Whether you’re looking to buy or sell your home, My Home Group Queen Creek (MHGQC) is there to make the process as seamless as possible. They help clients around the Valley with their housing needs, primarily focusing on homes in the Southeast Valley. Queen Creek is their base of operations but they also service surrounding areas like San Tan Valley, Florence, Coolidge and Casa Grande.
My Home Group (MHG) has been around since 2005, building itself into one of the nation’s top brokerages over the past 17 years. The Queen Creek location is one of many MHG branches around the Southwest.
The Queen Creek branch was opened by Michael Hernandez, affectionately known as "Big Mike." He has lived in the Queen Creek area since 2009 and he began working in real estate in May of 2013. After a handful of years in the business, Big Mike wanted to open his own office and in 2019 he met with My Home Group and agreed to start up a franchise office in Queen Creek.
Unfortunately, soon after opening, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and they were forced to temporarily close their brick and mortar location, but that was only a bump in the road as MHGQC has grown exponentially since.
“Out of this office, we do strictly residential real estate…A lot of our agents work with investors doing fix and flips or to purchase residential rentals, even 4 plexes," Hernandez said. “We don't have a property management company, so we don't do any leasing or rentals. I started the office with just myself and three other agents and now we have 51 agents out of this office.”
Many real estate agents are attracted to MHGQC because of the booming market, but they’re also offered a compensation package that’s different from almost all other agencies.
“At most brokerages the agents are charged a split of their commission, usually somewhere between 5-30% or more. At MHGQC agents are only charged $300 per transaction,” Hernandez said. Real estate agents are independent contractors, meaning they can come and go between agencies, but many agents end up staying at MHGQC.
Agents also have direct access to Big Mike, which is not a guaranteed luxury at many real estate agencies.
“Most of the time when you have a real estate company like this, you don't necessarily have access to the franchise owner. There's usually a bunch of firewalls in between you and the owner and that's not the case here,” Hernandez said. “I'm here 9-4… any one of my agents can come in and talk to me about whatever questions or concerns they have.”
As the office and number of agents have grown, so have the sales. Halfway through the year, My Home Group was one of the highest-selling My Home Group offices in Arizona across all its branches.
“Halfway through (this) year, we had sold 203 houses. It was $87 million in sales and we paid out $2.2 million in commission. When you focus on client relationships the results reflect that,” Hernandez said.
A big reason for MHGQC’s success in sales and growth as a brokerage has been the rapid development of Queen Creek as a town. Queen Creek surpassed a population of 50,000 in 2018 and that number is expected to exceed 75,000 in 2023. As the town grows and more people move in, the agents at MHGQC are increasingly busy helping clients with their real estate needs.
“I was kind of a visionary in all this because early in my career, I was thinking we need to open a (real estate) office in Queen Creek. Everyone just kind of ignored it because Queen Creek was so far. I can remember back in the day telling people, ‘Hey, you could probably afford a house in Queen Creek or San Tan Valley,’ and they often responded with, ‘Oh no, I need to live in Chandler. Queen Creek is too far out there,’ and here we are in 2022 and Queen Creek is the number one city in Arizona,” Hernandez said.
Queen Creek is top of Arizona in median household income, average sale price per square foot and average home price, Hernandez said. But with home prices and population numbers soaring it can be easy to forget about the people behind the homes, something that is a priority at MHGQC.
“We really try to focus on relationships with our clients,” Hernandez said.
At many real estate agencies, the agents are coached to a number, meaning they’re told or expected to talk to a certain amount of people each day, or create a certain number of social media post per day.
“We don't necessarily subscribe to that philosophy,” Hernandez said. “We're more focused on building relationships with the community and we do that through community events”
Along with fundraisers and donations to local charities, MHGQC also likes to host client appreciation events to further build the connectivity in the community. Last Thanksgiving they gave away dozens of pies to clients, just as a way to say thank you.
Even as one of My Home Group’s newer franchises in Arizona, the Queen Creek branch has already made an impact, capitalizing upon the growth of the community while always keeping their clients in mind.
My Home Group Queen Creek is located at 21152 E. Rittenhouse Road, Suite 104. Give them a call at 480-530-6748 or visit their website at mhgqueencreek.com.
