(Once you’ve read, please comment with at least one thing you’d like your Broker to do or change in 2009)
The Culture
Recently in our market we’ve seen great exoduses from certain brokerages and insertions into others. In a few cases it’s a mystery in others it makes absolute sense. In many situations, the brokers are archaic and apparently unaware of their need to adapt and overcome their office culture to the changes in the industry.
Failing to move forward with change isn’t an option. The rapid change in the industry resulting from the turbulent economical state and coupled with the generational specific demands of the consumer, will change your business model or leave you in the dust.
Consumers as well as more and more agents are continuing to challenge the fact that Brokers have stipulated how real estate is done. Brokers need to make some changes now more than ever. The following is a list of recommended changes for the 2009 fiscal year.
Technology Changes
- Brokers need to get rid of your office computers. Require your agents to bring their own laptops into the office. This will cut down on your expenses and encourage your agents to befriend what should be an agent’s best tool. Lots of brokers spend countless dollars in maintaining office computer equipment, when only staff need to have PC’s supplied. Setup wireless Internet and printers and that’s it.
- Use sources like Airset or Ning to host company files, e-mail lists and documents. No need for local servers that agents have to be in the office to use, or VPN.
- Go as paperless as possible. Unnecessary paper usage is not only harmful for the environment, but expensive. Why store countless boxes of files when they can be reduced to PDFs and the paper recycled (consult state laws – as always)
- Create a written technology training program for yourself. Set aside your pride and realize that you need to know all that your agents do.
- Setup a RSS reader which has all your agent’s blog pages setup to ensure that your agents aren’t being knuckle-heads online. Add at least five Blogs that reveal current industry knowledge to that RSS feeder, outside of your staff’s.
Policy Changes
- Resolve to put the consumer’s best interest first and eliminate single-agent dual agency in your offices. If you do allow it, require that agents meet certain qualifications, such as ABR, GRI, specific training or certain amount of experience. Otherwise they should have to come to you each time.
- Establish a specific policy for agents taking Short Sale listings. Establish parameters by which listings can be taken. DO NOT TAKE UNSALABLE LISTINGS!
- Eliminate “Administrative Fees” as they are in no one’s best interest and makes it harder for your agents to be competitive, unless they pay the fees.
- Enact a policy that requires agents to submit a list of marketing venues to you, so that you can be aware of what and where information is being submitted.
- Check all your agent’s marketing venues frequently. In most states Brokers are ultimately responsible for the agent’s marketing.
Behavioral Changes
- First and foremost; do away with office meetings. If you’d like to retain good agents, respect their time. If you wish to have monthly business meetings to train and prepare your agents great. Stop asking agents to go around the room and talk about their loser listings! Don’t spend time harping on the need for timely EMD submission, etc… Do that by e-mail so that you can prove you did it AND not make meetings about anything other than how to do business better.
- Provide good tools and resources for your agents to utilize, but don’t demand they use them. If the agents aren’t using good tools on their own – they may not be appropriate for your office. Demanding agents use certain broker specific tools may just frustrate an agent with their own powerful systems.
- Learn to recruit quality agents and not just a quantity of agents. Production is important, but not if the prima donnas are retarding your other agents mental well being and productivity.
- Brokers should concentrate on their business and be agent-centric. Competition against your agents causes animosity and takes away from business development. If you’ve got a good team of agents they are producing, you shouldn’t have to!
- Provide easy access to trend reports and statistics about the market and consumer trends, to your agents.
- Have all policies written and reviewed with your agents, but do not create such restrictive policies that your agents can’t be creative in their business – the industry has enough legislation to go around!
- Most of all, be responsive to your agent’s needs and desire to seek counsel. Show that you are prepared and willing to answer questions.
What Say You?
This is far from an exhaustive list and I am well aware that many Brokers would simply laugh at this list – but changes are coming. Agents are looking for Brokers who can use their wisdom and knowledge to help lead a company – not maintain the status quo.
If you could recommend or change at least one thing about your company; what would it be?
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Consumerism, Geo-mapping columnist
Marketing columnist
Matt – Some will adapt; while others will go the way of the dinosaur.
I meet more agents here who have a difficult time adapting to technology. It’s scary to think what their future holds.
Listen to the wants and needs of the agents – especially in this market, and follow up with ways to motivate and inspire them in their business:
– Take advantage of/promote the free and low cost classes and workshops offered by local attorneys, title companies, lenders …
– “Mastermind” between respectable and productive agents to come up with ideas to make EVERYONE more respectable and productive.
Great article
One thing I don’t have a problem with is Broker’s who also sell real estate. Interestingly, when I was at a firm with a non-selling broker, I thought the idea of a “competing” Broker was strange.
At my current firm, our broker sells. Earlier this year, he brought a buyer on one of my commercial listings – and my resulting commission cheque was about double what I paid my office in total fees this year
Just like the other 100 or so associates at out Keller Williams market centre, we co-operate with each other instead of competing.
Great advice on meetings. I never go unless we have a new thing to announce. I hate the housekeeping issues and going over price reductions.
What a waste of time. I also hate the mortgage updates by our strategic partner that I don’t use.
If they Broker is going to provide work stations then have the computers and mouse updated not the old ball ones.
My team leader is excellent, best I have ever had.
- Support your agents in a way that shows that although you may not agree on some facet of business, they can work at it and prove to you (the broker) that its worthwhile. My broker and I disagree on technology quite a bit, but he still supports me. I find that very important and have heard more than one agent complain that they don’t have that sort of back up.
- Learn how to motivate your agents individually. Every agent needs different motivation. Not everyone is “rah rah” all the time. Not everyone thinks that putting on “Eye Of The Tiger” is the way to pump them up (although being from Philadelphia, I have a weak spot for this song). My broker is definitely great at this. I’ve seen him be hard on some people, soft on others, flat out and very direct with some. You have to know your agents and be able to speak to them in a way that encourages them and motivates them to do better.
- Keep an open door policy. One of the brokerages down the road that I know some agents at can never seem to speak to their broker. That shocks me. I’ve called my broker at night, went into office a billion times in a day, asked good questions and some obvious questions. He always has time for us and without it, I’d pack my things and leave for another office that did. Its his license and mine on the line – so he should care about each transaction as much as I do (and mine does).
Great advice on meetings. I never go unless we have a new thing to announce. I hate the housekeeping issues and going over price reductions.
What a waste of time. I also hate the mortgage updates by our strategic partner that I don’t use.
If the Broker is going to provide work stations then have the computers and mouse updated not the old ball ones.
My team leader is excellent, best I have ever had.
We don’t do the listing updates in our office meetings, so I guess I’m spared that misery.
Missy has a good point about work stations. Please update the hardware (and software). Using old non-tabbed browsers? Ewwwwww. How many windows can one man open at a time?
I actually don’t use my laptop for real estate. Realize this is shocking, but I much prefer the desktop in my home office. Walk in, I check in. Leave, I check out. Sort of. Laptop – follows me everywhere, even when it shouldn’t.
My broker does have all of his agents’ RSS feeds in one convenient place. I’m the only one and he has an e-mail subscription.
I’d like to see my broker be more agressive at getting rid of the “dead wood” … those agents that sell 1-2 homes a year … retirees excluded. The agents that aren’t making it can be a drag on others in the office. Who would use a dentist with only 2 clients/year? It makes the rest of us look bad.
Great article! Makes me want to go out and start recruiting agents. I work alone and already do most of what you mentioned. Our industry is changing rapidly and we must adapt to stay profitable and keep business flowing.
Fred Romano
Our attempt @ recruiting a new culture of real estate – condodomain.com/blog/blogging-for-boston-real-estate-agents/
I think brokerages should take an active role in education for it’s agents be it technology or selling techniques. If one thing’s for certain it’s that everything changes an we must change with it. My one addition would be for brokerages to encourage hyper-local blogging. It’s great for results and gives home owners the information they need to make decisions in a tough marketplace.