[ad_1] Samson Properties CEO Donny Samson Donny Samson is quite aware of this particular moment in residential real estate history. “I don’t have any headline-worthy goals like 20% in 20 major markets,” Samson said about future plans. “But I think we’re going to bring our models to more and more states.” Samson is the CEO of Samson Properties, a rapidly growing Northern Virginia-based brokerage. He is alluding to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin, who failed to deliver on a stated goal to have 20% market share in 20 major American markets by 2020. Samson has a different business model and branding than Compass, but both brokerages identify as “agent-centric.” Samson is so agent-centric, in fact, that its agents receive a 100% commission split and services like training, office desks, and help with marketing. In return, the Samson agent is asked – not told, asked – to refer clients to Cardinal Title Group, a title insurer wholly owned by Samson. “I try to kill them with kindness,” Samson said, giving agents “the resources to build that relationship” with Cardinal Title. From one perspective, the U.S. real estate agent is in peril. The Department of Justice Antitrust Division is in its ninth month of a broad inquiry into what consumers pay on real estate commissions, which DOJ officials appear to think is too much. DOJ has swooped into lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and top brokerage firms. But RealTrends’ recently unveiled list of the top brokerages in the country, for which Samson is 19th by sales volume, revealed a different outlook. The fastest-growing brokerages, from full-service outfits like Compass to companies like Samson, Fathom Realty, and United Real Estate, businesses that RealTrends’ senior advisor Steve Murray call “low-cost brokerage models,” give agents more commission money and more services than five or 10 years ago with less upfront fees. Samson Properties is perhaps the ultimate example of the agent – feared to be left for dead – seemingly in the driver’s seat. “Donny Samson has been transparent about what he’s doing,” said Don Gurney, a longtime Century 21 broker in Pasadena, Maryland, who has observed Samson Properties’ regional rise. “It’s going to be interesting to see how he keeps making it without hitting a wall.” The differentiator Donny Samson’s father, Danny Samson, founded Samson Properties in Chantilly, Virginia, in 2001. “My dad and a few of his buddies wanted to start a company where they played by their own rules,” Donny Samson recalled. “What my dad had was a passion for recruiting.” Donny Samson was the company’s 25th agent when he joined the family business in 2003, he said. Today, Samson reports that it has 5,300 agents with 21 offices in Virginia, 11 in Maryland, and one in the District of Columbia. “Recruiting wise, they have certainly sent me a lot of postcards and emails,” said Mynor Herrera, a Keller Williams broker in Bethesda, Maryland. “There’s a running line in my office,” said one Washington, D.C. agent, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly about a competitor. “Has Danny or Donny Samson invited you yet to play golf?” At first, Samson Properties’ pitch was fairly standard for a low-cost brokerage model of the 2000s. They let agents keep 80% of each commission, while retaining 20% for the brokerage. That changed amid the Great Recession. In 2009, Samson Properties, still led by Danny Samson, created Cardinal Title Group, and soon thereafter gave agents a 100% commission. “We were a smaller company, and we needed a little bit more of a differentiator,” Donny Samson said. Donny Samson claimed that his brokerage began turning the corner in 2016, around when he took the position of chief operating officer. “We were able to make enough money from the title,” Samson said, “to provide services and support for agents.” In 2019, Donny Samson took over the company from his father. Donny Samson claims that his company is profitable. But he declined to provide net income or other financial figures. Flying with the cardinals It is difficult to ballpark what Samson Properties pays in expenses, but here are some costs the company incurs. According to Donny Samson, the 5,300 agents are assisted by a media team of three people, a marketing team of 10, an agent service staff of 10, and 30 brokers on staff who also give training. There is also a concierge staff of 20 people, and an “in-house print center” for marketing and other materials. Also, Samson Properties foots the bill for agents to use KVCore, software to create websites, interact with customers, and process administrative work. Samson also employs at least 100 staff at Cardinal Title, Donny Samson said. The 32 offices represent a leasing cost but also subleasing revenue. Each locale, Donny Samson explained, has free office desks. But about 450 agents pay between $250-$500 a month to rent their own private office, Samson said. That’s revenue that tallies to approximately $2 million a year. Here’s where things get interesting. Samson reported $9.6 billion in 2021 sales volume, a 71% leap from 2020. The company totaled 20,210 in 2021 transaction sides (If you represent just one side of the deal, buyer or seller, that counts as a side). According to Donny Samson, the average Samson-brokered home sale in 2021 was for $475,000, over $100,000 more than the national median sales price, but hundreds of thousands of dollars less than the Northern Virginia median sales price. Now, for any brokerage, these large numbers bear a small relation to revenue, much less net income. Typically, the more telling number is sales volume. A brokerage gets a percentage of the percentage their affiliated agent gets from the final price of a home sale. But for Samson, what matters more is the number of deals. Each deal is a chance to hawk Cardinal Title. An agent can choose to recommend Cardinal Title, and that recommendation mostly falls to the buyer’s agent. “Buyers get to choose title in our region, so we have a better chance
