As they say in all their branding, the Hello Neighbor Team in Gilbert, Arizona, is far more than a business. They are all about helping their clients and team members live their best lives and for influencing and impacting their community positively. And now the high-performance team that closed 85 transactions for $40 million last year has moved to Keller Williams from eXp and is thriving in their new home.
The principals of the team, Lisa Funk and Martha Fuller, have nearly 50 years of real estate experience between them covering everything from land sales to extensive residential sales to custom builds. The pair met years ago at Toastmasters and became fast friends and then accountability partners. Since their business practices were so similar, they’d back each other up for vacations and meet each week to track progress against their individual goals. They worked so easily and efficiently together that they joined forces in 2016 with the desire to grow a team together.
Their brokerage didn’t advocate for a team model, and they began to realize that their values in real estate and in life weren’t in alignment at their professional home as well. “We were dying on the vine, not thriving,” recalls Fuller.
That’s when the Hello Neighbor Team made the move to Keller Williams at the beginning of 2022. Funk says, “We feel like we’ve found our forever home and wish we would have come aboard five years ago when we first started our team. The energy here is palpable.”
Since joining Keller Williams Integrity First Realty in Gilbert, Arizona, they have implemented processes and systems to complement their passion and work ethic in order to take their team to the next level. “It is so cliche, but it’s been nothing but lollipops and butterflies since we’ve been there. We’ve been floored by the support, systems, models and people since day ONE. I can’t even believe we’re the same team that we were last November. It’s because of the support and the mentorship that we have,” offers Fuller.
Funk adds that when they made the decision to switch to Keller Williams, every single one of their team members was excited to make the move too, and they’ve individually and collectively dived into the extensive training opportunities widely available to them.
While trying to grow these last few years, Fuller and Funk were doing everything. “Everything!” emphasizes Fuller. Jesse Herfel, OP, shared The Millionaire Real Estate Agent with them and pointed out how it models successful team building and operations. “So we just buckled down and started working with the KW MAPS Coach, and have totally restructured the way that we’re doing our commission splits and how we’re managing our team,” offers Fuller. They hired an executive assistant so they could step back from the day-to-day details, and they’re able to turn their focus to business generation. “We would have never done that. We were like two little hamsters on the wheel just going around and around and around, you know, just barely making ends meet.”
With the backing of KW’s people and systems, the Hello Neighbor Team is poised for phenomenal growth. Fuller and Funk both serve on the local and state boards and know a lot of people in the industry, but none have been so intentional and kind as the KW family has been to them. “People that we didn’t even know were taking us under their wing to talk about our goals, vision, and dreams. Then someone else would recommend a class that could benefit us, and others encouraged us to pursue coaching, and just on and on and on of loving suggestions to help us grow. There’s nothing in it for them; they just want to share what they know. It’s just been so amazing that perfect strangers are so eager to help us. It is so appreciated. We were starved for that.”