Virginia Cook has been a Texas and national legend for three decades in the real estate industry. As the former president of Henry S. Miller Realtors, Cook built Texas' largest independent brokerage to 29 offices from a one-office boutique over her 28-year tenure. When she resigned from her position as president and while at the top of a record-breaking sales streak in 1999, the real estate community was stunned. Shortly thereafter, Cook announced the formation of Virginia Cook, Realtors, a new mid-size full-service firm serving the North Dallas area. Boldly opening three offices along Dallas' "Golden Corridor," the centrally located Preston Road, Cook quickly added a fourth location in premier relocation territory - Plano.

Then and now, Cook maintains fierce privacy about her reasons for leaving and continues to refuse to answer to industry-wide rumors that the Miller family had slighted her in its negotiations to sell the company to a national franchise organization. Was that the reason for her exit or was it the chance to build a new agency? Since we'll never know the answer from Cook, the best clue may lie in Cook's accomplishments in the past and the direction her new brokerage is building.

A REALTOR® for 39 years, Cook directed sales, technology development, and the educational division for the Miller company. She established and built Miller's relocation division, catapulting its growth through a canny interface with Cendant Mobility, the world's largest relocation organization. Recently named as one of the most powerful women in real estate by a national relocation magazine, Cook was the first female president of the Greater Dallas Association of REALTORS®, and was honored as REALTOR® of the Year in 1983. She became the first president of the Texas Association of REALTORS® in 1989 and was TAR's REALTOR® of the Year in 1991. Cook was named Woman of the Year by both the Texas and Dallas chapters of the NAR's Women's Council of REALTORS. Cook has served on the NAR board of directors since 1985 and is currently serving as committee liaison for the International and Business Specialty Group.

Outside real estate circles, Cook is also held in high esteem. She has served on the board of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce since 1979, and was named one of five Outstanding Women in Dallas in 1985.

As soon as she announced the opening of her new brokerage, before the ink was dry on her office leases, over 100 agents defected from the Miller organization to join Cook's new brokerage, literally operating out of their cars until the lease spaces were finished out. Others followed suit from other organizations, giving Cook one of the most veteran-heavy organizations in the city. Among the defectors was Jennie Ling, a 10-time top producer for Miller and current top producer for the Cook brokerage. Ling is on track to turn in a personal best this year - between $35 and $40 million in personal volume, working alone without a partner or an assistant. With veteran talent such as Ling and others pulling in the numbers, Cook will do between $300 and $400 million in volume for her first year in business. The brokerage currently offers more million dollar homes than any other competitor.

So what made veteran agents leave a larger, well-established broker to go with a new shop competing against the largest franchise brands and independents in the business? Her name.

Says Nora Ling Lane, Ling's daughter and a top-producer in her own right, "She knows how to build a business. Virginia offers more to agents."

"Everything in the office is brand new, the equipment, is the latest state-of-the-art technologies," explains Lane. "And we have Virginia hands-on. This is her baby, and as she says, "The buck stops here. If you have a problem or a question, you can go right in her office and get the help you need.""

Other agents complain that Cook's competing brokers are nickel-and-diming agents to death. Says one agent, "There are fees for so many things, processing fees, all these stupid little fees. They are just sticking it to us. Virginia is not in our pockets all the time like the others."

Some agents like Cook's traditional approach to doing business with the emphasis on service and technologies. For example, all homes are offered for sale with virtual tours, regardless of the price range of the home. All agents are given their own Web presence. The company is carefully tracking Internet response to listings, with surprising results. To date, five $1 million plus homes have sold via Internet buyers.

Cook says it comes down to building relationships. "The key to building a customer base is to have a customer-for-life strategy. It is the same between the broker and the agent," says Cook. "If given a choice, people are going to want to join a company with a vision of the 21st century. Agents are more sophisticated, they judge companies on a variety of issues such as technology and education. Is the broker agent-friendly? What is the cost of education? Is it reasonable? What are the broker's visions of education?"

Cook explains the company's philosophy. "Every decision is based on service, even the technology is customer-based. We want to earn our commissions." Cook takes all the troubled calls herself and monitors customers by calling at least one out of ten to find out how service is being delivered. "We are looking at giving a designation on customer service, a Virginia Cook seal of some kind, which will be based on surveys sent to customers. We'll put the results online so when customers are selecting an agent, they can see what kind of performance the agent has had in the past and how they were measured by past customers."

"Companies are going to have to give better service," insists Cook. "I don't think technology will ever replace the agent, but it will aid buyers in giving them so much information, When they work with an agent, they are going to have to give good service."

And good service comes with a price. Although Cook will negotiate commissions to a point, her agents' commissions are never allowed to dip to the discount range, a policy which has resulted in some lost listings and sales. That is business that Cook and her agents are willing to pass on. She knows that a broker can't be everything to everyone. "If you aren't willing to stand for something, you don't stand for anything," isn't among her favorite axioms for nothing.

Published: October 3, 2000

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