Lee & Associates Stays Hyperlocal

Lee & Associates – Los Angeles North/Ventura Inc., a brokerage firm specializing in the sale of mom-and-pop industrial assets based in Westlake Village, also has offices in Sherman Oaks and Oxnard. Word on the street is that it may be expanding further, with plans to open a fourth office in the Valley.

“We’re currently interested in opening an office in Santa Clarita,” says Mike Tingus, president of Lee & Associates Los Angeles – North/Ventura. 

The firm has grown quite a bit since Tingus took over presidential operations in 2004, having recruited 26 new brokers in his first year alone. Today, the company is at 65 brokers and transacted a total of $703 million last year.

Tingus says there are approximately 24 brokers in the Sherman Oaks office, 32 in Westlake Village and 10 in Oxnard. Although still relatively small, Tingus says he prefers having multiple, smaller branches as opposed to one larger one. 

“When everyone was regionalizing their offices, we didn’t do that,” Tingus says. “We decentralized our offices.”

For him, smaller home bases on a wider footprint allow for more localized expertise and provide more convenience for the company’s brokers.

“Living in your local community is important,” Tingus says. “A big part of it is just understanding the market that you are working in and being intimate in that market and knowing pretty much everything that’s going on.”

Broker-owned business

According to Tingus, one of the primary drivers behind its expansion may be rooted in the company’s unique model. Unlike other brokerages that operate traditionally, Lee & Associates is a company of companies.

The Lee & Associates branding encompasses 76 companies in North America, 27 of which are in California – Lee & Associates – Los Angeles North/Ventura being one of them. Each company operates independently, with its own president and executive board, and gives its brokers the opportunity to become a principal and shareholder in its local office.

“That principal/shareholder standing allows them to not only share in the profits of their local office, but it allows them to have a say in the direction of the company on a national basis,” according to the company’s website. “The difference at Lee & Associates is that our shareholders are our revenue producers, and it is our goal to return those profits in reward for their outstanding client services.”

In the case of the Los Angeles North/Ventura office, the company has 31 shareholders, all active brokers, including Tingus himself. According to Tingus, the benefits of this model include having a more localized approach to doing business and allowing the company to stand out among its larger competitors.

“When you’re working for an entity that is not your own company, you don’t necessarily have a vested interest in their success,” he adds. “Our company is a little bit different in that if a broker was to join our company, if that broker makes money, my partners and I might make money because they are doing a good job. If that broker loses money, my partners and I lose money.”

Tingus says this model has pushed the firm forward because the job security is attractive to brokers, and the financial stakes are higher. 

— BRYNN SHAFFER