Published May 2002

Scott continues ‘quality
of service’ tradition

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

What home real estate business has 112 Pacific Northwest offices with more than 2,800 sales associates, including 10 offices and 220 agents in Snohomish County?

What real estate business set a 71-year company sales record of more than 41,000 transactions valued at $7.8 billion in 2001, despite a year-end slump in the market?

What real estate business has a Web site visited by more than 425,000 people each month, accounting for a volume of more than 45 million hits monthly?

What real estate business is family-owned and has been led by three generations of men who have been recognized for their industry leadership, locally and nationally?

John L. Scott Real Estate fits all of those descriptions, no surprise to long-timers in the Northwest but a surprise perhaps to newer residents.

Today, headed by Chairman and CEO J. Lennox Scott, son of Walter Lennox Scott and grandson of founder John Lennox Scott, the family enterprise is not only a marketing powerhouse regionally but influences real estate trends nationally.

“Quality of service is what my grandfather practiced, and it’s still the core of our philosophy today,” Lennox Scott said, adding that part of today’s quality of service means helping people find homes the way they prefer, on the Internet, and helping sales associates learn to market homes electronically.

“Over the last several years, the real estate industry has been moving technologically toward real time (communications with customers) through the use of fax machines, pagers, computers, cellular phones, voicemail, e-mail, the Internet and now wireless e-mail and PDAs ... to enhance the communication process, allowing agents to practice real-time real estate,” Scott wrote in his just-published book for real estate agents, “Next Generation Real Estate.”

In fact, he spends much of his time now promoting ideas about the next generation of real estate, both locally and nationally. Because he’s a national leader in his industry — on the executive committee of the National Association of Realtors — people listen.

He will acknowledge the truth of the news releases about himself, but he won’t bring up the subject. His Marketing Director and co-author of “Next Generation,” Shelley Rossi, will, though.

“Lennox was recognized in 2000 by Realtor magazine as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Individuals in Real Estate nationally. He was featured by National Relocation and Real Estate Magazine as one of the nation’s 22 Power Brokers, and he was honored by his peers throughout the country in 2001 as one of the Five Most Admired Individuals in Real Estate,” she said.

While being active as the CEO of a company that is the fourth-largest regional real estate business in America, Scott also serves on various community service boards of directors — from the Boy Scouts of America to the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition — and carries on the philanthropy of his father and grandfather.

He is also President of the John L. Scott Foundation, whose namesake was inducted into Junior Achievement’s Puget Sound Business Hall of Fame in 2001. The foundation makes regular contributions to a dozen children’s hospitals in the Northwest and sponsors various fund-raising events for charity organizations.

“Our internal theme at the company is living with purpose and passion,” he said. “A balanced life, life with a purpose, moves you toward your goals. Our work life as Realtors helps us contribute to our communities, helps people achieve homeownership, helps to build strong schools and supports charities. I’m really proud to be a Realtor.”

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