Let's Talk About Real Estate Agents

by Darrin DeRoches September 15 - 21, 2011

Last year I wrote about a brand new agent who cornered me at a birthday party and asked for my advice. She wanted my opinion on which company she should go with, a large office or small, by herself or join a team, etc. I suggested she should go with a smaller agency who will take the time to help train her and if possible get a seasoned agent who would be in the position to mentor her. Well this weekend the same birthday party happened and she gave me a synopsis of her first year in real estate.     She decided to join the biggest office in her area and to join the biggest team in the office. She felt the office had a great training program for new agents and the team was so busy she would be involved in more deals and learn a ton. She lasted barely three months and broke down in tears. The large company did have ‘seminars’ that are intended to help the new agent, they are listed on the website but these seminars never actually happened. The team brought her into their high pressure cold calling boiler room tactics which only taught her how desperate and conniving a real estate agent can be. Of course she was not making any sales and basically doing all the paperwork to learn what she just was taught in real estate school! When she finally got a lead on a property the “team” took over and let her watch from the sidelines. After months of doing nothing but paperwork she finally realized she was just there as an unpaid intern. The last straw was when she had a client who wanted to list with her and the team insisted they take the client, she decided to leave. The team tried to bad mouth her and take the client, but the client realized what was going on and decided to use her instead of the team.      She passed the client on to a new agent while she handed in her resignation papers and left the team, company and almost her burgeoning real estate career. The team accused her of stealing a client threatened her with lawsuits, fines etc. She went in tears to a family friend who is a long time agent with a different company. The new agent set her straight to the ins and outs of real estate, explained the team could not sue her and offered her a job as an assistant/buyer agent – on the spot. She now has a mentor who is splitting commissions and teaching her the real estate business from the inside out. She has made sales and takes care of all the new buyers.     The moral of the story for new agents is to find out what is suited for you. Ask a couple of different brokers their thoughts and find what fits you the best. She ended our conversation with “I should have listened to you, you were exactly right.” I gave her a couple of other suggestion on how to increase her business, let’s see what happens next year.  V     Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca.