The group includes, clockwise from top left: Jennie Barrett Shaw, Jill Davenport, Betsy Dotterer, Lisa Ruffin Harrison, Mary Davenport, Coleen Butler Rodriguez, Daphne MacDougall, Karen Rundberg, Nancy Cheely, Wythe Shockley and Bonnie Beth Bedell. (Photo courtesy Steele Group | SIR)
Amid a changing home-selling market, a group of seasoned local agents have opted to switch teams – some of them for the first time in two decades.
A total of 15 agents and one support staffer recently left Joyner Fine Properties in tandem to join local competitor The Steele Group | Sotheby’s International Realty.
The group includes several longtime Joyner agents who have called the local brokerage home for roughly 20 years, including Nancy Cheely, Mary Davenport, Betsy Dotterer and Jennie Barrett Shaw, according to their LinkedIn pages.
Other long-timers include Jill Davenport (16 years), Wythe Shockley (13), Lisa Ruffin Harrison (10) and Daphne MacDougall (9).
Rounding out the group are Karen Bailey, Bonnie Beth Bedell, Joe Cheely, Coleen Butler Rodriguez, Susan Sadid, and Don and Sue Vaught, along with Karen Rundberg, an office manager at Joyner who’s now an assistant at Steele Group | SIR.
The move took effect Jan. 30.
Betsy Dotterer
Dotterer, who had been at Joyner 19 years, said the move was prompted by a collective desire among the agents to align with a locally based brokerage with an international reach, such as Sotheby’s has provided Steele Group since they affiliated in 2014.
Dotterer said the group also wanted to stick together after building friendships over the years.
“It was wanting the mixture of a small company with a global outreach. We just felt like, after some research, that Sotheby’s offered that,” Dotterer said.
“We are such a bonded group, we wanted to do something together. We all enjoy working together,” she said. “When you’re in the real estate community, you appreciate your coworkers. It wasn’t like I did a lot of deals with these people; we just all built strong relationships through the years.”
Joyner President John Stone said agents switching brokerages is a common occurrence in the industry. While the brokerage lost those 15 agents, he said it’s added 23 in the last three months.
John Stone
“These kinds of transitions are not unusual in residential real estate,” Stone said. Of the group, he added, “We wish them the best at their new firm.”
Joyner is owned by Virginia Credit Union, which absorbed the brokerage in 2019. The deal saw Stone, a longtime VACU executive, take over Joyner’s leadership from previous president Bill White.
Stone said Joyner now totals over 160 agents and 27 staffers. The brokerage is headquartered at Reynolds Crossing, where it moved last year from its longtime home on Enterprise Parkway.
Bo Steele, Steele Group’s managing broker, said the group brings the brokerage’s agent count to just over 70. He said most of the new agents would be based out of Steele Group’s Patterson Avenue headquarters, while a few would work out of its satellite office in the Fan. The brokerage reported over $383 million in total sales volume in 2022, with an average sale price of about $579,700.
Bo Steele
“We’re honored that a group like this that are producing agents, but also client-centric and just really nice people, chose us over anybody else,” Steele said. “They obviously could have gone about anywhere they wanted to go, and I know they did a lot of research on that. We’re just excited to have them aboard and feel like, for us, it’s a really big get.”
Stone did not share Joyner’s 2022 sales volume or average in dollar amounts, but he said its closings for the year put the brokerage at No. 2 among independent firms in the Central Virginia market and No. 4 among independent firms and franchise brokerages for volume and units.
The group’s move to Steele Group comes amid a tightening in the home-selling market fueled by rising interest rates and low inventory after years of surging sales volumes.
Late last year, Richmond-based brokerage Clocktower Realty joined up with local peer One South Realty, a move that both groups’ leaders attributed to the in-flux market, rising interest rates and advantages found in consolidation.
Steele said such moves are not uncommon when the market takes a downturn, and he expects to see similar moves and more potential mergers as the market adjusts.
“You’re going to see more consolidation probably over the next couple of years,” Steele said. “I think COVID made the business very easy, but agents have got to get back to working harder and back to the basics.
“Those that do, I think, are going to be fine. But I do think they’re also going to be looking at the value proposition of their own companies now and ‘What are they really offering me, because I need every advantage I can get to compete now.’ Because there’s going to be fewer deals to be had than there were in ’20 and ’21 and most of ’22 as well.”
The group includes, clockwise from top left: Jennie Barrett Shaw, Jill Davenport, Betsy Dotterer, Lisa Ruffin Harrison, Mary Davenport, Coleen Butler Rodriguez, Daphne MacDougall, Karen Rundberg, Nancy Cheely, Wythe Shockley and Bonnie Beth Bedell. (Photo courtesy Steele Group | SIR)
Amid a changing home-selling market, a group of seasoned local agents have opted to switch teams – some of them for the first time in two decades.
A total of 15 agents and one support staffer recently left Joyner Fine Properties in tandem to join local competitor The Steele Group | Sotheby’s International Realty.
The group includes several longtime Joyner agents who have called the local brokerage home for roughly 20 years, including Nancy Cheely, Mary Davenport, Betsy Dotterer and Jennie Barrett Shaw, according to their LinkedIn pages.
Other long-timers include Jill Davenport (16 years), Wythe Shockley (13), Lisa Ruffin Harrison (10) and Daphne MacDougall (9).
Rounding out the group are Karen Bailey, Bonnie Beth Bedell, Joe Cheely, Coleen Butler Rodriguez, Susan Sadid, and Don and Sue Vaught, along with Karen Rundberg, an office manager at Joyner who’s now an assistant at Steele Group | SIR.
The move took effect Jan. 30.
Betsy Dotterer
Dotterer, who had been at Joyner 19 years, said the move was prompted by a collective desire among the agents to align with a locally based brokerage with an international reach, such as Sotheby’s has provided Steele Group since they affiliated in 2014.
Dotterer said the group also wanted to stick together after building friendships over the years.
“It was wanting the mixture of a small company with a global outreach. We just felt like, after some research, that Sotheby’s offered that,” Dotterer said.
“We are such a bonded group, we wanted to do something together. We all enjoy working together,” she said. “When you’re in the real estate community, you appreciate your coworkers. It wasn’t like I did a lot of deals with these people; we just all built strong relationships through the years.”
Joyner President John Stone said agents switching brokerages is a common occurrence in the industry. While the brokerage lost those 15 agents, he said it’s added 23 in the last three months.
John Stone
“These kinds of transitions are not unusual in residential real estate,” Stone said. Of the group, he added, “We wish them the best at their new firm.”
Joyner is owned by Virginia Credit Union, which absorbed the brokerage in 2019. The deal saw Stone, a longtime VACU executive, take over Joyner’s leadership from previous president Bill White.
Stone said Joyner now totals over 160 agents and 27 staffers. The brokerage is headquartered at Reynolds Crossing, where it moved last year from its longtime home on Enterprise Parkway.
Bo Steele, Steele Group’s managing broker, said the group brings the brokerage’s agent count to just over 70. He said most of the new agents would be based out of Steele Group’s Patterson Avenue headquarters, while a few would work out of its satellite office in the Fan. The brokerage reported over $383 million in total sales volume in 2022, with an average sale price of about $579,700.
Bo Steele
“We’re honored that a group like this that are producing agents, but also client-centric and just really nice people, chose us over anybody else,” Steele said. “They obviously could have gone about anywhere they wanted to go, and I know they did a lot of research on that. We’re just excited to have them aboard and feel like, for us, it’s a really big get.”
Stone did not share Joyner’s 2022 sales volume or average in dollar amounts, but he said its closings for the year put the brokerage at No. 2 among independent firms in the Central Virginia market and No. 4 among independent firms and franchise brokerages for volume and units.
The group’s move to Steele Group comes amid a tightening in the home-selling market fueled by rising interest rates and low inventory after years of surging sales volumes.
Late last year, Richmond-based brokerage Clocktower Realty joined up with local peer One South Realty, a move that both groups’ leaders attributed to the in-flux market, rising interest rates and advantages found in consolidation.
Steele said such moves are not uncommon when the market takes a downturn, and he expects to see similar moves and more potential mergers as the market adjusts.
“You’re going to see more consolidation probably over the next couple of years,” Steele said. “I think COVID made the business very easy, but agents have got to get back to working harder and back to the basics.
“Those that do, I think, are going to be fine. But I do think they’re also going to be looking at the value proposition of their own companies now and ‘What are they really offering me, because I need every advantage I can get to compete now.’ Because there’s going to be fewer deals to be had than there were in ’20 and ’21 and most of ’22 as well.”
Sorry but 15 agents leaving at one time is a big deal, contrary to what John Stone said.
I’m not so sure. As we all know (and mentioned in the article), the consumer RE game is slowing down big time. Having 15 agents leave might actually be a blessing in disguise — RE agents are a dime a doze these days.