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During your initial interviews in selecting a broker, the discussion usually focuses on wonderful training and marketing programs – but don’t be fooled, there are many things your broker won’t tell you. There are several things no recruiting manager will bring up until after you’ve signed your contract…and maybe not even until you’ve put in a few months of blood, sweat, and yes, tears.
While I hope that not every one of these on my list of 10 Things Your Broker Won’t Tell You holds true for any particular broker, this list is designed to help you better prepare yourself with a list of questions and see through the promises every broker makes to new recruits.
Here are 10 Things Your Broker Won’t Tell You:
1. This market is oversaturated with agents. In fact, if you pull up the multi-list statistics, you’ll notice there are more agents than houses for sale.
2. Our agents typically compete against 3-4 agents for listing appointments, sometimes even agents from the same office.
3. Our aggressive two week training program will only eat up all of your available time and is probably not the most effective way to teach you how to succeed in this business.
4. Our marketing tools and advertising are targeted at marketing our company name only, not houses for sale or individual agents.
5. Relocation leads all go to the veteran agents, so you probably won’t get any of those in your first year with the company…maybe even longer if your sales aren’t high enough.
6. Our errors and omissions insurance has a high deductible you’ll ultimately be responsible for if a lawsuit should ever arise
7. We have a high turnover rate; the last 3 agents I hired no longer work here.
8. You will be ethically and morally challenged within the next 6 months.
9. We hardly get any leads on floor time.
10. You have a better chance of making a million dollars on Survivor.
Choosing the right broker can be an intimidating process, whether you’re a veteran looking to see if the grass is greener somewhere else or a new agent just starting out. Keep these points in the back of your mind and make sure you find out if any of these are true or not before you sign that contract! Knowing the 10 Things Your Broker Won’t Tell You will make sure you choose the right real estate broker to work with.
5 Comments
This comes under the sad but true category. I am not sure if you are trying to be funny warn new agents, but it is valuable insight.
Ned Carey
Sadly no, I wasn’t really trying to be funny with this one…these are things I wish I had known before jumping in with both feet! I was actually very lucky and had a good starting broker and office manager!
You are absolutely right on every point. I went on several interviews with brokers this week. It seems as though they left a few of the above-mentioned details out during the recruiting process. They are, however, salespersons themselves. So all is forgiven. Thank you so much for being generous enough to share this information to help other newbies. Much success to you!
You’re right about a lot of these. However, if the office is at all busy, floor time can be a great way to stay in touch with and meet other agents. Overhearing and being a part of conversations that start in the office can also be great for new agents. I did floor time more for these things than to actualy try to pick up business.
An agent has a fiduciary duty to his or her client. This is a very high responsibility. If an agent leaves out a document or doesn’t disclose a material fact, and the seller or buyer are harmed, the agent could be held responsible.
People like attorneys and real estate agents get Errors and Omissions insurance to protect themselves from their own innocent mistakes.
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