America's Best real estate professionals share their insights

AMERICA'S BEST REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

BY BROOKLEE HAN

BBrittney LaHayne closed 48 transaction sides and $15.03 million in sales volume in 2022. Jesse "Weno" Dominguez recorded a record 220 transaction sides and $141.067 million in sales volume. And, Wade Covington closed 84 transaction sides, totaling $24.506 million in sales volume. Each of these records earned the real estate professionals a spot in the 2023 RealTrends + Tom Ferry America’s Best Real Estate Professionals agent and team rankings.

RealTrends recently caught up with LaHayne, Dominguez and Covington to discuss their real estate careers.

These interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.

RealTrends: Can you tell me a bit about how you got started in the real estate industry?

Wade Covington: I am a retired U.S. Marine. I joined the Marine Corps in 1992 right out of high school and spent 21 years going all over the world, doing everything, and traveling to 14 countries and all over America. I was very fortunate that when I retired from the Marine Corps I was able to achieve a business degree and that was the whole reason I joined the Marine Corps because I was definitely not prepared to do that when I was in high school.

So, with my business degree and having learned so much about the management of people and resources in the Marine Corps, my idea was that I would join the corporate workforce as a manager of some sort. I couldn’t find a job right away, so I ended up digging ditches for a while, but then

Lowe’s picked me up as an assistant store manager right outside Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I did that for about three years and then I decided to go get my master’s degree.

At that time, I was placing combat vets that were wounded in service for Fort Leonard Wood. If they thought they had a good candidate, they would call me and I would interview the vet for a position at Lowe's, so when I resigned I called them to tell them I was going to go get my master's.

Unbeknownst to me, they then called someone at Century 21 and told them about my history and that I had a business degree, and then one day out of the blue, the broker over there called me and asked to meet.

After that meeting, I went home and told my wife that I was going to do real estate. My wife cried because she was so scared, but that was 2015, and by then, I felt like the market had rebounded and it was a good time to get in. So I got my license and started as a new agent with Century 21 Prestige, which is where I still am today.

Jessie "Weno" Dominguez: I worked for the county as a probation manager for juvenile court for about 10 years. While I worked there, I wanted to be a real estate agent on the side or get into real estate somehow as my family had rentals, so I was always intrigued. My uncle had a lot of the rentals and I used to go with him, and we would talk to the agents. I also already had another business on the side doing décor and venue arrangements for weddings and corporate events.

But while I was working for the county I decided to run for public office and I had the events business and during the campaign I felt like I was going to win and I was so busy managing everything that I decided I needed to quit my job, and my wife, being the most amazing person in the world, said, "What’s your backup plan?" and I didn’t have one. She was fine with me quitting, but she also wanted me to have a plan in case I didn’t win the election, so I decided that if I lost, I’d get my real estate license.

So, I lost my election and immediately got online and started my real estate license training. I took my test in February 2014 and I haven’t taken a day off since.

Brittney LaHayne: I got into real estate when we moved to Omaha. My husband is in the military, so we moved here from our hometown in Indiana. When we moved, my husband was like, "You are really good with sales, you should try real estate." The agent that we worked with to buy our house was starting a team within the military community, so I joined her team and figured I would see where it goes. My goal was just to add a little bit of extra money to our pocket because military families don’t make a ton, and now my husband is working with me instead of in the military. We support the military community here still, but these are our full-time jobs.

RT: What are three things you regularly do, that you feel set you up for success?

LaHayne: I time block, so I try to do groupings of things throughout the week. Once a week, I sit down and go through my social media and see what is going on in my clients lives, and I write notes or send gifts depending on what they are going through. Monday mornings I usually spend time prepping all the clients’ gifts. Then, once a week, I schedule out all of my social media — that one is really hard for me because I like being face to face with people and not on social media, but I know it is very important so I try to make time for it.

And then I also try to take time for myself to mentally recharge. So, I do a lot of running and personal reading. I know a lot of agents will focus on reading books about business and personal development, but I like to recharge and make sure I am spending time with my family. I don’t want my entire life to be just real estate, that might sound terrible, but you have to have some separation to recharge yourself or you’ll burn out really fast.

Dominguez: I am a man of faith, so I pray in the mornings. I have to shift my mindset every morning because by the end of the day you are just worn out and that carries on to the night and it used to carry into my mornings, so now I try to wake up in the mornings and pray to shift my mindset. I also try to go to the gym at least three times a week early in the morning. And I always work on improving my communication skills and becoming a better communicator with my builders and clients and other agents, that is just key.

RT: So how did you go from figuring out how to sell real estate to being a top-performing agent?

Covington: I used to tell one of my professors when I was getting my HR degree that just because someone has an HR degree, it doesn’t mean they will be good at HR. There is a lot of nuance to the communication and interaction that can’t always be taught, and the same goes for real estate.

Growing up, I picked up a very effective way of communicating with people from my father, and it is just a ground level of respect. That, coupled with my personality, just happens to be a good combination in this industry.

So, sitting in that cubicle the first thing I did was learn about lead generation sites, and I just registered for everything. It didn’t matter if they charged a huge referral fee, I just wanted to get some transactions happening.

The second thing I did was I came across a Broker Price Opinion company. I had no idea what they were so I had to Google it, but basically, they would pay me $75 to go out to a property, take photos and basically fill out an appraisal report. I did that for about three years while I was getting started. The money wasn’t good, but it was very valuable knowledge and experience.

The third thing I did was I put my communication skills and some of the boldness I learned through the Marine Corps to work for me. My broker was telling me about these things called FSBOs and I had never heard of them before, but she explained they were for sale by owners, and as an agent, you want to try and flip that to a listing.

There were a couple of FSBO signs on my way into the office, and one morning I saw a guy standing outside one of the FSBO houses, so at the last second I pulled in, and even before I got out of my truck he started waving me off, saying "Leave me alone, I don’t want a real estate agent."

But I just asked him to tell me a bit more about his house, and 20 minutes later he was shaking my hand and telling me he’ll see me at 2 p.m. on Wednesday for a listing appointment. And the next morning I got another one — same thing. By the end of the week, I had gotten three listing appointments from FSBOs.

Then the final thing I did was working my sphere of influence, and not in the ways they go through in training with just sending out postcards and things, but I realized that I knew a lot of people. I was the admin at the Marine attachment on the base and I also had 111 employees at the local Lowe's and was tapped into the market directors at other local branches.

So I started thinking about it, and I am like, I need to work these connections. I emailed everyone I could think of on Facebook or via email and then I mailed out 310 postcards to everyone else, but it didn’t end there. I would go on base and stop by the Marine attachment and just talk to people, and then if I had 15 minutes between appointments, I’d go into Lowe's, even if I didn’t need anything and just wander the aisle until either someone spotted me, or I saw one of my former employees, and we would just talk. I sold five houses out of that Lowe's, and that didn’t come from a postcard. It came from me consistently visiting that place. But once you stop going there you are forgotten — out of sight, out of mind.

RT: What is your best piece of advice for new agents?

Dominguez: Surround yourself with some really good agents. Who you surround yourself with will really tell you who you are. And really interview where you are going to land. When I first started, I didn’t know that, I was just happy that they hired me. Always expect the unexpected and never give up. Real estate is not for everybody. It can be cutthroat, but that is not what I want in my brokerage culture, so find the right fit for you.