The Perks
Real estate teams are becoming more and more popular in the industry. According to NAR’s 2018 Team Survey, 26% of real estate agents associated themselves with a team, and it’s predicted that the number will continue to grow. While you hated those team projects assigned when you were in school, joining a real estate team has a few more advantages, and I promise, you won’t have to do all the work this time.
Training & Mentorship
When you join a brokerage, you may or may not, get training on the industry standards for your market or technology. (You should if you’re joining a decent brokerage) If you’re new to the industry, training is going to be the key to your success. Those licensing classes you took were probably more geared towards actual laws, not towards how to mentally handle when Sally backs out of her contract last minute and which blanks need to be filled in for compliance.
Even if you consider yourself a subject matter expert in real estate, having a mentor or another experienced agent to ask when weird stuff comes up, is definitely a nice perk. After years in the industry, you still run across different situations you’ve never dealt with regularly. Having another person you work closely with, to ask questions and toss around ideas, can make a big difference in your job satisfaction.
Leads
Typically a team starts to form when a particular agent has enough leads that he/she can no longer service all of them alone. The agent then starts to expand their team, and other agents can take the extra leads. We’ll get into structure a little later, but this is where maybe the new members only get new buyer leads generated, or maybe there are extra tenant leads. Regardless of what the structure is, being on a team allows you to receive leads that you wouldn’t have received otherwise. If you choose not to be on a team, you’ll have to procure your own leads, whether that means cold calling into the night or paying for different lead generation sources.
Split the Expenses
I’ve heard people describe being a real estate agent as flexible, rewarding, and scalable, but I’ve never heard anyone say they chose the profession because it’s cheap. There are a litany of costs you have to cover from signs and marketing materials to memberships and office costs. As part of a team, those expenditures are split when you join a real estate team, with everyone chipping in a portion of the total. This can help stabilize your monthly expenses and up-front costs, which is especially important when you’re just starting out.
Vacation, anyone?
Real estate agents don’t work typical hours. In fact, they do the bulk of their work when others aren’t working, such as nights and weekends. Making sure you can handle all of your clients, while balancing family and other obligations can be tough. When you join a real estate team, you will have quick access to others that can cover for you when you have to be away or when you just want a vacation to reward yourself for all that hard work. If you aren’t on a team and need coverage, you may need to seek out other agents that would be willing to help you out, as needed, typically for an extra fee.
Marketing/Branding
Joining an existing real estate team will relieve you of having to come up with own marketing and branding, because they will already be in place for you. You can walk in on the first day and fit yourself right into their branding without missing a beat. If you’re the creative type that enjoys that kind of thing and you can’t see yourself marketing under someone else’s brand, a team may not be for you.
