Mark Deutschmann
About Our Guest
Mark Deutschmann has been selling real estate since 1986 – founded Village Real Estate in 1996, Core Development in 2003, and The CityLiving Group in 2005. Village grew to over 350 agents and staff during Mark’s ownership. In 2019, he sold Village and now serves as chair emeritus.
Ever engaged in the community, Mark is the Chairman for the Urban Land Institute in Nashville and former President of Greenways for Nashville. He also serves on Nashville’s Greenways and Open Space Commission. As the end of 2018, The Village Fund, the charitable arm of both Village Real Estate and Core Development, surpassed $2.2 million in donations back to their community.
Mark has also founded Go Green Home Services in 2014 to retrofit homes for energy savings, reserving profits for Hands on Nashville. He received the Community Service award from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors in 2013, and the Sustainable Tennessee Award from the Tennessee Environmental Council in 2014.
Mark is the author of One-Mile Radius, Building Community from the Core, which was published by Advantage in 2017, and is currently engaged in speaking engagements on the book circuit.
About this Episode
Tired Running the Business? Don’t Overlook This Exit Option
Mark Deutschmann is a community builder. What started as a one-mile radius in Nashville, Tennessee stayed as a one-mile radius in Nashville, Tennessee. However, over the course of his 22-year journey with Village Real Estate, Mark was able to achieve something all entrepreneurs should be striving for: Using his business as a tool for social change.
Through a combination of watching the market in other cities, funnelling money back into the communities he served, and building a reputation for being the best, Mark was able to create a strong business differentiator that helped him grow his business to 350 agents and $1B in annual turnover.
If this episode will teach you anything, it will be how to find your one-mile radius and build a point of differentiation in your business.
What you will learn in this episode
In this episode we’ll cover everything from:
- Finding your market niche
- Approaching growth strategies from a different lens
- Thinking about who you want on your deal team
- An exit option that sometimes people can overlook
- How to communicate to your staff that you’re exiting
Connect with Mark Deutschmann
Website: https://www.villagerealestate.com/
Website: https://corenashville.com/
Website: https://nashvillecityliving.com/
Website: https://onemileradius.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-deutschmann-b999a027/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mark_deutschmann/
Show Notes
(3:42) Mark Deutschmann kick-started his business career when his zodiac boat engine caught on fire and landed him on an island on the coast of British Columbia where he ran into a pair of hermits. One of them – Joel Solomon – became his life-long business partner.
(9:00) From 1996 to 2019, Mark grew his company, Village Real Estate to around 350 agents before selling. But more than that, he and his team helped reshape the city of Nashville, one mile at a time.
(21:38) From the manual key pick-ups to the tech bubble in the 90s, and the continued advancement of technology, real estate has undergone so many shifts and when Mark reached his ceiling, he sold it to younger, more innovative agents. Marks’ words: If you can’t evolve, you dissolve.
(27:25) After 22 years in business, Mark heard a rumour that some of his current and previous agents were planning to open a business to compete. Rather than having them start a new venture, Mark asked them to buy into Village instead. A few weeks later, he sold the company for $9.75 million.
(35:39) Telling your staff you’re selling is always a difficult conversation, but Mark and his buyers flipped the script and rather than filling the existing team with dread, filled them with hope instead.
(45:31) Mark’s top takeaway: Think about what you do in business that nobody else does. Find your ‘one-mile radius.’
