Todd Grill has held plenty of leadership roles in the Twin Cities real estate market: agent, longtime broker and president of both the Minneapolis Association of Realtors and the Minnesota Association of Realtors. Now he's tackling something new: chief executive of Coon Rapids-based Counselor Realty, which has been in business since 1964 and is the largest agent-owned real estate company in the state, according to a ranking by RealTrends top 500 brokerages in the nation. The company has seven offices in the Twin Cities and St. Cloud, and another seven franchised offices outside the region. We asked Grill about his new gig.
Q: What makes Counselor unique?
A: Counselor Realty is a local and statewide independent, agent-owned, not-for-profit broker, where the agents have a voice in the direction of the company.
Q: What is your No. 1 goal in your new role?
A: I am just rekindling all the connections that I have around the state in the real estate industry. My goal is to get the word out that Counselor Realty is the best-kept, agent-centric secret in Minnesota.
Q: What attracted you to this job?
A: I've always been intrigued by the Counselor Realty agent model. They have a great reputation.
Q: Any predictions for 2018?
A: Increased demand from first-time home buyers, increasingly Gen Z; slightly higher home prices, especially in the lower price ranges; continued tight housing market in the lower price ranges because the baby boomers don't want to move; softening prices and longer marketing time in the upper bracket; and new construction prices will increase because of material and labor costs. So we will continue to have a strong market in 2018, although I see a softening by 2019.
