Real Estate Teams???? (agent, commission, expensive, broker)

[missnew2nc]

What are your thoughts or Real Estate Teams? Are they effective? Or does it matter who runs the team?

I do know that with most TEAM'S listings don't belong to YOU they belong to the owner of the TEAM. I also know that you don't market yourself, you market A TEAM.

I want to know the downfalls or the greatness of teams!

[middle-aged mom]

Are you looking at this from the perspective of a consumer or a Realtor?

[HsvMike]

Ok if you are thinking about joining a team...

Pros - You will save money on signs, advertising, lock boxes, office space etc. Some team leaders I have heard will pay assoc. dues for you. So basically you will save money, especially just starting out. Some team leaders will furnish leads, buyer leads.

Cons - Typically, you have to advertise the team over youself. So it is harder to get your name out there. You have to do a commission split with your team along with the company.

That is kind of a quick overview as I see it.

[Brandon Hoffman]

Originally Posted by missnew2nc

What are your thoughts or Real Estate Teams? Are they effective? Or does it matter who runs the team?

I do know that with most TEAM'S listings don't belong to YOU they belong to the owner of the TEAM. I also know that you don't market yourself, you market A TEAM.

I want to know the downfalls or the greatness of teams!

1-Matters who runs it.
2-Depends, with me they belong to me. I do all the marketing and handling of listings and buyers agents are paid a predetermined % of commission at closing for helping acquire a client.
3-I market myself more than the team. I'm the most important person to the clients. I share my team, their roles, and how they are a benefit to the client. People like the system and it works. The key to making a team work is communication.

[Buckhead_Broker]

I think they are a fad just like a lot of the corporate management fads that come and go. The problem I see with them is that you often have a dominant figurehead, or team leader, who goes out and secures the listings and then hands the day-to-day responsibility off to a less experienced assistant or other team member. The clients then get angry because they feel they hired the team leader for his or her expertise and they never seem to hear from them or can't get through to them on the phone. I know a lot of people read the Millionaire Real Estate Agent and went out with the idea of creating a team that would, ultimately, do all of the work and they could spend their leisure time counting all of the money their team made. Problem is, managing people is difficult and creating a team that can generate enough business to keep everyone satisfied and motivated is not easy. When the underlings see how much the team leader is making, there is a huge temptation to go out and start their own team.

I have been in the real estate business for over 25 years as a developer and broker and have learned I work better on my own. My clients appreciate my experience, they know I'm always available and that when they want me, they get me - not an assistant.

[AnimalLover]

Ditto. I prefer to work personally with my clients and they appreciate that. Makes for some long days, but that's ok with me.

[delawareconnection]

I think it depends a lot on your experience because starting out in real estate I would've quit after a week if I didn't have the support of my team. I am no longer on that team and am looking to relocate and will try to look for another team. I appreciated it because some of the perks of being on a team were sharing expenses. (We all know real estate is an expensive business) and the staff we had were great. We always kept each other motivated, but it wasn't like group work where we depended on each other.

Honestly, I found more conveniences being on the team, takes off some pressure, but I had the opportunity to become partners with people I shared a passion with and truly had my best interest in mind. My clients appreciated the fact that there was ALWAYS one of us available.

Just a personal preference.

[nsumner]

I believe that a lot of time it is deceiving or misleading to consumers when there is a team behind a particular agent but everything goes under the team leader's name. Some team members close the transaction where the team leader NEVER met the client yet, all ads show that the team leader was responsible for the sale.

We have an agent in our area that advertises with postcards/riders on every listing etc. "I sell a house every 2 days". Yet there are 14 people on her team. Nowhere does it show that it's teamwork.

It may be good for some agents to work this way but I still feel that it's misleading to the consumers.

[missnew2nc]

Wow!

Those were some pretty interesting responses.

Do you think team members make more than regular agents who arent' on a team?
Lead: How good are leads? If you work for a team how many leads do you get a week? How many of them do you convert?

[Brandon Hoffman]

I think a lot of the responses support my original answer that it matters who runs the team. They also make assumptions that the team "leader" doesn't ever answer or return phone calls. We only have a couple of large teams in my market but the leader is always a successful agent and they (myself also) are easier to get a hold of than some overworked singular agents.

When you run a business you have 2 choices when you get busy-limit new business taken or work more hours. Eventually you run out of hours. I always call and work with the sellers directly and I'm very easy to get a hold of. If I don't answer then I usually return a call within 2 hours.