SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The Valley’s residential real estate landscape is in the midst of a seismic shift. The number one producers in Arizona from Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty, Berskhire Hathaway Home Services Arizona, Realty Executives, and Engel & Volkers have all joined local real estate entrepreneur John N. Vatistas to help create Launch.
Launch, as the brokerage is known, will be introduced tonight at an exclusive gathering for its family of brokers at the Arizona Country Club. Brokers were hand selected by agency leadership based on their experience, integrity, real estate business acumen, and creativity.
“In creating Launch, I actively sought out agents whom I respect and admire, who possess a deep market knowledge, who exhibit a keen sense of smarts about the business of real estate and who always focus on their clients’ needs above all else,” Vatistas said. “Just as importantly, the agents who are invited to be part of Launch have enjoyed significant success and are truly passionate about selling real estate.”
The first group of partners to join Launch have collectively completed tens of thousands of transactions in the Phoenix market, boast well over a century’s worth of experience and have been directly involved in the sale of billions of dollars of residential real estate.
Launch will emerge as a brand built around a formidable promise to meet the expectations of people who take their real estate experience seriously, commensurate with a highly progressive and equitable arrangement for every agent invited to join the agency.
“The buyer/seller/agent relationship is highly individual and personal. Launch celebrates that partnership and makes it centric to every part of the transaction,” Vatistas said. “Pulling this talent under one roof enables Launch to give its clients access to a broad network of industry expertise unrivaled in the marketplace and free of corporate bureaucracy.”
“We’re building a framework that gives greatest strength to the client-broker relationship and creates an environment where the best of the best can flourish,” Vatistas continued.
Vatistas believes the Valley is ready for a shakeup in the standard brokerage models.
Eschewing traditional corporate franchise fee structures and inflexible national marketing standards that often aren’t relevant to a local market, Launch is positioned to make big waves in the luxury real estate market with the inclusion of key names on its roster of founding partners:
- Sandra Baldwin, number one producer for Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty in Arizona
- Ronnie Gilbert, Long-time mentor, top performing real estate agent, and luxury agent.
- Robert Joffe, #1 producer for Berkshire Hathaway in Arizona
- Heather Maclean, long-time top producing agent in Arcadia / the Biltmore, and Realty Executives #1 producer in 2012.
- Chris Morrison, Morrison Residential
- David Newcombe, the top urban development broker in Arizona
“While it is common among traditional real estate brokerages to house agents of varying skills sets and experiences, from novice to tenured part timers, we’ve chosen to take a sniper’s approach in hiring vs. a shotgun approach,” said Vatistas.
As part of its suite of services, Launch has developed exclusive agreements with major local, national and international platforms to provide clientele with targeted, hyper-local marketing reach. An affiliation with the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network, a global collection of real estate brokers, will ensure clients’ exposure to 130,000 top-producing luxury professionals in more than 70 countries worldwide.
In 2005, Vatistas founded the Equitable Real Estate Company of Scottsdale, growing the agency from two to 275 agents in under two years, earning Equitable the exclusive rights to Christie’s International Realty in Arizona. Two years later, Sotheby’s International Realty offered Vatistas exclusive franchise rights in Arizona; and in May 2008, he purchased a 50% interest Russ Lyon Realty Company, which became Russ Lyon Sotheby’s International Realty, at the time, the largest Sotheby’s International Realty branch in the world with nearly 900 agents.
Launch is now serving clients and expects more than 50 invited agents, each of whom are top producers from local residential brokerage firms, to join Launch within the next 30 days.