They say he can be an intense and intimidating fellow at times. But get Jeff Sposito talking about dogs (he loves animals), or classic cars and motorcycles (he owns more than a dozen), and he reveals a side that is counter to the “all business” image that time after time has helped him transform upstart brokerages into real estate gold.
26 CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE • JUNE/JULY 2010 Photographed by Mark Estes / www.estesphoto.com hey say he can be an intense and intimidating fellow at times. But get Jeff Sposito talking about dogs (he loves animals), or classic cars and motorcycles (he owns more than a dozen), and he reveals a side that is counter to the “all business” image that time after time has helped him transform upstart brokerages into real estate gold. • “I’m really just a big teddy bear, although I realize I don’t always come across that way,” says the 63-year-old founder and president of three-year-old J. Rockcliff REALTORS ® , a nine-office, 600-agent brokerage that serves Alameda and Contra Costa counties. • “Jeff is a very intense guy,” admits longtime friend and colleague Vance Smith, who manages a pair of J. Rockcliff offices in Blackhawk, an exclusive community in eastern Contra Costa County. “In the heat of the battle, he can come across as a hard individual to people who may not know him.” PROFILE PROFILE | By Roger Cruzen The Ultimate Player’s Coach T Yet underneath Sposito’s tough-guy veneer is the ultimate “player’s coach” who always has his agents’ backs. “There are certain leaders who have qualities that just stand out, and Jeff is one of those guys,” Smith says. “People just know that things are going to get better under his leadership. And he has a great track record of making things better for agents. He works very hard to create an environment in which agents can be a success.” “People who know me know that everything I do, I do for my agents,” Sposito concludes. Local Boy Makes Good >> Jeff Sposito never dreamed he would wind up in real estate. Raised in Oakland, he studied engineering and joined his father’s industrial sheet metal company. One day a buddy talked him into attending real estate school. The friend dropped out; Sposito, however, was fascinated. He signed on with Century 21 in 1974 but for a time continued to work for his father, whose client roster provided an early referral base. Within months, he was his office’s top agent; in 1977, his best year as an agent, he closed 86 transactions. However, the fiercely independent Sposito did envision managing his own firm. In 1978, he and a competing agent opened a boutique, growing it to 20 agents. Next stop was as an office manager at Valley Realty, which was acquired by Coldwell Banker. In the years that followed, Sposito moved up the Coldwell Banker ladder, heading regional corporate marketing and helping start a new homes division. When the eldest of his two sons decided to attend school in San Diego, Sposito signed on as manager of Merrill Lynch Realty’s flagship office, which was acquired by Prudential and grew to 158 agents. Then it was back to the East Bay, where he helped iron out transition issues in the after- math of Prudential California Realty’s pur- chase of TRI Real Estate and its subsequent merger with Jon Douglas Company. He was overseeing East Bay operations and managing the Danville and Blackhawk offices when Prudential/Jon Douglas was acquired by NRT two years later. With his offices set to be rebranded under the Coldwell Banker name, Sposito decided the grass might be greener at a brokerage where he could continue to exercise his independence. When Silicon Valley upstart Alain Pinel REALTORS ® called to gauge his interest in establishing an East Bay foothold, STATS STATS Jeff Sposito Founder and president, J. Rockcliff REALTORS® Latest Technology Embraced: DocuSign® Career Outside of Real Estate You Would Have Chosen: Veterinarian Favorite Web Site: jrockliff.com Current Read: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein Passionate About: Family, work, dogs, cars Favorite Quote: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Actor Who Would Play Me in a Movie About My Life: Robert DeNiro Life’s Goal: To live life to the full- est, with no regrets.
Transcript
26 CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE • J U N E /J U LY 2 0 1 0 Photographed by Mark Estes / www.estesphoto.com
hey say he can be an intense and intimidating fellow at times.
But get Jeff Sposito talking about dogs (he loves animals), or classic cars and
motorcycles (he owns more than a dozen), and he reveals a side that is counter
to the “all business” image that time after time has helped him transform upstart
brokerages into real estate gold. • “I’m really just a big teddy bear, although
I realize I don’t always come across that way,” says the 63-year-old founder
and president of three-year-old J. Rockcliff REALTORS®, a nine-offi ce, 600-agent brokerage
that serves Alameda and Contra Costa counties. • “Jeff is a very intense guy,” admits longtime
friend and colleague Vance Smith, who manages a pair of J. Rockcliff offi ces in Blackhawk, an
exclusive community in eastern Contra Costa County. “In the heat of the battle, he can come
across as a hard individual to people who may not know him.”
PROFILEPROFILE | By Roger Cruzen
The Ultimate Player’s Coach
TYet underneath Sposito’s tough-guy veneer
is the ultimate “player’s coach” who always has his agents’ backs. “There are certain leaders who have qualities that just stand out, and Jeff is one of those guys,” Smith says. “People just know that things are going to get better under his leadership. And he has a great track record of making things better for agents. He works very hard to create an environment in which agents can be a success.”
“People who know me know that everything I do, I do for my agents,” Sposito concludes.
Local Boy Makes Good >> Jeff Sposito never dreamed he would wind up in real estate. Raised in Oakland, he studied engineering and joined his father’s industrial sheet metal company. One day a buddy talked him into attending real estate school. The friend dropped out; Sposito, however, was fascinated.
He signed on with Century 21 in 1974 but for a time continued to work for his father, whose client roster provided an early referral base. Within months, he was his offi ce’s top agent; in 1977, his best year as an agent, he closed 86 transactions.
However, the fi ercely independent Sposito
did envision managing his own firm. In 1978, he and a competing agent opened a boutique, growing it to 20 agents. Next stop was as an offi ce manager at Valley Realty, which was acquired by Coldwell Banker. In the years that followed, Sposito moved up the Coldwell Banker ladder, heading regional corporate marketing and helping start a new homes division. When the eldest of his two sons decided to attend school in San Diego, Sposito signed on as manager of Merrill Lynch Realty’s fl agship offi ce, which was acquired by Prudential and grew to 158 agents.
Then it was back to the East Bay, where hehelped iron out transition issues in the after-math of Prudential California Realty’s pur-chase of TRI Real Estate and its subsequent merger with Jon Douglas Company. He was overseeing East Bay operations and managing the Danville and Blackhawk offices when Prudential/Jon Douglas was acquired by NRT two years later. With his offi ces set to be rebranded under the Coldwell Banker name, Sposito decided the grass might be greener at a brokerage where he could continue to exercise his independence. When Silicon Valley upstart Alain Pinel REALTORS® called to gauge his interest in establishing an East Bay foothold,
STATSSTATSJeff SpositoFounder and president, J. Rockcliff REALTORS®
Latest Technology Embraced: DocuSign®
Career Outside of Real Estate You Would Have Chosen: Veterinarian
Favorite Web Site: jrockliff.com
Current Read: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Passionate About: Family, work, dogs, cars
Favorite Quote: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Actor Who Would Play Me in a Movie About My Life: Robert DeNiro
Life’s Goal: To live life to the full-est, with no regrets.
28 CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE • J U N E /J U LY 2 0 1 0
he jumped at the opportunity.Sposito didn’t take the time to recruit
agents one by one. Instead, he hired four buses and whisked potential recruits across the bay for lunch and a tour of an Alain Pinel offi ce. “I told my agents, ‘This is what I am going to do. It may not be right for you, but we’re going to end up working with each other no matter what we both do,’” recalls Sposito. Approximately 120 agents and staff signed on the dotted line; of these, some 100 remain with him today.
Coldwell Banker sued, unsuccessfully, to stop the recruiting effort. By the end of 2002, Sposito’s East Bay offi ces were closing $1.5 billion in transactions and, by 2003, Alain Pinel was the largest independent brokerage in the Bay Area and seventh largest in the country.
Yet Sposito wasn’t entirely satisfi ed.“I’ve always said my job is to knock
down hurdles for my agents so they don’t have to jump over them,” he explains. “I had agents coming to me saying they were going to have to leave because some of the policies were affecting their business.” He tried to intervene with management on their behalf. “Leaving was the last thing I wanted to do, because I loved my job at Alain Pinel. I had put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into the company.”
But leave he did, resigning from Alain Pinel on June 7, 2003, and reporting to work the next day as East Bay regional manager for year-old Intero Real Estate Services, a Silicon Valley start-up. Literally overnight, Sposito convinced most of the East Bay Alain Pinel team to defect to Intero. Four days later, Sposito and Intero opened eight offi ces. Despite raised eyebrows, the fi rm was an immediate success.
Fast forward to 2007. With Intero’sowner, Colorado-based Mercury Cos. Inc., looking to sell the company back to its founders, Sposito took a risk and purchased his fi ve East Bay offi ces. Media reports at the time said he intended to operate them as Intero franchises. But by the time the deal closed on April 1, Sposito had decided to open as an entirely new brokerage, thus avoiding an estimated $1 million in royalties to use the Intero name. Again, most of his agents picked up lock, stock, and cell phone and followed.
Planting Greener Grass >> After 35 years in the business, and despite some career moves he says he really never wanted to make, Jeff Sposito seems to have fi nally found what he was seeking all along—the autonomy to create and manage his own show.
“All companies have their strong suit and they all have their fl aws,” he says. “We took out a clean sheet of paper and created what, in my mind’s eye, is the perfect real estate company.”
The name is a combination of the fi rst initial of his father’s name and his mother’s maiden name. “There was no way we were going to call it Jeff Sposito Realty,” he laughs. “Most people don’t know how to pronounce it, and it certainly doesn’t sound high-end.”
And high-end is how the new brand is positioned, even though more affordable properties are where the action has been. “It’s much easier for one of my agents to go into Richmond and list a property than it is for someone with a lower-end image to come into Blackhawk and try to list a property,” says Sposito. “If you have a high-end image, it’s easy to sell down. If you have a low-end image, it’s almost impossible to sell up.”
Sposito continues to knock down hurdles for agents. Among other things, the company is integrating social media into its marketing efforts, has implement-ed the SmarterAgent mobile property search application, and has largely done away with most transaction-related paper. Magnetic keys allow agents to work from any branch offi ce. Because his managers and many of his agents have been together for years, the culture already is embedded. Turnover, he brags, is almost zero.
While many at this juncture of their career might be considering retirement, Sposito is gearing up to begin offering J. Rockcliff franchises outside the East Bay area.
“I love this business. That’s the key,” he enthuses. “I’m probably never going to retire from real estate. I’d rather do this than anything else.” !
Roger Cruzen is a freelance real estate writer.
known as “Prop 60” and can be found in Cal. Revenue & Taxation Code § 69.5.
In Grotenhuis v. County of Santa Barbara (2010), the county appealed a tax refund judgment won by Grotenhuis who had claimed that he was entitled to retain his original property tax basis. The appellate court reversed the decision of the lower court, which had held that Grotenhuis was the “alter ego” of the corporation and was entitled to § 69.5 property tax relief. Grotenhuis had placed title of both homes in a corporation of which Grotenhuis is the sole shareholder and which Grotenhuis then rented from the corporation.
The appellate court rejected the corporate alter ego argument. “The alter ego doctrine arises when a plaintiff comes into court claiming that an opposing party is using the corporate form unjustly and in derogation of the plaintiff’s interests.” In this case, Grotenhuis has come into court claiming that the very corporation he has formed should have its veil pierced so that he, as an individual, can obtain a tax advantage. “The essence of the alter ego doctrine is that justice be done. There is no injustice here. Grotenhuis’ tax predicament was self-created by Grotenhuis.”
The appellate court further reasoned, “Grotenhuis elected the corporate form for business reasons unrelated to tax. He who takes the benefi t must bear the burden. Grotenhuis should not be able to weave in and out of corporate status when it suits the business objective of the day.” !
Sonia M. Younglove, Esq., is C.A.R. senior counsel.
Legal: Too Big for HOA
Continued from page 8
Clarifi cation
The March/April issue of California Real Estate magazine featured an article titled “Your Toughest Short Sale Challenges … Solved!” which the C.A.R. Legal Staff did not review or approve prior to publication.
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