Does Brand Really Matters? find out!

Does Brand Really Matters? I'm going to start my article citing Jennifer Walker-Derby a prominent realtor in Atlanta, Georgia: "No matter how hard I tried, I could not break the $225,000 housing barrier (meaning sellers with homes valued over $225,000 did not trust my “no name brokerage” with the sale of their home). My first listing call after joining ReMax was for a $450,000 home. While a 75-80% success rate in obtaining the listings I competed for is impressive, since joining ReMax my conversion rating is now over 95% Let me ask you a simple question. When you go to the grocery store and cruise down the aisles, do you pick up Coke or RC Cola? Kraft Mac & Cheese or the store brand? As a society we tend to put more trust in the brands that we see advertised, hence the “as seen on TV” verbiage on packages as if the simple fact the product was on television gives it more credibility" It is common sense right? I going to cite another quote, "I started my career with RE/MAX as an agent practicing residential and switched to commercial within a year. I did extremely well, I got my CCIM designation and I got my broker license. After five (5) years I decided to open my own firm, JM Partners Realty, and started up a very nice high end office, I did well for a while, thanks to my repetitive clients, but I did not see any progress in increasing my portfolio. During my first years in RE/MAX I did, $100K the first year $150K the second year, over $200,000 the third and fourth year and close to $600,000 my fifth year. During my three years with my brokerage I struggle to be in the mid $100,000. Guess what?, I did realized that brand and support were very important and decided to convert my brokerage into a RE/MAX Franchise, RE/MAX Premier Associates. I restarted again to get back into track and I am happy to say that I owned three RE/MAX franchises in south Florida" said JM Padron, CCIM, Broker/CEO of RE/MAX premier Associates Group. But please don't take me wrong, I am not inferring that you cannot be successful without a brand, what the statistics show is that it would take you much more time to build your portfolio of clients and after your reach certain level, which will be very difficult to break without a solid brand behind you. Some agents also think that the right way to do it, is by starting a brokerage, this maybe the worst decision that a successful or in a way to become successful agent could ever do. Once you start an office you become acquiring many admin and day to day Broker activities that would distract you from your main source of income: "selling homes". As always there are exceptions to the rule, and I have experienced a few in South Florida. For instance there exist brokerages with no brand which have been very successful, this is thanks to their portfolio of clients, "foreign nationals", typically from one particular country which the broker or agents have a close relationship. But again, once they reached that level, they will not be able to sell not even one home to the local market, especially in the listing side. Therefore the next level it is very difficult if not impossible to achieve. I just can keep citing quotes like the one of Jennifer Walker-Derby, my own and many more as well as some opposite quotes like: "The clients I have are mine, they came to m because of me, not because of any particular brand" In conclusion I do believe the brand is very important for the real estate practice when taken as a solid profession and not as a circumstantial one. It is also important to mention the built in network that the brand brings to the table: their networks of contacts are larger, and potentially they can find buyers more quickly.