Agents - Brokerage Branding Importance

[Brie Schmidt]

I need your thoughts...  I am a managing broker who was self sponsored until this year when I took on an agent and licensed assistant.  My business is medium sized, we only work with buy and hold investors in a handful of zip codes, we have never advertised and we have a constant flow of referrals.  

I thought of joining a big brokerage and sent a survey to my clients to see if that would impact their decision to work with me.  The responses came back neutral to negative, as they work with me for my experience and appreciate the boutique feel.

But I am considering expanding geographically outside of just the city of Chicago and into the suburbs.  And during a discussion today a brokerage brought up the fact that it would be hard for me to recruit agents without having a brand name.

I would only want agents who are investors, as all our clients are investors, so I would think they would tend to be on the independant side and be more concerned with a high split vs a big brand name.  Thoughts?  Am I shooting myself in the foot by not having a big name and expanding?  

[Brie Schmidt]

@Ted Kuhlmann - Yeah, I met with them.  Ultimately when I wrote down how much I was getting for the commission I was giving up it  - it made no sense, I could easily redeploy that money directly in my business and get a better return.

@Russell Brazil - I have no interest in being on those lists.  I am in the top 10% of agents in Chicago but I don't see it becoming a top business, I only work with investors and to be a top agent/team I think you would have to take on retail clients, and I would probably end up jumping off one of the high rises if I have to talk to people about paint colors and it "feeling like home" 

@Lumi Ispas - I know I have asked you over the years about this.  So when I went through these interviews the last few months the training got pushed hard on me.  But nobody offers the training I need.  They don't train on cap rate, 203k loans, what to improve in units to increase rents, ect.  I don't want sales people, I want investors who can teach clients what they do as investors.  

On this listing side, these are investment properties, the numbers matter.  In 3 years I closed on 60 transactions on a 2-4 units and I have never taken my clients to see a property / not seen a property because of the company it was listed with.  The deal works or it doesn't.  If I was on the retail side I see where the benefit would be but with investors you can't bend the numbers.  About 25% of my deals are off market, and that is because the agent knows I am no BS and will not waste their time.