Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 29, 2010
Edrington Team’s dedication benefits homebuyers
Stephanie Coward
Athletes often speak of the camaraderie and familial bonds they have with their teammates. Being part of a team increases one’s level of talent and encourages hard work from all involved. It also means there is always someone there to bolster another’s sprits and help lighten the load. Doug Edrington of the Edrington Team at Prudential RealtyCenter.com says that a strong group, like his, leads to better customer service and overall happier and more satisfied homeowners.
Edrington’s parents – George and Grace – founded the team about seven years ago. After graduation and “throwing boxes” at UPS for two years, Edrington got his real estate license and joined the team in 2004. Recently, George began edging himself out a bit and Edrington has moved up to managing partner. He flipped houses prior to entering real estate, which helped develop a solid knowledge base on buying a home. This knowledge, along with the extensive experience of the team is something consistently passed on to the client.
The team stands apart from others, in Edrington’s opinion. “We’re all kind of partners,” he said. “We all have our roles and we really delegate everything out to where we really don’t forget customers.” In 2009, the duties of all the teammates were reorganized to ensure the best possible customer service. Grace stays in the office and handles the administrative duties; from
contract to closing, she handles all the paperwork involved.
She is also responsible for the advertising. Edrington, his dad and Hollis Keene are out selling. Sally Bush handles all the follow-ups. The team refers to her as their “air traffic controller,” since along with follow-ups, she handles all of their calendars.
Rhonda Trible is the Internet manager and social media coordinator. They place their listings on over 60 sites, according to Edrington and it is Trible who maintains all of them. She also contacts the sellers every week to give them an update on their listings. “We let them know what’s going on, good, bad or ugly,” Edrington said. “And not just about their house but about other houses around them that could affect their sale.” This is a feat in itself as currently there are 80 listings being handled by the team members.
“We never tell a customer no,” Edrington said. This philosophy warrants a deep commitment by all involved. Part of the commitment is fielding phone calls for the others. Very rarely does a call to one of the members of the team go unanswered. According to Edrington, everyone forwards calls to a co-worker when tied up with something else and also during a day off. Everyone works six days a week, and there is always, at minimum, three team members on call.
This commitment and overall dedication has paid of immensely as 2009 was a record year for the team. “Our bigger number that we’re real proud of is, we sold 105 houses last year, which is quite a bit,” Edrington said. It’s more houses than they’ve ever sold before. “We plan on selling quite a bit more this year.”
They were also recognized by Prudential as No. 2 in the company’s ranking for number of units sold in Tennessee by Prudential agents. “They also told us that we were in the top 5 percent of all teams in the nation,” Edrington said. “So that’s been real exciting. Those are good stats.”
With many successes carrying the team into 2010, Edrington said that they are methodically growing the team. “We’re looking to add on to our team because our business has been so big we almost can’t handle the bodies.” He said that currently they’re managing things well, but want to be prepared for the growth they’re planning this year.
The team also saw much success last year with two of their programs, Home Path and Twilight Open Houses. The Home Path program is for people who may not have the greatest credit but want to buy a home. Through monthly meetings, these potential homebuyers are educated on what they need to do to fix their credit, which will enable them to buy a home. “We just help guide them to get them where they can buy,” Edrington said.
Although the team only recently began hosting the twilight open houses, the program is already garnering much success. Instead of the traditional Sunday afternoon open houses, they host them on Thursday evenings from 5 to 8. “It gives a whole other perspective to a home when you pull up to it and the lights are on and it’s just very warm and inviting, you almost feel like you’re going to a party in the evening,” Edrington said. “It’s been real big for us. We’ve had a lot of successes. … We’ll hold multiple open houses on the same day at the same time (since there are multiple agents) and try to rotate the buyers around.” He said that buyers have been quite receptive to the open house tour along with the event being held on Thursday evenings.
When he first entered real estate, Edrington didn’t think he would end up where he is today. “This is really a career for me. I never thought that I would have a career at this age,” he said. “I can really see it going somewhere, so it’s been interesting.”
Along with looking to hire another partner, the team is also working on expanding up to Cleveland and into Bradley County. They have also consistently maintained the No. 1 agent spot in East Ridge. This is neither the only region they cover, nor is it a specialty area; it is just where the team began and experimented and really honed their skills and grew into what they are today.
“We’re not the in and out kind of people that are just going to get you once and never talk to you again,” Edrington said. “We think of ourselves more as sales people that have a real estate license; we truly keep up with you.” To contact the Edrington team and view their listings, visit http://theedringtonteam
.com.
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