3. Evaluate each company’s market share. Determine the portion of all real estate business that each firm captures in its geographic area. Then figure out what percentage of the market it commands in the specialized area in which you’ll be working. (See the sidebar “Determining market share” for some how-to information.)
Like many real estate agents, I knew I couldn’t cover my whole market area of Portland, Oregon. I knew I needed to specialize in specific bedroom communities and suburbs in order to serve my clients well. In selecting a company, I first evaluated the firm’s overall Portland market share to discover its general market strength, but then I also evaluated the market share it held in the suburban communities I selected.
4. Assess how production is distributed within each company. Ask whether a number of agents contribute to the company’s success or whether a few agents or even just one person carries production.
5. Go online to evaluate presence. Use search engines to see the ranking of the company’s website. The higher the ranking, the more the leads. Also search on key real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com to figure out the company’s position on sites with listing inventory. You can evaluate the listing quality, as well as price ranges, locations, marketing materials, virtual tours, and so on. Review the online profiles of agents in the company on the third-party sites. Do they have a lot of reviews? Are their profiles complete and well written? By doing your reconnaissance on a few agents in the company, you will be able to see if the company is helping these agents online.
6. Drive around your market area to determine each company’s visibility. In today’s technological world, you can do much of your research online, but if you’re still stumped, count the number of signs you see for each firm you’re considering. Also, evaluate the quality and array of homes presented by each company. You may discover that a firm has a lot of signs, but they’re all concentrated in a small geographic area or a specific price range. Beware of these firms because they could limit your opportunity. For example, if a company’s business is concentrated at the lower end of the marketplace, securing higher-priced listings may be more difficult.
7. Evaluate each company’s marketing. Monitor media exposure for at least a few weeks to gain a good perspective of the scope and nature of a company’s marketing campaign and its exposure. Check out Craigslist postings for frequency, as well as strategy and information. Check out their Facebook page, Instagram accounts, and Twitter feeds. Review what has been tweeted and posted in the last few months and what responses, shares, and retweets they have generated.
Is the company using traditional methods of marketing as well? Print media, such as newspapers and home magazines, aren’t as effective as they used to be, but some sellers still want their homes to appear in them. While monitoring the media, do the following:
• Study the ads carefully. Is the company using classified or display ads? What is the size and exposure? Do the ads feature individual agents? Could you see yourself in these ads?
• Go to the grocery store and pick up copies of real estate magazines. Are the companies you’re considering featured? What do their ads look like? Are they linking it with Call Capture or text-back features?
If you see marketing strategies featuring the listings of a number of agents from your selected company, you know that agents who don’t have enough listings to fill a whole page (like you in the early days) can achieve advertising visibility by buying into a company ad on a per-slot basis.
8. Visit the company’s website. More than 90 percent of all consumers now search the web for properties. Is the company’s website easy to use? Are the listings easy to find and navigate? Are agents featured on individual pages within the company site?
Does the site have a forced registration? Forced registration is when someone comes to the site to look at properties but they are forced to register their information to continue. These are effective lead-creation strategies that will help you generate leads.
Before selecting a real estate company, find out how well it competes in its market area by determining the share of the market it commands. (If the company you’re considering has more than one office, work out the numbers for the office you’re likely to join.)
To assess market share, first get answers to the following questions:
• How many listings did the company you’re considering take last year? How many listings did it sell? How many houses did it fail to sell?
• How many buyer-represented sales did it make?
• How many agents work at the company?
Then obtain similar statistics for the entire market area. By dividing the firm’s performance by the total market area performance, you discover the firm’s market share. For instance, if the market area produced 1,000 listings and 400 came from a single company, that company has a 40 percent market share (400 / 1,000 = .40).
To obtain information, begin by asking each company to provide you with its statistics. Any company with a competitive advantage knows and wants to share its statistics, and many are also willing to provide comparisons between themselves and their competition.
Also check with your local board of real estate agents, where you can access several varieties of information, including the total number of agents in the marketplace and the number of agents per company.
The multiple listing service, or MLS, which compiles information on all homes for sale, shares information on sales, listings, pending transactions, and homes that failed to sell – on a market, company, and individual office basis.
For another good resource, consult your local business journal. Most produce annual lists ranking companies by industry, and nearly all have special sections devoted to the real estate business.
Ask 12 key questions
Your moment in front of a prospective broker is a pivotal one: The broker is sizing you up to determine whether you fit well in the company. Instead of treating the session like a job interview, use it to ask questions and obtain information that enables you to understand the unique attributes of the agency. Ask the following questions:
1. What is your training program for new agents? The old-school approach of “Here’s your desk. Here’s your phone. Go get ’em.” won’t prepare you for success. You’re looking for a legitimate, established, multi-week training program that extends beyond contract writing and gets into the fields of prospecting, lead follow-up, online and offline