ok, you're piecing together a brokerage. You know that you need good people. How do you start defining who you will target with your recruitment marketing? When selling real Estate, its funny how when you "Specialize" you can make so much money...so could that hold true to recruiting only "specialized" skill level?

I am in the process of opening my own office (with a partner). My big picture is to have at least one agent for each niche our community offers. I would like to start with seasoned agents and then hire on newbies one or two every couple of months.

I've given it a lot of thought, and I'm really not just looking for top producers for my company- and really that's not even who I would consider the "best".
What I really want to make sure of is that everyone I hire is highly dependable. I want to hire people that are disciplined enough to communicate regularly with their customers and follow up on their word.
I would rather an agent with a great reputation selling only 6 homes a year than someone who's a undepedable selling 60.
I know it might seem like that's a little backwards. But right now, the most important thing I want to build is our reputation.
It's much easier for me to help improve someone's sales skills than improve their character.

I think Carla and I are on the same page.

I want agents who have all the traits I have seen in successful agents, whether or not they are big producers now is not the issue. I guess its about seeing the potential. Of course, there are the issues of character she mentions also - all key.

I also want folks that share my ideas on what the business is about.

Finally.... I want agents that don't annoy me.

R

+2 My thoughts are that of Carla's exactly.
Goes back to the "Quality over Quantity" speech that applies to most any business you want to own/run successfully with a solid reputation.

I do not quite understand you question...



Are you asking when recruiting a specialist will you have to pay him/her more in comparison to recruiting a generalist?

umm i mean when you have a niche yuo are sometimes more productive as opposed to focusing on all aspects of Real estate sales...so I was wondering if only focusing on a niche of recruits would be equally beneficial

As an agent, I find it very ammusing when I read the posts about "hiring" agents. When an agent becomes a broker and then opens their own shop, why all of a sudden do they think they are starting a company and are hiring EMPLOYEES? All new brokers think were employees. I read things like, "I want to hire the "best", i want to hire the most displined, or the most creative or the most >>>(fill in your own blanks).

The reality of it is we are all independent businesses that by law HAVE TO, hang our licenses somewhere. Just let me hang my license, do my thing, and when I make money, you will make money. It's no more complicated then that.

Get off the high horses that your hiring us, we need to be somewhere, and were choosing you, until the next best thing comes along.

Andrew, we know we aren't "hiring" agents, but for lack of a better term it's what we use... It's not a high horse. If it makes you feel any better, you don't have to worry about me "hiring" you.

Carla, that's ok since I don't live in Colorado anyway.

What I meant is it's funny to hear owners talk about hiring this and hiring that, and then it seems like money gets tight, they don't get the "perfect" agents that they want, and then they bring in anyone that breathes that can bring in a deal.

Maybe high horse is the wrong term, but what do you call it when the owner says "I want "perfect" agents, just like me". That sound pretty high horse or arrogant or whatever (fill in the blank) term you want to use.

Owners - remember - your office is filled with an assocation of individual small business owners. The owners I've met, seem to forget that fact. And when I make money, you will make money.

Thanks Andrew. Your "high horse" comment got me a little riled up.
A lot of brokers would benefit giving a little more thought to the fact that our agents are our customers, and in fact, our agents are actually the ones hiring us.
But just because we use the term "hire" doesn't mean that we have lost site of that. In fact, this discussion for me has been a way to offer a better service to my agents, my customers.
By being more careful about who we invite to join our companies (does that work better for you?) we set a standard- and hopefully, over time, the public will recognize that standard, increasing referral business to our company as a whole.
I look for agents with a high level of dependability not only so that they will be more dependable to their clients and customers, but to keep the motivation and energy level up for the whole company. A dependable person will be more likely to work toward their goals and do their daily activities. I want to avoid "hiring" agents who make excuses and pull down the moral of everyone else. Dependable people don't make excuses. Therefore they don't pull down the company moral, and other agents are encouraged by that.
So my whole point of looking for dependable people is to maintain a positive atmosphere where our agents can be the most successful.
We're here to exchange ideas with other brokers on how we can provide a better service to our agents- our customers- and their clients and customers.

As for hiring anyone that breathes... I've invited only 1 out of the last 8 people I interviewed to join our company. And believe me, with a famiy of 7, I need the money.

Carla, I agree with you to some degree, but I guess my point is that we (agents) are all independent small business owners. So if I suck, then my business sucks, and I will probably go out of business. (Which is actually a good thing for the other small business that I share the office with) as there are way too many agents anyway.

So I understand the position of wanting a high energy level and an office where everyone loves each other, but the reality is that we are all competing for the same piece of the pie (and there is enough for everyone), and personally, if all the other agents were not dependable, or miserable people, that would be fine with me because there would be more pie for me.

I know an owner cannot make a living off of "bad" agents, so there is a conflict there.

And seriously, what led to my first post was the word hire. MOST owners think they are hiring us. And then they can tell their friends and family "hey look at me, I started my own business and hired 20 agents and I'm a real business person now". Meanwhile they forget that we NEED to be somewhere, and we just chose them until something better comes along (i.e. split)

Hmmm... I think we'll have to agree to disagree here. I think that an office full of excuse makers and complainers will pull down the production of others. I would rather them all be at other companies.

Carla,

I know what your saying, but it's really not a team sport. When I go into the office (if I choose to, or work from home), I want an office with some pleasant people to say hi to, but I don't care (as an agent) about their production.

Does the Chevron station on one corner care about the production of the station on the other corner? WE ARE ALL INDEPENDENT SMALL BUSINESSES COMPETING AGAINST EACH OTHER.

We can choose to disagree since there is no right or wrong, I just want more broker/owners to understand the point of an agent.

Mr. Owner, I want an office to have pleasant people in it, but at the end of the day, it's all about me and my business. I feel good for others when they do well, but at the end of the day, it's did I do any business or not. I dont give a crap about the owners pocket or the other agents wallets. I wanted to go into business for myself, and it's about ME.

That why I laugh when owner talk about hiring the best. Your hiring whoever you can get. Usually the "best" are already established with other offices and don't want to change.

I see your point if you are not in the office much. Where it makes a difference with me is that we have meetings twice a month where we set goals, track daily activies, etc. Our agents call each other to see how they are doing and to encourage each other. We have small groups that meet once a week or once a month to discuss their business, depending on how often they want to get together. They really do care about each others production. In fact, in our last meeting one of our new agents had just secured her first listing. 2 other agents in our office brought her a congratulations card, and one brought her flowers. In that kind of environment is does make a difference.
The other place it makes a difference is with me. When agents are complaining and making excuses, it pulls me down a notch. I want to encourage the agents in my company, and I don't want agents that are going to discourage me (on an on-going basis anyway).
Who knows, it might just be a touchy/feely girly thing anyway.

Carla,

As an owner, your goals are very different than the agents, and I understand that. Unless I'm on a Team, I don't really understand the "team" concept. If I have some good ideas or unique concepts to make my production better, why would I share them with others in my immediate market? That's why I like this forum. We can talk and share ideas with people in different areas.

But if I'm the big hitter in my area, why would I share my success with other agents?

REAL ESTATE IS NOT A TEAM SPORT.

Hi. I'm new here and I just have to add my 2 cents. I've been a Realtor (tm) for 10 years and I am opening my own office this month as a franchisee of Realty World.

One point that I wanted to get across is that "You get back what you put out." And the old corny saying that "It is better to give, than receive." Andrew, in my years in the business, I have seen and directly benefitted from Sharing. I have been in several mastermind groups with fellow agents as well as groups where I was the only agent. If you were here in my market, directly competing against me or my agents, I have no fear of you or sharing information with you. I was in a group where an agent simply shared an experience they had with a vendor, and it was not a good experience at all. I had investigated using this same vendor but I had not found any testimonies or previous clients yet to talk to. With this agent sharing her experience, it saved me time and a lot of hardache and I appreciated her for it. Did it take anything away from her to share that information? No. Did it cost her anything to share it? No.

I have a very good friend who works at Remax and we talk to each other nearly daily about our businesses. When she is doing exceedingly well, I'm happy for her and it encourages me to do better, and vice versa. I don't "hate" on her for doing well. When you give off good vibes, you get good vibes back. I often ask her what she has changed about her marketing, sales technique, etc. to elevate her to the next level. She shares it freely (and I do the same for her) because we are not threatened by each other and we want to see each other do well. We cover for each other all the time. I have shown property to her clients for her and she has done the same for me.

Why would you share your success with other agent? Because it's not a one-way street. You would be surprised what you would learn from sharing with others. You might pick up a service, vendor, or marketing idea from another agent that would cause your business to skyrocket if you implemented or tweaked it a little. But you will never get that opportunity by keeping to yourself and not sharing even your insight with other agents.

Wow andrew...hate to start a war here but please keep in mind the following facts to help you get over your bad expreiences with Brokerage owners and attitudes:

#1 This is a forum for Brokers

#2 We say hire...what else can you call it...geez!

#3 I have "hired" (Insert other language for Andrew) only 1 agent out of 12 that have expressed interest. see my site as proof.

#4 The fact is that owners recruit and market for "People" the same way you marketfor houses thus we share ideas if that's ok with you

#5 Go back and re-read my question...I was simply asking if other OWNERS (not agents) had had success "Targetting" (Insert other non-offensive language to Andrew)certain groups of aents that had been more of a profitable "Hire".

That's it my man...not trying to offend...and frankly Carla and I have a very well intended goal to help agents be successful. That's what we're here for...Just like you help people find homes...right?

Ok...I'll go try to calm down now.

Justin,

I completely get the point and agree with you and the others that have chimed in. I do also share ideas and stories with other agents, but I'm also cautious of the lazy agent who takes others ideas and does the same thing. Like the agent who took a postcard/flyer off my desk and started copying it word for word.

I guess my point was (and it's gotten lost in all the other stuff), is that try to keep in mind that were not employees. If I'm not harming anyone, or causing bad vibes in the office, just let me be. I'm a small business owner also (my own business), and I may want to run it the way I want to. And when I make money (which is what were all trying to do), then you'll make money.

I would guess that most agents (at least here in California) left the corporate world for a reason. So when an office treats us like employees, it's what we all left, and if we wanted to go back to that structure, we would.

Anyway, just invite "normal" people into your office, let them hang their license and let them be.

I hope my point makes sense and I'll let you owners get back to figuring out how to hire the best.

Makes sense Andrew

I think you are both right, but I think you are just actually having parallel discussions here. My one point would be that even though brokers are not "hiring", they are "contracting" agents to "represent" their companies and so if I was a broker (which I am not) I would not want to contract agents that I thought might represent me poorly. Brokers do invest some money into an agent (training, insurance, office, etc) and so certainly have the right and responsibility to only retain agents that are not a negative return on their investment or that have a negative impact on their reputation.

Interesting discussion here. The funny thing is that I (and the broker I'm working with - actually "agent" here in Australia but I'll call her a broker so you get my gist) are more convinced than ever that we will be literally hiring employees rather than independent contractors. I've discussed this on other threads but the conclusion we've reached is that, as a brokerage, we can achieve more sales, profits, happier employees (who can earn over 6 figures net without the stress of paying for their own advertising, office expenses, etc) and lower turnover by having our salespeople as employees. I understand that this may sound extremely foreign to you... that it may be "impossible" in the US... and, of course, that this will not appeal to everyone. (We will also be looking for entrepreneurial types to open up franchises) but we are already seeing the positive results of people co-operating with each other rather than competing... and are happy to go down this avenue. Having said that, I am still interested in learning about the sub-contractor model and why that seems to work in the States. This seems like a great forum!