Is Real Estate and Multi-Level Marketing (Pyramid) a good combination??

I have written several posts about doing multiple services.  Selling real estate and doing loans is a bad plan.

I am sure multi-level marketing may be attractive to those that are not so successful selling homes.

What is multi level in real estate?  I haven't heard of this.  The only familiarity I have with MLM is the old scam mlm, talking people into purchasing useless things for the purpose of getting them to talk people into useless things, with the end result being a residual or something.  New to me- but the mlm would make me RUN!  If I'd run, you might want to call it something else, because I wouldn't buy a house or get a loan from someone in a multi level marketing situation...

I agree with Laurie, I would also run for the same reason.

I have seen organizations that make this really work. There is a franchise in my area that does loans as well, but they operate in their own space and for all intents and purposes they are seperate entities. However, they have very effective links via a share outlook server, messaging sytsem, etc. This allows them to work well together and I have seen it work to the benefit of deals where this ability to work together easily really paid off. 

I have also not detected any heavy handed pushing of their "in house" loan folks. In fact, I know that agents in that office will often refer buyers to two or three loan folks where maybe one of them is from that associated office. So clearly, there is no commandment from the boss that all clients need to be pointed to their own loan folks exclusively.

On the flip side, I have seen organizations where the internal loan folks are heavily pushed - creating a situation that smells actionable to me.

In short, I think it depends on how the services are offered.  

Hey Pete,

 I would stay clear from that if it's associated with MLM.  Went to check out one that involved our industry.  I was invited by a friend and I was curious to see how they structured things.  Through all the rah rah I was sitting there shaking my head.  I could see how were doing things and guess what the main thing they pushed...Option ARMS.  To them it was great for any situation and were selling the would be new recruits on the low payment.

Call me sometime, we can go to lunch.

Sean

I know this is an older post, but I just stumbled upon it and wanted to throw my two cents in! (smile)

There are a few real estate brokerages out there that some might consider multi-level marketing companies, but depending on how the brokerage is structured, it can actually be a win-win for the agent, the sponsor and the brokerage.

If agents/brokers are just in the real estate business to agressively recruit other agents in order to generate passive income, the brokerage probably isn't going to be around for longand/or will be considered an MLM that most agents won't be interested in joining.

BUT what if you were at least a semi-successful agent who enjoyed helping other agents build their businesses.... and in return you received a small percentage of their commissions earned.  To me that seems like a win win for everyone.  

My current brokerage has a similar revenue sharing / mentoring model and even though I don't actively look for other agents, I occassionally meet or co-op with agents that I really like and who can benefit from my past experiences, marketing strategies, etc.