lot of great lessons, right?

Yeah.

Some mistakes, some really good successes. But I think at the end of the day, you know, I don't think I would change anything along the way.

[01:04:17] Tracy Hayes: I wanna finish with this, 'cause I really love this question here, 'cause I really think it sums up—and just to kind of conclude here the podcast—if a broker-owner or team leader listening to the show

[01:04:29] Corey Hasting: Mm-hmm.

[01:04:30] Tracy Hayes: Wants to grow to your level—you've got six offices, 136 agents, your EV Cup award here amongst other awards—what are three non-negotiables they need to master to start?

[01:04:44] Corey Hasting: Well, I mean, any broker-owner has to master recruiting, and that is an entire bucket in itself because you have to analyze your competition.

You have to understand what your value proposition is—who and what you are, who and what you want to be, and who you want to bring in. Who you want [01:05:00] to bring in. I mean, that is everything.

Mm-hmm.

So that's like a generic one, but there's a lot of layers inside that. But you have to master recruiting, 'cause without recruiting, there is no brokerage. Right? Number one.

Number two, you have to master your value proposition for your brokerage. So, are you gonna be full service? Are you gonna be a capping model? Are you gonna have assistance and marketing and all of these things as resources? Or are you gonna just kind of be a hundred percent brokerage?

Right? And there's a lot of different ways to win, but the ones who do it really well understand their value prop and don't deviate from it.

So, recruiting, value proposition. And I think number three is setting goals to where you want to be. Because there's so many business owners and entrepreneurs who are just business owners with no direction, right?

But what are you working towards? Do you want to be a billion-dollar company? Do you want to be a $500,000 company? Do you want to have 500 agents? Do you want to have 100 agents?

And you can adjust those goals and plans with growth and with evolution of time and all of that. I mean, we did that.

I mean, so—when we first opened, a lot of people don't know [01:06:00] this story and I'll tell it—I was 27 and I gave myself three years, is what I told myself, to be successful.

So everything that we did when we first opened, I signed a three-year lease. So a three-year lease in our space, three-year lease on our printer, three-year lease with Comcast—I mean, every single thing was three years because I told myself, you know, if I fail at 30, I can always get back into selling, and I'll be fine.

Yeah.

So we wanted to get to $300 million as fast as possible in production. I told myself we could do that in three years. Right? Well, we did it in 14 months.

And I'm like, okay, wow. Okay, what can we do next? Okay, let's get to $500 million in production, right? Well, we did that in about 12 more months. So here we are, about two and a half to three years in, at $500 million in production. We're saying, okay, what can we do now?

[01:07:00] Corey Hasting:
What? Let's shoot for the stars. Let's do a billion dollars.
Mm-hmm.
Right. And last year we missed it by just 112 million. So we haven't hit that goal yet. But also, you have to learn that you can't be so obsessed with the unattainable. You have to enjoy the process too, because if you're so obsessed with the end result, you're gonna miss so many good things. But also things you can learn from in the process.
And you know, I've always been somebody—and my mom will tell you this, and those close to me—that I've always struggled with like stopping and smelling the roses, right? I mean, that is a really, really big thing for me. Since I was eight years old, it's always been goal, goal, goal.
And so the past year I've really, really tried to focus on the moments, not always the process. And I think that for me is what made that EV Cup so special, is because it allowed me to really focus on that moment—what we accomplished. All the work and time, energy, and effort that went into it. Every single person that was in that kind of room with me, but also like has been a part of our brokerage—it made it one of the most special moments in my life.

[01:07:37] Tracy Hayes:
I wanna say imposter syndrome—that, I mean, might that be the best way to describe that?
Mm-hmm.
Because we win an award, or someone says, "Oh, you’ve got the best real estate podcast in Jacksonville." Okay, well, what does that mean?
Right.
You know, what does that really mean?
How does that—how am I equating her? Like, obviously we always want to equate it to dollars, right?
Yeah.
Am I driving a nicer car? A bigger house?
Yeah.
What do I—you know what I'm saying?

[01:08:00] Tracy Hayes:
And you're right, it's one of those life’s things. You know, it's very difficult.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

[01:08:03] Corey Hasting:
And you know, for me, it's a blessing and a curse to be honest, if I'm being 100% honest. Because it's a blessing because I will outwork anybody.
Mm-hmm.
And I will—once I have my mind on set, something, like there's nothing that ever would deviate from it. I'm a very goal-oriented person from my sports background and everything.
But it's also a curse because sometimes you don't allow yourself to enjoy those moments or those accomplishments. You know, you're always focused on, "Well yeah, we won the cup, but what are we doing next year?" Or, "Yeah, we won—yeah, yeah, yeah—we finished number two in the entire EV America network in GCI closed. But why aren’t we number one?"
And it's—some people who aren't like-minded will never understand that. And it's—you know, and that's where it's the curse. It's because you really don't always appreciate what you've done and all of those things. And so, you know, I think that's my biggest focus now—is really just enjoying the moments that we've worked so hard for. Because at the same time, like, you know, if you work so hard towards something, right, and you don't ever enjoy getting to it, why did you just work so hard for it? Like it makes no sense.
Yeah.
And so I think, you know, winning that award—and even though it's just a cup and it's just with our brand and all that—I mean, it was such an amazing moment for us. And it didn’t add more dollars to our pocket. It didn’t, you know, change the—
There was no big check inside the cup.
No. But mentally, I think it was just—so I told this story to our team, and I know I'm rambling, but I'm sorry—
That's alright.
Success in our business is very difficult to define because what does success mean? That you make a hundred thousand dollars a year? That you've sold 10 listings? I mean, what does that truly mean?
And I think for me, in the broker game, it is very difficult to measure success because success to me may be completely different than success from somebody else.
Yeah.
And I think in that moment then, whenever we won that cup and we had that trophy and we had that recognition, we had that—I felt that we were successful. And we've been successful for years since then.
Yeah.
But in that moment, that’s what it meant to me.
Yeah.
And I think being able to take a step back, reflect on it, and just what all transpired in that event in that moment was so truly special.

[01:10:07] Tracy Hayes:
Yeah. Awesome. Alright, last one.
Mm-hmm.
What’s next for Engel & Völkers First Coast? Expansion? New shops? You talked a little bit about some new tech coming on.

[01:10:16] Corey Hasting:
Yeah. Yeah. We have a bunch of new stuff coming. I can't share yet—we'll have to come back on for a lot of them, I think. But we are in the process of expanding for sure.
The market today—there's a market opportunity, in my opinion, where brokerages and agents—but brokerages specifically—who do things very, very well, there's a lot of recruiting out there. There's a lot of ability because there’s market share that's up for grabs, because not every brokerage is gonna be fast forward. Not every agent’s gonna be fast forward.
So being that we are who we are, we're gonna continue to grow, bring great talent on, potentially open new markets, opening new shops—you know, consolidating two to open one at our new headquarter office.
There’s a lot of things that we’re doing that is not just 2025-based. It’s also: what do we see in '26? What do we see in '27? Where do we see the evolution of this market going? And also our brokerage in general. You know, we're always trying to add new systems, new tools—like we talked about—either integrating AI or listing enhancements. Whatever we can do that we can make our advisors’ lives easier, we will always do.
Yeah.
And we will always expand whenever it makes sense. We will always add talent whenever it makes sense. But we are not desperate to grow. If we didn't add a single agent for the rest of the year, I would be fine. Our brokerage would be fine.
Yeah.
But we know that’s not realistic—we’re still going to. But we are in the business of adding the right people, the right locations, the right technology—not just trying to grab things because we need it. Which I think is a whole different mindset than some brokerages.

[01:11:39] Tracy Hayes:
It’s kind of like winning the Super Bowl. You got your EV Cup, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, well, you know, I got my team. Nobody’s going on free agency.
Mm-hmm.
Who do I want to add? I can be a little more selective.

[01:11:49] Corey Hasting:
We can be selective, and I think it's—that’s a blessing. I mean, we're very, very blessed as a brokerage. I mean, you know, like I said, there's a lot of brokerages out there who are not growing or they're losing agents or whatever else, and it's the product of the market, which I understand.
For us, it's time for us to really perfect what we do. Perfect who we are. Perfect who we want to be, right?
Mm-hmm.
From the top all the way down, and just being able to provide more and more value.

[01:12:14] Tracy Hayes:
Solid show, my friend. Thank you so much. Very solid show.
Yeah.
Anyone listening to this—it is just jam-packed.
I appreciate it.
Stuff. We’ll get some good reels out of this story.

[01:12:23] Corey Hasting:
I didn’t ramble too much?

[01:12:25] Tracy Hayes:
No, you didn’t. It was a solid show for whether you're a broker out there looking to get better, like I said—we talked about new agents, or, you know, agents hitting that lid, which I think there’s so many of them out there.
There was a lot of great, great, great tips and advice. And obviously reach out to Corey—mm-hmm—you know, if you aren’t on his radar screen there, those who are in the business. Because I, you know—I know a lot. Obviously I’ve had a lot of the agents on. You—first class offices. That’s the way you run your show.
Yeah.
It’s a first-class operation.

[01:12:53] Corey Hasting:
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Yeah. Appreciate you. Appreciate you coming on.
Of course.