Is your broker helping you or selling you?
Have you ever bought into something you thought you needed, but really didn’t? That happens all the time in real estate. It’s common for agents to have a product or service pushed on them by their brokerage as “the thing” they need to grow their business. In reality, this is often the broker working with vendors to get a price break or a revenue share for the amount of agents that buy in, while constantly shifting agents’ focus to “the new shiny object” in order to distract them from realizing the flaws in their lack of core technology and their outdated brokerage model. Don’t fall prey to that.
Instead, you need to find a brokerage that has the core set of tools and technology that, in reality, do the heavy lifting in real estate and are centered around the right strategies that will help you grow your business. These tools aren’t the shiny new objects, but rather the tools that enable an agent or a team to do 200-400 or more transactions a year.
It’s just like buying a new car. A car salesman will say you need all these extra features, like a mini fridge, a star-lit roof, an automatic scent diffuser that will keep your car smelling like new forever and a computer console that tracks 50 types of settings or data. You are impressed and decide to pay extra for these items, but six months later, you aren’t using half of those features and mainly rely on the vehicle’s core values that efficiently get you from point A to B.
As an agent, you want to sell houses. You want efficiencies and effectiveness that can lead to and handle volume. You want to build your business and skillset, but every time you attend a training class, you’re told you need to buy a new product or tool to make it happen.
Well, we say “No B.S.” No broker splits! No paying for things you don’t need! Real estate agents need a core set of tools in an environment of high service and support that fosters high energy and collaboration, without high fees or commission splits that go towards shiny objects that really don’t drive transactions or income.
I was interviewing a top-producing agent for a business builder series we are working on who recently reminded me of this. He wanted me to remind agents to focus on the right things and to ignore “the shiny object syndrome.” He shared that when he was a new agent with another brokerage, he attended countless trainings because he was just starting out. At every class, someone would say he needed to buy this shiny tool, product or service to win listings, work with buyers and build his brand. The next thing he knew, he was working with 20 different tools but not moving the needle.
He said he learned to focus on the main aspects of the business and let the shiny objects go. He came to HomeSmart, where the core of our model is to have super high service and support, a dashboard that has everything he needs to manage a high transaction volume, robust training that results in transactions, plus the commission to reinvest in marketing his growing business.
He quit paying for all the products he didn’t use and he doubled down on what does work. He realized he needed to get back to the basics of engaging and communicating with clients on a regular basis and staying on top of transaction management.
Look for a brokerage that only focuses on tools that help you win clients and serve them at volume and at scale quickly and easily. You don’t hit 100-plus transactions per year by chasing shiny objects. You need one dashboard that’s easy to use, scales with you as you grow and has a 100-percent commission transaction-fee model that focuses on the right things and lets you invest in yourself.
Todd Sumney is the chief industry officer for HomeSmart International. For more information about joining HomeSmart as an agent, please visit HomeSmart.com/join, or visit HomeSmart.com/franchising for franchise opportunities.
