Lake Homes Realty Named to Inc. 5000 for Third Consecutive Year

Glenn Phillips, CEO of Inc. 5000 company Lake Homes Realty

Inc. Magazine released its 2019 Inc. 5000 this week, honoring Hoover, Alabama-based Lake Homes Realty as one of the fastest-growing privately-owned companies in the nation for the third consecutive year.

“Each year it becomes increasingly difficult to be named on the Inc. 5000,” said brokerage CEO Glenn S. Phillips. “Making the list for the third year in a row is a testament to our team and agents’ efforts to deliver great service, and how our industry-leading technology provides us unique ways to better serve our clients.”

Lake Homes Realty ranked No. 2491 on the magazine’s 38th annual Inc. 5000 list. In the real estate category, the brokerage ranked No. 5 in Alabama and No. 106, overall.

Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment of independent small businesses.

Some of the world’s most famous companies like Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp and Zillow, gained their first national exposure as honorees on this list.

“The companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have followed many different paths to success,” said  Inc. editor-in-chief James Ledbetter in a recent press release. “There’s no single course you can follow, or investment you can take that will guarantee this kind of spectacular growth. However, what they have in common is persistence and seizing opportunities.” 

2019 Growth

The 2019 Inc. 5000 list reported Lake Homes Realty’s growth rate at 158% over the last three years.

Company growth in 2019 spurred the addition of office space at the company’s corporate headquarters in May after hiring a new director of marketing and expanding its market footprint into western states.

“We are serious about our growth every year, but are even more focused on accelerating growth this year,” said Phillips. “Shortly after we hired our director of marketing, we also hired a digital marketing manager and are in the process of hiring additional support staff to the home office team.”

Lake Homes Realty’s home office staff currently occupies 40% of their multi-tenant, three-story headquarters.

“The challenge we face is growing our corporate team quickly enough to support our rapid growth in both our sales and marketing operations,” said Director of Marketing, Mark Griggs. “We are actively interviewing for technical writing, digital content production and event coordination positions within the marketing department, alone.”

The brokerage currently operates in 26 states nationwide, with the company’s sights set on continued westward expansion. As the market footprint increases, so does Lake Homes Realty’s need for local lake real estate experts in new markets.

“Lake Homes Realty is a new breed of tech-enabled service company that fuses the power and convenience of the web with the personal service that can only be provided by our local experts on each lake,” Phillips explained. “As technology and the real estate industry evolve, our business model — combined with our leadership, professional agents and our staff’s hard work and development — will be paramount to our continued success.”

If you are interested in joining the award-winning Lake Homes Realty home office team, current position openings can be found under “Employment” on our website home page “About Us” section.

For more information about becoming a Lake Homes Realty agent, visit https://lakehomes.com/info/become-an-agent.

Inc. 5000 Methodology (2019)

Companies on the 2019 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2015 to 2018. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2015.

They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent–not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies–as of December 31, 2018. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2015 is $100,000; the minimum for 2018 is $2 million.

As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to three decimal places. There were 12 ties on this year’s Inc. 5000.

For the full 2019 Inc. 5000 list, visit https://www.inc.com/inc5000/2019/top-private-companies-2019-inc5000.html.

Lake Homes Realty Growth: New Manager of Digital Marketing

Linda Thach, Lake Homes Realty growth continues with new manager of digital marketing

Lake Homes Realty’s growth continues as the brokerage welcomes Linda Thach as their home office Manager of Digital Marketing. 

This announcement comes just three months after the nation’s largest lake-focused real estate company welcomed new Director of Marketing, Mark Griggs. 

Prior to joining the Lake Homes Realty team, Thach excelled in digital marketing roles at MarkeTrue, Strong Automotive Merchandising, Oakstone Publishing and Summer Classics where she advanced social media by 200% in her first year. 

“With the addition of both Linda and Mark to our team, we now have in place a solid infrastructure for taking our marketing efforts to the next level,” said Lake Homes Realty CEO Glenn S. Phillips. “Linda’s expertise is going to be paramount to growing our market share and continuing our corporate growth as we approach the second half of 2019.”

A graduate of the University of Alabama Birmingham, she brings with her more than a decade of experience as a digital marketing professional. 

“There’s so much potential in this company,” Thach said. “We’re doing things other real estate companies just aren’t doing. It’s one thing to join a company that you know is going to do well, but it’s also very reassuring to know that this company is focused on helping me grow professionally.”

Her immediate goal for Lake Homes Realty’s marketing department is to enhance the efforts and initiatives that are already in place and build a digital structure that will help everything run smoothly. 

“We are approaching things, especially social media, with a different tack than many other companies in this space.”, she explained. “We aren’t selling listings, we are selling a lifestyle.” 

Thach is an avid fan of Disney’s Finding Nemo and uses one of the movie’s most notable quotes to guide her life and career: “Dory always says ‘just keep swimming.’ Regardless of what happens, you just have to keep going. Change can be tough, but I embrace it because I know how important it is to just keep on going, keep on swimming, keep on pushing the envelope.”

About Lake Homes Realty

Lake Homes Realty (www.LakeHomes.com) is a full-service, multi-state real estate company focused on lake homes and land. The Alabama-based brokerage has been twice named as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.

Lake Homes Realty is a licensed real estate brokerage in 26 states and is growing rapidly into additional states. For more information, visit www.LakeHomes.com

Expansion Continues: Lake Homes Realty Adds New Director of Marketing, Additional Office Space

The growing keeps going at Lake Homes Realty’s corporate offices as the company welcomes Mark Griggs its new Director of Marketing.

To meet the demands of their continued rapid growth, Lake Homes Realty has hired a new Director of Marketing and leased additional office space.

This announcement comes just four months after the nation’s largest lake-focused real estate company announced its expansion into western states.

“We are serious about our growth every year, but are even more focused on accelerating growth this year,” said CEO Glenn S. Phillips. “Hiring Mark was a big step toward achieving that and a testament to our focus on taking our marketing efforts to the next level.”

Prior to joining Lake Homes Realty, Griggs held leadership positions in marketing at Mspark, Summer Classics, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama and Just for Feet.

He is also a former Associate Publisher of the Birmingham Business Journal and has experience in multiple other publishing companies.

Griggs is an Auburn University graduate with a BA in mass communications, concentrated in public relations.

“I am very excited to join this dynamic national organization! My role here will bring to bear everything I have learned in a 33-year career in omni-channel marketing environments.”

Griggs states his immediate goal is to, “Create an integrated marketing plan to effectively tell our story. This is such a unique company, operating as a hybrid web entity and traditional real estate broker in 26 states on over 2,000 lakes and counting.”

To help achieve these goals, Lake Homes Realty has also leased an additional office space at the corporate headquarters in Hoover’s Southlake Plaza, managed by Barber Companies. Weyman Prater represented Barber Companies in the negotiations.

The brokerage moved its corporate operations to the Southlake location in January 2018. With the addition of even more office space, Lake Homes Realty now occupies 40% of the building.

“Our challenge will be to grow the needed corporate presence quickly enough to support the industry leading growth of our sales operation,” Griggs added.

With additional office space and increasing business demands, the company is also hiring additional staff in brokerage operations, marketing and corporate support.

“Our marketing team has a solid foundation,” Phillips said, “and the time has come to build on that foundation so we can move faster and uphold our position as the nation’s authority on all things lake real estate.”

About Lake Homes Realty/LakeHomes.com

Lake Homes Realty (www.LakeHomes.com) is a full-service, multi-state real estate company focused on lake homes and land.

The Alabama-based brokerage has been twice named as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.

Lake Homes Realty is a licensed real estate brokerage in 26 states and is growing rapidly into additional states.

Lake Homes Realty CEO Honored by Auburn University

Lake Homes Realty CEO Glenn S. Phillips has received an Auburn University “Top Tiger” award for the second year in a row.

Auburn University Image with text overlay "2019 Auburn University Top Tiger"

Top Tiger designations are presented by the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business to Auburn alumni who own, lead or have founded successful companies and entrepreneurial ventures.

“Not only do I live by the Auburn creed, but also the members of our team do, too,” said Phillips who graduated with a computer engineering degree from Auburn. “We all believe in work, hard work, and it’s rewarding to have our success recognized by the University.”

To be eligible to receive a Top Tiger honor, alumni-led companies are evaluated on revenue growth over a minimum of four years.

Last year was the first year Lake Homes Realty was eligible for consideration. Both years the brokerage has been named to the list of award-winners in the medium-sized company class, those honorees whose revenue is between $5 million and $35 million.

Lake Homes Realty is one of three real estate brokerages in the Birmingham area named to the list. Fifty Top Tigers were named nationwide.

Other industries represented include landscaping, architecture, dermatology, digital marketing services, insurance and veterinary medicine.

Honorees were recognized at the 2019 Auburn University Entrepreneurship Summit, held March 28-29.

About Lake Homes Realty/LakeHomes.com

Based in Birmingham, Alabama, Lake Homes Realty is a full-service, multi-state real estate brokerage, and the nation’s largest lake-focused real estate company.

Leveraging the power of technology with the power of people, Lake Homes Realty uses data from nearly 100 MLSs to provide the most comprehensive and up-to-date database of lake-access, lakeview and lakefront properties available today through its website LakeHomes.com.

The website also connects home buyer and sellers with lake expert real estate agents who live, and play, in their local markets.

Lake Homes Realty is currently a licensed brokerage in 24 states and is rapidly expanding its market footprint. Most recently, the brokerage opened its first western U.S. operation in Idaho.

Company Growth: Lake Homes Realty Now Working from Top to Bottom of U.S.

Lake Homes Realty is now operating in Maine, Florida and Michigan, bringing the company’s market footprint into 18 states!

“Entering these states has been a milestone of Lake Homes Realty,” said company CEO Glenn S. Phillips. “This is really an exciting time for our brokerage.”

This expansion is driven by the Inc. 5000 company’s aspirations for opening operations in 10 new states within the year, a goal that was announced at Lake Homes Realty’s 2017 annual Agent Summit.

Lake Homes Realty company growth brings brokerage into 18 states.

It would appear the company is well on its way to reaching that goal, if having added five more states to their footprint since this time last year is any indication of Lake Homes Realty’s successful expansion.

The company began its accent up the eastern coast last year with the addition of operations in Pennsylvania and New York.

With Maine operations now open, Lake Homes Realty extends into the country’s north-most part.

And with further expansion into Michigan and Florida, Lake Homes Realty is now working from the top to the bottom of the eastern United States.

“We able to better serve our lake real estate sellers, buyers and our own agents with each state we enter,” Phillips said. “We have seen success in the markets we are already established, and we look forward to seeing the same in Michigan, Maine and Florida.”

Lake Listings are Live!

Phillips emphasized lake listings in these new markets are live now on LakeHomes.com, the core of the Lake Homes Realty business model.

The site provides a one-stop shop for lake homes and land, currently featuring more than 65,000 properties. In the last year alone, more than 2 million people have made use of the site and its features.

“What’s so exciting about our company is that we are a national brokerage, and because of this we are currently able to pull lake real estate listing data from almost 100 MLSs across the country to provide the most comprehensive collection of lake property in local markets,” said Phillips.

In this way, the site is tailored to cater to the niche market’s unique buyers and sellers.

“Niche real estate markets, like lake real estate, are different from traditional markets in that buyers and sellers are looking for a specific type of property,” Phillips explained. “LakeHomes.com facilitates an easier and more convenient shopping experience for these potential clients.”

Though Lake Homes Realty has a strong online component, Phillips reinforced the company’s belief in the power of local agents and the importance of marrying that power with the power of technology.

“A combination of those two key components is critical for success as a real estate company, and we can’t wait to see what great new agents and success our journeys in Maine, Florida and Michigan will bring.”