Choosing My Brokerage; Caveats VS Positive Nuances

[Richard Mur]

Hey all. So I'm going through the process in picking the right brokerage for me. Before you jump on me to check the megathread, I think my question is a little more detailed than I've researched.

Yesterday, I was able to pull up the National Business Review with my Metro for 2019 top 100 agents, top residential teams, and top Brokerage rankings by revenue money. There were 31 brokerages listed and I emailed out a detailed message comprising of 5 top questions I needed from them as a brand new agent. I've received 14 emails back from brokerages so far and while I don't feel overwhelmed with breaking this all down, I do realize I'm new and don't want to be possibly sold snakeskin oil. Some of those 14 I have not gotten info from as they requested to have a chat sometime.

I'm listing bullet points on their sell points to me and was wondering if y'all can possibly point out "This is a trap, avoid" moments AND "This is great, this firm seems great, go interview with them".

Brokerage A:

- 80/20 Split up to $10,000,000 (within the annual sales cycle) and then escalates to 90/10 for residential transactions and 80/20 up to $20,000,000 (within the annual sales cycle) and then escalates to 90/10 for commercial transactions.

- $50.00/transaction to supplement errors and omissions insurance

- Provides leads on round robin system via Realtor.com. Cost is $100.00/month.

- Most agents that elect lead generation are too busy after 6-7 months and ask to be taken off of it

- Currently have 22 active listings, 14 pending listings, and have sold over 110 properties in the last 180 days (even with Covid-19)

- New agents average their first close within 2-3 months (with a sales cycle of 30 days/transaction), cites because of training they receive

Brokerage B:

- Principal; is a licensed real estate educator, only teaches education to own realtors at company. Full time educator that runs her other real estate school

- Brokerage has own app where we store training videos and guest speakers from our events

- Mentoring program for new agents to shadow experienced agent

- Brokerage creates template personal site for me

- 2 education classes/month via Zoom

- 1 Sales meeting/month for education & motivation

- 1 meeting/month on technology use, a staff member that deals with IT needs

- 70/30 Split

- $355 Annual Office desk due

- 2% Transaction fee

- No lead production, produce own leads, repeat & referral

- 223 current & pending listings

- Have had new agents close 20 homes in first year and other only 6 homes; varies

Brokerage C:

- This is Keller Williams, so probably pretty standard and y'all are familiar with them, I'm sure

- Within my region: Own 12% of all inventory; 600 to 900 active listings and closed just under 3,500 homes last year

Brokerage D:

- 21 agents in local office

- Momentum Program for training

- 95% commission paid on a transaction, fees included but you choose how much you want to spend (private office/shared office/WFH office,

- Brokerage does not provide leads but can obtain leads from sister brokerage, no cost

- Currently 82 listings, 50 active, states it is currently a seller's market

- Goal is to sell at least $2,000,000 per year

- Average sale price for last 90 days (8 properties) is $260,400

Brokerage E:

- Training videos available

- Weekly sales meetings

- Ninja sales training 2-3/month with Q/A's

- Offer a one-on-one mentorship program for new agents

- Mentor and I would split commission 50/50 first couple of transactions or when I'm ready to go solo

- Lesser degree mentorship for 75/25 commission

- $46.50/month Brokerage fees Plus $25/month on E's&O's

- Own website on brokerage webpage for $10/month

- 70/30 Commission split; 95/5 for sale milestones

- Once you pass $5M in sales, you're still on 70/30 split until you pay out brokerage $20,000, which in turn split becomes 95/5

- 3% broker fee each transaction with $3,000 cap

- Can provide leads by signing and paying up for different things (ICC/OPCity/Buyside)

- 255 active listings

Brokerage F:

- Extensive 6 week onboarding process for training

- No monthly fees; biz cards/signs/lockboxes/marketing all paid for

- Provides leads

- 2 CRMs that hold database of your clients

- Usually 100 listings at any given time, lower now because of Covid

- Minimal standard to remain with company is 24/year. Some agents do 90, average is 36-50.