Hello Posters, Is there a typical team format?
This is what I'm thinking for example: You meet with the leader and they think you would be a fabulous buyers agent. You agree to work with them and from then on, you work under their name and give them a split of the commissions for an endless stream of leads.
Accurate? Totally false?!
Thanks.

Pretty accurate...though might vary a little bit based on the personalities and goals of the team leader. Though it's great to work on a team, you have to be comfortable with the fact that you are not starting your own real estate business but rather starting a 'job' in real estate. Some team leaders are grooming their buyer's agents to someday take over their team, so that they can step away from their business someday and still receive income from their team/brand. It is critical that you find someone that wants to groom you into that type of role, otherwise, you will just be a replaceable part. You need to ask yourself this one question: Where do you see yourself five years from now? If the answer to that question is running your own real estate business/team, then you need to take the leap of faith and jump in as a full-time agent. That five year vision will pull you through the tough times, and you will find yourself down the road reaping all of the benefits this industry can offer...wealth, freedom and flexibility...otherwise, you will just have a job in the real estate business.

Don't count on it.

Ditto to the above.

Many agents choose to join a team because it relieves them of quite a bit of 'paperwork' that they don't enjoy. For instance, a buyer agent for a large team may write a contract for a buyer, then turn it over to the transaction coordinator who does all of the follow-up with the lender, the title company, the inspectors, survey, etc. This frees the buyer agent up to spend more time with more buyers.

Of course the assumption here is that there is a full plate of buyers to be had. And one would assume that an agent busy enough to start hiring buyers agents is doing so because they really do have too many leads and clients too handle. And for a good team, this process works quite well. Unfortunately this is not always the case. I've seen any number of team agents wandering around looking for business... and receiving little or no leads from their team lead.

So if you think joining a team is right for you... research VERY carefully! How many buyer agents are working on the team now? How long have they been with that team? If there's a history of buyers agents coming and going every six months or so... chances are they were promised the world and didn't get it. If on the other hand a team has agents sticking around for years... well, you probably will be in good hands.

Good luck!