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Author: Jolenta Averill (page 1 of 1)

Realtor, Indie Broker

July 11, 2009

What drives your fear of flying solo?

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Realtor, Indie Broker

Author website

airplane wing & fluffy white clouds on a beautiful blue dayIn my endless quest to dispel the many myths surrounding what it takes to thrive as an independent broker, I’ve compiled a list of the top ten ways agents deceive themselves into thinking that they can’t – or shouldn’t – set up shop on their own.

1. Creating a “sense of community”

Unless you’re actively recruiting, the last thing you probably need to be doing is hanging out at an office chit-chatting with other agents. Sure there’s endless entertainment and comic relief swapping horror stories and real estate tips and yes, you’re building rapport with other agents that could help a future deal go more smoothly than otherwise. But let’s face it, ultimately you’re just wasting time. If you need to create a sense of community, being active in your local community is a far better, more authentic, alternative. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or another cause you have a passion for. Create a true sense of belonging while building a meaningful network of contacts outside of – but related to – real estate. If you want contact with other agents use social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and ActiveRain to interface with agents outside your market. You may even find you feel freer to share with those who aren’t your direct competition and with whom you may wind up being able to refer business to in the future.

2. Access to real estate expertise

Early in my career I did several transactions involving options to sell that only one broker in my company knew how to handle. Since there is an endless number of ways that transactions can evolve, there are many experienced, competent brokers who don’t know or who don’t have all the answers. That’s one of the most attractive things about real estate, in my opinion. Never a dull moment. Granted, I don’t advise anyone to go out on their own until they have a critical mass of transactions under their belt. For me personally I felt that number was about 100 transactions (five years) but your mileage may vary. I am always shocked when people with six months or a Read more

April 17, 2009

10 reasons big box brokers suck

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Realtor, Indie Broker

Author website

Did I really just say that? Sorry but it’s high time to call a spade a spade.

I recently decided to cut the apron strings so-to-speak with my old broker and go “indie”. After paying in about $200K in exchange for about $12K worth of business over a five year period, I had to evaluate whether the relationship with my broker was anything other than terribly one-sided. Since about Year 1.5 when I began working full-time from home, I’d managed to become pretty independent in terms of how I operated and procured business. I finally saw I wasn’t getting much of anything in return for those hefty commission splits and transactions (not counting the occasional pep talk, although at times it was much appreciated.) So I left at the start of the New Year. Since making the split official, I’ve had a chance to evaluate the cost of every aspect of my business compared to what it used to be. Not surprisingly, I’ve found that my overall costs are much lower. More surprisingly, however, I also discovered:

1. business cards were a profit center for the broker
2. sign installations were a profit center
3. color copies were a profit center
4. template sites (complete with crappy framed in MLS data) were a profit center that did not even generate leads
5. advertising was a profit center
6. leasing back office space to agents was a profit center
7. accounting services were a profit center (in the form of huge transaction fees)
8. sending closings through the broker’s joint venture with a local title company was a profit center
9. home warranty applications were a profit center (by skimming off the top of agents’ referral checks)
10. 100% tax deductible sales meetings were a profit center – vendors paid the broker to have their mediocre template sites etc shamelessly endorsed & pushed on agents

But wait, you may be thinking. Surely there were other ways your broker was adding value? Sadly, not really. Training beyond the basics was almost non-existent. Occasionally something would be offered gratis, eg a bank talking about changing lending standards, thus hoping to get some loan business. Or “training” Read more

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