The Top 5 Brokerage Challenges One of the biggest challenges as a real estate broker is always having to be “the smartest person in the room.” Literally, everyone looks to you for answers and guidance which can be a challenge in a rapidly changing environment. A favorite quote of mine Read more…
Why determining brokerage value is so hard “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,” said famed Major League Baseball outfielder and manager, Frank Robinson. While his famous phrase coined in 1973 graphically makes the point that being close to achieving something doesn’t actually provide real benefit (other than in Read more…
Three basic areas for brokerage growth Mark Twain could have been a real estate broker when he said, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” While there are fundamental differences, many pundits like to compare today’s real estate market to the days preceding the pre-2008 housing crisis. Certainly, the industry is Read more…
The real estate pendulum swings again Galileo was inside the Pisa cathedral in Tuscany, Italy in the early 17th century when he observed the regular back and forth movement of a lamp hanging from the ceiling. Watching the swinging, he noticed the movement was constant and predictable, ultimately leading to his law Read more…
But We Have Free Coffee I was sitting in a boutique broker’s beautiful office listening to the owners vent about their frustration with recruiting. Attracting strong agents was a challenge for them, but equally frustrating was that after onboarding recruits, they often lost them to other brokers once they began Read more…
There’s a dirty little secret in the world of real estate brokerages that few people talk about. It’s a disturbing trend that we’re seeing more frequently in small and mid-sized firms: Many brokerages today are just not very profitable. In 35+ years, I’ve looked at 1,000’s of financial statements. What Read more…
It’s a long-held industry tenant that real estate agents primarily switch brokerages during the bad times—yet over the past year the industry has seen tremendous numbers of agents jumping ship to competing firms. At a recent national industry event, several interesting insights were shared regarding how market share has recently Read more…
Getting a bigger slice of the pie It’s no secret; the big ARE getting bigger. Brokerage consolidation is rapidly moving throughout the industry fueled by the recognition that with size comes economies of scale. Many feel larger brokerages are often able to provide more, reduce costs and be more competitive Read more…
J. P. Morgan, the famous Wall Street banker and financier, was a driving force behind the wave of business growth in the U.S. in the early 20th century. However, he could have easily been describing the real estate market of 100+ years later when he said, “the first step towards Read more…