Josh McGrath is a life-long resident of West Virginia and as of this month, a 20-year realtor. Starting in real estate at just 18 years old, McGrath has worked tirelessly at growing a successful business. In 2005, McGrath opened Real Estate Central, which has grown to become the second-largest firm in the market, with 100+ Realtors in five locations and closing over $126M a year in sales.
Since 2010, McGrath has been a directing member of Swarthmore Capital, a real estate investment firm that employees 10+ contractors. Swarthmore Capital has renovated more than 50 homes and owns more than 300 rentals in the local market.
McGrath is also the founder of McGrathSpeaks.com and truly enjoys teaching and motivating others to become successful as well! He is an approved instructor with WV Real Estate Commission and has started traveling the country speaking.
How has your company grown over the years?
“We started as just four of us when we first opened back in 2005 and now we are up over one hundred agents. A lot of that has come from relationships; real estate is very much a relationship industry. One of the things I do is every day is I am here trying to find ways to make the agent’s jobs more productive and give them the tools and resources they need to be successful but to also be the source they have if they do have a hiccup,” said McGrath.
What does it take to be a good leader?
“An effective leader is someone who understands that you lead from the back in the good times and you let everyone else do their thing. You lead from the front in the bad times; when things get tough, you have to step up and take the wrath sometimes,” said McGrath.
What’s one of the biggest challenges you face?
“The idea of being able to do everything online. People want to buy their car online now and get it delivered to their driveway, and I think we see some of that, but with a car, you can pick the color, make, model and you know what you are going to get,” said McGrath. “With a house, there’s only one like it on that specific address and so I think that there are going to be some challenges to the technology side of our industry. We are seeing some of the big players get into the market, Amazon has started to look into it and Zillow has opened up its first brick and mortar office in Charlotte. I don’t know what that is going to say for real estate long term, but I still believe that if you’re thinking about buying or selling a home, you want to connect with someone locally that you know has your best interest at heart.”
McGrath was a guest on The Positively West Virginia Podcast. Listen to his full podcast here.
PWV QUICK BITS | REAL ESTATE CENTRAL
- RECOMMENDED BOOK: Take the Stairs:7 Steps to Achieve Success by Rory Vaden.
- RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: Dropbox
- PIECE OF ADVICE: “Get up early, set your mind to success and don’t believe what everybody else tells you,” advised McGrath.