WHAT 4 FACTORS YOUR SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A REAL ESTATE BROKER?
Most people who know a realtor will start with that personal connection when choosing an agent to sell their home. But what if you don’t know anyone in the industry? One place to start is by looking at the differences among the brokerage companies.
How do real estate brokerage companies differ? There are many firms to consider, each claiming to give you the best expertise, the fastest sale, the best marketing, etc. All of these promises and claims boil down to one thing: selling your home. Each of these firms is making promises to show they stand out from the others and are the best company for the job of making the sale.
You want to maximize your chances to sell your home as quickly as possible, at a good price, while not giving up too much of any potential equity to commissions and fees. With these goals in mind, this article considers five different factors, (brand establishment, website presentation, agent training, marketing/tools, and commission splits) and looks and multiple national brokerages to see who stands out from the crowd.
Factor 1: Brand Establishment
Sellers and buyers alike want a stable company they feel they can trust. Each company wants to highlight certain numbers to claim an advantage over the other.
Coldwell Banker was founded in 1906, making it the oldest national real estate brand. Coldwell has a network of 3,000 offices and more than 88,000 sales professionals. Keller Williams was not founded until 1983. They have just over 700 locations and over 150,000 agents. Keller Williams is the fastest growing brand in the industry.
Century 21 and Remax have a comparable level of brand establishment. Each is well entrenched having been around for more than 40 years (Century 21 was founded in 1971, and ReMax in 1973) giving them no appreciable difference from Coldwell Banker. Century 21 has over 7400 offices and ReMax has over 6800. Each company has a little more than 100,000 agents.
Having an established brand can be important when choosing a brokerage and the older companies with more offices are certainly the more established brand. Century 21 has a slight advantage here because the high number of offices naturally gives them a broader reach. Keller Williams, however, is rising fast and already boasts more agents by a wide margin. As Keller Williams grows into more markets, they will become more widely known nationally and any branding advantage the older firms currently enjoy will diminish.
Factor 2: Website Presentation
On their websites, most brokerages make similar claims as to what they will do to sell your home. All firms claim to offer agents with expertise on pricing and staging and who can walk you through the sales process. Upon closer examination, we can begin to discern a difference on the websites as to the relationship between the agent and the company.
The Coldwell Banker and ReMax sites quickly link the user to local websites for further assistance. Coldwell Banker even points to that local site as a starting point, saying that their agents can be researched by individual track record to help the user select the right agent for them. While Century 21 does advertise a Home Shield protection plan, it also offers only general statements as to what a seller can expect.
Factor 3: Agent Training
. They have coaching and skills building events, masterminds, and conventions. Coldwell Banker doesn’t offer any similar training at the national level. Century 21 and ReMax each have “universities” but these are used to lure potential agents, not as a selling point to potential clients.
Factor 4: Marketing/Tools
There’s an app for that, right? At this point, most every brokerage has a mobile app for their clients. Coldwell Banker also has what they call a CBx App that their agents can use. CBx, according to the Coldwell Banker website, allows agents to more accurately price a home. It also claims to use data to locate buyers who are targeted to be better prospects.
While all brokerages claim that they will successfully price and market your home, Good Agents should spells out the use of email, direct mail, viewings, and weekly updates.
So, we here at Lynn Ray Realtor Inc & NCHR look forward to setting the expectations high and far exceeding them for all of our clients.
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