I have five agents. Only one agent has used the office twice in the last six months. I am considering not renewing my lease. I have access to a conference room if I need it. Does anyone else operate without a physical office location?

Does your State require you to have an accessible physical address where your records are available to them during those impromptu spot checks and inspections. Vermont does.

A Conference Room wouldn't do unless all of those records were in it.

Vermont, we are allowed to use our home as an office. Obviously, we need to have the records available.

We are all heading towards a paperless world. CAR now offers us on line storage of our files for up to five years, or maybe it is more than that. There may be no need soon for that brick and mortar office requirement. If you are not scanning your paperwork and saving by electronic means, you are paying for wasted office/storage space.

Yes, our board offers that feature as well. They say it is for a lifetime. Although, I wonder what would happen when someone terminates their board membership.

My physical office is at my home. My part-time assistant works from her home. For me, it wasn't a financial decision (though I enjoy not having that expense), but more that I work bizarre hours so I might as well just do it all in one place.

I can honestly say I've never once needed a conference room. My clients don't care that I work from home--rather, they like that I come to them. I think only one person has ever directly asked me where my office was, and they still hired me on to represent them.

All my paperwork gets scanned and saved on three separate hard drives...so I'm not filling up my home office with files. It's cluttered enough as it is.

I have an office at my home. It saves me time and is much more convenient than going to the office. I have had a couple of people ask me where my office is. However, they never came there anyway.

In my state we only have to keep records for 3 years for inspection.

You can have a home office here. I don't pay for an office and run it out of my home. I do commercial real estate so most of my meetings are over lunch or dinner or meeting at the physical property and also conference calls.

Virginia requires us to have an offical office where people can come and go. Although, you can have an official at home, but the public cannot enter any part of the "residence" so you'd have to have a room that has an outside entrance, and, of course, there's that "restroom" problem to deal with.

I notice as I track some "brokers" who are independents that they have their registered address as a home address (love Google maps) and I've thought of sending a compiled list to the R.E.Board for them to check it out to see if they actually have an "official" office at home.

It's not right if some follow the rules and others don't, particularly those who carry a Broker's license.

Pennsylvania requires an office and a separate room where confidential discussions can be held (conference room). And they actually inspect the office before issuing the license and are suppossed the reinspect every year.
The same person that does the inspection also inspects beauty salons, car dealerships and a few other business. They look for licenses to be posted, a dedicated phone line and in the case of real estate, an escrow account.

Reading some of these responses makes me glad I work where I do.

Good grief! It sounds like Pennsylvania is ferocious with their rules and regs. We in Georgia have many brokers who work from home. There are definitely pros and cons to either side. Not having an office may look bad on your image but not having to pay rent or a mortgage is a good trade.

Well PA is behind the times, when you enter the state the big sign reads:

Welcome to Pennsylvania, Set Your Clock Back 50 Years

Now, now, now. If you're claiming to be a professional (as an independent, sole proprietor), have a professional office - walk the part, dress the part, and live the part.

I've met Sellers and Buyers at their homes and rental homes - there's no problem with that as it is sometimes more convenient for them (particularly with 4 or 5 kids in tow); but, maybe I'm an old prude (and proud of it), but business IS business and should be treated as one. I'd have the heebie-geebies going to a doctor, dentist, lawyer - various professionals - if I had to sit in their kitchen for a discussion on a regular basis (and you hear their kids screaming and crying at bathtime) - there'd be some doubts running through my mind, seriously. Go to a coffee shop, diner, restaurant - how long can that last? Particularly if you have a client from out of town whose hotel is in the northern part of town (say 40-minute drive) and they want to purchase a home in the southern part of town - where your OFFICE is supposed to be located. You can only get away for so long with saying you'll meet them at Starbucks before they find out you don't have an office. What do you say when they say, "Let's go to your office."

I'm more inclined to think a part-time agent would have the attitude that a real office isn't necessary versus a full-time agent.

I always tell them the truth. I tell them that not having a formal office keeps my costs down. And that means I have the luxury of having to do fewer deals--and spend less time prospecting to find more clients--in order to make ends meet. That means I get to spend more time focusing on those buyers/sellers with whom I DO elect to work. If I'm going to be working the weird hours I do, I'm going to need an equipped home office anyway. Why throw away extra money on the frivolity of a second office just because I'm "supposed to" have one? Being a virtual operation has never, and I mean NEVER, been an issue in my experience.

Of course, I'm a small shop--just me and a part-time assistant who also works from her home. Once you hit a certain point it becomes more difficult to have no central office; however, I'd argue the difficulty is due to the greater efficiencies in internal operation/management that a centralized office offers (your secretary, business manager, accounting person, etc. are all in one place) and not because clients will refuse to do business with you.


Most of the full-time agents I know locally rarely go into their brokerage offices. They can afford to equip their own homes to suit the vast majority of their business needs. I could argue the opposite to your inclination: if you're in part-time, it's not financially worthwhile to cut yourself off from the branch office.


I will agree with you on that, though. If you can't have UNDISTURBED conversations (even by phone), you shouldn't be working at home. Having to yell at the kids repeatedly during a phone conversation WILL be a deal-killer for that buyer/seller.

Andy - I too am in the same position - it's just me (have a hard time being able to "trust" bringing on agents. I read our r.e.board's posting of violations on their website and it can be just downright scary trusting some agents).

I work 95% from home, except when I have a buyer client.

I would seriously love to drop the expense of an official office - just the expense, not the office itself. The rent is only $300/mo. plus $55 for internet connection, but I've got office liability insurance also. It doesn't cost that much, but it's doubled in just four years. I reckon it doesn't help with all the natural disasters the world is experiencing.

I've often thought of approaching several other lone brokers and asking if they'd like to share the expense of the office but I haven't figured out how to divvy up the costs of printer ink and paper - as that'd get used very quickly I'm sure. Then you have to deal with the one broker who uses up all the ink and paper and then next one comes in an hour later and it's all gone and their clients are showing up in 15 minutes. I could have a locked file drawer with supplies, but you can't give all of them a key b/c one is probably bound to still use all the supplies up.

Any suggestions?

Ever consider something like ServCorp? It's the only brand I know, but I'm sure there are cheaper alternatives as well... if the only reason you need an office is for the client meetings, then it may be a great cost efficient alternative.

It also may project your business to be bigger/better than it actually is... which could be good or bad (but if you're in the DMV area, I would imagine that being good).