Finding your way 'home' in real estate: is now the right time?
Heather Elias
20 years of real estate industry experience from boots on the street to the C suite
Loyalty is an honorable and hard to find trait in today's working world. The average length of time that people work for a company now is so much shorter than it used to be. The emergency contact phone numbers for my mom and dad on my kindergarten registration were exactly the same as the ones I listed on my college applications. Conversely, my children have watched me switch companies four times in the last 12 years. Within the real estate industry, that's almost par for the course:
"The median tenure for REALTORS? with their current firm decreased from six years to five years in 2014."
(From NAR's 2015 Member Profile)
In my case, it took me moving brokerages twice before I found a company and managing broker that were a match for the way I did business and for my needs as an agent (that's who I'm smiling with in that photo up there). When I was a brand new agent, I had no idea what questions to ask, or what I was looking for from a brokerage. With a few dozen transactions and some years of experience, though, I had a better idea of what I was looking for. But I still had no idea what else was out there.
I have a question for the real estate agents reading this:
Have you been with the same company for more than five years? Or with the same company for your whole career?
Here's why I ask: The brokerage landscape is constantly shifting. Many firms work to either provide their agents with the best training, technologies, tools, and work environment, or they structure their compensation packages to put those responsibilities on the agent. If you haven't interviewed another brokerage in the last five years, you probably have no idea what else is out there.
That 'what else' could be agent websites that perform well beyond what you currently use. Or training that's tailored to your personal business goals. It could mean a compensation plan that rewards you after you hit a certain income level. OR, it could be a less restrictive environment that lets you make your own marketing and technology choices so you can set the budgets you need and conduct business the way that you'd like.
The beauty of this business is that you can find all flavors of brokerage. Each firm (even the franchise ones) have their own way of doing things, their own value proposition to their agents, and their own culture. As you make your plans for 2016, now is the best time to take stock of whether you are in the right place to fulfill your goals.
Principal and Associate Broker at Long Realty Jasper Associates
6 年The old thought process was that continuity of brand was important to success. The illusion of stability. In the super sonic world of technology and personal branding, culture to thrive and grow is crucial. We as an agent individual can grow faster than our current brokerage which can lead to a plateau occurring. #JayJasper #DesertSelleraz
Associate Broker, REALTOR, Residential Sales and Purchases at FOCUS on NoVA Real Estate?, Century 21 Redwood Realty
8 年So glad to be a part of this momentum! Welcome to Fairfax County C21 Redwood.
LegalShield Independent Sales Associate: Plans, Business, Family, IDShield/ Kroll, GoSmallBiz and CDL Drivers.
8 年Heather, "Thank You" for sharing.
Senior Account Representative at iPayment, Inc.
8 年Heather, thank you for the valuable insight! I was a licensed agent in Brookline, Ma. from 2006-2009 and completed $8.5 in sales in a 10 month period between 2007-2008. When I went to my managing broker to get a new split he told me to do more business even though the handbook clearly stated that your split goes to 60-40 when you hit a certain gross commission index. At this point I chose to switch brokerages but the financial meltdown of 2009 started to set in. So I am about to reenter the business after a five year absence and I can use all the insight I can get!