Lee & Associates NYC, the result of Los Angeles-based Lee & Associates' recent partnership with Sierra Realty, has started to digest what it bit off in terms of its new hires and new digs. In March, the company revealed it was taking on 22,665 square feet on the 26th floor of 600 Madison Ave. in Manhattan. The team, which recently hired 15 new workers, will take the next few months to settle in, "assimilate" the new recruits and then keep growing, says president James Wacht. Lee & Associates, which also opened new offices in Charleston, SC and Ft. Myers, FL, isn't slowing down anytime soon. REAL ESTATE FORUM's West Coast editor, Natalie Dolce, sat down with Lee CEO Edward Indvik for a 10-minute chat about the firm's future and what some have called an "unusual business model."

NATALIE DOLCE: What's so unusual about Lee & Associates' business model? Can you explain that model and why you believe it works in today's environment?

EDWARD INDVIK: The foundation of ourorganization is centered around four unique business principlesthat are coupled with an agent-owned business model. The first isprofit sharing, which means all of our agents share our profits inproportion to their individual production. The second is decisionmaking, in which shareholders in each office are responsible fortheir local business and office decisions, including tools,methods, hiring, marketing and business lines. This decision-makingprocess is not confined to their own offices but is carried on tothe national level.