The CEO of Higgins Group Real Estate has spent the past 18 years developing one of the most innovative and technologically savvy real estate firms in the East. The business has 12 offices in Fairfield County and 500 agents.
“When I started the business, I only had one computer and that wasn’t that unusual,’’ Higgins said as Higgins Group celebrated its 18th anniversary this week at Bruce Museum in Greenwich. “The change came a few years later, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Even then the Internet wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. In the last four years, the Internet has really taken over. Especially the big websites, like Realtor.com and Zillow. That’s where you have to make sure you excel.”
Higgins and his wife, Adele, came from divergent backgrounds to launch their business. Rick was a real estate lawyer for 25 years and was involved in more than a billion dollars of transactions as a builder/developer of 200 homes in the New York metropolitan area. Adele was an educator.
From the outset, Higgins wanted to create a cutting edge approach to marketing real estate. Higgins was among the first to embrace technology and still adapts the most innovative approaches of any real estate team in the country.
“We adopted a West Coast philosophy with our marketing,’’ Higgins said. “We watched what they were doing. They are years ahead of the East Coast and decades ahead of Connecticut. We used videos before anyone else. Now we have cinematic videos that are like the videos from the old days of MTV or VH-1. It’s a very creative approach.”
Keeping up with its trending technology, Higgins is planning to upgrade its website in May with even more interactive features. Just recently Higgins introduced market videos which provide monthly breakdowns of real estate sales in individual communities. Click here to find your town.
Higgins affiliated with Christie’s International Real Estate in 2000. Another of Higgins’ coups was landing Alan Dalton, former president of Realtor.com, as his company’s Chief Internet Strategist.
Higgins also went on to say you can't talk about the success of the Higgins Group without including Jason Kinard and Chris Bacoulis. Jason is the managing partner in Stamford and Greenwich and Chris is the managing partner in Trumbull and Shelton. "I have seen very few people in the industry with their drive and inspired leadership. They have done a great job in expanding the offices they started and run. There is nothing like having an owner involved in an office to make sure that it succeeds. Couple them with Julie Vanderblue, President of the Higgins Group and one of the most successful and quoted people in the industry and we have a great team in place," Higgins said.
Besides technology and the right people, Higgins has made it a point to have agents prioritize their families before their work. That has helped them land some of the top real estate professionals in the business, and the family-first culture is appreciated by his team. Higgins also encourages agents to follow “The Golden Rule” to each other and their clients.
The 18-year ride for Higgins and his wife has helped revolutionize the real estate landscape in Fairfield County.
“This took off a lot more than I could have ever envisioned,’’ Higgins said. “In the beginning I was just hoping to survive. Attracting the right people who share the same vision and are creative has helped us. It just seemed to be my destiny to meet these people. I’m grateful for the way it has worked out.”