Jameson Sotheby’s Melissa Archer-Wirtz talks growing the firm’s business, keeping agents from being poached

The brokerage’s new chief operating officer is a 15-year veteran of the industry

Melissa Archer-Wirtz and 9 West Walton Street
Melissa Archer-Wirtz and 9 West Walton Street

Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty is looking to capitalize on its sales growth with an ambitious three-year plan, centered around a goal of hitting $4.4 billion in volume by 2022.

To help in that effort, Jameson hired Melissa Archer-Wirtz as its new chief operating officer.

Archer-Wirtz was mentored by Sean Conlon, first working as his assistant and then helping to grow Conlon/Christie’s as the firm’s chief operating officer. When the firm was acquired by Compass, Archer-Wirtz worked to onboard her agents and served as Compass Chicago’s senior director of operations.

Now, Archer-Wirtz is back with a locally owned brokerage. Like her tenure at Conlon/Christie’s, she’s hoping to steer Jameson Sotheby’s through a time of growth. Last year, Jameson Sotheby’s handled $1.8 billion in sales, a 17.5 percent increase over the 2017 volume, according to Real Trends. The brokerage came in fifth place in The Real Deal’s ranking of brokerages by volume in Cook County.

“The sales volume we’re at right now, you either kind of stay, or you push to get to the new echelon,” Archer-Wirtz said.

A month into her new role as COO, Archer-Wirtz sat down with TRD to discuss Jameson Sotheby’s plans for growth, the brokerage’s investment in technology and the growing competition among brokerages.

How does Jameson Sotheby’s plan to meet its goal of over $4 billion in sales?

The easy way to do that is just through recruiting and bringing in more business. They key aspect for us is we want to grow but we don’t want to grow tremendously in agent size. Whatever number gets us to that $4.4 billion is great, but ultimately it should be less than 700 agents. [Jameson currently has 444 agents] We’d like to stick to what we have. The way that we do that is through growing our agents’ intrinsic business. We do want our agents to increase their business 25 percent year-over-year. We talk about brand goals, operational goals, staff goals. But ultimately it’s the growth of the sales business.

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How do you view the role technology now plays in the industry?

I feel you either fall into two categories now: You’re either a full-service brokerage or your a technology-driven brokerage. I like to say we’re a hybrid of both. I think technology is very important, but it needs to be looked at with a mindful eye. What technology fails to do is create that human interaction. One of the biggest components of real estate is the human interaction. A real estate transaction, there are so many emotions. Technology can’t create that human touch. If it helps our agents be happier, and more time sensitive and hyper-vigilant of being attentive to their clients, then that’s a win. One thing I’m mindful of is to not just throw a million things out there and say, “Hey guys, here’s 300 things, pick and choose.” Agents can get over-inundated. Technology has to alleviate problems, not exasperate them.

Has the competition among brokerages increased? How does Jameson Sotheby’s combat poaching from other firms?

Yes, we have seen it definitely increase, even before Compass came in. In the last five years, you’ve seen this trading back and forth. It’s the nature of the business. Margins for real estate brokerages are actually quite small. We’re only hurting ourselves the more and more we’re buying people. It shortens your margins. It ultimately affects the agent. It means more costs for them.

How can Jameson prevent poaching from other firms?

Sean Conlon has always told me, ‘You’re always one cup of coffee away from losing somebody.’ In my world, that means proactive outreach. From a retention standpoint, to me that’s almost more important than recruiting. It’s internal recruiting. You do that through culture, through outreach. It’s not giving away everything under the sun. It’s having normal conversations and talking through people’s frustrations or figuring out the real root of the problem.

You helped steer Conlon Christie’s through the recession. How do you see the housing market now?

It’s very price sensitive. I think both buyers and sellers feel like they’re in the driver’s seat, which is creating some unique deal scenarios. I think this one of the most relevant times where having an educated, well trained and savvy broker does you a world of good. They can help you navigate through the awkward negotiations. The old adage “If you’re priced right you’re going to sell,” I’ve noticed it. You see things on the market sell in a few days because it was priced right.