By Susanne Dwyer
Paving the Way for Agent Success
For JP Piccinini, devising a concept for the ideal real estate company was easy. A former top-producing agent himself, he just thought about everything he would want from a brokerage firm…then built it himself. Clearly, Piccinini’s vision was on the money, as six short years later, Dallas-based JP and Associates REALTORS® (JPAR) has become home to 1,100 agents in 16 offices throughout Texas, an RISMedia Top 500 Power Broker, an INC5000 company with billions in sales, and expansion beyond state lines in the company’s not-so-distant future. The secret to the firm’s rapid growth? Productivity and service, says Piccinini. Find out more about the culture and mindset that drive the company’s success in this exclusive interview.
Maria Patterson: JP, please begin by telling us how you first got into the real estate business.
JP Piccinini: I started in real estate in Columbia, S.C., at Russell and Jeffcoat REALTORS®, which was recently bought and rebranded as Coldwell Banker. I had been a project engineer and entered real estate cold turkey at 28 years old. I figured, what the heck—if it fails, I can go back to what I had been doing. But I wound up never looking back. I fell in love with the business. Real estate allowed me to help people, it allowed me to put deals together and it allowed me to run my own business by finally being the master of my own destiny—all the things I had been passionate about as an engineer could play into a real estate career. I wasn’t from Columbia, but I became Rookie of the Year, then the No. 1 agent in the office in year two. Shortly after, I became the No. 1 agent in the market for several years in a row before moving back to Texas.
MP: With that degree of success, why did you switch to the brokerage side?
JP: I wanted a new challenge. You can say I learned at an early age that I was an entrepreneur at heart. I wanted to grow a company and help fellow agents with their business by seeing them succeed like I did, so I pursued my broker’s license. I also wanted to move my family back to Dallas—I’m from North Texas and went to school there.
In October 2011, instead of buying into a franchise model, I decided to do my own thing and opened JP and Associates REALTORS®. I designed the concept of the company on a barf bag while on an airplane. I put my REALTOR® cap on and thought, if I was to leave, what kind of brokerage would I wish for? What would I look for? I created the company from the viewpoint of a top producer—I drew up a formula that included 100-percent commission, the support of leadership, and all the technology and training that I wanted as an agent. This is how JP and Associates REALTORS® was born. I figured if I could get 20 or so agents, that’s all I would need to
From:: Real Estate News
