Homestead Road is truly a different breed than the typical companies who buy homes directly from homeowners. During what can be a very stressful time for many families, the team at Homestead Road does an amazing job of treating homeowner clients with dignity and compassion, no matter what their situation. Ensuring homeowners feel at ease and stress-free during their home sale journey is the highest priority for the Minneapolis-based real estate company which was founded in 2007.
The team at Homestead Road is adamant that every customer receives top-tier care, professionalism, expertise, and support from everyone they interact with there. They encourage every homeowner to do what’s best for them, even if working with Homestead Road isn’t a part of that. Honesty and transparency have played a key role in Homestead Road’s success.
“Homestead Road is unique in that we genuinely prioritize the customer’s needs and we aren’t afraid to let them know if we don’t think we are the best fit for buying their home,” Marketing Coordinator Samantha Bradway said of the company.
In addition to its high standard for integrity, Homestead Road is fueled by a culture of caring and giving back to the communities it serves. From the resources it provides its employees to the team’s heavy involvement in their communities, putting heart into everything they do is what makes this company so special. Today, we want to give you a little peek behind the curtain into the heart of Homestead Road.
A Culture of Caring
The culture at Homestead Road is focused on bringing out the best in every employee based on their individual strengths, much like we do here at Tulip Media Group. The company values employees and adapts roles to fit the people working in them. When joining Homestead Road, each new hire takes a test to establish their strengths. This way, everyone in the organization knows how to work best with everyone else based on what each person excels at.
“I personally scored really high as a ‘fact finder,’ meaning I’m a good person to come to for research and investigating discrepancies,” Bradway said. “The test really places a value on how each person works individually rather than trying to make us fit into the mold of a typical employee working in our position. It really helps us understand ourselves and also how to work with and engage with other team members”
The company also hosts a monthly “Lunch and Learn,” which is an hour-long meeting where everyone on the team gets to collectively explore a new concept. It is targeted at personal development for each individual.
“I’ve never been in a company that has placed such an emphasis on providing resources to its employees to better themselves as employees and as people. It really helps us manage things going on at work and in our personal lives,” Bradway said.
The most recent Lunch and Learn was centered around how to have healthy conversations and communicate in a way that prevents arguments. This educated the team on how to manage their emotions internally, ask themselves tough questions, and take ownership of their conversations, which are all valuable skills to have both as people and in their roles at Homestead Road.
Beyond the workplace, CEO Andrey Sokurec is a big believer in a healthy work-life balance. The whole team is encouraged to plan getaway vacations and spend quality time with their loved ones as much as possible. Andrey also limits business-related correspondences outside of work hours, which reinforces how much he respects each individual’s time. Working in this atmosphere drives the team to go above and beyond for the company knowing how much they are valued both as people and as employees.
Giving Back to the Community
As an integral member of the communities it serves, Homestead Road makes a point of getting out and giving back every chance they get. Most recently, the Homestead Road volunteered with the Sanneh Foundation, packing boxes of fresh food for underserved areas of the St. Paul community in Minneapolis. Each box of food held enough to feed a family of five for one week. In addition to their volunteer work, Homestead Road also contributed a large donation to help the foundation in its mission to empower youth and unite the community.
“It was a really great way to connect as a company and give back to a community we work so heavily in,” Bradway said. “Working to continuously elevate the communities we serve is a huge driving factor in the work Homestead Road does.”
Looking Ahead with Tulip Media Group
Homestead Road has been producing its signature Feel The Joy Magazine with Tulip since mid-2020, but in 2021, they decided to elevate the customer experience by applying the new website messaging into philosophy to their marketing and executing a tailored SMarketing program. The new keyword-optimized blog, targeted Google ads, and a user-friendly website optimized for search engines have helped increase Homestead Road’s brand exposure and made them more accessible to new clients.
“It’s so much easier for people to access Homestead Road now. With Google, people see us more frequently and see us at the top of the page,” related Bradway. “We’ve been able to hire more people because we’re increasing in popularity so rapidly.”
She went on to say of Tulip Media Group’s Creative Director, Jessica Embree, who manages the back end of their digital marketing program, “Jessica has offered so much advice and so much of her expertise on the best way to optimize the website to increase leads and get more eyes on us. She brings a lot of tiny details to our attention that have dramatically increased our user experience. It just keeps getting better.”
In the second quarter of 2021, Homestead Road was successful in increasing their qualified pay-per-click leads by 79% while saving an annualized amount of over $50,000 due to Google optimizations. The company has hired 20 new employees in the last six months to accommodate accelerating growth.
“Tulip Media has been super flexible in how our partnership works. They have adapted their services to the unique structure of our company and the way we’re set up.” Bradway told us. “Ultimately, you are helping us deliver the best version of Homestead Road that we can.”
Homestead Road is continuing to explore new opportunities for growth. In fact, Homestead Road was just recognized in the 2021 Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America for the fourth year in a row. We are so honored to be a part of the rapid expansion of Homestead Road, and we can’t wait to see what’s next for this compassionate Client-Partner.
