Above – Group photo from a dinner honoring top BHHS California Properties agents at Sales Convention in 2024
Vitals:
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties
Years in business: 39
Size: 46 offices, approximately 2,800 agents
Regions Served: Primarily coastal Southern California, including Coronado, La Jolla, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Fe, Montecito, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, Laguna Beach, Santa Monica and Malibu.
2023 Sales Volume: $11B
2023 Transactions: 7,100
https://www.bhhscalifornia.com
A powerhouse in the Southern California legal community, Martha Mosier has been a key member of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties (BHHSCP) since 2008, and currently serves as the firm’s president and general counsel.
Mosier first became interested in real estate 32 years ago after getting ready to purchase her first home. Being a lawyer, a member of the sales team for the builder suggested she get her broker’s license due to her keen interest in the process.
For a great part of her career, she’s specialized on the legal side of the sale and acquisition of single-family, multifamily and commercial properties in the Southern California region.
Over the years, Mosier has served as senior vice president for BHHSCP’s affiliated escrow companies, Pickford Escrow and The Escrow Firm; worked as an in-house litigation counsel for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage; and clerked for the Attorney General of California, Fourth District Court of Appeals in San Diego.
How is your market faring in 2024?
Martha Mosier: Certainly, navigating the challenges of what’s going on with practice changes is impacting things. We’re doing well, and our marketplace is robust, certainly not like it was in 2021 with that boomerang recovery of COVID. And California is an amazing place to live. We just need more product. For first-time homebuyers, there are some limitations. Insurance prices are high, as are taxes for starter homes, which can be $2 million in our footprint.
How do you stay informed about trends to guide your business strategy?
MM: We have a savvy executive team, and we have trainers and coaches who distribute the information, so that is incredibly important. We are an active part of the California Association of REALTORS®, and our brokers and executives participate, myself included, on many levels with associations, on boards and serving on risk management committees. I also read a lot. Most significantly for us is that, at HomeServices, we have an experienced leadership team, and we collaborate with leaders from across the country. HomeServices of America has over 30 brands that all roll up, not just Berkshire Hathaway, so we meet weekly and monthly—and have many opportunities to learn on a national level.
What new technologies or innovations have you adopted in your firm?
MM: The CRM for integration for agents, which is available at no charge. Not everybody wants to work on a CRM, and that’s fine, but there are so many different levels of CRM, and we really embrace that. We also jumped all in on AI and have leaders and organizations that teach us. We even developed artificial intelligence tech support. We’re also always working on consumer-facing information websites. We’re constantly looking at the evolution of what is going to help serve our agents and our clients best. We have a tech team that works tirelessly on that.
How do you provide an exceptional customer experience for your clients?
MM: We have several things that we deploy for our consumers. First and foremost is the exceptional training we have for agents and the full-time legal support we have available to assist with any transactional needs. We have three full-time in-house lawyers, which adds to the consumer experience. With the experienced agents we have, and the inexperienced agents we have in our mentorship program, clients are going to get the most knowledgeable agent on the contract. In California, our contracts are extremely robust, so we need to ensure that our agents are not selling real estate as a hobby, and they are true professionals. We own both our escrow and affiliate title companies, so we are a one-stop shop allowing consumers to go to one place and get it all.
How do you stay engaged with the community?
MM: One of the agreements I had with HomeServices is that they gave me full autonomy and discretion on our charitable foundation. We have five chapters of the charitable foundation where we have a board of agents in each of our regions, and the chapters raise money through fun events for whatever’s most important to our agents and our clients, and we give back to the local communities. Every single chapter gives back to grassroots and local charities. A second way we handle this is there are marginalized communities, even in our footprint and surrounding areas, so we are out in full force, giving back during the holidays. We collaborated with the American Heart Association and did CPR training and donated CPR mannequins to many of these regions so that these children can learn how to do CPR, because 70% of heart failure happens within the home.
How would you describe your leadership style?
MM: My leadership style is linear. None of us is smarter than all of us put together, so I tend to lead through committees of people that are interested in certain aspects of our business, and make decisions through committee. I believe in running an organization with heart, and every single person has something valuable to contribute.
