On this week’s episode of the RealTrending Podcast, host Tracy Belt sits down for an informative conversation with President Paul Carlson. five star real estate. Carlson explores his early career journey, including insight into how he grew his brokerage firm.
We also explore the important lessons he learned when taking over the leadership role from his father, Greg Carlson, founder of Five Star Real Estate. And Carlson offers some top tips on centralizing control, building your brand, and creating a successful succession plan.
After a brief introduction, Carlson shares his background in the industry. This young executive started his career in 2006 and moved into key management positions at Five Star Real Estate in 2012. Before that, Carlson was hit hard by the 2008 recession and minimal support from his father. This adversity allowed him to learn and grow as a real estate professional and photographer before joining Five Star. The company currently has approximately 740 agents and 22 offices, and closed approximately 8,000 deals in 2024.
Mr. Welt continued with a question about Mr. Carlson’s appointment as president of Five Star. Mr. Carlson said the company enforced anti-nepotism provisions to force him to be promoted. His father began inviting him to marketing meetings with other executives. From there, Carlson began driving change within the company, which prompted him to offer his father a leadership role. Carlson emphasizes the importance of developing your own leadership style rather than trying to imitate your predecessors.
“The best thing I can do is understand that I can never be him and the company doesn’t need me to be him,” Carlson says. “I’ve seen a lot of people who took over their parents’ businesses try to imitate the president or founder, but it doesn’t work. I’m good enough with what I have now.”
Mr. Carlson still had to work to gain the respect of some senior members of the company and faced further criticism overall as he tried to involve staff in Five Star’s forward-looking strategy. .
Werth then asks Carlson to share his initial strategy for growing Five Star. First, Carlson focused on rebranding the company. Internally, we focused on protecting our team from outside noise and technology companies trying to sell us products and AI tools. Instead, he chose to focus on building a strong culture and not relying on widely available technology to increase Five Star’s productivity.
“I was trying to create something unique because I thought if everyone can get kvCORE, everyone can get Cloud CMA, everyone can get Adwerx, then everyone can buy it.” Carlson says. “Real estate agents can also go out and pick up properties themselves, but that doesn’t really differentiate them from the market.”
Next, Carlson reviews some of the strategies he used to grow Five Star over time. The company focused on three key areas to drive growth. We provide real-time centralized mediation support via telephone. Personal branding designed in-house is managed by a dedicated team. By offering these three forms of assistance, Carlson says he established Five Star as more of a consulting firm than a traditional brokerage firm.
Carlson and Welt conclude their conversation by exploring the criteria for good succession planning. Mr. Carlson believes it is essential for children to join a company and make it their own through hard work and forward-thinking. Companies that do not implement these principles during succession may experience downsizing. He advises his successors to find their inner motivation before taking over the business.
