What is the greatest tool of an inspirational entrepreneur? The zeal with which they share their business vision, mission, and passion, thereby arousing the same hunger in others.
Sweeping off distractions, a successful leader drives people towards excellence by embodying those traits which their employees will emulate by choice—focus, purpose, thirst for knowledge, and self-fulfilment.
Every legendary leader admits that the key to greatness is to go where no one has gone before. Creig Northrop goes one step further. As the founder and CEO of Northrop Realty, Creig takes everyone with him to the heights of success. He tells the 200+ agents in his brokerage, “Instead of waiting for opportunities, find the opportunities. If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”
Today, Creig Northrop’s mind is focused on utilizing time wisely to create goals, plan meticulously, and commit to greatness. He has built a dedicated mindset and nurtured his business outlook in the course of his vast career.
Inheriting the real estate passion
From an early age, Creig was influenced by his mother Elaine Northrop, a sales agent who earned the international #1 status for Coldwell Banker three times! Inheriting her passion and drive, Creig learned the real estate ropes by starting his career under her tutelage, paying close attention to her modus operandi.
“I took a proactive approach and put my business acumen to work, making it my mission to know every street and price range in my market area and offer choices to each prospect. It ultimately helped me build my successful business in real estate,” recalls Creig.
Building the #1 Brokerage: a team effort
After his enriching real estate experience, while vacationing in Ocean City Maryland in 2000, Creig and his wife, Carla, decided to “transform the Northrop name into a real estate brand.” They chose to foreground their “IBM Approach to Real Estate”: sales, client care, staging, marketing, information technology, and training.
With Creig and Carla serving as Creig Northrop Team’s president and vice president respectively, they strived to create the best team in the country with the motto ‘if you are going to do it anyway why not be the best’.
Steering through the 2008 recession with a solid survival plan and by invigorating their staff, the Creig Northrop Team also became the #1 real estate team in the nation by The Wall Street Journal and REAL TRENDS the same year—an accolade they would earn three times, along with holding the topmost rank in Long & Foster for 10 consecutive years. As a result of its natural progression in growth, in 2018 the Creig Northrop Team became Northrop Realty, and completed its first year as a billion-dollar full-service hybrid brokerage!
Becoming Northrop Realty: #ReadySetGROW
For over 17 years, Creig Northrop Team prospered by being both client- and employee-friendly. Its five business sectors developed into departments of their own, offering an array of services to support the real estate business.
About three years ago, the Creig Northrop Team became Northrop Realty, a unique hybrid and full-service brokerage in partnership with Long & Foster as well as Christie’s International Real Estate (an international luxury real estate brokerage).
Creig’s collective approach to real estate ensured a diversified expansion, enabling sales agents to operate under the three brands and build their own teams or individual businesses.
CEO with a double role
As the CEO of Northrop Realty, Creig Northrop wears two leadership hats.
Firstly, Creig shares the role of being the business owner with his wife. Both devote their compassion, consistency, and care towards their business. Their motto “everybody matters” highlights that growth requires a “care culture,” a family-first mindset that makes everyone feel special as individuals as well as a team.
Creig’s second hat is that of a “player’s coach.” As the leader of his sales agents, the CEO inspires by example. He has his pulse on the real estate market, continuing to sell daily while believing in the mindset of “reach one, teach one.” That is exactly why Creig created NorthropU, a state-of-the-art training platform exclusively meant to help Northrop Realty sales agents learn and earn more. Together with his son William, Creig coaches sales agents daily to push their limits and unleash their full potential.
Nuts-to-bolts approach: A gamechanger
What sets Creig’s brokerage apart from the rest? He clarifies, “We are a one-of-a-kind hybrid brokerage with exclusive systems complementing our client care, staging, marketing, information technology, and training. This nuts-to-bolts approach helps our agents sell; all they need to do is focus on the client.”
Creig’s brand is devoted to serving its clients by providing crucial market knowledge, helping them choose the best home or sell their current house, all the while building trust. “Our mantra? Knowledge is confidence, confidence is trust, and trust is a sale. Ultimately our clients become our friends and our network for referrals,” explains Creig.
Everyone Matters: The Northrop Realty mindset
Northrop Realty operates with a set of shared goals and abundant positivity, reflecting a commitment to its family of employees. His wife Carla affirms, “Culture is important to us and we treat everyone like we would want to be treated. We believe everybody matters, no matter what their position is or how long they’ve been in the business.”
Northrop Realty lives and breathes this culture every day. Its success owes to its milieu of care, exemplified by consistent communication and relationship-building events, added to its sponsorships, services, and donations to 50+ local charities and causes.
The client is the core
“Sales are all about the client. To be a top agent or team, you must be an all-the-time agent who builds everlasting friendships and relationships for referrals, solves clients’ biggest problems because your income is proportionate to the degree of problems you can solve, and most importantly, have fun!” claims the experienced CEO.
Creig Northrop emphasizes the fun factor, as a passionate attitude is the biggest asset for any agent. It becomes a lifestyle that crucially impacts a client’s experience. “Making real estate fun helps me not just go through it, but grow through it,” admits Creig.
COVID-19: A pivot, not a pause
When COVID-19 struck, Creig, Carla, and their leadership team realized that adaptability was the key to sustaining their brokerage: they needed “a pivot, not a pause.” Carla quickly prioritized safety in all aspects, communicating daily with the leadership team, sales agents, and staff members in 11 offices via Zoom meetings. The Northrop Realty leadership tirelessly collaborated on modifying operational plans, assuring the staff that it would successfully navigate the associated challenges.
Thanks to an unfazed commitment to state-of-the-art technology, Northrop Realty had already partnered with Matterport, a three-dimensional platform that showcases properties online (with extensive virtual tours), utilizing 4K Fusion photography for display precision. This partnership sparked additional business for Northrop Realty during the global pandemic. “When quarantining, folks began to realize things about their houses they hadn’t noticed before. Some determined their house was too large, some needed dual or home offices, while others urgently required outdoor amenities.” Everyone wanted the perfect place for a long-term quarantine, which exponentially boosted Northrop Realty’s business.
Dominating the future market through 6 C’s
Going forward, Creig Northrop and Carla aspire to make Northrop Realty the top brokerage in the Mid-Atlantic region, leading the market with their forward-thinking model.
In addition to a strong foundation, great leadership, outstanding administration support systems, state-of-the-art technology and marketing, as well as NorthropU educating their agents, Northrop Realty has launched their newest training program ELEVATE. The CEO is steadfast regarding his goal of offering the best real estate service throughout the nation, starting with each county it serves.
Creig pushes Northrop Realty’s success following a motivating Zig Ziglar quote: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Always ready to help those in need, Northrop Realty has recently opened offices in West Ocean City and Harford County in 2020, with plans under way for two additional offices in Delaware.
To an aspiring real estate entrepreneur, Creig Northrop fervently relays the importance of the 6 C’s of success: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, and control. He elaborates, “When you are confident and competent, you show others you are worthy of the job. When you make connections and display good character, you prove yourself a good friend. Finally, when you contribute to society and control your thoughts/actions, you are a worthy community member.” Heeding Creig, business leaders who can master the 6 C’s are slated to reap great rewards.
