Pleasanton, CA— September 1, 2015 — NextHome is proud to announce our newest addition to the franchise, NextHome Living, based in Houston. This is the franchise’s second brokerage in the state of Texas. The NextHome franchise is now in the fourth largest city in the United States with a population of nearly 2.3 million residents.
Owned and operated by 13-year real estate veteran, Juniat (pronounced june-it) Thomas, the brokerage will provide residential real estate sales services to the Greater Houston metropolitan area including Pearland, Sugar Land, Bellaire, West University Place, Cypress, The Woodlands, Katy, Friendswood, Deer Park, Pasadena, and Spring.
Thomas was introduced to the real estate industry merely out of curiosity. As a manager of a massage therapy school, the owner of the spa had interest in purchasing a new location. He asked Thomas to do the research to find out what it would take to find and purchase the new location. Thomas, being a quick study, found out everything he could about real estate purchases and found himself wanting to learn more about the business.
In 2001, Thomas took three months to learn, study, and attain his real estate license. Completing the courses on weekends due to his full time job, he realized he would have to be a full-time agent in order to truly take advantage of what the real estate industry could provide him in a career.
In his first few years in the business, Thomas worked at several different boutique brokerages. While he found them helpful in their own unique way, he found the necessity to go out and seek other forms of real estate education.
Thomas attended just about every real estate educational seminar he could find. Each one provided little value to him, and he found that most of these events required him to create a salesmanship attitude of high-pressure sales.
“I did not enjoy learning scripts or creating a sense of urgency to buy or sell when it wasn’t warranted,” said Thomas. “I wanted to work in a setting where I provided true value to my customers instead of the feeling of pressure to buy or sell their home. I knew that I could succeed in this business by being a consultant that truly wanted to help people – not trick them.”
With that realization of business philosophy, a huge positive shift happened in his business.
In 2006, Thomas had his best year ever reaching an incredible $22,000,000 in annual sales in off market investment properties. Considering in 2006, the average home sales price in the area of $150,000, the sales volume becomes even more impressive.
From 2006 to 2014, Thomas continued his strong sales career. Even with things going fairly well, he still felt unfulfilled. It was time to consider opening his own brokerage.
“I kept seeing quality agents having a hard time in the real estate business,” recalls Thomas. “They could sell homes, but the process of owning and running their own real estate business seems to be a real struggle for many quality agents. I knew there was an opportunity for me to help.”
Thomas found out about NextHome through an article featuring the company and an interview with NextHome’s Chief Executive Officer, James Dwiggins.
“I’m a researcher,” said Thomas. “Once I heard about the company, I did research like probably no one else had ever done about the franchise. I researched their models, systems, brokerages that came on board, the leadership team. I looked at everything. During the process, I found one thing above all else – this was a great company that I could see myself affiliating with.”
Thomas added, “As a franchisee, I would get clean branding, driven by high levels of technology, at an affordable cost. What more could someone in my position ask for?”
“Someone of Juniat’s caliber is a great addition to the NextHome family,” said NextHome’s Vice President of Business Development, Imran Poladi. “Anyone who prioritizes helping others succeed in the real estate business is our kind of broker. Juniat runs a successful personal business, but has made it his mission to better the industry in helping other agents be more successful by teaching them how to run a business based on their particular skill sets. I speak for all of us at NextHome when I say we are proud to be in business with him”
When not selling real estate or helping in leadership, Juniat enjoys spending time with his wife of 23 years, Hyacinth, and his five children – S’Jarna, Jaz’mn Bleu, Juniat III, J’ia Skigh, and their youngest Jensen Avery.
We are thrilled to welcome Juniat and NextHome Living to the NextHome family!
Interested in being a part of the NextHome Real Estate Franchise? Contact VP of Sales Charis Moreno at Charis@NextHome.com.
Each office is an independently owned and operated business.