Local Pro Realty earns No. 1 Top Workplaces award among small real estate companies

Local Pro Realty has been expanding lately, hiring more agents and opening a second Dallas-Fort Worth office, in Plano. The residential brokerage attributes much of the growth to word of mouth as well as to its robust, 12-person leadership team.

President and co-owner Deana Custer and broker/co-owner Tricia Andrews said in contrast to other places they’ve worked — where the leaders were overworked — Local Pro’s senior management is overstaffed, on purpose. “One of the issues in the real estate industry is agents not being able to [reach] somebody when they have a question,” Custer said. “So, there’s always somebody here to help with their questions and to serve them. Our leadership team goes the extra mile for the agents, and they’re amazing.”

Members of the team also share a personality trait with the firm’s new hires, she said. “While we want the best agents in the industry, we decided that, at the end of the day, we weren’t going to hire anyone who’s not kind. So, we have all these amazing professionals. And we don’t have to deal with the drama that a lot of places do, because we’re committed to helping one another and seeing the others thrive.”

Local Pro employees back that up. “There is zero drama, and they are concerned about my growth,” said one, “I would not want to be anywhere else.” Commented another: “We work together and not against each other.” The firm’s biggest current challenge is deciding which of its many great new ideas will create the most leverage for its agents, Custer said. In addition to a customer relationship management system with AI features that eliminates much of the agents’ “busy work,” the firm has created a database management program and a marketing management program for agents.

Local Pro’s motto is “Inspiring Dreams and Empowering Agents Everywhere,” Custer said — and it’s serious about the “everywhere” part. Most of Local Pro’s classes and events are open to agents affiliated with other real estate brokerages, many of whom have called on Andrews for help getting their questions answered.