“The USO’s role is to do the little things to boost morale and let our nation’s service men and women know they are supported and appreciated,” said Elaine Rogers, president of the USO of Metropolitan Washington. “The continued generosity of the community makes it possible for USO-Metro to serve the troops and their families, and we are truly grateful that The Creig Northrop Team is supporting the Hoops for Heroes program, which will do great things for our military personnel and their families.  Go Terps!”

The two groups were paired a year ago by Terrapin Sports Marketing, the corporate partnership arm of Maryland Athletics, based on The Creig Northrop Team of Long and Foster Real Estate’s interest in the military and Maryland Basketball.

“The Hoops for Heroes program was an incredible experience for me due to the fact that I am a proud Maryland graduate and honored to help the USO achieve more for the military” said Creig Northrop, of The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate. “There was no question that we wanted to continue the partnership with these two amazing organizations again this year. With the energy of a new Maryland coach, we are looking forward to achieving even more for such an amazing mission.”

The success of last year’s program helped The Creig Northrop Team of Long and Foster Real Estate take home the Outstanding Multi-Media Campaign Award presented by the Home Builders Association of Maryland (HBAM) at their annual MAX awards.  This award honors the best in sales and marketing for the building industry and recognizes leaders who stand out in a crowd.

For men, that means a suit and tie — every day.

“For women, that means be professionally dressed, though I don’t know if I can exactly define that,” said Northrop. “But you know what it is. I’ve seen jeans and shorts and, oh, my gosh, we don’t allow that kind of thing. If you want people to treat you professionally, you have to look it.”

The man is unmistakably confident about what he wants, and projecting a professional image is just one cog in the mega-wheel that is the Creig Northrop Team. Its 40 agents last year racked up more than $308 million in sales, putting the Clarksville, Md., team in the No. 1 spot on RealTrends’ annual list of the nation’s 1,000 top real estate teams, by sales volume. (See related article: “Top real estate agents featured in ‘The Thousand’ report.”)

He figured the title was slightly overdue — the team had come in second on the list for four years. But there’s no time to bask in the glow.  

“Our goal is to master Maryland,” he said. “That’s our five-year goal.”

The way he looks at it, he’s halfway there, with the team currently operating in nine of the state’s 24 counties. The Creig Northrop team, he said, wants the whole transaction.

“If you come to us and you live in Howard County and want to buy in Montgomery County, we can help you with both sides,” he said.

The group’s affiliation with Long & Foster Real Estate extends his reach beyond Maryland, he said.

“(Chairman and CEO Wes Foster) brings me the whole East Coast, and he also does a big part of the relocation business,” Northrop said. “We work together — he brings me relocation, I bring him market share.”

A conversation with Northrop inevitably returns to the concept of teamwork. Though he began in real estate 25 years ago by selling lots from a trailer (a project that his real estate agent mother was working on) and then headed his own development company, most of his career has been in residential real estate — and he decided from the beginning that having a team was the way to go.

But the secret to cranking up the volume is to carefully divide and define the team’s tasks, which means that 30 people in administration also work to handle many listing, marketing and closing chores so that agents can stay in the field, selling, he said.

“I broke (my business) up into sectors,” Northrop said. “There was a listing coordinator, a settlement coordinator, a marketing department, a courier department, an information technology department.”

And within those divisions were subgroups, such as people handling virtual tours and staging (all of his team’s sellers receive staging help with their listings).

And it worked. Mostly.

“We decided there were just too many compartments,” he said. The team found that passing the baton from one administrator or worker to the next sometimes led to misunderstandings or to important information going unsaid, he explained.

He consolidated some “compartments” and created the position of “client-care coordinator,” who takes that baton from the agent and monitors the transaction’s progress through the various tasks until it reaches the closing table.

“When an agent takes a listing, he or she tells the seller, ‘You’re going to hear from my client-care coordinator, who will be working with you through the whole process,’ ” Northrop said. “In addition to the agent, (the seller) always has two points of contact.”

Now the system really works, he said.

“We send out surveys on every transaction, and we get 97 percent customer satisfaction — at least,” he said.

One of those agents is Northrop himself.

“I never recommend a team leader get out of the business” and become solely an administrator, he said. “If you don’t know what’s going on in the market, you can’t relate to the agent who’s out there doing it.

“I do open houses,” he said. “I understand agents’ headaches. I know sellers are tough and buyers want the world. I don’t say (to the agents), ‘Go deal with it.’ I say, ‘Here’s a solution.’ “

To simplify his workload, however, Northrop is almost exclusively a lister, as his schedule just doesn’t accommodate taking buyers to look at homes, he said.

“I always call my sellers every week,” he said. “If they know they can reach me, my relationship with them is in good shape.”

And, he said, his relationships on the team are strong.

“We really consider everyone in our team as extended family,” he said. “Some of them really are our family — my wife, Carla, works with us and both of our mothers work with us, and I have two children working with us.”

He said the team isn’t plagued by retention issues, something that dogs many in the industry.

“Our agent retention is impeccable,” he said. “Through the recession we lost of couple of agents who realized it doesn’t get handed to you — you have to work for it. Any agents who are strong and very good, they stay with us.”

Once a month, the team holds an “Hour of Power” meeting to talk about how to improve performance and to handle problems. The gatherings are particularly helpful to less-experienced agents, he said.

“You get 10 years (worth of) experience in your first year from listening to other people,” he said.

His agents, however, tend not to be novices. Northrop said he looks for agents who have at least a couple of years of experience. And they must reside in the area they service, he said.

“We are strategic in that way,” he said. “We feel that if you call me up and you are asking me about Ellicott City, you can say, ‘I know it well and I can find a great house for you.’ “

And there’s the wardrobe issue — even if you’re just coming into the office to handle paperwork, he said.

“What if a client walks in and sees you and wants to see a property in five minutes? You have to be appropriately attired,” he said. “You always have to be ready for real estate.”

Mary Umberger is a freelance writer in Chicago. Source: Inman News, September 26, 2011

• Real Estate is our passion
• Our Clients are our first priority
• When the Market changes, we know how to adapt
• We are honest, creative, & innovative
• We offer top notch Customer Service
• We set goals and strive to achieve them
• We live to make a difference in our Clients lives
• We are always thinking about how to improve ourselves
• We strive to always be there for our Clients through thick and thin, we are with them, guiding them through it all
• We think ahead of the curve – we are willing to try new things, invest in new ideas
• We offer the whole package – a one-stop shop
• We work 24/7 and market 24/7
• Our Clients have said “We realized if you can’t sell our house….nobody can!”
• We are the ultimate professional – committed, and dedicated
• Teamwork makes the dream work, and we have a great Team that is always supporting one another
• We are # 1 because the breadth of our knowledge is broader than any other single Agent or Team
• Our systems allow everything to just fall in place so the transaction is as smooth and organized as possible
• We offer maximum exposure to all our listings
• We accept changes and are flexible
• We have a “Whatever it takes” attitude
• We don’t dwell on the negative – we focus on the positive, and know how to move forward
• We are consistent and have steadily risen to the top
• Our proven systems, from staging to Marketing, Client Care to Courier services
• We are cutting edge with Technology and Marketing
• This is the Market when Clients need the power of a strong Team – no stronger than Number One!
• We are responsive
• There’s no mystery, no magic, we just work harder
• Our experience and knowledge is incredible
• People trust us
• We are very dedicated Full Time Professionals
• Our passion and dedication pushes us to excel
• When people say we go the extra mile, well…we are the only ones on this side of the highway!
• We have a commitment to excellence
• We Market everywhere, our signs are everywhere
• Our quick response time means people can reach us and get answers when they need it
• Instead of giving up, we push through
• We have great Managers who guide us
• You always get a live person on all phone calls – never an automated voice mail – human touch means everything
• When issues arise, we take it in stride
• We hold ourselves to a very high standard
• We are held accountable with weekly goals, monthly goals, yearly goals
• We know what it takes to get our Clients to the closing table
• We are in touch with the Marketplace, we are strategic
• No matter what is happening in the Market, we always offer an entire host of services – we didn’t cut back during a tough economy – we grew stronger
• We strive to be the best in every aspect of what we do

Clarksville, MD – September 14, 2011- The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster® Real Estate, Inc., announced today that they have achieved their ultimate goal, ranking at # 1 on this year’s Top 1,000 Real Estate Professionals list by Real TRENDS in conjunction with LORE Magazine and The Wall Street Journal. This announcement puts Maryland on the real estate map as the most successful market in the country.

This recognition and milestone for The Creig Northrop Team is a true testament to the team’s perseverance, commitment and dedication to serving their customers and exceeding their expectations. In addition, this # 1 ranking highlights the potential and growth of the Maryland real estate market and The Creig Northrop Team’s ability to adapt to an ever-changing marketplace.

Creig Northrop, President of The Creig Northrop Team stated, “I am amazed and impressed for what we all have achieved and it’s an honor to be able to put the East Coast and Maryland, specifically, on the map with this recognition. The Creig Northrop Team works as a family, working together towards the same goals. We’ve been very strategic in looking at what we have to do to meet our goals. We’ve built our Team with Agents who are all hands-on and demonstrate energy and optimism towards achieving our goals and serving our clients. We’ve been realistic. While we’re large enough to serve everyone, we’re small enough to care and that will be a key objective to maintain as we head into the New Year, and will help us continue to retain the #1 spot.”

The Creig Northrop Team attributes their success to their ability to constantly evolve to meet the demands of the future, their blend of new media and proven, time-honored practices, and multi-faceted marketing initiatives including, but not limited to:

•  Their 40 Full-time Agents, who concentrate mainly within the county in which they live and sell properties through communicating their own experiences and knowledge of living in that region;
• Knowledge of current and forecasted trends;
• Quick response time;
• ‘Get It Done’ attitude and expertise in listening, following up, and following through;
• Their commitment to staying active in the community and giving back;
• Their newly redesigned website featuring cutting edge “fusion” photography, high-definition virtual tours, You Tube video, integration with social media channels, mapping, and for the first time ever, recent sold data pulled directly from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) available for consumers;
• Automatic texts on every listing so buyers can access information 24/7, and effective use of QR codes;
• Mobile application;
• Their understanding of how to market to the various generations of buyers and sellers and what they will be most responsive towards; and
• Their company’s full service, referral network to other Top Producing Agents nationwide to help clients with challenges they face when relocating.

“It is such an honor to be part of this amazing world class team. Without a doubt, teamwork is the secret to our success. Being # 1 requires an extreme amount of hard work and dedication. I couldn’t be more proud of every person in our organization.

Most of all, I want to thank YOU, our loyal clients. You continue to make us #1 in Maryland year after year. Now, for the first time, we are # 1 in the country. You make it fun for us to do our job. We love our work and love the opportunity we have to help people in our community. In the bigger picture, our quality of life improves when we enhance the lives of those around us. I think our team, and our clients, are different from others because of the enormous loyalty we have to each other. We really appreciate your business and feel you are part of our success. You make us #1!”

*According to Real Trends, Lore Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal based on team sales volume

Creig Northrop enjoyed Monday night’s unveiling of the new 2011 Collection of Maryland football uniforms designed by Under Armour. We are excited to support the team under new head coach Randy Edsall. Check out the streaming video or photo gallery and…Go Terps!

Video

Photo Slideshow

Baltimore Sun Coverage of the Event

Image courtesy of The Baltimore Sun

The goal of the full-service, customer-focused site is to bring the latest in search functionality and social media to a centralized area that allows consumers to easily search for and experience properties to the fullest extent possible through the use of technology.

“We are aware now more than ever before that 90 percent of shoppers start their home search online,” said Creig Northrop, principal of The Creig Northrop Team. “We are the leading real estate resource in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area and that means staying ahead of the curve and meeting our technology savvy consumers where they are most comfortable. We listened to our customers and what they want is an innovative, five-star website that combines all of the great services we offer, such as professional photography, high-definition virtual tours and You Tube videos with the latest technology so they can almost walk through a home without even being there.”

The new full-service, customer-focused website will provide consumers with more information on properties than ever before and features:

• Clean, user friendly layout for enhanced functionality and effortless access to seller-client listings, search features and other important information;
• A robust search engine that draws information from the Multiple Regional Information System (MRIS) to quickly deliver a list of properties that accurately meets the searcher’s parameters;
• Easy-to-find high-definition virtual tours and large-format photos of each property to simulate a walk-through prior to an actual showing;
• Aggregated news, social media and blog content to streamline information gathering
• A customer portal where listings can be saved and buyers are able to communicate with their agent
• Ability to email and save listings, schedule a showing, request more information or see a virtual tour directly from the listing page;
• Individual agent pages with biographical information so shoppers may choose the agent whose background and areas of expertise best matches their needs;
• Map search features to pinpoint properties in the home buyer’s desired  neighborhood
• Lifestyle search tool to assist buyers in identifying residential areas that best match their lifestyle
• Ability to map open houses;
• Property detail pages featuring easy-to-read graphs and charts of neighborhood information, including recent home sales data, census data, population demographics, school information, crime data and a link to Yelp for reviews on local retailers;
• High-definition video of each home powered by YouTube so buyers can share home video tours through social media channels.

On the back end, the new website includes a powerful customer relationship management tool that allows inquiries to immediately be directed to the appropriate agent for rapid response time. For sellers listing with The Creig Northrop Team, this sophisticated lead management system means agents are more likely to turn inquiries into buyers by communicating with those shoppers and getting them qualified early in their search process.

Also among those to benefit from the new state-of-the-art website are The Creig Northrop Team’s corporate and military clients. Two years ago, the company launched its Corporate and Military Relations Division to meet the unique needs of its corporate and military clients. With the new website, employees who are relocating to the area to work for local corporations, government agencies or are part of the military will have access to the latest technology so they can begin searching for a home before relocating to the area. For more information, please visit www.northropteam.com.

In anticipation of what we predict will be a great 2nd half of the year – The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster will be launching their brand new website. Are you ready for the BIG REVEAL? We are only a few short weeks away. Stay tuned for the launch!

Top Real Estate Headlines in the 1st Half of 2011

Despite Early Headlines, Sales are Increasing

Headlines earlier in the year announced the total collapse of the housing market. To those in the know, it was obvious that comparing sales numbers in the first four months of this year to the same period last year made absolutely no sense. The largest tax credit ever given to home buyers expired on April 30, 2010. Large numbers of transactions were dragged forward last year so buyers could take advantage of the credit. Pending home sales (transactions going into contract) on the other hand have done quite nicely and many institutions (ex. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, NAR and Moody’s Analytics) are projecting good sales numbers throughout the rest of the year. 

Main Stream Media Begins to Announce “Now Is the Time to Buy!”

With prices and interest rates at historic lows and the chance that mortgages will become more costly as the private sector steps in, many in the main stream media are announcing that buying a home now makes sense. In the last 45 days, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR) and CBS Money Watch have all ran articles calling for the readership to consider buying now!

Next week, we will share what we believe will be the top 5 stories in the second half of 2011.

For more details on “Why Now is the Time to Buy,” check out these Top Stories:

The Wall Street Journal: Why It’s Time to Buy

CBS Money Watch: Why the Time to Buy is Now

Forbes Magazine: 9 Reasons to Buy a House Now

National Public Radio: For Many, It’s Still a Good Time to Buy a Home

Getting settled into a new home before the next school year starts creates a huge sense of urgency for summer buyers! The other opportunity for sellers is coming from job relocation. This home buyer typically comes into town once or twice and buys. Sometimes they are in corporate housing for a short period of time but that seems to be less common now than in the past.

We are truly dedicated to helping you get the sales price you deserve by supplying all the tools and resources you need to be seen by the maximum number of buyers in today’s marketplace! Request a no-obligation market analysis now!