What Do Agents Want in Their New Office?

Sheryll - Great post and very timely for me.  Next month, I will be making the transition to real estate after enjoying a career as an MLO here in Los Angeles & Ventura counties.  Having already gone through the search for a real estate broker and interviewed several local big box brokerages as well as some small independent agencies, I have chosen my new office.  For a newbie like me though, I think I had a little different agenda than most newbie agents. 

Once again, having been an MLO for the past nine years, I already had established my SOI database (nearly 60% of my loan transactions are referrals from my SOI) so there was no way in #%!! I was handing over my hard earned database to some big box brokerage "team leader" (and I use that word very loosely) so they could pilfer all of my business and pay me a 50% split for the privilege of being their slave peon flunkie "team member" (another term I use very loosely). NOT HAPPENING - EVER!!!

No, I chose to go with an established independent who will provide me with the necessary training I need as well as an assigned "mentor" (it's mandatory for all newbies - no exceptions) for the first year and will still pay me a fair split for my production.  I've discussed my business plan with my new broker and mentor and they like it and told me it was a good plan.  Unlike the big national brokerage "team leader" who told me that my plan wasn't conducive to their proven success operation. 

It didn't take me long to realize that was the problem with so many of the big, national brokerages is that they treat their agents like employees in their operations instead of the independent contractors that they are.  Furthermore, the big, national brokerages are all about building bigger more humungous machines and not assisting in the developing the individual skills of the individual agent or Realtor.  JMHO