When you have worked at the same company for nearly 10 years, it is difficult at least for me to consider leaving to another company and making all the changes that must be made in such a move. Last month, my team and I left Long and Foster and became a proud new associate at RE\MAX Components in Harford County Maryland. The move was fairly smooth, or at least as smooth as one can make it whenever a move is made, and I think opens a new door of opportunity for my team and I to reach new heights.

What I want to do is try and answer the question as to why I made a move after spending so long at my previous brokerage. I looked at folks who have made this same decision and always questioned myself about whether the grass was greener on the other side or was it the same old dirt. Some of those people who I saw leave eventually returned and for them, I have to say that the grass must not have been as green for them and always brought me back to why would I ever think it would be greener for me?

I did not make this decision lightly; it has actually been something that I and my team have been debating for at least 2 years. We felt that we were at a plateau with regards to the ability of increasing our income at Long and Foster and I had even went to management and asked for an increase to our split which I was told no. My team and I spent a lot of time to talk with other brokers to find out what they had to offer and what incentives we could expect to receive if in fact we moved. We spent hundreds of hours discussing the pros and cons and quite honestly had come to an impasse in making a decision. So what was the one thing that help make our decision to leave?

In December, an incident happened in our office that was an indicator to me that my team was being cheated out of prospects and leads that we should be rightfully receiving. Let me explain how this works, in the office that I was in, when a prospect called in to the office on a specific property, the receptionist or duty agent is suppose to call the listing agent if that listing agent was in the office at the time of the call. If the listing agent was not in the office when the call came in, then the duty agent would be able to attempt to work the prospect and get a client from the call. My team was a high producing listing team compared to the normal agent so in theory, there should be an abundance of leads being sent to us, after all; someone from my team was almost always in the office during work hours. We did get called for some calls, but in December, we were told that a prospect for one of our listings had come in and not only were we not called, but the agent on desk duty went on and sold our listing to the lead call.

At first, I assumed that the agent had made a mistake, I like to think the best about everyone until proven wrong, but then I had heard this agent had made the same actions with other leads that should have been sent to the listing agent.  When I took all the facts into account, then it was obvious that this was a trend and that it was most likely not the only agent doing this from the duty desk.  When we took this concern to management, we were basically ignored in our request for some type of compensation for the loss with regards to the agent who we have proof of this type of behavior.

That day in December was the day that we as a team decided that we were moving, fortunately; we had been in negotiations with what we feel is a great company.  We moved to RE\MAX Components and up to this day, I want to say that yes; the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.  I am now at a company where a call on one of my listings comes to our team whether we are in the office or not.