Parker Pemberton and Liz Rein (former attorney) from Pemberton Real Estate share their vulnerable and inspiring journey of failure, comeback and entrepreneurial bravery.
They explain their unconventional decision to move from a massive team to an independent brokerage, break down their “elective services” model that keeps agents productive, share their high-volume metrics ($829 million, 2,200 transactions) and reveal why agents must focus on becoming “findable on ChatGPT” to succeed in the AI-driven future.
Highlights
Pemberton’s personal story is one of resilience and failure. After his professional golf career ended, he initially failed in real estate in 2011. He was forced to start a lawn care business, which taught him the critical lesson of sales and lead generation through relentless door-knocking. This led to his second return to real estate, where the mindset “all clicked.”
Rein, meanwhile, left a 10-year law career due to its adversarial nature and joined Pemberton, first as an admin, to find a way to make her personal and work life “feel like extensions of each other.”
Their most unconventional decision was moving from a stable, large team (193 agents) within another firm to launching their own brokerage, making the move right after the Compass-Anywhere acquisition news broke.
They quickly adopted an “elective services” model, which allows agents to choose and pay for services like transaction coordination, marketing and video production on an a la carte basis. This turns support departments into internal profit centers.
This model rewards high-producing agents by allowing them to keep top commission splits to high-producing agents while retaining full infrastructure.
They emphasize that agents are willing to pay more for convenience and service rather than opting for the cheapest competitor.
On the topic of online leads, Pemberton directly addresses the common agent complaint with the company’s famous internal motto: “The leads don’t suck, you suck.” He argues that leads are an opportunity to start the sales process faster and that poor conversion is an agent failure.
Their strategy is to flip the business mix from being primarily company-lead driven to agent sphere/past client.
They achieve this by moving leads to the agent’s sphere of influence (SOI) after 12 months, rewarding long-term client nurturing. Their final focus is on AI, where they coach agents to master findability on ChatGPT because they believe that this is the new frontier for lead generation and brand trust.
Connect with Liz Rein on Instagram or Facebook. Connect with Parker Pemberton on Instagram or Facebook. Learn more about Pemberton Real Estate on Instagram, Facebook and online at pembertonhomesteam.com.
Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered is now exclusively on Inman. Tune in for agent- and team-focused content on Mondays and leadership interviews on Wednesdays each week. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
James Dwiggins is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
Keith Robinson is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
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