Chris Mygatt, senior vice president and engagement leader at Coldwell Banker, kicked off day one of the 18th annual National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in Orlando, Fla. Mygatt shared some of his experiences from working in the real estate industry for nearly 40 years.
Mygatt become a realtor in 1985, selling real estate and managing an independent real estate office in Boulder, Colo. By 2000, Chris joined Coldwell Banker Colo. as the company’s executive vice president; and, in 2004, he began serving as president & COO of Coldwell Banker Colo., a position he held until early 2021.
In early 2021, Mygatt was promoted to Coldwell Banker Realty’s senior vice president – Core 4 Engagement Leader due to his instrumental role in developing and launching “Core 4”, the company’s iconic agent value proposition. In his current role, Mygatt focuses his time and expertise on expanding Coldwell Banker’s growth in primary services (Mortgage, Title and Home Warranty), increasing agent adoption of the company’s products, tools and services, as well as creating consistency across all launches of the Coldwell Banker brand’s suite of tools and services.
During his keynote speech at NS3, Mygatt spoke to members of the industry about the shared responsibility and opportunity had by those attending the three-day conference.
“There's actually this like huge weight, I think, that's on the shoulders of a lot of us here,” Mygatt said. “And the weight of that is this responsibility, and this opportunity, if you will, to be able to reshape the industry that we're in every single day. And this is the most amazing place to have that happen.”
Mygatt challenged attendees to utilize that opportunity to rethink the industry and the way business in the industry is done.
“I challenge you to take the opportunity to think about the business a little bit differently,” Mygatt said. “Think about how you might craft it a bit differently, as we move into the future, how we can change the experience for our consumers, for our agents for each other, for our buyers and for sellers, how can we make this process better? Oftentimes, we get set up in our own ways, and it's hard to make that shift. But it's really, really important.”
Mygatt also spoke of the unique position real estate professionals were in coming out of such strong market growth over the past decade, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic the past two years.
“As you've seen, now, point moving forward, this is unprecedented,” Mygatt said. “We've never seen this kind of home appreciation before. National appreciation this past year alone comes in at 17.5 percent. I mean, this is that pressure I'm talking about. This tension that's happening.”
The last few years have only increased the need to reinvest in one’s business and develop relationships, Mygatt explained. In 2016, a real estate business would retain about 25 percent of income for reinvestment into the business and its agents and workers. That number declined to 15.3 percent in the last quarter of 2021.
“We have to be able to inspire our people to use our primary services, because the money that we're going to be able to invest in our agents and into our business is not going to come from core brokerage,” Mygatt said. “So, we have to figure out a way to drive more revenue. The pressure that we feel, is being felt by every real estate company in America. Every real estate company is having to figure this out and solve for this.”
Mygatt warned that technology might seem like the easy answer when trying to increase revenue or lower costs, but it isn’t always a guarantee.
“I get worried that technology sometimes can seem like an easy way or an easy answer. But be careful. If you roll in too much technology, and you lose the relationship, it's not going to end well. I promise you. So, take the time, invest the money to build those deep binding relationships and make sure people feel that support and passion for what you're doing. Understand your specific distinct point of difference. That's what we need to understand to be really clear about what is it that sets us apart from the competition and makes it easier and better.”