If You’ve Switched Brokerages, Remember This Step

Switching brokerages – or opening your own – is a lot of work. Your information needs to be updated with the real estate commission, MLS, your E&O provider, and on and on.

At the same time:

• You have to have new business cards and other marketing materials printed.
• You have to update the pages on your website where the brokerage was mentioned.
• You have to let everyone on your contact lists know about the change – possibly by writing a good letter telling them how the change will benefit them.

In all of that busy-ness, don’t forget about your social media sites.

First, there are the sites you use regularly, like Active Rain. You’ll probably remember to update them. But then there are the ones where you may have started to set up a profile, but never finished. Or, you finished, but you haven’t been there in months (or years), so they’re easy to forget about.That doesn't mean no one else is ever going to see them.

Every now and then I come across an agent who is shown as working with one brokerage on one site and a different brokerage on another. It could be confusing for a potential client!

If you’ve ever posted articles on article sharing sites like EzineArticles.com, you also need to go there and update your author “signature.” In spite of my best intentions, I haven’t posted there in years, but some of my earliest articles still get traffic. Yours probably do too.

Look beyond the statistical information on all of those sites. If you’ve posted your bio or a short profile, check to see if you mentioned the brokerage name in the copy itself.

Some agents do include the reason why they chose the brokerage in their profiles. If you did, be sure to change it! It could be a little embarrassing if you now have your own brokerage but are still telling visitors why the one you left is superior.

As long as you’re looking at your bio, check to see what else needs an update.

• If you’ve said how many years you’ve been in business, switch that to say what year you started. Then you won’t have to remember to change it each year.
• If you have achieved a sales record, earned a new designation, or won an award since the last time you updated your bio, add it now, before you forget.
• On the personal side, if you have welcomed a new family member, started a new hobby, begun volunteering with a non-profit, waved a child off to college, or gotten a new puppy, add the news to your bio. Those are the kinds of details that make you “real” in the eyes of your prospects, so mention them.

And if you still don’t have a bio…

Come to Copy by Marte to see why your bio is so important, then get in touch! I love writing to make agents look good.

Graphic courtesy of Stuart Miles @freedigitalphotos.net