Hi Everybody,

I've been following this forum for a few weeks now and it's been a tremendous help for me as an aspiring agent. Thanks! I recently passed my California RE Sales Test and am waiting for my license to post. In the meantime I've been interviewing many brokerages that I'm looking to work with. I've narrowed it down to my final three and I'm aiming to make my decision in the coming week. But I'm kinda stuck and need some advice. The following are my final three candidates:

Rodeo Realty: Single-owner Southern California brokerage with a brand reputation in the high-end market. Smaller brokerage with under 1,000 agents in 15 offices. Pros: Friendly manager and staff, non-corporate feel, no training fees, generous starting commission split, free newspaper advertising, in-house print shop, pay't installment plan for E&0, good central location that provides flexibility for farming. Cons: smaller brokerage, non-corporate feel but also slightly mom & pop feel, not much emphasis on social media training, too much emphasis on smaller detail perks such as color printer, marketing material coupons, etc.

Prudential CA Realty: Large California company owned ultimately by Warren Buffett. Pros: Great manager and staff, strong financial backing, good training with some emphasis on social media marketing, fantastic office and location. Cons: Slightly larger corporate feel, too much emphasis on smaller detail perks such as color printer, super-nice receptionist (who I actually really enjoyed talking to, but I know won't be the big factor in gaining clients and making money), and world renowned architectural design of office building (which actually is pretty nice).

Sotheby's Int'l Realty: Franchise office of Sotheby's. Pros: Strong brand recognition especially amongst high-end clientele, intelligent and respectable owner/manager, great office set-up, award-winning marketing team, great visual aesthetic, strong emphasis on social media marketing, seems to be on the cutting edge of utilizing technology and creating a web presence for marketing, which I value, and a bigger picture philosophy. When I spoke with the owner he first refrained from telling me how great his company is by beginning with a story of some realistic challenges I will face as an agent, which I respected and appreciated. Cons: 6% franchise fee off net split, upfront training fee, not my first choice for office location.

I have to say I narrowed it down to these, of course for their respective merits, but also very much because of the feeling I walked away with after visiting the offices. I had a good feeling about each of the managers/owners, which I feel is important. There were other offices that offered equally great incentives but the managers were just *blech*

Up until yesterday I think I was leaning towards one of these three, but this morning I just got an offer from one of the other offices for a free 6 month training seminar with a respected real estate trainer. Now I'm back to being confused.

Excuse me for the super-long post, and any advice would be awesome! Thanks!

As a new agent I would say go with the company that offers the best training (and if it's free training that's even better)

Well the free six month seminar sounds interesting.

It sounds like you are planning on entering the high-end market which possibly makes sense if you already have a sphere of influence of high end clients. If you are in a country club, or have circles of friends who can afford high end properties, then that seems like a good idea to me.

But if you don't have these things going for you then you might find that it is harder to break into the high-end market than you might think. Most of the people at that end of the market have already established long term relationships with agents and are a little more savvy about the business. They are, in my opinion. less likely to work with inexperienced agents. New agents traditionally might have much more success with first time home-buyers in a lower price range.

Just a thought!

When thinking about a new brokerage, I think the three key things to keep in mind are ...

BRAND The brand and power of the brand in your area can be very important for new agents as they can really leverage the market share and statistics from a successful brand.

TRAINING This is obviously very important. I have trained hundreds of our agents and they all done very well. Knowing what to do to generate business is key.

SUPPORT Having a broker or Manager that you can call on when you need questions answered is very important. You need leadership in this business and a good Manager can make or break you.

All the best with your decision.