Tonight, on "Undercover Boss"...
Dan Duffy, CEO of United Real Estate Group
goes undercover in his own company.
- Oh... - Yeah, man.
$25 now.
- 30, now 30... - Will you give me 30?
This former technology tycoon...
Whoo!
ditches his suit and tie for tie-dye,
and gets down and dirty on the front lines.
Chop my leg off.
Along the way, he finds out
it takes more than fast talking to close a deal.
You have a beautiful view as to the highway over here.
I don't think Simon knows anything
about the real estate business.
What happens when this wheeler dealer
hits a bump in the road?
I know. I'm 99 or 100% sure.
Find out next on "Undercover Boss."
With headquarters in both Kansas City, Missouri
and Dallas, Texas, United Real Estate Group
is one of the largest property brokerage
companies in the country.
Leading this $200 million a year industry
and its nearly 6,000 employees is one man.
I'm Dan Duffy. I'm the CEO
of United Real Estate Group.
United Real Estate Group is actually
a collection of companies:
United Country Real Estate,
serving the lifestyle markets from coast to coast
from northern Maine to Texas ranch properties,
Colorado mountain homes,
Costa Rican waterfront properties.
If you can have fun with it, you can see the stars,
or if it's even an investment property
like agricultural land,
we sell it.
United Real Estate is actually in the urban market space
for residential real estate.
And then we've also executed on launching an auction division.
Five! Sold!
It's now the largest auction network in the United States.
We do a little under $1 billion worth of auctions a year.
So there's been a lot going on at United.
We've been busy.
In 1925, a gentleman by the name of Roscoe Chamberlain,
the Steve Jobs of real estate,
formed a company and immediately began to innovate.
He ran it beautifully until the late '60s, early '70s.
Unfortunately, he made one mistake,
and the one mistake was "Don't touch anything.
Don't change anything. The model's perfect."
Well, the world spins.
- Morning. - Hello.
I was able to get involved with the company in 2006
with the intent of really bringing innovative technology,
marketing strategies.
United Real Estate Group, through its 600 offices
and nearly 6,000 affiliated brokers, agents and employees
conducted almost $6 billion worth
of transactions last year,
generating about $200 million of income
for those agents and brokers.
That's what we wake up for every day
and we're passionate about, is helping those folks
make a great living, and in exchange, you know,
we get an opportunity to grow one hell of a business.
Is that okay, to say "hell"?
I was born in Satellite Beach, Florida.
My father was with the NASA program.
He was an engineer, and then he took a risk
and bought an auto parts company,
and it worked out great.
I saw that, and I knew that this was what I wanted to do.
I wanted to be a C-level executive
of a Fortune 50 company,
or I wanted to own a business.
I had these, you know, all written down
on pieces of paper and I called them "outcome clouds."
That was my way of capturing it when I was a teenager.
I had basketball scholarships, and I turned them down
because they weren't great business schools.
I graduated from Indiana University
and then I started with Ernst & Young.
I had the opportunity to be involved
in a little over 250 acquisitions, mergers,
and I realized I could actually hit the ball.
So I left and I went with a dot com
as a CFO and ultimately a COO
and then the president and the CEO of a technology company.
So it was 2005 and we sold that business,
I took a year... a little bit over a year off,
and I realized in very short order
that I don't really enjoy golf that much.
And I started looking around for a company to acquire,
because I figured if I was gonna work,
I want to do something fun.
I love to hunt. I love to fish.
I love to be outdoors, and I saw the real estate space
as one where technology had not been brought forth,
and I thought "Oh, my God, this opportunity
is absolutely gigantic."
I put together an investment group
and we purchased a company in February 2006.
Our intent was to make United the Amazon.com
of real estate. Period.
It's pretty cool. I like being part of it.
I wanted to touch base with you guys about the Wyoming club.
- Yeah, let's... - Yes.
I have a confession.
So I'm running one of the largest
real estate companies in the United States
without a real estate license.
A lot of people have asked me, "When are you going to get
your real estate license?"
But I don't want to wake up in the mornings thinking
that I'm in the real estate business.
That's not what I do. That's what the agents do.
From a social media perspective,
we need to take a really hard look at that
for phase one, at least.
- Oh! - Oh, you got one.
To unwind, it's all centered around the family.
Oh, oh!
Oh!
- Here you go. - He is the fun dad.
It's sometimes hard to have him out on the road,
and the kids will have a countdown, usually,
for the first two nights, till Dad comes home.
Here we go.
Look at that hair.
When I go undercover, I'll be Simon,
a river guide from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
My employees will think that Simon
is competing in a reality show
to win a large investment for a new business venture
he came up with.
Oh, that is a look, right there.
Simon will be different from Dan in a number of ways.
Simon is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
That is so amazing! Yeah.
And I think he spent just a little too much time
on the water.
Just a lot of bling, and I'll try to
park my vocabulary off on the sidelines.
Yeah!
- Oh, my God. - Yeah, man.
No.
Oh, my God, that's awesome.
I like your hair.
Oh, don't... don't touch it.
I'm not seeing you with so much hair in a really long time.
Oh, my gosh.
This is the perfect time to go undercover.
We've spent tens of millions of dollars on technology platforms.
- Okay, bye. - Okay.
And it's time to go out and make certain
that not only are they using all the programs
and that the programs are working as designed...
All right, bye guys.
but I want to talk to the individuals and say
"How's it working for you?"
Love you, Dad.
See you in a week.
Today I'm in Katy, Texas, outside of Houston,
and I'll be working with one of our agents, showing a house.
We currently have one office in Houston,
with a little over 200 agents.
This office is one of the top performing offices
for United Real Estate,
and it's gonna be great to see
how they're doing it in the field
and how they're getting it done.
- Kellie? - Hi, yes, I'm Kellie.
- How are you? - Good, how are you?
- And your name? - Uh, Simon.
Nice to meet you, Simon.
When Simon first walks in,
I see this crazy hair.
It was different, you know. A lot of the realtors
will wear khakis and a button-down shirt,
but Simon looks like he's ready to sell
maybe a canoe or a raft.
Today, I'm actually meeting a buyer client of mine.
I'm going to tour with her, um, the downstairs
but then I'm gonna pass it off to you upstairs.
So let's go ahead and get started.
This is for you. I checked off
some of the features about the home
It's four bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath.
I love the furniture.
No, this one's actually vacant.
- Okay. - So, it's good.
Some of the things you don't want to do
when the client comes in
is, you know, you can explain to them, you know,
maybe some positives or negatives,
but you don't want to "Oh..." you know.
Kind of... you don't want to scare them off.
You want to let them make their own decision.
Okay, so you're just showing them,
and letting them... and answering any questions.
Yeah, but you're also pointing out the features, too.
Okay.
Oh, she's here, so let's go ahead
and walk out and greet her.
Get ready.
I am a little nervous,
I do hope that Simon helps me pull this off in a good way,
because this is the first house that she's seen,
so we want to make a good impression on her.
- Hi! - So good to see you, Nicky!
- Good to see you too. - Okay, so,
- This is Simon. - Nicky? Simon.
Nice to meet you.
- He's gonna be shadowing today. - Okay.
- She's training me. - Okay.
So let's go ahead and go in.
You can see there's a lot of woodwork in these homes.
Behind you is the guest bath.
Is this called a power bath?
Like, a powder room.
A "powder" room. Not "power."
Look at the stonework they did. I didn't see this earlier.
But he was trying, so I'm impressed that he was trying.
- So look how big this room is. - Look at the fireplace.
- This is phenomenal. - How many days a year
can you use a fireplace in Houston?
Ha, not many.
- No. - It's just too warm.
Simon is a talker.
And sometimes Simon says things
that we may not need to be talking about right now.
Beautiful finish on the stairs.
Yeah.
Do you like that finish, that color?
Uh, no, but...
The last time I showed a listed house was, let me think...
Oh, I know, never.
- Do you like it? - Oh, my gosh.
And I love that they put chandeliers!
Like, that is awesome.
You know, you're obviously gonna have to make certain
that they're in the right spot, so you don't...
Well, my husband is a lot shorter than you.
Little bit shorter, okay. All right.
Um, I don't think Simon knows
hardly anything about the real estate business.
He seemed clueless.
And they've redone the backsplash.
That's very nice.
It's not a backsplash, though, is it?
'Cause nothing splashes up here.
I think his nerves were pushing him a little bit faster.
Over here, you have a view in the back
You've got the highway over here,
and then you've got this commercial background here.
Yeah, thank you for pointing that out.
Yeah, I wish I had, like, a little string
or something, like, to tug on him,
or just tackle him, you know.
Kick him in the knees and let him fall down, so...
Having a business for your backyard view,
some people it bothers and some people it doesn't,
so, you know, it just depends on your tastes.
Well, you know, you can add
some shutters or window treatments.
I think I did a pretty good job,
given my lack of training and experience,
but Nicky was looking right through me to Kellie,
and saying "I want to work with Kellie."
Kellie, you hit the mark. Great, great first house.
It's really, really great.
I'm really glad that Nicky seemed to be
real receptive to the house.
- Talk to you later. - Okay, y'all take care.
Have a good day. It's a great relief.
So what do you think? How... I mean, how did it...
It's impressive.
And you look like you're having fun.
I never thought that I would be selling homes.
What did you do before you sold homes?
I worked in corporate America.
It was harder to raise my kids.
I have a 23-year-old with special needs.
And a 14-year-old daughter, too.
And Tory, my oldest daughter,
she's definitely full-time,
and she will be living at home with us forever, so...
I worry because she's very dependent on me.
That's probably the biggest thing is,
what happens when I'm gone,
and I'm trying to prepare for that.
She's... she's amazing, and she's taught me a lot, too.
You know, six months out of the year, pretty much,
she's in Special Olympics,
and so it's very important for me to be able to have balance.
Right on.
Kellie is exactly the quality of character
that I like to see recruited into United Real Estate.
Having five boys,
I understand exactly how she feels,
because you'll do anything for your kids.
And, you know, my time spent with Kellie today
made me realize how what we do plays into
a lot of other families and a lot of other situations.
It's beyond just how many houses you sell.
- Later! Give me a hug. - Okay.
- Okay, you have a good day. - Yes.
Family and higher purpose.
I mean, that's... that's why we do what we do.
Coming up...
There's your machete.
Simon tests his skills with a blade.
Yeah.
I'm gonna chop my leg off.
And later...
This is a room that I want you to do.
- Okay. - You're gonna have one hour.
The boss is quick to the test.
Don't you make a big hole in that wall.
You're gonna love it, Brenda.
The guy doesn't have a design cell in his brain.
Whoa!
Oops.
Today I'm in Gainesville, Florida.
I'll be working with a land appraisal specialist.
We gotta clean this place up.
These guys are critical to what United Country does
because land appraisal specialists know
that one tree is worth $20,000,
and that grove of trees is worth $100,000
Without that expertise,
we don't know what this property is worth.
However, the brokerage business is not performing
as well as it could be, and that's why I'm here today
to find out what's going on.
Travis?
- Hey. - Hey.
- And your name is... - Simon.
- Simon. Nice to meet you. - Yeah.
This place is amazing.
This is... this is my office.
Right on.
We're gonna go trekking through the woods,
so we can look at the trees and evaluate
the timber as well as the land.
- All right. - In order to, uh...
- how best to sell it. - Okay.
- We're going to fly the drone. - Oh, my God!
- Do I get to fly this? - You do.
Here's your machete. You get one of these.
Oh, yeah.
Deep into the woods.
So what we're gonna do is something called land staging.
- Okay. - That's like, you know,
buying a house, where you put a couch here,
you put a lamp here.
Yep.
We do the same thing with land.
So we'll come out here and we'll stage the property,
where all this underbrush will come out
and we'll make it look pretty.
- Grip it and rip it. - Okay.
It's more that you're going for the big stuff.
- Swing from the hip. - Okay.
Yeah. It's a workout, man.
Whoo! Oh, man.
I'm gonna love it.
I'm gonna chop my leg off.
Some of that makes me a little nervous.
Yeah. Whoo!
He's definitely getting excited about
hacking away at some nature.
Yuck. Oh, ho, ho, man.
Whoo!
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
All over.
Pants are falling off.
Well, it looks like you're getting the swing of things.
Yeah. Okay, I don't want to hit you with a backswing here.
Oh, you're... trust me.
Simon's backswing is getting a little close to me.
I already shaved this morning.
I was impressed with his ability to start
eliminating some of the underbrush.
- All right. - What do you say
we do some work with the drone?
Let's do it.
It's very nice to have someone else start clearing pathways
instead of myself doing it.
All right.
You ever used one of these before?
Uh, no.
Obviously this is the drone.
- All right. - So you can go
look at the whole property.
We also send video to the land owner.
How'd you do it before you had the drone?
You took pictures and walked.
Turn this on, and that gets the blades moving.
Then once it's warmed up, basically you just take it...
- Whoo! - Go up.
- It's about 90 feet up. - Yeah.
And 200 feet away from us.
But that way you can say at this point on the property
- is an oak tree, or a lake. - A lake or an oak tree.
For the marketing part, you take this video
and you kind of create your own movie.
But look at how clear it is.
This better imagery drives a better experience
on our website... what a great experience
for somebody in New York
or someone in Dallas that's trying to understand
"Do I want to buy that property?"
Wow. It's critically important
that we stand apart from any of our other competitors
on a national basis,
and he is injecting that new technology into the business.
Loved it. Loved it.
And then it'll stop.
- Then you're done. - Then that's it.
Are you sure you want me flying this thing?
Yeah, it's easy.
Just, uh, hit the takeoff button, right?
- Uh, no, you gotta push "up." - Oh.
Look out.
Okay.
And then you push "up"...
Houston, we have ignition.
- Push "up" there. - It just goes straight up.
Yeah, just go straight up.
Now let's get this out. This is a tree.
Whoa.
Push that way on the left joystick.
I'm pretty damn good at this.
Look at that.
How do people ever find, like, this property?
We're in the middle of nowhere.
Well, that's part of our real estate side.
Do you have a lot of listings?
- I mean, do you... - Oh, we have a few, I mean...
"A few" isn't enough,
in order to have a really self-sustaining business.
The initial broker has to have 40
and each agent has to have another 20 minimum.
How do you get people to actually
find your website and stuff?
That's my end of the gig. I'm the marketing guy.
That's what I went to college for.
If I'm not doing this, I'm building up our website.
I'm building up our... I'm making sure we're still on top,
or trying to be on top.
We use Internet search engine optimization.
- We use... - You do all that stuff?
- Well, we try. - Yeah.
How do you find time to do anything, like, socially
if you're out here in the middle of the woods and stuff?
- I mean, are you married? - No, I'm not married.
Does your girlfriend like it out here?
Uh, if I had one.
You're spending too much time working.
Too much time out here, yeah.
I love the fact that Travis is passionate,
and he's, like, fully head-on.
When he talked about his search engine marketing
and his search engine optimization,
it sounds like he's doing quite a bit of work on his own
because he's probably very capable.
Oh, you're showing off, man.
But I think that we can make his job
even a little bit easier,
to de-burden him so he can go out and get more listings
and grow his business.
I'm sure there are some girls
that love being out here, you know?
Just gotta find 'em.
Today, I'm in Houston. I'll be working with
a few of our auctioneers.
An auctioneer is trained to sell anything.
- Sold! - But, uh, historically,
the real estate market has kept he auctioneers
at arm's length because they were competitors.
- 150. - United is the only
national real estate company that's embraced
the auction method of marketing.
It's critical that I understand exactly
what they're doing out here so as we roll it
into our urban platform, United Real Estate,
that we get it right.
Good afternoon. My name's Logan.
- Hi, I'm Simon. - Simon, nice to meet you, man.
Nice to meet you.
So I go to meet the auctioneer, and I see Logan.
Uh, I know this guy.
You ever been to an auction before?
- I haven't, no. - Okay, well, good luck.
And I know his father quite well,
so this was not gonna be easy.
All right, Simon,
There's a bunch of different types of auctions.
This is what's called a general consignment sale.
There's everything from cars down to estate sale stuff.
Anything, really, that sells sells at auction somewhere too,
so you ready to be an auctioneer?
I'm ready. I'm ready.
All right, so to show you
a basic auctioneering chant,
is "$25, now 30, now 30, will you give me 30?"
- So what that is... - $25, now...
- "30, now 30." - "Will you give me 30?"
And then you just go up by $5 increments,
and we'll see you auctioneer, okay?
$25, now we got 30, can you give me 30?
I haven't bid yet. You gotta keep going.
Oh. I keep going...
Just keep doing the same thing until somebody bids.
$25 now, give me 30, give me 30, give me 30,
- 25, 25, 25... - Yes!
Uh, oh! 30 over here. 30 over here.
- And now you gotta go up. - All right.
So we got $30 bid, $30 bid.
Give me 35, 35, 35, anyone 35...
- Yes! - That's a beautiful hot tub.
That's it, yeah.
- All right. - You got 35.
35, all right, okay. 35, 35, can you give me 40?
- Can you give me 40... - Nope, I'm out. No more.
Going once at 35. Going once at 35,
to the man over here.
- Sold! - Sold.
There you go. You gotta say "sold."
That's it. Now that we're a bona fide trained auctioneer,
Let's go in and watch my dad
and we can learn a little bit more about being an auctioneer.
- All right. All right. - Let's do it.
I'm walking in with Logan,
to watch his dad auction and I know his dad knows me.
Basically standing against the wall,
trying to not give him a straight-on face shot.
Sold, $150.
This is real money happening in real time.
It didn't sound intelligible... like, what he was saying...
"We got a $6 bid, yabba dabba doo, we got a $7 bid, $8 bid,"
I... It's gonna be interesting.
But actually, he was managing the room,
and he was in absolute charge of what was going on.
It was really cool to watch.
Sold, 325.
That's the auction process.
Think you're ready for the real thing?
Ah, no.
These are the items... on this table
is what you're gonna be selling.
The auction is about to end over there.
My dad's on his way over here.
So Logan's father's about to come over,
and I'm really nervous
he's gonna look at me and say "Hey Dan."
Dad, I'd like to introduce you to someone.
This is Simon. Simon, this is Mark.
- Hi, Simon. - Hi.
I understand you're an auctioneer.
Uh, I think so, after today's training.
Really?
It doesn't appear that he's identified me,
so I think I'm good to go,
and I'm ready to do this auction.
Okay, Simon, we're gonna sell this oil print.
Let's see what you can do with this.
Folks, the first thing we have up today
is a Historic Ventures Pumping Power from 1900 to 1930.
- This is a rare item. - Very good.
All right, let's start the bidding.
Let's start the bidding at $80.
Who'll give me $80? $80, $80, $80.
- How'd we come up with $80? - I don't know!
Good night.
$80. I mean, $100 or $50, but $80?
Let's to to 110.
No, hold on, hold on. What did he just bid?
What's he bidding? He's trying to give you money.
Sir, are you in at 110?
- No, no, 110's over... - 110.
You're in at 120?
Yes! Simon is doing a lot right,
145, 145...
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa whoa.
- Oh. - Why are we cutting?
And a lot wrong.
You're cutting the bid increment.
- Are we at 150? - Yeah!
- Ooh. - His cadence is not there.
His increments are not there.
Wait a minute, we have... We have 160.
And these are all things that you just learn with time.
250 going once, going twice.
Sold to the nice gentleman back there by the slot machine.
Congratulations.
Now we're gonna sell some animal with horns on its head.
We have a shoulder-mounted bush buck.
Bush hound? What's it called?
- Bush buck. - Bush buck.
Let's just start out about 650.
Who will give me 650? Who's got an office
that they want to put that in? 650.
- All right, it's 800. - He went up!
If you wait, I'm gonna go up!
I'm not sure Simon knows what day it is.
Filler words are not gooble-y goo.
70, 70, 70, 70.
You're supposed to be saying something.
Yabba dabba dabba doo, $100.
But not...
Sorry. Had to go there.
If you want to perform, go to California.
Go wherever it is to perform.
Am I gonna sell this or wear it?
Yes, we're gonna sell this.
A real Stetson.
It doesn't smell like it's been worn, either.
But it was his personality coming out.
The crowd responded to it well.
All right, we got a new bettor over here.
We got... not "nude." "New."
We don't want any nude bettors.
Always good to clarify, I guess.
We're gonna sell a rug? Okay.
- Handmade in China. - Handmade in China,
the tag on it was $1,080, so somebody paid a lot of...
- No... no pressure, Simon. - No pressure.
You know what, I'm gonna start the bidding in here
at $1,000.
Good! Might as well ask for it.
Here we go. Let's try that!
Why not? It's gorgeous.
You could wrap your mother-in-law in it.
Oh, you got... I got $1,000 bid, whoo hoo!
- You get $1,000? - I got 1,000 bucks!
That man right over there. He's got that blue shirt.
You guys need to watch the bid!
Dang, man!
Simon had the wherewithal
to ask for 1,000 bucks and he got it.
- That's... - That's a good move.
Sold, to that nice gentleman over there.
All right, Simon.
- Am I done? - Beginner's luck.
It won't happen again in five years if he auctions every week.
- Good job, good job. - Thank you.
I think it was a job.
I knew auctioneering was complicated,
but, holy Moses, when you have that microphone in your hand,
it is an entirely different world.
Thank you.
- Logan, Logan. - Yes, sir.
Who?
Oh, really?
I'm somewhere between 99 and 100% sure, yeah.
I know it.
That's Duffy.
Oh, really?
Let's go talk some more about it over here... let's go.
All right, we're gonna get a chair and sit down here.
Do some business.
All right.
How'd I do?
- Well... - I don't know.
- Well, it was exciting, right? - Yeah.
And we thought it was interesting.
- Mm-hmm. - Uh, but...
Well, we know. We understand.
- We understand. - Oh yeah.
- Right. - He comes over to me and says
"He's too big and he looks like him... there's no way!"
- Who am I? - Dan Duffy.
Dan Duffy.
How long did you know?
You had the sunglasses on, I had no idea.
Yeah, well, you know,
all kidding aside, it's actually "Undercover Boss."
I'm undercover, because I want honest feedback.
And specifically to get feedback
about how we're doing in support of your business.
Interesting.
So do you guys think that, um,
the agents that are part of United Country
and actually, United as well,
- know enough about auctions? - No.
- Okay. - Dan, we have to...
- To build that bridge. - Okay.
I'd love to sell real estate all the time.
That's where the money is.
But realtors don't like it, sellers don't like auctions.
- Auctioneers are not the enemy. - Yep.
You know, I think we've made a huge amount of progress already,
and I will tell you, when you look at that gang from now
and you look back at United,
hundreds of thousands of transactions
will be done by the auction method of marketing
and our auctioneers are gonna participate in all that.
And you're the next generation of auctioneers.
What I'd like to do for you guys
is I'd like to bring you up to Kansas City.
I'll pay for all the expenses
to get you up to Kansas City for a week.
I'd like to work with you on your business plan,
and I want to give you $50,000 in marketing funds
to grow your business.
You can't imagine how much business is there
if we can communicate to the realtor.
Yeah, I'll be honest with you,
I want to leave a legacy
for this business,
and I think if we do this right,
we will hand the keys... as stewards,
we'll hand the keys to the next generation
that will take this company through the next 90 years.
Thanks for choosing us. It makes a big difference.
Thank you so much, really.
This has... this has never happened to me before.
This is very cool.
This injection can totally be a game-changer.
Interesting angle. I would've never thought.
The opportunity to communicate the auction option to realtors
is the key, and that's what Dan's helping us do.
Very exciting for us.
Come auctioneer for us sometime.
Okay, all right.
I'm speechless.
This could be one of the things that we look back
when I'm 60, 70 years old and say,
"That was when it changed."
It's really important you not tell anybody.
I better delete that tweet.
Today I'm in Austin, Texas
working with one of our United agents
and I'm gonna be staging a home.
Whether it's moving furniture around,
or whether it's bringing in new furniture,
repainting some walls,
staging a home is critical to the marketing process
so that when a buyer comes in to tour the property,
they can see the house as they would be living in it.
Brenda?
- Hi. - Hey, how are you?
- I'm fine, how are you? - I'm well, thank you very much.
- You're Simon? - I am.
- Very nice to meet you. - Yes, nice to meet you.
I'm Brenda, and we're going to do a staging.
- I'm excited. - Well, so am I.
- I want to see what you got. - I have no experience with this.
What was your first impression of this living space?
Uh, obviously, everyone has their own taste.
- Ugly. - Yeah, okay, okay.
Do you tell your clients that?
When your house goes on the market,
it's really not your house anymore.
So we're gonna put it all together for them,
so they just can't possibly leave this house
and they want to buy it now.
- Okay. Perfect. - Okay?
So let's go.
Now, Simon's a dude, make no mistake.
And he probably doesn't have a design cell
in his brain.
And here's one of the three bedrooms.
A little small.
Some people say get rid of all the personal stuff.
I disagree with that.
Rugs on top of carpet. No, it looks terrible.
Brenda is extremely confident.
Clutter over here, gone.
This bathroom needs to be gutted.
Everything about her is intense
because she knows that without proper staging
you can't get great outcomes for your client.
Holy mackerel!
That is the biggest collection of shoes
I think I've ever seen.
You haven't seen my closet, but that's okay.
It's a good start.
I think I'd actually remove it from the room.
You're right.
I would probably change this out, too.
Yeah, it's... it's an ugly fixture.
One of the easiest ways to update a house
is hardware, lighting fixtures,
curtains... I mean, it's all cosmetic.
Boy, I tell you, if I was a young agent,
I would want to spend months with you.
I do offer free consultations.
- I'm happy to do that. - Yeah.
Because we're supposed to help each other.
Oh, you and I are gonna get along really well.
- Give me five! - Yeah!
- All right. - Okay.
You have more shoes than that?
- I do. - Wow.
- Okay. - Ooh, this is a neat room.
This is a room that I want you to do.
Okay.
You can go to any room in the house
and pull anything from those rooms
that you want to stage in this room.
You're gonna have one hour,
and I'll come in and critique your work.
- Okay. - You ready?
- Yeah, I'm ready. - Take it on.
- I'm ready. Okay. - Okay.
We'll do it.
I'm excited to see what's in your head.
Well, that might be frightening.
I have zero experience as an interior decorator,
and I think my wife would tell you
that I'm not very good at it.
This would be in the bathroom.
I think that might be too small for that space too.
It's kind of cute.
This wall is confusing.
Don't you make a big hole in that wall.
All right.
Okay, those are not quite right.
Oh, look at that.
You're gonna love it, Brenda.
- Five minutes, Simon. - Okay, perfect.
Whoa!
Whoops!
All right.
Simon?
What do you think? Better?
Well, I'm impressed.
I am impressed.
- You did a great job. - I'm sweating in here.
You listened. I like the colors.
Okay, you're bedding looks good.
I like the two pictures up there.
They're not quite straight yet, but...
That's okay.
That picture over there is too much for this wall.
Yeah, yeah.
That's it, though. You did a really good job.
- Thank you. - I'm proud of you, honey.
- Thanks, hon. - Good job, good job.
That was really fun.
I am a little bit shocked.
You came in not knowing anything...
Yeah.
but you listened when we did our walkthrough.
Yes.
And you chose all the right things.
I mean, that's awesome. You did a good job.
- You're a good coach. - I'm very proud of you.
Does your broker... do they have like a kit
or some sort of recommendations for staging?
No, no, no. I have a booklet.
It's like "Seven Insider Secrets
On How To Stage Your House For A Successful Sale."
- Okay. - Right?
So I give that to my clients, my buyers,
and it helps them.
Our job is to market property,
and I think we have an opportunity
to take what she knows,
package it, and get it into the hands
of every one of our agents and brokers.
We're gonna shorten these a little bit.
Okay, so we want it to be ground level.
Exactly.
We'll use some double-sided tape to hem this.
So what's the pink, um, ribbon?
This is Breast Cancer Awareness.
And my son gave this to me
because I was diagnosed with breast cancer
two years ago.
- Oh. - And... no, no!
You whipped it?
I'm still working on that, you know,
but we all hear about the medical means of treatment,
but I did the alternative.
Okay.
And to get alternative treatment,
You have to go outside the country.
And it's working.
I know... of course!
- How do you feel? - Don't I look fabulous?
Yeah, you do! You look great.
My mother was... was a devout Catholic
her whole life, and further on in age,
she got... she got into alternative religion
and... and holistic medicine,
and she was very in tune with the world.
Mm-hmm.
And she said, "I would like to die one of three ways.
"I would like to die jogging,
playing tennis, or making love to your father."
I choose the latter.
But I'll be darned, she, uh...
she had a heart attack on the court,
and she died on the tennis court.
Oh, my God.
Whew. And I don't wanna cry,
but, you know, it was just so touching
when he talked about her.
You could see the love that he had for her.
So you have one son?
I have one son.
I was a single mom... a single parent for 14 years.
Okay.
And he's born and raised in California.
His family's there and his fiancée's there,
and his work is there, so... he would never leave.
I would like to go back to L.A. more frequently...
Uh-huh.
but now that's I've left,
I really can't afford to go back.
But we see each other during the year.
- Yeah. - It's never enough.
You're lucky. We're very blessed.
Very blessed.
And we're very good decorators.
Or you are!
- Gonna finish this room? - Sure, let's do it.
It was great to get to know Brenda today.
I thought I was gonna learn about staging,
and it ended up being much bigger than that.
- I like this color better. - Yeah, me too.
I see a lot of my mom in Brenda,
and it was a little tough
because I felt like I was going back in time.
Perfect.
She's a survivor.
You know, she took an issue
and a problem and she basically attacked it,
and it's great to see that we're attracting
those kind of quality folks.
Wow!
The most important thing is that we have great people,
because with that, you can do great things.
Without that, you can't do anything.
- Bam! - Yeah, bam!
Coming up, Dan's employees think
they're participating in a different reality show.
- He talked a lot. - Hmm.
How will they react
when the boss reveals his true identity?
I'm actually CEO of United Real Estate.
What the hell?
Oh, my gosh!
Good riddance.
The experience working this week
with all these fantastic people
just underscores the reason that we need to be committed
to everyone in the organization,
not just with systems, and not just with technology
or training, but also on a personal level.
- Hey. - Hey.
- How are you? - All right, how you doing?
I'm well.
So, um, how did Simon do?
- He talked a lot. - Hmm.
Did he look familiar at all?
- Not to me, no. - No?
- Am I'm second-guessing myself? - Not at all?
Was it you dressed up?
I'm actually, uh, Dan Duffy,
CEO of United Real Estate.
Oh, my gosh.
What the hell?
You're on "Undercover Boss."
I watch that show.
And I thought if anyone ever tried that with me,
I would figure 'em out.
Travis, you did a great job.
I loved the drone.
I love the fact that you were, you know,
- implementing new technology. - Mm-hmm.
Basically, you just take it and...
- Whoo! - You go up.
Oh.
Makes it a lot more sellable.
The one area that was a little bit concerning for me
was while it's great that you know how to do
a lot of the technology, um,
I don't want you spending your time doing that
because we already do it for you.
And then I looked at your listings.
That's where I lack, as you can tell, is getting...
Yeah. I think that working together,
um, that we can free up some of your time.
- Okay. - So what I would like to do
is I'd like to give you a $30,000 paid internship.
- Really? - Yeah.
I'd like to take you to the best Timberland listing office
- in the country. - Okay.
I want you to see how he obtains so many listings.
- Okay? - Really?
- Yep. - Thank you so much.
That's actually not all I'd like to give you.
I asked you whether or not, you know,
you had a significant other.
So, um, I'd like to give you a romantic trip for two
to Costa Rica.
No!
And the only chore that you have
is to find someone to go with you.
No!
Y'all are doing too much. This is...
This is awesome.
I've never been to Costa Rica before.
Gotta find someone to go with now.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it, man.
Thank you.
And the fact that they're offering me this internship.
changes everything.
It will allow us to grow our business
to what we dreamed it could be.
Brenda, you know I've been in and out
of a lot of model homes,
and the way that you took a relatively modest
set of decorative items and positioned them
and moved the furniture to create better flow,
it just amazing.
- I was in my element. - It showed.
Clutter over here. Get out all the carpet.
This all has to go.
I know staging is a critical component...
MM-hmm.
And we have great paper-based..
Yah.
"Here's the top ten things you do."
But that's not good enough.
They need to see it and they need to be
walked through the process.
Yeah, and the importance of it.
Yeah, and knowing all of that,
this is what I want to do.
I'd like to make a series of videos
about staging, and I'd like you to star in them.
- Are you serious? - Yeah.
And to star in these videos,
I want to pay you $10,000.
- Thank you! - You're welcome.
Oh, my God! I'm so excited, I can't tell you!
That was so much fun.
Yeah, we're gonna have a blast.
- Okay. Deal! - Okay.
All right, um, I'd like to talk for a minute
about, um, you know, your son
and the fact that you want to get to L.A.
to visit him more and your treatments
that you're doing in Mexico.
Mm-hmm.
It... it very intensely brought back
a lot of feelings about, you know,
what my mother went through with her heart.
- Yeah, it was... - I know,
It was very... I know.
The overall picture is you live it every day
to your best.
And hopefully do what you enjoy doing.
And that's all we can ask, right?
Yeah.
Well, what I'd like to do
so that you can go out and see your son more frequently,
and to help you cover the cost
of any future medical cancer treatments,
I'd like to give you $25,000.
Are you kidding me?
Ohh. Seriously?
Oh, my God! Can I hug you?
Wait, wait, wait.
Oh, yeah.
Everything that Dan has done for me today
is life-changing.
It will help make my trip to Mexico no stress.
Mwah. You're the best.
To be able to see my son...
Oh, my gosh, it's huge!
I can't even tell you how much of a help it is.
It's just amazing.
Kellie, you did a fantastic job.
Thank you.
I mean, you're clearly passionate.
- I love it. - Yeah.
And I care about my clients.
And my family.
I like to have that good balance.
I have 23-year-old with special needs.
She will be living at home with us forever,
so I worry because what happens when I'm gone?
You know, you don't get an opportunity
to take much time for yourself.
Yeah.
Um, so I'd like to give you and your husband
a trip to Costa Rica.
Okay.
To get away.
That's gonna be really exciting.
I've not done anything like that before.
I'm very excited. Thank you.
Your commitment to your daughters is unbelievable.
You're absolutely selfless.
I mean...
I have to live forever to be able to take care of them.
Well, I'd like to do something else for you.
So I have a friend of mine in New York...
- a financial advisor... - Okay.
for families in situations that... like you have.
They'll build a plan to make certain
that there's resources available for Tory
for the rest of her life.
Oh, my gosh.
And in order to get the fund started,
the United family would like to give $100,000.
But we can do more.
And we're gonna start a crowding sourcing
site for you and your family,
and we're gonna link it to our web sites,
and I believe that we will raise
well in excess of $500,000.
And we're gonna keep it working it
until that financial advisor's plan...
is squared away.
Oh, my gosh, thank you.
I'm totally shocked.
You know, having Dan Duffy recognize me
and want to do these great things for my family
is amazing.
All right, well, thank you.
I'm just so happy
that the girls are gonna be taken care of.
Oh, my God.
I can't wait to tell 'em.
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