Thanks Bigtoe and Foreclosure! Actually I've been in contact with a few EBA's who swear it's the way to go...of course. Foreclosure - you're right, it does limit business to a point. The EBA's I spoke with said they get alot more business now because the public has become educated of the benefits to using an EBA when purchasing homes. When they sell they come back to the EBA for referrals of listing agents too. There is no dual agency or any other reduced representation and when their prospects fully understand agency agreements they almost always turn into clients. I'm not exactly sure being an EBA would exactly reduce my business once the public becomes educated. The problem is actually educating the public. I also found that there are people that don't care who represents them or if there is dual, designated, or any other type of reduced agency agreement implemented...until there are problems. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with anyone here, I'm just trying to understand all viewpoints in order to make an educated decision on how to run the company. Thanks again for your opinions!

UNDIVIDED LOYALTY is one thing that most people understand and expect . That is what I chose to offer and pledge to my clients.

In my practice I only offer what has been called "single agency" in that I will only represent one party in a transaction whether it’s buying or selling or both selling and buying and will execute both a listing agreement and a buyer’s brokerage agreement at the same time.

I also educate the client with respect to agency law and to further assure them, that my pledge of undivided loyalty, is more than just lip service, I attach a schedule to their agreements that entitles them to terminate said agreements, without cost or obligation in the event that I develop a conflict of interest or that I fail to fulfill my fiduciary obligations to them.

The Key to success and longevity in my humble opinion, is to develop a long and trusting relationships with all your clients, who value your loyality and service and wouldn't hesitate to recommend you to their friends and relatives.

Important Notice: This information is provided as basic educational information by the author and is not a substitute for the advice of an expert and/or the advice of a lawyer. There is NO representation as to legality, accuracy, correctness of the herein information and the reader is strongly urged to consult a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure accuracy before acting on this information .

Thanks everybody for your input. Please keep posting your thoughts and comments about this topic.

Been doing it for 14 years as an EBA and would never change it!

Hi Zellin!

Lots of interesting comments below. I have run my brokerage as a Buyers Brokerage since we opened our doors in March of 2005. By 2007 we were the Number 1 Buyer Brokerage in the county out of 500 offices and continue to be number 1.

With that said, we do sell about 25 listings per year. Almost always it's one of our buyers who needs to sell their home first.

Our business model is 100% Internet lead generation. We don't spend any money on print, radio, tv or anything else. The reason being, the Internet is the most cost effective means of marketing your company and services. It can turn a brand new agent/broker into a successful agent/broker in a matter of months, not years. I'll give you a quick example below.

Three years ago, prior to me stopping all other forms of marketing, I ran tv spots for two months at a cost of $30,000. I received about 10 leads from it and no sales that I can attribute to that campaign. Let's look at what those dollars spent on Internet marketing would have done for me. Once you see this, you will understand why we don't do anything but Internet.

$30,000 would equal about 30,000 unique visits to my website based on a $1 per click marketing campaign. We capture 12% + in leads from this traffic, but for easy sake, I'm going to use 10%. So this $30,000 would equal 3,000 leads. Our current 100MPH Marketing Software program helps us convert leads at 1 out of 24 leads. However, for simple numbers I'm going to use 1 out of 50 leads bcomes a sale. This 3,000 leads would have meant 150 sales to us.

It's pretty easy if you do the math. $30k of tv got me 10 phone calls and no sales. When I spend $30k on Internet marketing, even with one of our worst agents (selling at 1 out of 50 leads) would have created 150 sales. Once I realized this, I stopped all my other marketing and now spend about $75k-$100k on Internet Marketing.

In the end, not matter how you generate leads, you need to have your Agents trained properly if you intend on succeeding in this business. I have built my company as a lead driven model for my Agents. I supply all their business and it's obviously working well...especially in this market. Other benefits:

1. Agents never leave so once you are set up, you don't have to continue to recruit. I get an average of 3-5 Agents calling me per week to work at my company. I'm not hiring any new Agents right now.

2. Our splits start at 50% and go up to 70% based on volume, and then go back to 50% at the beginning of the year.

3. It gives you, the Broker/Manager better control of your company and your revenue. I can predict my sales every year and have been only 5% off each year. It's great knowing how much we are going to do in business every year. Last year we had a total of 282 transactions (our goal was 250), this year we are predicting 350 transactions.

As I said earlier, this type of model is great, but before I would decide on an Internet model, I would be sure you have a good lead conversion system in place or you will just throw your money away. I am always willing ot help brokers build their business. I started The eHomes Realty Network for that reason. I have so many Agents and Brokers calling me from all over the world, that it made sense to start an education company too.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

As a new broker and having had much success as a agent, I can tell you working with buyers in itself is challenging.

Think about a time when you were showing a prospect one of your own listing and trying to get them to sign the no brokerage realtionship agreement, or the look in their face when you were simply explaining the issues with the house.

Maybe I want to have my cake and eat it too.....well as a listing agency, I at least can have the cake even if someone else gets to eat.

Good luck, if you decide to go that route.