In a new episode of the Power House podcast, host Diego Sanchez chats with James Dwiggins, CEO and co-founder of NextHome and co-host of the “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered” podcast.
During this conversation, the duo explore NextHome’s “humans over houses” philosophy and its referral-focused growth efforts. They also explore the National Association of Realtors‘ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement, agent training deficiencies and more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To start the conversation, Dwiggins explains what sets NextHome apart from other real estate franchises.
Sanchez: James, how do you differentiate NextHome from other national franchises?
Dwiggins: Since we started the company back in 2014, we were always looking to try and be a little bit different from the rest of the industry, in the sense of it wasn’t about having tons of agents. It was about the quality of the people who shared sort of the same vision for the industry. We have this saying in our company called “humans over houses.” That’s our sort of guiding principle.
Sanchez: Let’s talk about that growth trajectory. Typically, with franchise organizations, it’s all about the sales process and bringing on more franchises.
Dwiggins: Probably 40% of NextHome’s growth is from referrals. Somebody comes in, loves the culture, the company and how we operate. Then they mention other people that would be a great fit for the organization. We also don’t target large real estate offices. NextHome is one of the first to do virtual offices, not requiring people to have a brick-and-mortar location. Overall, there aren’t any requirements on the franchise, which allows us to tap into a different market than our competitors.
Sanchez: Could you give our audience kind of a “state of play” for real estate commissions and their impacts on the settlement?
Dwiggins:…