Above, Carolyn Young
In the world of team-focused real estate, Virginia’s Carolyn Young Real Estate Team has emerged as a powerhouse over the last six years. Led by industry veteran Carolyn Young, the team’s commitment to excellence, adaptability and innovative strategies has not only propelled them to become one of the top 10 teams in the country, but has also transformed the lives of their agents. From mindset shifts to embracing technology, it is the unique culture of this real estate team that sets them apart in the industry.
Paige Brown: Tell me a little bit about the Carolyn Young Real Estate Team and how you got started.
Carolyn Young: I have been an agent in the market for the past 30 years and the past six years is where I would really say the beginning of my team launched. We have a team of 20 agents, six full-time staff and we service the Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia real estate markets. Last year, our team helped about 450 families buy and sell, resulting in about $250 million in volume.
I joined Tom Ferry Coaching about six years ago. I had been an agent for 25 years prior to that, but it opened up a lot of avenues for me to meet a lot of high-performing agents and indulge myself in industry technology to better service clients and grow my business. And with those six years, I have gone from doing around $15 million in sales to $250 million, a 1,600% growth. Coaching has really helped me with my mindset, understanding what is possible and how to implement new strategies, tools and techniques. Everything I have learned has inspired me to help my team members transform their lives, both personally and professionally.
PB: As a productive and accomplished agent, what are some of your tried and true strategies for being a successful team leader?
CY: As a team leader, it is important to operate with a really strong mindset. Sometimes that can be hard if you’re not already there, but you’ve got to put yourself in a great mindset, and by having one, it opens you up to set your goals even bigger than what you may think you’re capable of.
We help our agents with their goal setting and tracking. If you don’t measure and track, you can’t accomplish. It is important to know where you’re at in your business, see where you have to get to and track your goals on a quarterly and daily basis. If an agent says, “I want to sell 50 homes this year,” or “I want to sell a hundred homes this year,” you have to be committed to your numbers and your process. The agents on my team have a lot of accountability, but it makes them all successful.
PB: What is the culture like within your team, and how do you work together to ensure your core values and goals are met?
CY: The core values that we go by are commitment to excellence, a desire for growth, determination and adaptability. You have to be able to adapt to changes in the market, collaborate, work together and be coachable and open to new ideas. When a team member comes on board, we go through this and make sure that their values and goals are in line with ours so that we know that we take on the right people. Something unique about us that I don’t think many teams do is a Zoom room. It’s open during office hours every day. Rather than drive into the office and chat at the water cooler, you can hop on and get to know each other, support each other and work together from anywhere.
PB: You recently joined Samson Properties, even though you weren’t looking to make a change. Can you share what drew you to this brokerage network?
CY: I was definitely not looking to change. I had been at RE/MAX for almost 27 years—I’m a veteran agent with them. But honestly, the big change was when I met Donny Samson. I really respected his leadership, and his leadership team in his offices are absolutely amazing. Also, one of the longstanding problems I have had was the lack of brick and mortar offices. I had to have brick and mortar offices, and he has 34 office locations across all of the markets that we serve.
PB: When it comes to innovative technology and resources, what are some of your team’s go-to tools?
CY: There’s a lot of AI coming out right now, and I am on the edge of learning and implementing what I can. We use Asana for tasking and doing our stoplight reports to see how the business is evolving. Also, any system that we’re working on, we use a dialer called Volcan7. In this market especially, we have many buyers that can’t find a home. We use Volcan7 to do neighborhood calling, and if we have a buyer that wants to live in a particular neighborhood, we’ll actually call into the neighborhoods to see if we can find a match for them. I find the systems, technology and tools that we have in place work great for us.
PB: Despite the ever changing marketplace, your team has found great success and even ranks among the top 10 teams in the country. What are you doing differently from other teams to get you to the top?
CY: As a leader, I try to stay on top of the challenges in the market. If you are committed, have a desire for growth, and you’re coachable with adaptability, you will find success. Everyone has great negotiation skills for our clients. It’s just a matter of making sure their experience is great and being a true skilled professional in this market. We’re proactive. We work with high skill. We have great vendors that we’ve connected with to get amazing loan programs, to get people rates that will work for them. We’re winning in the market because everybody’s determined and everybody is committed to the excellence and the growth in their business that they want. And those things together just make a recipe for success.
PB: What advice do you have for real estate professionals looking to create, lead or join a team?
CY: In order to lead a team, especially when you have challenges in the market, you have to be a visionary. You have to be committed to excellence in the industry and need a high level of skill and knowledge in order to transfer that to other agents. As a leader, it’s really important to give support so that they know how to make moves in the market and adjust their strategies for business. It all comes down from the team leader.
If you want to join a team, I would say you want to look for those qualities. A team that has a good leader, low turnover and high production for agents. Those are teams that, if you join, you’re going to win.
Above, top, Carolyn Young, fifth from left and the Carolyn Young Real Estate Team attend the Tom Ferry Summit where Young presented her listing presentation for more than 10,000 agents. Below, the CYT wore custom t-shirts featuring the phrase, “What Would Carolyn Young Do?” on the back.
