I called you. Why did you send another REALTOR® to help me?

Good point Peggy, and no one wants to be just a lead!

Actually when explained properly and not biased, any of the millions of intelligent consumers would choose the team representation over the individual as it just makes better representation.

For you see, with a team, that listing can get questions answered, better representation, and more personal attention even if the lead agent is maybe LISTING OTHER HOMES, or maybe working with multiple clients.

When you have less than the national average of 10 sales per year, you can still offer that personal one on one customer service, but when you are an individual agent who closes over 100 sales per year, you soon realize each of these sellers deserve just a bit more attention and that is where team members come in.

So it is really dependent on how busy the agent is and in the same respect how experienced the agent is as to whether the client is better represented by a team or an individual agent.

This is my first year as a team and my clients are fully understanding that in order to represent them better, I have an Admin that is available to answer most of their questions or call me if they can't.  We have buyers agents that work with the many buyers and leave the listings to me.  And we have a mortgage member, a home inspection service, a sign company, and many other vendors on speed dial for anything you can think of.  

With all this support, I am left to do what I do best and that is LIST LIST LIST. 

In response to the statement above, did she say anywhere in her post that she had less than 10 transactions a year? Please don't assume because she's an individual agent that she does less than 10 transactions a year. As a matter of fact, if I were her I'd delete your comment and then delete mine because I referred to it.

If someone calls me and I can't handle them, they know who will be contacting them for further assistance.  They aren't expecting me to show up.  Setting expectations is key and if an agent can't do that, then they aren't very good at their job.

Knowledge is power here and more heads can help if competent.

Love and light,

Laura

"If it sounds too good to be true.."

Having your inquiry converted to a lead for sale is nothing more than a sucker punch.

That sounds like bait and switch to me. I don't like it when it happens to me, and I doubt home sellers would like it. There is no advantage to a team over an individual agent. 

This is a great posts, but I also enjoyed reading the comments.

I think, our clients do become more educated. Most of my clients spend a lot of time online.

Peggy, like you, if someone talks to me, they get me. I do pass leads off to an agent with me, but those are online leads that did not any direct contact. If I do have that contact and need to pass them off, I always explain to the client what is about to happen. No surprises. 

If I were a seller and someone else came to the door, I'd probably tell them to leave. I'm not letting a stranger into my home.

I would wonder if the person who was SUPPOSED to come to my house was tied up in a car trunk somewhere and this person had some cronies behind the house waiting to break in and take all my good stuff.  

Geez.

Peggy, if an agent does this they should at least tell the consumer who is going to meet with them.

Everything we do in the office is with teams.  I handle the marketing and paperwork.  My agents handle the people and visiting the properties.  You only have so much arms and legs. I agree with others that you need to tell customers who else they will be dealing with though. 

Lead, follow, or get out of the way....? Communicate this

At times I have fed leads to my team members.  That said, I let the lead CLEARLY know that I am sending somebody else and make sure they are okay with it first.

Not with me, they get my evil twin sister. Actually, we work on teams, and we all work together, and it's always explained. They get 2 or 3 agents for the price of one, and we all support each other.

Interesting, sounds like you have had an experience or two with out of the area agents.

Peggy, so true! Google is a great 'tool' to do all the research! Genuine research.