Follow the Leader: Merle Whitehead

Our follow the leader series is an effort to write about the best ideas and best practices of great leaders in our industry who are raising the bar. In this episode, I am grateful to share the inspirational story of Merle Whitehead, a gentleman who grew America's ninth largest real estate firm, RealtyUSA. The intention is to share some background on centers of excellence in real estate that others can be inspired by.

Early Career Start

Merle Whitehead calls the Buffalo, NY area of Western New York his home. He started his career selling clothing on commission and came to the realization that commission sales are greater when you are selling more expensive things.

At the age of 18, Whitehead married his high school sweetheart, Jan, bought a home, and started selling real estate at Lorigo Real Estate. It was not long before Whitehead became a leading sales associate at the firm, and was inspired by a few others in the office to start their own firm, RPM.

The cornerstone of RPM was door knocking. Ron, Pete, and Merle would work on door-to-door solicitation every day. After a while, Whitehead was invited to join H. Potter Realtors®. After success in sales, Whitehead became an office manager which led to his 50 percent ownership in the firm by 1985, operating 11 offices and 400 sales associates.

The Big Roll Up

Whitehead was able to meet Warren Buffett a few times in his life. Buffett owns the Buffalo News and Whitehead was a big advertiser. Buffet inspired Whitehead with a story that the real estate industry would consolidate like the automobile industry did. Buffett mentioned that in the 20s there were 56 automobile manufacturers that consolidated into the big three. Buffet said that he believed the same would happen to the real estate industry and Buffett wanted to become one of those three. Inspired by that projection, Whitehead started growing a regional real estate company.