This is my first post to agentsonline. I've read a ton of info here and in aspiring agents the past couple of weeks. My wife and I will be taking the Texas agent exam soon. We've always seen so many billboards, etc with spouse teams.
What are the practical aspects of that? How can we work as a team in sales and/or support? If I am busy on a showing and my wife is available to show one of my listings is that permissible? Just a few tips for us to consider would be appreciated. With so many couples as agents I am suprised this topic isn't discussed more. Many
Thanks.

Well, you asked if your wife can show your listings if you are unavailable. Any licensed agent can show your listings, as long as their is a lockbox on the property. There are many husband and wife teams here in Las Vegas and especially at my company. It seems to work out pretty good. My girlfriend and I originally wanted to go that route, but so far she has been working another job so we can bring in definite money for bills. Business is starting to pick up real good right now though.

My husband and I worked separately at first for different brokers and now work for the same broker on a team. He's in commercial and I'm in residential. The value of working for the same broker is that we can combine our volume to get a higher split. There is value in having my husband step in to help staff an Open House when I can't get another agent to do so (and I'm already staffing another one), but for the most part it's just as easy to establish partnerships with other agents in the firm so that you help them and they help you. Also some clients only want to deal with me and some clients only want to deal with him, so it's not that easy to step in for each other as needed.

From what I've seen at my firm, most husband and wife teams deal with residential properties and the wife does the listing presentations and works with the buyers, while the husband does the backroom support stuff. I think this occurred because the husbands joined their wives after retirement from their corporate or professional careers and their wives were already top producers.

My husband and I started out at the same time and I have to say that it has added a lot of enjoyment to our lives to go through the process together from taking classes to studying for our real estate exam to celebrating our first commission checks to helping each other problem solve or just commisserate. I wouldn't find real estate to be half as enjoyable as it is if we weren't in this together. It can be a lonely profession as you have to be very careful who you share information with to protect your clients confidentiality and to avoid giving your competitors info.

My Dad and I work in partnership together. This is our first year in real estate but it's been pretty good already. He owned a successful business in our area for decades and came out of retirement to join me in real estate. I've been a stay at home Mom so his contacts are vital, and since this business is so computer centered now, my computer skills are pretty helpful to him. We share in most of the work, but general I do the "tech" side and he brings in most of the business, which we then work together. We both find that it's good to have a partner to bounce ideas off of and our clients feel that they get twice the agents for the same price. When there are problems it's great to have another agent who already knows the entire situation who can offer suggestions. You can see our sites at www.SarahCooperRealEstate.com and www.PMurphyRealEstate.com if you want to see how we have them set up. Good luck to you!