Knowledge, commitment & sustainability

The value of an experienced realtor in your market

Five decades ago, Roy Carpenter launched a little real estate business on the south side of Indianapolis and hired recently returned Vietnam veteran Tom Prall as his first full-time agent. Prall quickly discovered real estate was a solid fit for him, and eventually purchased Carpenter’s business.

“Then, he [Prall] did something really revolutionary,” says Broker Associate and Training Director Amy Englert. “He formulated a 50-year plan.” At the time, Carpenter was a single office selling $3.2-million annually, but Prall wanted to build a billion-dollar company with neighborhood branches throughout Central Indiana.

He put that goal on paper, and as Carpenter Realtors enters its 50th year, the employee-owned company has 33 offices and 700 agents from Crawfordsville to Greenfield, Lebanon to Bedford. With that experience behind them, Carpenter agents — whether they’ve been with the company for 6 months or 30 years — don’t just work in the industry, they add value to it. Here are three reasons to work with an experienced agent.

Knowledge
Real estate is what David Caveness, Carpenter President and CEO calls “a knowledge business.” Thus, to be successful, agents need to understand the product, the market, and the process. Agents have extensive local knowledge and the expertise to be prepared for the most predictable of real estate events: the unexpected. Somebody at the company probably remembers when floodplains were redrawn to include that dream house, whether the nearby river was cleaned up after a spill, and whether surveys were carried out correctly.

And Carpenter agents don’t hoard that knowledge — instead, they share it, so that new and long-time agents work together.

“In our company, we’re a team,” says Englert. “So, in my office, we have people with a lot of experience and people who are brand new. My experience and the other experienced agents add their knowledge to the new people, so they can bring that to their clients. But the new people bring new life, perspective, energy that helps more experienced folks stay in tune with today’s clients. We’re stronger than we would be alone.”

Commitment
Carpenter’s decades in Central Indiana demonstrate commitment to the region, to the market, and of course to the clients.

“Especially if something goes wrong… Real estate can be quite a complex transaction. Things can happen. And if something goes wrong, we’re here with our expertise, credibility, and financial wherewithal. You don’t have to worry whether we’ll stand with you. The organization is there to fix it,” says Caveness.
That same level of commitment applies to employees. Carpenter prefers to promote from within than hire into senior positions, and most of the management team moved up through the ranks.

Sustainability
When the recession hit in 2008, many real estate companies in Central Indiana struggled to survive. But thanks to a conservative outlook and roots throughout the region, Carpenter pulled through relatively unscathed. The company didn’t terminate a single employee or close a single office.

“Some people call us old and stodgy because we’ve been around for 50 years,” says Caveness. “I just smile. We’re careful. We’re not rock stars. We’re not going to take chances with our clients, with their money, with their family. We are very careful, and if that’s stodgy, I wear that like a merit badge.”