With greater than $1B in gross sales in 17 years, the co-founders of Weinberg Choi Residential in Chicago constructed their actual property enterprise on relationships.
An Early Lesson in Homeownership
Native Chicagoan Tommy Choi has by no means taken homeownership as a right. As a younger boy, Tommy’s grandfather usually reminded him of one of many prime causes he immigrated to the USA from South Korea: for the chance to personal his own residence. “He wished to place his stake within the floor,” Tommy mentioned. “He wished to say that this piece of Chicago, this piece of America, was his.” His grandfather impressed upon Tommy the assumption that homeownership wasn’t a assure, however a privilege. Tommy couldn’t have guessed how this angle would later issue into his life’s work.
Just a few years after graduating from faculty, Tommy was at a profession crossroads. He was making good cash, however he was depressing in his day job. His inside gross sales place with a tech firm paid nicely sufficient for him to purchase his first property – a rental the place he lived together with his greatest good friend, Missouri native Josh Weinberg. Josh was working in gross sales for a nationwide homebuilder, and whereas he appreciated the true property business, the 2 usually commiserated about their day by day grind. That’s once they began serious about constructing one thing collectively.
Tommy and Josh already knew they made good enterprise companions. Again in faculty, they’d created a worthwhile autograph gross sales enterprise that funded journeys and events. They harnessed the identical entrepreneurial spirit to jot down up a brand new marketing strategy, and by 2007, the buddies had develop into licensed actual property brokers. Preferring to construct an impartial model, they opened Weinberg Choi Residential as a boutique brokerage and by no means thought of becoming a member of a bigger group.
Regardless of their enthusiasm and dedication, Tommy and Josh acquired pushback from family and friends, who thought they had been making an enormous mistake coming into the true property business in the midst of a downturn. Nevertheless, the prevailing market circumstances supplied an surprising profit. Whereas different corporations had been contracting and brokers had been leaving actual property, Tommy and Josh took up the slack, rising and constructing their community and database. “We had been on the market hustling, assembly folks, actually constructing relationships – which has been the muse from day one,” Josh mentioned.
On the outset, the companions targeted on what they knew greatest: They concentrated their efforts on serving to current faculty grads discover condo leases, realizing these renters would finally flip into householders. With persistence, their technique labored, and those self same purchasers known as again once they had been prepared to purchase. The strategy resulted in year-over-year progress for the companions’ burgeoning enterprise.
Discovering A Sport-Altering Hiring Technique
Because the enterprise grew, Tommy and Josh discovered themselves sporting a number of hats – and approaching burnout. They knew they wanted assist, however as Tommy mentioned, “Whenever you begin to earn cash as an agent, that’s once you begin to get protecting over it.”
After 4 years, they made their first rent, and later grew to a seven-person staff. Whereas they had been doing nicely, they discovered themselves making hiring choices based mostly on favorable private impressions, reasonably than on a candidate’s profession potential. They finally acknowledged they had been doing a disservice to potential expertise and to their enterprise.
Later, after becoming a member of Keller Williams® ONEChicago, they realized how essential a complete hiring technique might be to their efficiency and progress. They adopted Profession Visioning, KW’s four-step expertise screening course of, and by no means seemed again. Josh mentioned the deep-dive strategy to hiring has allowed them to set expertise up for fulfillment by positioning every particular person in a task that not solely makes use of their strengths, however fuels their hearth to return to work every day. “Arms down, CV is the primary game-changing factor for our enterprise, which can also be a game-changer for our life,” Josh mentioned. It’s what’s allowed them to scale their staff to 16 members sturdy.
Offering for his or her staff’s success has develop into Josh and Tommy’s prime precedence. “Our staff is tremendous essential to us. Impacting their lives and [helping] them obtain the whole lot they ever dreamed of and extra is why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Josh mentioned.
Discovering A Clear Cultural Match
Their concentrate on private affect finally led Tommy and Josh to Keller Williams. In 2016, a colleague they admired, who had simply joined a KW® market heart, invited them to take a seat all the way down to be taught extra in regards to the firm. They had been stunned by the cultural alignment. Tommy recalled, “Once we discovered extra about it … we realized Weinberg Choi was mainly Keller Williams. We had been dwelling the tradition of what KW was.” That’s once they made the choice to hitch Keller Williams® ONEChicago.
They plugged into KW methods and fashions immediately. Josh mentioned, “Earlier than we joined Keller Williams, we had tried out each totally different mannequin with our staff, and we had been very, very worthwhile. However we realized we actually didn’t have a mannequin – aside from making an attempt each totally different factor.”
By being strategic about their new hires and following a specialist mannequin, Tommy says they added years of information to their staff with out having to take action in real-time. “And we realized that not solely might we’ve got an even bigger life, we might create an even bigger alternative for everybody that’s a part of our household at Weinberg Choi,” Josh mentioned.
The distinction was rapid. Earlier than becoming a member of Keller Williams® ONEChicago, Weinberg Choi was averaging $30-35M in gross sales quantity a 12 months. Of their first 12 months with KW, they hit $50M, and from 2021-2024, they averaged greater than $100M in gross sales quantity and 150-175 items offered yearly. Since their founding, the staff has offered greater than $1B in actual property and served greater than 2,000 purchasers. It’s an accomplishment they by no means imagined can be attainable for a referral-based enterprise.
Defining the Fashionable Actual Property Skilled
After they made the choice to hitch Keller Williams® ONEChicago, Josh recalled they did so realizing they’d be capable to run their enterprise in keeping with their beliefs and values, and construct on the model they’d labored so arduous to determine.
As a enterprise, Tommy says their differentiator is serving their purchasers as “trendy actual property professionals.” To the Weinberg Choi staff, meaning leaning into offline cellphone calls, lunches, and face-to-face touchpoints, whereas additionally offering digital content material that engages their audiences and will increase their on-line visibility. From explainer movies on rate of interest shifts to mortgage fundamentals and native restaurant suggestions, Tommy says constructing a web based status is about creating helpful, well timed posts that construct belief with followers. For Tommy, it’s additionally about letting his persona shine by means of and creating real connection. The twin-pronged strategy to advertising helps them keep prime of thoughts with previous and future purchasers, whereas serving as a throughline to their tradition and mission.
Tommy says he will get to honor his grandfather’s legacy with each consumer they serve. “I feel my grandfather can be very happy with not simply what I’ve achieved, however what we’ve achieved as a staff, collectively,” he mentioned. “Particularly realizing the rationale why I’m within the place I’m at this time was due to his journey right here.”
Watch the complete KW Actual Property Function Fashions Weinberg Choi profile @kellerwiliams on YouTube.
