Posted By Wendy Forsythe

Recently I’ve been devoting a fair bit of time to the development of the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Awards and Recognition program. Agents take their awards very seriously and I’ve often heard complaints from brokers and agents regarding various awards programs. So, after soliciting years of input (either wanted or unwanted!) here’s the chance to start fresh. If only it were that easy!

What and how many categories of awards should we have (individual agent, partners, teams, office, regional, national, specialty, etc.)?

What should the award levels in each category be?

Do award levels reflect today’s market conditions or those of 5 years ago?

Should they be based on units and gross commission income (or adjusted gross commission)?

Should they be only production based or are there other considerations?

Oh, and here’s my favorite, what should we call them?

So, step one— let’s look at what other real estate brands are doing. This exercise didn’t really provide any clarity because there is absolutely no consistency in the world of awards. An agent could have to produce anywhere from $50,000 GCI to $120,000 GCI to earn the entry level award designation depending on the company they work with.

Step two. Let’s talk to brokers and agents and find out what they are looking for. This helped tremendously. Surprise, surprise! I’m a firm believer that product developers should actually talk to the people the product or service they are developing is designed for.

The awards program is almost complete. Just putting some finishing touches on it. I’m sure we will make tweaks and improvements along the way, but I’m confident we’ve addressed several of the most common challenges.