Hessam Nadji : Sure. The market condition around in experienced professionals being hired, trained, and transitioned into productive producers for us is still very challenged for the same reasons we’ve talked about for a while now, the early post-pandemic, in that the very tight labor market which is starting to loosen to some extent based on today’s jobs report, of course, as well as the disruption, the significant swing since the pandemic of a severe market shutdown and the downturn in 2020, a big comeback in ’21, ’22 and then an interest rate induced dislocation has made the usual process of bringing inexperienced people onto the business, training them, having them work with a mentor and transition them into productive individuals has really been disruptive.
And we’re still, if you will, reacting and pivoting to the ripple effects of that three-year disruption in the normal cadence of our new agent and originator hiring. But the trends are moving in the right direction. The additional initiatives that we’ve implemented are paying off, whether it’s our fellowship program, our internship program expanded kind of channels for reaching out to sales professionals from other industries, and a lot of flooding the zone in helping the newer professionals that are within the firm already. get more training, get more support, and make it to the other side. But I don’t want to underestimate just how difficult it is as a new professional to make it in this market. What we do know is that those who started in 2008, 2009 with us, maybe even in 2010 and really struggled for the first few years are some of our top performers now because they really learned the business in a healthy foundational way that has given them an advantage as a career.
And we’re really advertising that and using those best practices to do everything we can to help our newer professionals right now. Complementing that with experienced professional hiring teams, boutique firms has been very successful. And we continue to build on that. This year, we’ve brought a number of market-leading teams on board. We designed that effort in a way to be complementary to our existing coverage and our existing team, so we avoid as much overlap as possible. so that we’re not cannibalizing current opportunities that are already being pursued. And that strategy is very much alive and kicking and a high priority for us.
Blaine Heck : Okay. Great. That’s helpful. Last one for me. Can you just give us a little bit more color on any additional external growth opportunities you guys might be exploring? How far along any of those discussions might be? And given that you didn’t repurchase shares this quarter, although, as Steve mentioned, you guys have been active since then. I guess just how should we think about your preferences between those two options for capital deployment?
Hessam Nadji : I’ll take the first part of your question first. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we have been actively pursuing external growth through acquisitions for some time now and had advanced discussions with some targets that didn’t work out predominantly because of a valuation and purchase terms gap that we still felt brought too much near-term risk and midterm risk to the company. Those that did not work out have been more than replaced by new activities and new discussions, pretty advanced discussions with others that fall in the same category of external growth, and with time, we are seeing a little bit more realistic price expectations and terms expectations, not because the targets that we’re talking to are distressed in any shape or form.
but because this realism is setting in just as much as it is for real estate owners, by the way, it’s the same process and the same curve, if you will. And so, we’re encouraged by that quite a bit, and we are doing everything we can to continue to build that pipeline. Our preference, of course, would be to deploy as much capital for external growth and long-term growth and expanding the platform as much as possible. not just because of diversification, although that’s very important, but also recognizing, Blaine, that within our core business, brokerage, and finance, there’s plenty of room for growth. There’s plenty of opportunity for additional boutiques, additional groups where we don’t have that coverage to be added to the company and the success stories that we’ve had with numerous firms that have joined us over the past five years are the reason to do more of it.
