Lake Homes Realty held the 2021 national Summit event on October 12-15. The annual meeting covered performance statistics, employee training, and company planning and outlook for 2022.
In addition, special guest speakers presented a host of topics including business sales, the present state of the real estate marketplace and future projections, and professional and interpersonal growth.
The event closed with an award ceremony recognizing 2021 high-performing agents in these three categories: Aqua Award, Big Wave Award, and Splash Award.
Agents qualifying for the company’s Aqua Award have $3.5 million in revenue but not exceeding $10 million for the year. They are:
The Splash Award is the Annual Agent of the Year! This award recognizes the top Lake Homes Realty Agent based on a combination of sales and proper business management. This year’s winner was Jo Lynn Miller!
Jo Lynn Miller, Splash Award winner and Agent of the Year with Glenn S. Phillips, Lake Homes Realty’s CEO.
Congratulations to all our winners! We look forward to a prosperous 2022.
Lake Homes Realty recognized 52 real estate agents with awards at its 2019 Agent Summit. These professionals automatically earned Premier Agent designations at the brokerage’s sixth annual Agents Summit, held October 15-17, 2019.
“Our agents are lake realty specialists and industry leaders in the sale of real estate,” said Lake Homes Realty CEO Glenn S. Phillips, “as we grow and add more experienced agents on more lakes, the number of awards increase every year.”
2019 Big Wave and Aqua Award honorees represent the brokerage in 27 states.
Award Criteria and Eligibility
The Agent of the Year designation goes beyond total revenue and recognizes an agent that is not only successful at producing revenue, but who also excels in the real estate business. This agent does all the little things and the big things well.
Agents who sold or exceeded $10 million in total transaction volume were honored as Big Wave Award winners.
By receiving these awards, Lake Homes Realty agents are recognized as the top-producing lake experts in the company.
The Lake Homes Realty Aqua Award was awarded to agents who, in the 12-month evaluation period, sold a total transaction volume of at least $3.5 million up to, but not including, $10 million.
Agents who had not reached this total transaction volume between September 1, 2018, and August 31, 2019, were still eligible to win this award if they had closed at least 20 transaction sides within the period.
In determining the 2019 award honorees, Lake Homes Realty defined total transaction volume as the combined sales price of each transaction, independent of the number of sides an agent represented.
“Put another way, if you were to add up the final price at which each property sold in the last 12 months, whether agents represented a single side or both sides, you would reach the agent’s total transaction volume,” explained brokerage CEO Glenn S. Phillips.
Referral transactions were not taken into consideration when calculating total transaction volume.
Lake Homes Realty agent Stephanie Millard has been named this year’s Best Real Estate Agent in Hoover’s Magazine’s 2019 list of bests.
“I’m honored to have been selected by the community as Hoover’s Best Realtor,” Millard said. “I’m only here because I have the BEST clients, colleagues and support staff!”
Millard also attributes her recent “best” designation to her “client-first” philosophy.
“I’m not just selling homes or helping people buy pieces of property,” she explained. “I’m selling a lifestyle and helping clients invest in their futures. My client-first philosophy not only keeps me accessible and responsive to my buyers and sellers, but also allows me to build relationships with them that last long after closing.”
It’s these relationships and her clients’ happiness, Millard says, that gives her her deepest sense of satisfaction as a real estate agent.
This is the first year Millard has received a Hoover’s “Best” award; however, it is not the first recognition she has received for her work in the industry.
In 2018, Millard was named a Lake Homes Realty premier agent and Aqua Award winner for having closed more than $5 million in transaction volume for the year.
“Stephanie’s recent accomplishments are a testament to her work ethic and dedication to her clients,” said Lake Homes Realty CEO Glenn S. Phillips. “We are proud to have her as part of our Lake Homes Realty family and to see her hard work pay off.”
Finalists for the 2019 Best Real Estate Agent designation included Renee Hamilton, Jennifer Harris, Gwen Vinzant, Amy Wingo.
Bruce Jones has been named the 2018 Agent of the Year and Splash Award honoree at Lake Homes Realty’s sixth annual Agent Summit, held October 16-19, 2018 in Hoover, Alabama.
“It’s such an honor to be recognized by our company,” Jones said. “I am especially proud to win this year’s Splash Award because it honors my relationship with the community and the caliber of service I deliver, not just how many properties I sold.”
Recognized as the company’s best overall performing agent for the year, Jones also received a “Premier Agent” designation.
Splash Award Criteria
To determine the 2018 Agent of the Year and Splash Award recipient, Lake Homes Realty agents were ranked, relative to each other, for performance in six key areas over a 12-month evaluation period.
These key areas included:
Average number of days from close-to-completed office files
Overall effective commission percentage per side
Total sides closed
Total transaction volume closed in dollar amount
Percent increase of year-over-year transaction volume in dollar amount
Number of listings in MLSs on September 1, 2018
To be eligible for Splash Award consideration, agents were required to have been licensed with Lake Homes Realty for at least 24 months by August 31, 2018, and completed 12 transactions or more between September 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018.
“Agents’ transaction volume also had to be $3.5 million or greater in order to be eligible,” Lake Homes Realty CEO Glenn S. Phillips explained. “This value is based on a property’s sale price, independent from the number of sides represented. Transaction volume also excludes referral transactions.”
Award Scoring
Those agents with the best performance in each of the above areas received a single point, with the next best receiving two points, the third best three points and so forth.
Each area’s points were then totaled to determine the agent with the lowest combined score, who was then named the Splash Award winner and Lake Homes Realty Agent of the Year.
Should more than one agent have had the lowest score, the agent with the highest total transaction volume in the 12-month evaluation period would have won the award.
“Our agents are the very best at what they do. They are the special forces of lake real estate, and each year their expertise and talents continue to impress,” Phillips said. “This year’s Summit was the best yet, and it’s because of the work our agents put in all year long.”
Client Advocacy-Driven Success
This year’s Agent of the Year and Splash award winner is no stranger to hard work. Bruce Jones has been selling real estate in Texas’ Austin area since 2005.
“In a industry as competitive as real estate, being willing to go above and beyond for your clients is what can set an agent apart,” Jones said. “That’s one of the biggest components of my service: being readily available to my buyers and sellers whenever they need me to be.”
Jones continued by adding most of his business revolves around former client referrals and repeat clients. Without the solid relationships he’s built over the last decade, Jones contends he might not have won this year’s Splash Award.
Not only an active member of his community, serving on the local city council, Jones is also a member of the National Association of Realtors, the Texas Association of Realtors and the Houston, Austin and Highland Lakes Association of Realtors.
“Over the next year, I’ll continue to grow my brand as a client-first lake expert by staying up-to-date with the latest industry tech, and by utilizing the tools provided to me through LakeHomes.com,” he said. “But above all else, I will continue providing my clients with the most convenient, effortless and remarkable service I’m able to provide.”
Lake Homes Realty named Terry and Sherrie Norton 2017’s Splash Award recipients at its annual Agent Summit, which took place Oct. 17-20, 2017. Additionally, both members of the Lake Wedowee, AL team are now recognized as Lake Homes Realty Premier Agents.
“We are incredibly honored, humbled and appreciative of this recognition of our hard work,” this year’s winners said. “It is an honor to be chosen from among our fellow agents who all work so hard to attain their goals. It really is an incredible honor.”
The Splash Award Defined
The award, presented to company’s Realty Agent of the Year, is given to the Lake Homes Realty agent, or agent team, with the overall best performance across a number of important accomplishments.
“Winning the Splash Award is an honor and a great way for LHR to say that our company appreciates our hard work,” the Nortons said. “Maintaining and working toward this goal again for the coming year is certainly a great incentive.”
Eligibility is open to agents who have been licensed with Lake Homes Realty for a minimum of 24 months by Aug. 31,2017.
These agents must also have completed at least 12 transactions on either the buyer or seller side of a sale within a 12 month evaluation period, which began Sept. 1, 2016 and concluded on Aug. 31.
Lake Homes Realty’s Terry (center) and Sherrie (right middle) Norton named 2017 Agents of the Year at annual Agent Summit on Oct. 19, 2017.
Additionally, agents had to have closed $3.5 million or greater in transaction volume during this time in order to gain award eligibility.
“Eligible agents are then ranked, relative to each other, by performance in a number of key areas. These include overall effective commission per side and percent increase of year-over-year transaction volume in dollars,” explained Glenn S. Phillips, Lake Homes Realty CEO.
Additional areas assessed include average number of days it takes from closing to office file completion, total number of sides closed and number of listings in Multiple Listing Services as of Sept, 1, 2017.
Agents are also ranked by total transaction volume closed in dollars.
This volume is defined by sale price apart from the number of sides an agent represents for a given transaction. Referral transactions are not included in the total transaction volume.
Determining the Agent of the Year
To determine the Splash Award winner, the best performance in each of the criteria areas is given one point. The next best performance receives two points, the third receives three points and so forth.
The points from each area are then totaled with the lowest total score named the winner of this prestigious award.
“In the event of a tie in total points, the tie-breaker is determined by the highest transaction volume between those tied during the evaluation period,” Phillips explained.
For 2017, the Splash Award winners and the second best overall performing agent were separated by justone point.
“Lake Homes agents are the special forces unit of real estate industry,” Phillips said. “They are the lake real estate experts and their knowledge and skills continue to be reinforced year-after-year.”
2017 Agents of the Year
“We feel extremely blessed by our past success,” they said. “We have to continue to strive to always do our best.”
During the 12-month evaluation period alone, the team sold more than $7.7 millionin lake property.
The Nortons are proven local lake real estate experts who are passionate not about selling property, rather their passion is for selling the lake experience.
Their credibility is further made evident by their relationships among both buyers and sellers. From Sept. 2016 to Aug. 2017, the Premier Agents team represented 55 total sides closed.
The Key is Happy Clients
“Our motto is ‘we work hard for our clients.’ Our clients are our success,” the couple emphasized. “There is great satisfaction in a job well done and in knowing we have provided the best service possible to our clients.”
Additionally, the Nortons’ transaction volume increased by an impressive 44.15 percent in the last year.
“Hopefully clients and potential clients who read about our awards and success will feel confidence in LHR,” they said, “and about our abilities to represent them as they list their home or purchase a new home.
Lake Homes Realty is the largest, lake-focused real estate brokerage in the nation. The company business model focuses on creating a national market reach for local properties and agents.
Phillips and his wife Doris, who serves as Lake Homes Realty’s Chief Operating Officer, shared that treating their agents with respect and confidence in their abilities is paramount to the company’s success.
“We always say we have four clients: the buyer, the seller, the agent, and our staff,” the COO explained. “Just like we want Lake Homes buyers and sellers to be happy with us, we strive to maintain positive relationships with our agents. Their happiness is what drives their success, and ultimately, the success of Lake Homes Realty.”
This mindset is proving its worth as LHR is currently licensed in 16 states, and counting, and belongs to more than 70 MLSs.
“We are so proud to be a member of the LHR team. Simply put, we could not provide the customer service we provide if we did not work for such an amazing company,” the Nortons said. “We can proudly state [Lake Homes Realty] is the leader in lake home sales. We know we work for the best.”
