--- title: "Turning Real Estate Practices into Real Estate Businesses" url: https://burnaze.com/article/e68fc968-e970-41a0-b5d8-83b30795f148 source: "1851 Franchise" original_url: https://1851franchise.com/turning-real-estate-practices-into-real-estate-businesses-2707973 category: "Real estate" industry: "Business Services" segment: "Real estate" published: 2018-10-08T13:08:01.000Z modified: 2026-11-01T02:33:47.566Z image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/cb5ac77d6f5266166467c880cb8f301a4035.jpg --- # Turning Real Estate Practices into Real Estate Businesses **TL;DR:** Watters International Realty's team-based model allows owners to build and own their own business, contributing to the brand's success in the Texas real estate market. The brand's president, Bradley Pounds, says this model sets agents up as owners of businesses with worth beyond individual deals. *originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2018-10-08. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/turning-real-estate-practices-into-real-estate-businesses-2707973).* ## Key facts - Watters International spent $5 million on model development - Agents become business owners with tangible assets - Model allows for long-term career goals and exit strategies ## Story Watters International Realty has been in business for less than a decade, but already the real-estate brand has become one of the most sought-after brokerage businesses in its home state of Texas, seizing a sizable market share from its legacy competitors. Much of the brand’s early success is due to it’s unique, team-based model, which allows owners to build and own their own business, rather than a practice, a distinction the brand’s president, Bradley Pounds, says is crucial. “The real estate industry is built around the practice model, where agents use the branding of a parent company but are essentially on their own,” he said. “We’re setting up our agents as owners of businesses — actual assets that have worth beyond whatever deals the agent closes on a given day.” Most real estate brokerages will train agents, set them up with baseline resources and provide branding, then set them out into the field. “They may blow some smoke and tell you that’s a business,” Pounds said,”but in reality, you are a contractor.” Pounds admits that a real estate practice can be profitable, but those profits, he says, can obscure what you’re giving up in the bigger picture. ## Business model benefits “A good real estate practice can be very profitable, but you become a victim of your own success because the practice owns you,” he said. “You might close two deals a month and make $100,000, but it’s entirely dependent on you. It’s a pair of golden handcuffs. As soon as you go on vacation, you are making $0 — it’s a cash cow that disintegrates as soon as you walk away, so you’re held hostage to it. That’s not a business asset. When it comes time to retire or move on, those agents will find out pretty quickly that no one wants to buy that kind of operation..” Alternatively, Watters International’s model is designed to set owners up with a business that can operate even when the owner isn’t directly involved. “Our agents are building businesses,” he said. “They are using our resources and strategy to hire and train team members and to set in motion an operation that is actually worth something on its own.” That’s a model that Pounds says is particularly appealing to real estate professionals who are focused on their long-term career goals. “We give our owners a tangible end game,” he said. “In the book, we call it The Great Escape. We designed our system to help our owners plan their Great Escape, which means different things to different people. Maybe you are someone who wants to work like hell for 5–7 years and then functionally retire, just checking into staff meetings once a week. If that’s your end-game, you can step back and let the business run on its own after you’ve grown it, or you can sell it — that’s not something you can do with a practice. Or maybe you are someone who gets a thrill out of chasing down deals and beating the other guys. You can stay on the ground and focus on that while your team manages the growth of the business.” ## Model development costs According to Pounds, it wasn’t easy developing a model that provided agents with a business instead of a practice. Nor was it cheap. “We put more than $5 million in research and development to perfect this model,” he said. “We tested and failed and refined everything from the best ways to staff a team to the most effective marketing campaigns. That allowed us to develop very clear, very practical, *do-this-don’t-do-that* guidelines.” Beyond its meticulously refined operations model, Pounds says Watters International has also established a dedicated support staff in its corporate office to make sure every owner has everything they need to grow their business. “We are very hands-on and invested in the success of our owners,” he said. “We aren’t interested in selling a system and then sending owners out there to figure it out themselves. We’ve got top-level strategy covered and we’re committed to guiding owners through a detailed implementation of the model.” That model has already proven effective for a handful of owners in Watters International’s system, and Pounds says he’s eager to introduce it to new owners as the brand expands. “Our first owners have been very successful, and it’s been a lot of fun working with them,” he said. “Our model attracts really bright, ambitious real estate professionals, and we’re excited to continue meeting talented new partners as we grow.” ## Entities - 1851 Franchise (publication) - franchise expansion (topic) - Business Services (sector) - texas (location) - business model (topic) - real estate industry (topic) - team-based model (topic) --- Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/turning-real-estate-practices-into-real-estate-businesses-2707973). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/e68fc968-e970-41a0-b5d8-83b30795f148).