Profile - David Romero, CEO of CENTURY 21 Award-Superstars
Politics Will Wait for Award-Superstars’ CEO
By Roger Cruzen
It’s difficult to imagine David Romero as anything but a REALTOR® or a
politician, or perhaps a combination of the two. Maybe it’s because everyone in
his immediate family is involved in real estate. Or perhaps it’s that one of
his first jobs—other than delivering lockboxes for his mom, REALTOR® Eva Jo
Romero—was working for C.A.R. Past President and former state and U.S. Senator
John Seymour, the consummate REALTOR® politician and one-time mayor of Romero’s
hometown of Anaheim. • Though he concedes that the day may come when he will
decide to run for political office, right now every ounce of David Romero’s
considerable energy and business savvy is focused on helping his agents thrive
in a difficult market as the recently elevated president and CEO of CENTURY 21
Award-Superstars, a 16-office, 1,400-agent amalgam of two top-performing
Southern California CENTURY 21 operations and headed, until January 2009, by
David’s brother, Philip, 42, who stepped back from day-to-day management into
the role of chairman.
A New Generation Takes
Charge
>> At 38 years old, David Romero is one of a new generation of real
estate brokerage leaders whose management and leadership skills—honed when the
market was hot—are being tested by a business that suddenly and dramatically
changed. Given the depth of the real estate decline, San Diego-based CENTURY 21
Award (purchased by the Romeros in 2004) and Orange County-based CENTURY 21
Superstars (purchased in 1997) have weathered the transition as well as can be
expected. Last year, Award was number one in the CENTURY 21® system with $26.7
million in adjusted gross commissions (AGCs) through November, while Superstars
ranked number 13 nationally with $14.2 million in AGCs.
Like most leaders, Romero is not satisfied with maintaining the status
quo.
“David has made it very clear that it’s critical right now that agents are not
attached to their past success,” says San Diego REALTOR® Ruth Pugh, CENTURY 21
Award-Superstars’ top performer, whose 277 transaction sides in 2008 ranked her
fourth nationally among CENTURY 21 agents. “He sat me down and said to me,
‘Ruth, you were good two years ago; let’s see how good you are now. It’s a new
market; it’s a new game, baby, and this is what you need to do in 2009.’ And
then he broke it down in detail—everything I had to do, beginning with how many
client contacts I need to make each week to meet my goals.”
Romero’s game plan for Pugh, and all his agents, is to drive a culture of
prioritization and accountability—lessons he says he has learned from his own
personal coach, Tom Ferry, and by coaching top agents like Ruth Pugh. Every
Thursday at 6 a.m., before most agents have had their first cup of coffee, Pugh
and Romero are on the phone for their weekly coaching session. Each day,
without fail, Pugh leaves a voicemail for Romero outlining her progress.
“In the end, it’s all about getting people clear about what their priorities
are and then building a schedule to make those priorities happen,” explains
Romero. “Plus, there needs to be some accountability to the plan. It’s a fact
that people will work harder for other people than they will for themselves,
which is why agents who already earn $1 or $2 million a year often are the ones
who most want an ‘accountability partner’ or coach.”
“Tiger Woods wouldn’t be where he is if he didn’t have a personal coach to hold
him accountable,” says Pugh, whose 2009 goal is for her team to complete 480
transaction sides. “I can’t tell you how phenomenal David is. He has a passion
for this business that is in his belly and the most incredible business mind I
know of.”
Real Estate or Politics?
>> David Romero might not be where he is today had John Seymour, and not
Dianne Feinstein, been elected to the U.S. Senate. Although he worked for his
mother, a CENTURY 21 agent in Anaheim, while attending a local community
college, his real interest at the time, driven by Seymour’s example, was
politics. Romero transferred to California State University, Sacramento, where
he studied political science and worked for Seymour—a career path that stalled
in 1992 when Dianne Feinstein beat Seymour, who had been appointed to fill Pete
Wilson’s U.S. Senate seat when Wilson was elected California governor.
Crestfallen, Romero moved back in with his parents, worked for his mother, and
studied for his broker’s license. In 1994, David followed Eva Jo to CENTURY 21
Superstars in Placentia and his career began to take off. By the time he was
26, David was managing the firm’s Yorba Linda office. Later, he used his
recruiting skills to boost the agent count at the Anaheim Hills branch from 10
to more than 100 within three years’ time.
Meanwhile, older brother, Philip, in 1996 founded First Class Mortgage, which
became the in-house mortgage option for CENTURY 21 Superstars’ clients. When
the owners of the Superstars franchise decided to sell, the Romero brothers
took advantage of the opportunity to build their own company. Thus began an
expansion into Anaheim, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, and other parts of
fast-growing Orange County just as the market was working up a froth.
Eventually, the Romeros looked south to San Diego for an acquisition and landed
on CENTURY 21 Award. The Romeros were outbid on two occasions, but the third
time was a charm.
“We heard on Nov. 23, [2004], the day before Thanksgiving, that LandAmerica had
accepted our offer,” Romero recalls. “That weekend, my wife, Michelle, and I
drove to San Diego and bought a place and furnished it—all in one weekend,”
Romero, who took on the role of chief operating officer, recalls. “We were
ready to go to work on Monday.”
Romero laments that one of the most difficult lessons he has learned in recent
years is to act quickly and decisively, as he and his wife did. As many
brokerage owners and managers learned, it is easy to avoid structural decisions
when the market is red hot and equally difficult to act when it suddenly cools.
It wasn’t until 2007, almost three years after purchasing CENTURY 21 Award,
that the Romeros began to cut costs, eliminating overlapping staff, and
shuttering a handful of offices.
“It has been difficult to see agents go from six-figure incomes to making
nothing, and to experience such drastic changes in our economy,” says Romero.
“2007 was our toughest year because we had to make some difficult decisions
around eliminating expenses and locations—and we probably were a year too late
in making some of those decisions. What I’ve learned through all of this is to
act faster. People respect that. You only make it worse by trying to sugar-coat
things. As soon as you make the decision, take the action. That’s the
compassionate thing to do.”
Poised for Growth
>> David Romero says the decision to shuffle management is a signal that
Award-Superstars is poised for growth in 2009 and beyond. “Because of the
decisions we made in 2007, we had a pretty good year in 2008,” he confesses.
“Now it is time for us to get back into growth mode, and we always do better in
growth mode. Our leadership change signals that. There are lots of
opportunities in the marketplace.”
One thing that won’t change is a commitment to accountability—particularly his
own. “I still talk once a week with Tom Ferry, and Phil keeps me in check all
the time,” he says. “That’s the beauty of working with family, because you
always have each other’s best interests in mind. You aren’t afraid to push each
other.”
As for politics, David Romero says he can foresee a time a decade or so from
now when he might follow John Seymour’s example and become a
REALTOR®-politician. After all, real estate and public service are part of his
DNA. His father, REALTOR® Panky Romero, who came to real estate after a career
as an engineer, currently is chairman pro tempore of the Anaheim Planning
Commission, ironically following in the footsteps of his son, David, himself a
former Anaheim planning commissioner.
“Maybe someday,” he laughs. “Right now, I see me doing this. I wouldn’t be
doing it if I didn’t have the passion for
it.”
Stats
Gadget You Can’t Live Without: Garmin Forerunner
Career Outside of Real Estate You Would Have Chosen: Politics
Favorite Web sites: Pitchforkmedia.com (music);
Iconoculture.com (trends)
Current Read: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Passionate About: Growth, both personally and professionally
Favorite Quote: “We all must suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline
or the pain of regret.”—Jim Rohn
Life’s Goal: Helping others discover how great they can be.
Roger Cruzen is a freelance writer and public relations
consultant.
Print