I need your help! So Ive narrowed it down to 2 offices. Both are franchises; Keller Williams and ERA. They both offer really good training but I was more sweeped away with ERA b/c of the mentoring and 1on1 coaching they provide. Along with some other great tools for listing presentations. The only issue with ERA its a 20 minute drive from my house as oppose to KW which is a 10 minute drive. Does the office location really matter?? Should I be choosing my office based on my driving time? Does it matter that I want to go after business that is closer to my house but my office isnt?? PLEASE help, I want to make the right decision! Thanks

Lots of people commute more than an hour to work, so a 10 or 20 minute drive seems really short in my mind.

I don't think that office location should make that big a difference. Since most agents work from home or there car, most agents around here, rarely go to the office.

I think a difference of 10 minutes is of very little if any consequence.

I usually end up going to the office several times a week; I don't need to though. I suppose if I lived further away I'd not go as often...

The mentoring and 1 on 1 coaching is very important in my opinion for a new agent. I would give this more weight in the decision than the location.

I agree with Mark! I am in the midst of choosing a broker also, and the one I like is 17 minutes away. They provide so much more training and support that I'm choosing them. I think it's important to have good support as a newbie. Also, as you gain experience, you'll be in the office less and can market closer to your home.
good luck!

Actually, the 1 on 1 training is the best training you can get IMO...

I guess it depends on what skill sets you bring to the table with you and what the specific office offers you, not so much what franchise you'll need to pay homage to.

For me - Keller Williams and Re/Max seem to offer things I would be most interested in and if I was new I could see where Keller Williams and Wiechert have the tools needed.

It all depends on 'your' needs.

Couple more thoughts...

First, make sure that the mentoring and one-on-one training (which sounds GREAT!) fits with your personality. If, for example, your trainer is heavy into cold-calling and you have no intention of cold-calling, you'll be miserable and the training will be useless to you. Of course, there are lots of other things you'll be trained on (hopefully), such as contracts, systems, market knowledge and such, but do try to get a feel for what sorts of prospecting methods your mentor will focus on. There are lots and lots of ways to build a business and the more true you stay to your personality, the better off you'll be.

Second, I agree that the distance to the office probably isn't a huge deal; however, it might matter to you what market areas the two offices serve. For example, when I was new I worked in a northern suburban Denver office that attracted business from, duh, the north suburbs which was an area I had no interest in. I later moved to a Central Denver office which was a much better fit since Central Denver was my area of expertise (and interest). Not that your office will be a prime source of leads for you, but it does make sense to be working in a market area you'd enjoy serving.

Good luck on your new career!

One of the biggest things I looked at when choosing an office 9 months ago was the market share. Does the office 20 minutes away have the market share where you plan to work(I assume around where you live) that the office 10 minutes away does?

While some people will say market share doesn't matter, I disagree. When I walk into a listing appointment, I don't need to tell you about my company and what we do production wise. You already know we have 1/2 of the market and the rest is shared by the 250 other agents between C21, KW, CB, etc. I think that says a lot when we have 26 agents in my office.

As a new agent floor time was definately a lot more worthwhile than if I was at the KW office that has 12 listings. I would guess that our 150 listings will get more phone calls than 12. I picked my first sale off of desk duty.

My company has 20 something offices within about a 100 mile radius(as well as another brand with a few offices to the W of us) The whole area knows who we are and we have the market share in every office.

Just the other day I was on a listing appointment. I got to the production part of my presentation(the actual numbers) and the sellers mentioned that the other agents never brought that up. I offered to pull up how many sales the other agents had in the last 12 months. They had 3 and 4 sales. As a new agent 9 months in I had more sales than agents that have been around for 10 years.

Success speaks!

150 listing in Louisiana? Twenty offices within 100 miles? As a fellow cajun I have to know, what city are you in?

Check your PM's FSBO

10 or 20 min drive does not make any difference, listing presentation tools as well, you can build great once yourself for no money. However 1 on 1 mentoring is good, but make sure they really provide it, because sometimes they promise and then you do not have it :-) Good luck!

I think basing your decision on your drive time would be a mistake. You should rarely be at your office. You should or will be out prospecting, cold calling, looking for FSBOs.

There's a good chance that amount of driving you'll do on behalf of clients will be far greater than that of your commute. I wouldn't let the commute time be the decisive factor, especially if you're impressed by the level of support the other broker has to offer. Here in Indianapolis,Indiana for example, it's not uncommon to drive a half-hour or more to get to work. I personally like the time I spend driving, since it gives me time to reflect. It's like turning a negative into a positive. You could even take advantage of the time you spend commuting to listen educational books on cd.

I would take a different route every day, going and coming, to thoroughly learn everything that exists and is changing between the Home and the Office. Take what is perceived as a negative and make it a positive.

I NEVER travel the same road twice in the same day if I can help it. It's amazing what the human mind will automatically detect as a "Change" since you last traveled that way. It's part of Learning a Territory . . . . learning it so well that you can say "You own it!"

I'm not a native Vermonter, having lived here less than the 35 years I've been paying R.E. Taxes; but I can still say I know the area within a 40 mile radius of my Home/Office better than anyone who's lived here their whole lives . . . . even if that's a hundred years. I keep my eyes and ears OPEN ! Sometimes that is very valuable.