Miriam, there is a listing right next to my house which as an agent I had solicited.  I told them that I would take it as a personal responsibility to make sure their home got sold.  Instead they went with a high volume agent in a big franchise.  The franchise does huge ads touting how many homes they sell.

Four months later the house is still sitting there unsold.  Is it better to pick the right agent, or a famous franchise?  I know what my answer is, and it sounds like you would agree.

HI Brian.  Who better to market next door, who has more motive to see that it sells quickly and for a lot.  Foolish people.  With the market slow down let's see how those hugh ads shrink and houses will be advertised on a rotating basis, life is changing.  I guess the public doesn't know how else to measure the success of an agent or the quality of their work. Alas.

People buy into it though.  Being a small independent, I'm beat up with it all the time.

Bob Mitchell

ValueList  

I find that people buy the agent, not the balloon.  Yes, there will be people who are shortsited and go with what makes them feel safe, but the more educated sellers and buyers buy into what is good for them.

Experience is always better over name. Unfortunately, the public doesn't always see it that way.  I've been writing loans longer than ditech but ditech is all over the t.v. so they must be the trustworthy best source to use, right?  Same goes for lending tree and a host of other companies.

I always try to stress to my clients that there's a disconnect working with a bigger "name brand" company.  To them, you're just a number while to me, your family.  Plus, what's in a name anyway?  Your Nike sneaks won't make you jump higher.  Or will they?

My two cents.

Jason 

Miriam - You bring up a very interesting point. I have been approached by several different brokerages to come work for their office. They state they offer lower fees, great splits etc. I am quite happy with the brokerage that I work with. The fees are reasonable and the support is terrific. However I feel that name recognition is important - a major reason that I stick with them. I do have a few years experience (been in the industry since 1988) Plus I do consider myself to be an Outstanding Agent providing Outstanding Results! (My hype!) ;-)

Market share is very important - to the owner of the office.  And, it sounds good in PR pieces.  It's no different than "Top Producing Agent" or "Top Selling Agent in (your town here)".

Some clients will buy into this.  Some will look for the value of a particular agent instead.  After all, it's the agents that create that market share!

Miriam - perception is realty, if people perceive you and or your company as having the most listings or selling the most, you will get more business. The little companies will try everything they can to say otherwise but it is a fact. Whether or not the big company can sell a home faster than the lesser known companies is irrelevant, it is what the general public knows and that is the big names.

I know what company you refer too in our area making claims about all the agents they attract (90% of them were doing no business so I am glad they attracted them) and all this inventory they have (once again bad agents who can't sell their listings). No one is falling for their twisting of the data and using it to their advantage, only agents who have been suffering in the past 1.5 yrs and blame the company they are at. This new company loves to focus on that, and they got a lot of angry non-busy agents who switch over to their office. All they are doing is getting more agents, not getting the public to know who they are or to care for that matter.

You are with the most well known company in the world, use that to your advantage, I know I would if I worked for your company!  Your company has agents whos avg income is probably 2-3 times that of this "new company" in our area, there is a reason for that. The agents that this new company has attracted are not doing any business. If this company attracted say 100 agents, 15 of them at best have 20+ listings and are top producers or "cappers" as this company calls them. Those listings were all obtained by these agents before they came to the new company, the new company had nothing to do with it or the success of these agents.

A good agent and busy agent will always be one, no matter where he or she works, but if you had the opportunity to work at a company where no one really knows vs one that everyone knows, I think it is obvious where you would want to be.

People do not buy a Trump product because they never heard of him, they buy because THEY HEARD OF HIM and know the name.

Stick with what works..

Hi Mike, I want to thank you for your post. I am afraid that quite a few people are falling for the twisting of the data they are doing.  It is hard to be in the same room with some of them because the mantra starts and it does feel to me like a cult, except I know that they make money from bringing people into the fold. I am glad to know that other'a see through it as well, I appreciate the validation from you.  I love RE/MAX as a company.  For me it works.  I wrote another blog piece which applies to this subject as well - Hire the Agent, Not the Company!

You are right about Trump.  I believe in transparancy in real estate the public should understand more of this stuff. 

I get feedback from some of the agents that went there and a good portion are not happy, these are the same agents that were complaining that they could never get their old company to do any ads for them, then they go to this company and they do not do ads at all (which is not a bad thing but the wrong agents are going to this company). Not only that, there is no optime, which for me is irrelevant because I never do it but as a new agent they need the optime. 

The agents are not getting the results that were promised to them. Their company web site has zero presence on the Internet, and the silly pyramid type set up with the recruiting nonsense really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have had no less than 15 agents call me and say "lets sit down for some coffee." Well 1st off I do not drink coffee and 2nd I will not work for a company where the person who brought me in is getting money, that to me is a pyramid scheme.

You will see at least 15% of these agents go back to their old company or leave this company within the next year, it just does not work, they promise too much and deliver too little. I do like that they feel the agent needs to promote himself and not the company and get away from the corporate model but real estate is local and no one has heard of them and the agents are just starting to learn who they are, never-mind sellers who still have no idea who they are. What are the chances they will call this company when they want to sell their homes? zero chance.

I knew one guy who left Re/Max and went to this company and within a few months he left and went back to Re/Max. I also know a few agents who are leaving very soon as well. If you can email me where the article was about this company I want to read it, I can't find it in this weekends paper. But as I said, they recruited a lot of agents that are not doing any work so their numbers do not mean anything.

Thanks.

Amazing isn't it.  My back went up at the first meeting I had.  Now I keep hearing how "it really works".  I understand from sources that to keep newer agents busy they have been buying placement with lead generators and zip codes (if true there goes the "profit sharing").  I don't want other agents making money from me either, pyramid for sure. Sent the article privately.