Realty ONE Group reports rapid growth

He calls himself the "next generation" of real estate. His corporate broker and manager Dave Tina calls him "smart." Most of the office just calls him kiddo.

Kuba Jewgieniew is the 32-year-old president and owner of Realty ONE Group, which is expanding at a time when most Las Vegas real estate companies are struggling in one of the worst housing markets in decades.

In fact, he said his privately held company is selling 600 homes (mostly short sales and foreclosures) per month. By the end of this year he expects to close 7,000 transactions and be on track to make $1 billion in revenue next year.

After working for a local broker for two years, Jewgieniew launched Realty ONE Group more than three years ago. Since then its number of agents has ballooned from 255 agents to 1,600, a number that his company research claims is the greatest in the state.

The real estate wunderkind operates three offices throughout the Las Vegas Valley and said he plans to build two more next year. The company also has offices in Arizona and expects to open California offices early next year.

What is the secret to his success in a market that is triggering bankruptcies, cutbacks and layoffs?

Jewgieniew said he has wrapped technology around experience, education and organizational tools to create a team of professionals.

The one-time Orange County software developer and stock trader has new ideas on how the real estate industry will operate in the future.

He is part of the green generation and launched the Paperless Exchange in his Las Vegas offices this month. It's not totally paperless, but it does allow agents to scan in the original signed contract into a centralized digital library and save the copy machine from spitting out six to 10 more copies. It also brings everyone and everything into the digital age and saves 17 trees a week, he said.

The young entrepreneur also armed his nearly 2,000 Realtors (Arizona has 200 agents) with myROG.com, a back-office computer program, that many call a "portable office." It helps agents manage the paperwork (digital work) no matter where they are working.

Jewgieniew, who earned a business degree from University of California in San Diego, prefers to operate in the background laying down the computer infrastructure and tweaking the business model and leaves the center stage to others.

Enter Tina, the company's 56-year-old front man who has more than three decades of experience in real estate, having worked in New York, Florida and Las Vegas.

Tina said he and the younger man are a good match.

"I think we are a very successful team because we are two different personalities and bring the best of both worlds to the table," he said.

He also credits Jewgieniew for creating a framework that works with agents.

"I see him as innovating in the back office and creating tools that no one else has, and those tools have brought in another whole new group of Realtors who want to live and work with those tools," Tina said.

Jewgieniew said Tina's "fatherly support" to agents, who are learning new ways of doing their jobs with new technology and handling more complicated short sales and foreclosure deals, is "invaluable." But the major draw for agents, Tina said, is the company's low fee structure and fast-pay policy.

"The agents get to keep more of their commission in our model. That's what they are looking for, ways to cut their overhead," he said. "We also pay commissions the day after the deal closes. That means a lot to people, especially in this market."

Jewgieniew said his company has "solid footing in the market" with "positive cash flow" and "no debt."

Realtor Kathy Little, who has been working in Las Vegas real estate for more than six years and joined the company a year ago, said the lower fees help keep her in business, but it's the positive energy that gets her in the office each day.

"Cutting back on expenses and overhead is important. The overhead here is extremely low," she said. "People are closing deals and the energy is very positive. I want to come in every week. I want to bounce off that positive energy, so I don't feel depressed."

Little pointed out that she paid $100 per month to hang her licenses at the company's Summerlin headquarters at 10750 W. Charleston Blvd. No. 180, across from Red Rock Casino. After she referred three other Realtors to the company, she eliminated that cost. She said after paying the standard transaction fee of more than $300, she gets to keep nearly all of her commissions.

In addition to the lower business cost and good vibes, there is the free continuing education that teaches Realtors how to deal with short sales and foreclosures.

Little has five deals in escrow now. Three of those are foreclosures.

"It's a little more complicated than regular home sales," she said. "And short sales are even more complicated than foreclosures. In order to survive in this market you have to get into foreclosures and short sales."

In addition to helping agents with completed sales, Tina runs weekly Wednesday caravans where 20 to 30 Realtors tour homes on the market that aren't selling. The next day they gather at the office and discuss ways to help sell the property.

Tina said it could be as simple as telling the agent to turn on the light when he shows the home or suggesting to the homeowner to ditch the green carpet or purple wall.

"Agents don't want to feel that they are out on their own," he said. "They want someone to take care of them and give them the answers that they need with the changes in today's market."

That philosophy naturally fits with Jewgieniew's idea behind his company's name and logo.

"I love ONE," he said. "It's unity."