Each Wednesday, Real Estate Magazine shares insights, experiences and advice from top-performing teams and agents across Canada. If you’d like to contribute or nominate a colleague or team, send us an email.

 

Editor’s note: Rob Golfi answered our questions in September 2025, as part of a feature in a special print edition of REM.

 

REM: How did you first get into real estate?
RGT: I wanted a business where effort directly translated into results. In real estate, when you make a sale, you get paid in 60 to 90 days. In traditional business, you’re often chasing receivables or waiting months for payment. Real estate gave me control over my own success — the harder I worked, the faster I saw the return.

REM: When did you decide to build a team?
RGT: When I joined Re/Max Escarpment in 1999, there were only two teams in the office. I saw how they leveraged time, resources and talent to grow beyond what one agent could do. That inspired me to start my own team so I could scale, create systems and deliver a better client experience.

REM: What role do you play today?
RGT: I’m the visionary. I set the direction, oversee finance, lead the brand and stay involved in operations to make sure everything runs at the highest level. My job is to ensure the systems, marketing and people all align to achieve our goals.

REM: Give us a snapshot of the team today.
RGT:

• Agents: 65

• Staff: 20 (admin, marketing, client care and support)

• Markets: Hamilton, Halton, Brantford, Niagara

• 2024 production: 872 transactions | $670,502,463 volume

• 2025 YTD: 577 transactions | $423,477,248 volume

• Staff-to-agent ratio: 3:1

The Golfi Team continues to expand, with a presence in multiple southern Ontario boards and a strong internal culture built around accountability and results.

REM: What were your first key hires?
RGT: An administrator, an administrative assistant and an agent. Solid administrative support was the foundation — it freed me to focus on listings, marketing and growth. Adding a second agent immediately expanded our ability to handle more clients and maintain quality service.

REM: What advice would you give a new team leader?
RGT: Don’t be greedy. Give your agents all the leads. If they succeed, the team succeeds — and that momentum fuels growth. Your focus should be on building a machine that supports your agents, not competing with them.

REM: What are your top lead sources?
RGT: Direct mail, PPC (Google and Meta ads) and radio/outdoor advertising. Our marketing budget is divided roughly as follows:

• 35 per cent direct mail

• 30 per cent PPC

• 20 per cent radio/outdoor

• 10 per cent SEO/website

• 5 per cent referrals and community events

We’ve learned that every channel plays a role — PPC delivers volume, direct mail drives listing appointments and radio/outdoor builds the brand.

REM: Which channel would hurt most if cut?
RGT: Radio and outdoor. They’re brand trust builders. Those channels connect us to the community, create top-of-mind awareness and legitimize everything else we do online.

REM: How do you handle new leads?
RGT: Every lead goes into our lead router system and is hand-assigned to the duty agent. Our goal is a response time of under five minutes. For call-in leads, it typically takes three to four touches to set an appointment and six to eight touches to convert to a contract. Online leads can take longer. We used to have inside sales agents (ISAs), but we found a strong agent-led follow-up model works best for us today.

REM: What’s in your tech stack?
RGT:

• CRM: Follow Up Boss

• Website/IDX: Sierra Interactive

• Automation: Follow Up Boss + TextingBetty

• AI: Currently piloting AI agents for calls and appointment booking, with weekly email reports for activity-based coaching

• Finance: SISU, leadership meetings, whiteboards and Excel

• Other tools: ConnectTeam (internal comms), BombBomb (video messaging), Canva (marketing)

REM: How much do you reinvest back into the business?
RGT: About 20 per cent goes into marketing and 25 to 30 per cent into staff. We track cost per lead, cost per appointment and cost per deal — but cost per deal is the key number. That’s the metric that shows real profitability. At our scale, a healthy return on ad spend (ROAS) is about 5:1 — for every dollar spent, we expect five back in closed business.

REM: What kind of agents thrive on your team?
RGT: Full-time, coachable, driven agents who follow proven systems. We reward consistency and persistence — and new agents typically get their first deal within 30 to 90 days.

REM: What do top earners do differently?
RGT: They follow up relentlessly and stay in touch long after closing. Follow-up is everything. The best agents never stop nurturing their database — they build lifetime relationships.

 

Lightning round with Rob Golfi

Market insight: Luxury listings sell faster than people think. Priced right, many move in 45 days or less.
Tech you’d fight to keep: Follow Up Boss — it’s the backbone of our lead management and client follow-up.

Marketing hill you’ll die on: Billboards. They build credibility and brand recognition like nothing else.
Agents fail because… they’re lazy.
Teams win because… they offer accountability, training and great culture.