Peoples Company A Reinvention in Realty
By Tami Wiencek

Its 8:00 in the morning and Steve Bruere is looking forward to his first meeting of the day. He's meeting the owners of Opus One, a new firm building homes in the fast-growing suburb of Norwalk just south of Des Moines. Our real estate company has been small, but were thinking big these days, Bruere said. He should know. His company's sales have grown more than 600% in the past three years; from five agents to more than 20, and from four listings to 150.

The agency now has offices in Indianola and Cedar Falls. Bruere is the force behind a major reinvention in the realty industry in Iowa the reinvention of Peoples Company. On this busy morning, Bruere explains his job entails far more than buying and selling real estate; it is also about building a better brand. I graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in marketing, he said. I know the marketing language, the techniques and the strategies to build a brand. The thing I love the most is the opportunity to marry those skills with my passion for real estate. That passion is the force behind the new brand of Peoples Company.

Building a Better Brand The year 2003 proved pivotal for Peoples Company. The agents who worked there enjoyed their company's reputation of solid customer service and expertise in farm management and real estate. Peoples Company of Indianola had been around for 40 years, said Bob Fridley, a long-time Peoples Company broker. We were well-known for farm management and agricultural real estate, but we weren't known for residential, commercial or industrial real estate transactions.

We were happy in our quiet world, but looking back on it, our world was a little too quiet. One other person knew the Peoples Company profile as well as anyone who worked there. Bruere was from Warren County and began to see more opportunity than obstacles as he studied marketing and real estate at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Long before graduation, I started eyeing Peoples Company. I knew it was small. I knew it didn't have a reputation of being much of a player in the larger context of the real estate industry in Iowa.

Peoples Company did have a solid reputation in the agricultural real estate field. What a great opportunity to take a company of this size and expand its expertise in residential, commercial and industrial real estate, Bruere said. Many people might have looked at Peoples Company and thought it could never compete with the big agencies which dominate Iowa's real estate industry, said Randy Luze, Brueres partner. But Steve couldn't stop thinking Peoples Company was the perfect size and was in the perfect place for a complete reinvention. Steve thought the time was right to shape a new company to start building a new brand.

Trading the Past for the Future The day Bruere was hired, Peoples Company had five agents and four listings. There wasn't much activity, Bruere said. The phones weren't ringing. We had to do something to make them ring. That's when Bruere began to formulate a plan for the company's future. I wanted to create a hybrid real estate company. I wanted to structure Peoples Company so it would offer a wider array of services than any other agency, explained Bruere.

A commitment to technology became the foundation of the plan and the new Peoples Company brand. I knew technology would be the key to bringing Peoples Company kicking and screaming into the 21st century, Bruere explained. My idea centered on more than just being able to buy and sell real estate on the internet. I also wanted to computerize real estate and farm records, such as plat maps, soil maps and aerial photos of land. I wanted to make information relating to real estate transactions accessible on our web site so our customers could easily find what they needed to know.

That's what I mean when I talk about using technology to redefine Peoples Company, said Bruere. Customers like Alan Brommel of New Virginia agree. Farming is high-tech, said Brommel. We farmers have all had to change the way we do business in the field, or else get out of the way. It makes sense for a real estate company to be as high-tech and customer-friendly as possible. Peoples Company didn't even have a web site when Bruere joined the agency three years ago.

Now, we take pride in making technology work for our clients as much as possible. We make it a point of offering information on our site without obligation, said Bruere. The approach appears to be working. Peoples Company has been seeing a steady increase in hits on its site for 36 consecutive months. As Peoples Company began to transform itself, Bruere identified four core services: being a full-service, traditional real estate agency; offering an a la carte, menu-driven service on the internet, called DealYourOwn.com; offering auction services; and offering property management services. The agency also uses the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

The size of Peoples Company made it just perfect to create a whole new breed of real estate company, said Bruere. We were small enough, yet had enough experience to begin building expertise in different areas. For example, we are completely full-service, yet we also have a mechanism to help the growing number of people who want to sell real estate on the internet themselves, Bruere explained.

From Full-Service to A la Carte A part of that redefinition is an internet-based service called DealYourOwn.com. Bruere developed DealYourOwn.com as a product of Peoples Company to tap into the growing trend of people who wanted to be involved in the real estate process themselves. There's a big group of do-it-yourselfers in real estate, these days, said Art Cox, director of the real estate program at the University of Northern Iowa. Not everyone wants to buy or sell a house himself on the internet, but some people who have some knowledge of real estate want to be involved so they can have some control over costs.

DealYourOwn.com is just one service model out there that allows people to try to control costs, if they're comfortable doing some of the work themselves, Cox said. Its not saying one business model is better than another, but its saying different business models can address different needs because there are several types of customers. Peoples Company identified a different type of customer and they're answering the question: how can we satisfy the needs of that customer explained Cox. DealYourOwn.com is menu-driven, said Bruere. That means customers can do as much, or as little, as they want as they try to sell their home.

The more they do, the more they save on paying a commission. The less they do, the less they save. The beauty of DealYourOwn.com is you can be involved at whatever level you're most comfortable, explained Bruere. DealYourOwn.com is a product of Peoples Company, backed by Peoples Company, so customers can tap into a full-service agent at any time. That's why we believe DealYourOwn.com is unique, said Bruere. We brought the best of both worlds together, unlike products offered by other companies which either position a customer completely on their own, or completely dependent upon a full-service agent.

We've been fortunate to get some positive media coverage of DealYourOwn.com, Bruere added. But its important to explain the internet site is just a part of our overall re-branding. Its one service and one part of our commitment to better service and better use of technology for our customers. I like to use it as an example of one way Peoples Company is built upon using technology to our customers advantage. Bruere is now the president of Peoples Company. On this morning, as he makes plans for marketing the Opus One homes in Norwalk, he thinks of how far Peoples Company has come.

We have the ability to make things happen, he said. We can take a deal from buying a basic piece of land, to seeing the project through all the way to its completion, from zoning laws, site plans and more. Our agents know the system from top to bottom. We empower our agents to customize the real estate deal. The Opus One listings are just part of Peoples Company growth. Bruere is reminded how his company's reinvention is about much more than survival. Were positioned to thrive in the world of real estate which is changing, thanks to technology and trends. The way We've built a better brand is more about our customers than ourselves.