Going Out of Business?...

It's amazing how rumors get started and then quickly make the rounds.
This week two of my agents received phone calls from different brokers that were trying to recruit them because they heard we were closing. I even had a broker call me! I'm the broker/owner and I'm sure I would know if we were going out of business.

I think it all started when I decided to sell my office buildings. I have been working on a new business model  that involves greatly cutting my overhead therefore allowing me to not only make a better profit, but also offer my agents a larger split. Everyone wins. I even wrote a post a couple of weeks ago -  Going Virtual Almost to get suggestions.

I have 7200+ square feet of office space. The building I am in is 3600+ and I have 15 agents. It's just not practical. Only one of my agents actually works all the time from the office. The other agents work from their homes.

I've spent all week looking for office space because I think it's important to have a new place and get moved before I do anything with the buildings I own. Now I'm thinking it's really important to find a space as soon as possible and sign a lease so I can put an ad in the paper that says "Port City Realty is opening a new office."

I'm really excited about a new office. Actually I'm looking at opening two different offices so we have two places for the agents to meet people, but still way less overhead. This is really how I wanted to do things 9 years ago when I opened, but the time was not right yet. Agents didn't have laptops and air cards. At that time I didn't even have a lap top. I think we are much more mobile now so I think now it a great time to do this.

But for the record, please pass the word...Port City Realty is changing, and growing in a different direction, but we are definitely NOT closing!!