FEATURE ARTICLE, APRIL 2007

THE LEE-DING BROKERAGE COMPANY
Ownership has its privileges at Lee & Associates and keeps the company growing.
Brian A. Lee

Lee & Associates’ clients enjoy a comprehensive range of specialized commercial real estate services because the firm’s brokers enjoy a special company setup. Agents are rewarded commensurate with the business they bring into the company. This profit-sharing plan keeps brokers happy and the firm expanding at a tremendous rate.

Lee

“It is our structure that separates us from our competitors,” says Bill Lee, founder of Lee & Associates. “The unique component is that we return all of our profits back to our senior sales people and that we allow all of our salesmen to earn their way into that profit-sharing status. We are an employee-owned firm and break down that ownership by separately incorporating each office.

How does a brokerage company grow from one office and barely $1 million in gross revenue in 1979, the year it was started, to approximately $200 million and nearly three dozen offices nationwide in 2006?

“Basically, it boils down to our shareholders taking 84 to 85 percent of every dollar they make,” says Ed Indvik, chairman of the firm’s board of directors. “It’s just really tough to compete against that.”

Indvik

It starts with brokers being able to receive a greater return on their success. That major motivation not only pushes the individual broker to new performance heights, but also advances the office’s goals as well.

“When you share profit in a pool with others, you have a vested interest in their success,” says Lee. “That means you’re going to communicate with them, you’re going to tell them what’s going on in the marketplace, you’re going to help them with their opportunities, you’re going to provide free information, suggestions, advice and so on.”

This information sharing allows more deals to be brokered, facilitates training and
fosters a healthy team dynamic. As Lee says, “Happy brokers beget happy brokers.” And there’s plenty of happiness to be had in Southern California where Lee & Associates has 22 offices.  It’s the largest industrial market in the land and ranks in the top 3 office markets nationally.

Tingus

The third component to the company’s growth and success is the fact that brokers/owners can invest in every new office that opens. They contribute the capital necessary to recruit successful agents in the new marketplace, build a database of property information and establish the requisite support for the office’s daily operations. Then, a small percentage of the gross revenue is taken out of the new office and paid back to the shareholders as a return on their investment in opening it up. Six new Lee & Associates offices opened last year and already one this year.

“What happens is your senior people are investing in the growth of the company,” says Lee. “They take that same information-sharing attitude, that spirit of cooperation from their own office where they share a profit pool and they then transfer it to the new offices where they’re investors in them. Our independent offices have a very high level of communication and sharing. That really is the kernel of our success.”

In March, Lee & Associates held the grand opening of its 33rd office, located in the Antelope Valley, and fourth office in the company’s LA North/Ventura division. Brokers in this new office will serve under the strategic direction of Mike Tingus, president of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc., who also manages the firm’s Calabasas, Sherman Oaks and Ventura County offices. 

“Antelope Valley is a dynamic market with significant opportunity,” says Tingus, whose leadership over the past 3 years has helped grow the division from 16 to more than 55 brokers. “Opening offices in prime markets is simply in line with an overall Lee & Associates goal to have local offices in every major central business district and submarket in the country by the end of the decade.”

The firm’s Antelope Valley team includes seasoned brokers who specialize in office, industrial, retail and multifamily properties. Leading the new team is John Battle, founding principal of the firm’s Sherman Oaks office, who has more than 25 years experience in industrial, office, investment and multifamily properties. 

“I just think that at some point in time we’re going to be the largest commercial real estate firm in the United States,” says Lee.

The 28-year-old company is currently the fourth largest full-service commercial brokerage company in the nation and growing fast. That’s what happens when highly qualified sales people are not only significantly rewarded for their work, but they also own a stake in the company.


©2007 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.