The Trembley Group Real Estate celebrated its first anniversary as residential real estate company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with a remarkable $40M in sales. In an interview, Scott Trembley, owner and CEO of the company explains the formula for his unprecedented success.

Scott Trembley is the President of The Trembley Group. He has been a leader in the real estate industry for 18 years. Scott has helped over 1500 families find their dream home while producing over $450 million in sales. After training with Scott, none of his agents earn less than $100,000 by their second year. Out of 300 sales leaders, Scott scored #1 nationally in Leadership and Emotional Intelligence testing for one of the nation’s largest builders.

Scott began his real estate career in 1999. After signing on with one of the largest homebuilders in America, he quickly rose to become the Grand Strand’s top new home sales specialists, capturing many sales awards along the way. Centex Homes offered Scott the sales leadership role over 5 struggling communities. In just 18 months, Scott and his team doubled the division’s production from $30M to $70M in annual sales. Scott would go on to score #1 nationally, in Centex’s overall leadership and emotional intelligence examination making his talents a much desired commodity for developers and homebuilders alike.

In the midst of the Great Real Estate Crash and the Great Recession, Scott assumed responsibility for the marketing of a bankrupt Myrtle Beach community, Seasons at Prince Creek West, located in Murrells Inlet, SC. He and his team transformed the property, selling more than $100M of active adult product and making it the top selling 55+ active adult community on the Grand Strand.

Scott’s knowledge of the real estate industry and his experience and understanding of building a successful real estate sales and marketing team is profound. His commitment and powerful mindset has allowed Scott to build the most innovative sales and marketing real estate firm in the Carolinas. Scott Trembley is currently president and CEO of this highly-specialized group of the real estate professionals at The Trembley Group, headquartered in Myrtle Beach SC.

The Trembley Group Real Estate is also the one and only partner of Retirement Funding Solutions (RFS) doing business along the Grand Strand. RFS is a financial group that provides funding to retirees 62 years and older with a program called the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, or in short, HECM. This program allows individuals or couples 62 and older to purchase a home for 50% of the purchase price while never having to make another mortgage payment in their lives again. The Trembley Group Real Estate is the only real estate firm in the area with this specialty! The Trembley Group Real Estate team is highly trained to provide advice to their clients interested in the HECM product.

I had the pleasure of eating lunch with Scott several months ago, shortly after The Trembley Group Real Estate celebrated its first anniversary. Scott’s company did an impressive and unheard of volume of $40M its first year of existence.  

The take-away from lunch with Scott Trembley, founder and CEO of The Trembley Group Real Estate in Myrtle Beach SC, was that Scott is a competitor. Whether playing professional level golf or professional beach volleyball, Scott plays to win. He is not only a market leader in the most competitive businesses and one of the most competitive markets in the United States, but he is an industry leader, sought after by some of the most prestigious national real estate developers.

I began my conversation with Scott by asking him how he competes in such an environment.

Scott Trembley: Lots of people are competitors, especially in the real estate business. You have to be competitive to survive. I think what separates me from the others in our industry is that while most real estate brokers are competing with the company down the road or even with the man or woman sitting at the next desk, my only competition is with the man looking back at me in the mirror when I shave every morning. I’ve been that way my entire life. My personal goals and standards are my focus and what drive me. And they’re not about how I do compared to the next guy. My goals and standards are generally much higher than other folks in the profession. When I try to be a little better than the next guy, I lower my standards.

In the end, I’m really not in competition with anyone. I’m simply trying to be a better person today than the person I was yesterday.

And for me, it’s not just about monetary success. I believe from the bottom of my heart, if I strive to do the very best job I can do for my clients, that monetary end of business will take care of itself. And that’s been proven over and over, and year after year.

At The Trembley Group, we achieve this level of success through consistent communication with our clients, collaboration and teamwork, providing innovative services, and a vast knowledge of today’s Real Estate market.

Most people think of real estate sales as talking someone into buying a house. The operative word is into. That implies an agent is talking someone into buying something that they really don’t want and really don’t need. I think a lot real estate agents look at their job that way.

For me, selling real estate is about creating lasting relationships and positively changing lives.

My sales executives and I constantly talk about building relationships. It means more than being personable and a good conversationalist. We’re good listeners and we try get to know our clients and determine who they are and what they really want. We find out what makes them tick – what’s really important to them – then match them with their first choice, not their second or third.

Rob Rogers-Orchard: That works well on a personal basis. Anyone who looks at your two decades in the real estate business will only be blown away by your achievement. But you’re the owner of a company with a team of sales executives. How can you instill in them the same integrity, drive, sense of cooperation, and focus?

Scott Trembley: At The Trembley Group, we have a team of strong professionals helping our clients every step of the way throughout the process of buying and/or selling their home. We have an amazing team that consists currently of thirteen real estate buyer’s specialists. My first job is to give them everything they need to be successful. We’ve put every piece of the real estate selling puzzle in place to ensure that our client’s real estate experience is seamless.

It’s all about teamwork – my partner and Vice-President of Sales, Jeremy Jenks, is our primary listing agent and sales trainer. We have three Client Care Specialists who follow-up with call-ins and make appointments. Our Director of Marketing, Nancy-Paige Robinson, is awesome.  If you haven’t done so already, you really must take a look at our Facebook page and our YouTube channel. And we have an extraordinary Transaction Specialist, Shannon Dial. Our team is also partnered with some of the industry’s best attorneys, mortgage lenders, home inspectors, and photographers along the Grand Strand – the key elements you need to make an effortless, seamless, and enjoyable buying and selling experience for our clients. We provide our sales executives with everything they need to be effective – inventory to sell, sales and marketing support, and the inspiration and training to make them successful.

I meet with every agent twice per week – once for a company-wide sales meeting on Wednesday mornings and once, individually, for personalized coaching. Our company is all about accountability. We do roleplaying every morning to anticipate how to handle potential objections and problems. And reviews. We’re all about reviews. We don’t just ask the successful clients for reviews, we ask every client for a review up-front. Then we strive to make every encounter and every interaction a success.

The key is finding special people to begin with. I have no interest in hanging someone’s real estate license on my office wall. I’m always looking for that person who isn’t just interested in a career in real estate but someone who is committed to succeed in a real estate career. I’m always looking for that special someone who’s committed to success but hasn’t quite figured it all out. I’ve been successful in real estate sales and I’m looking for someone I can tell, “If you want what I have, do what I do.” And then help them do it.

Rob Rogers-Orchard: I can see that you’ve given your sales executives all the tangible tools they need to be successful in the real estate business. But it seems to me that the intangibles you mentioned – inspiration and sales training – would be the hardest to provide and quantify. How do you go about doing that?

Scott Trembley: We have created an environment where our sales executives can succeed. We provide our agents with the tools they need to be successful – inventory to sell, sales and marketing support, and a supportive teamwork focused office.

The entire company structure is designed to make every sales executive on our team successful and that’s easy to quantify. Every one of our sales executives – every one of them – has a goal of achieving $1M in sales in their first year and earning over $100K in their second year. That’s easy to measure and I’m proud to say that every Trembley Group sales executive has achieved that goal or is on track to achieve it.

I hired two agents who had been in the real estate business for about three years. The year before joining the Trembley Group they each sold a total of four properties. One was working for a developer who told her she didn’t have what it takes to be successful in real estate sales. But I could see that spark of commitment in both of them. They both came to me and they said, tell me what to do and I’ll follow your plan. They have both been with The Trembley Group a year now. One closed on 38 transactions and the other closed on 40 homes last year.  

One of my favorite quotes is, “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”

Both agents went the extra mile and have enjoyed the success that comes along with it. I’ve built my whole business philosophy on this simple idea. My passion is to create a unique real estate selling and buying experience for my clients. I want that experience to far exceed their expectations. This philosophy developed and evolved throughout my 18 years in the real estate business. It’s still evolving. At the forefront is my desire for me and my sales executives to provide the clients of The Trembley Group with an exceptional experience from start to finish.

Rob Rogers-Orchard: On a personal note, in December 2010 Scott’s wife, Lori, gave birth to twin boys, Connor and Dylan. Lori tragically and unexpectedly passed before the boys came home from the hospital. I concluded our lunch conversation by asking, “Scott, how have you managed being a single parent and the many demands of a real estate career?”

Scott Trembley: I had little choice but to draw on the compassion of my family and friends. My boys, Connor and Dylan, are the center of my life. They represent the future. They are much of the reason I get out of bed every morning. I’ve had to pass on a few outstanding business opportunities that would have put me on the road much of every week. There was no way I was about to miss Connor and Dylan growing up. And I was not about to let them grow up without a father. I think my life experience and the life-lessons I’ve learned have increased my ability to relate and help others on an entirely different business and personal level.

Contact Scott directly at Scott@TheTrembleyGroup.com or 843.455.6636.

Rob Rogers-Orchard is a real estate industry consultant and writer living in Myrtle Beach. He has nearly 40 years working in and around the real estate business in South Carolina and the southeast.

Need help? Call The Trembley Group at 843.945.1880 ext. 100 and we’ll help you look for the perfect listing or buyers agent!

At The Trembley Group, we pride ourselves on being the experts at more than just selling real estate. We are local residents, some of us have been here for a lifetime. The rest of us will be here until the end of time. We love living, working, and playing in the diverse backyard of Coastal Carolina, and look forward to helping you live and love your dreams soon too. Please reach out to us by phone or email for personalized service and one-on-one advice. 

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