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?