Which core segments of brokerage make the most money

Today’s HousingWire Daily is a RealTrending crossover episode. It features Tracey Velt, editorial director at HW Media Company RealTrends, who interviews Chris Kelly and Christian Wallace. Kelly is the president and CEO of Ebby Halliday Companies, which is part of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices of America in Texas. Wallace is the head of the New York-based Better real estate group.

This interview with Kelly and Wallace was originally featured in a panel at the recent HousingWire Annual event and focuses on the evolution and importance of core services for real estate brokerages. 

Here is a small preview of the interview, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Tracey Velt: What core service brings you the best returns and by what factor?

Chris Kelly: So mortgage, if you’re just ranking out your different business segments in a company, what is your largest return? It will always be for Mortgage for us here… It can vary from state to state depending on your brokerage model and your splits and everything else. In our market here, what we would see is that for every 10 houses you sell on the brokerage side, it’s the equivalent of about one mortgage. And that can sometimes go higher, as well. So, it’s a big return and you can see why so many brokerages get wide-eyed when they think they should start a mortgage company because they see those types of numbers.

Christian Wallace: I mean, it is mortgages, but if you think of putting your customer first, it makes the whole thing a little bit different because by also having a real estate agency and title company, we’re able to stack on our products, and we’re able to offer some different products that other people can’t. And so if you think about it, the person who benefits the most from your core services, not necessarily the financial piece of it, is the customer.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported across HW Media. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsrooms that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Elissa Branch. If you have a pitch or an inquiry relating to podcasts, you can reach our team at [email protected].