Does it Matter Which Brokerage Your Real Estate Agent Works for?

You are looking for a Real Estate agent to help you sell your home. You go through our options hoping to find an agent who knows what they are doing. You consider a few criteria when looking for an agent, including how well-known they are and if they have an excellent background or a strong online presence. But have you ever wondered if it matters which brokerage your Real Estate agent works for? The short answer is yes. This article will explain why and how.

A Brokerage is Mandatory

First of all, please note that all “Licenced” Real Estate agents “Must” be affiliated with a licensed brokerage. Otherwise what they do is not legal. So before deciding on the brokerage make sure your agent works for one. The only case a licensed Real Estate agent can continue work without being affiliated with a brokerage is if they started their own brokerage.

Why Real Estate Agents Must Work with a Brokerage

A Real Estate agent needs to work with a brokerage for a few reasons. These include security issues such as the safety of deposit funds for purchases, administrating trust accounts, audited record keeping, etc.

Branding Games

Depending on their marketing potential and power, brokerages spend money on their brand, trying to convince the public and agents they are the best options they have. They try to encourage agents to join their brokerage offering them credibility and popularity of their brand and also implying that the brokerage has a direct or indirect on the selling price, etc.

People Hire People

Contradictory to what brands and brokerages try to advertise, people hire individuals to sell their homes or buy one. They have nothing to do with the brokerage and the name of the brokerage doesn’t have any impact on the outcome of this collaboration. However, some brokerages focus on education for their agents more than others, providing seminars, webinars, reading materials, regular meetings, and other resources to make sure their agents know what’s new and what’s critical. That, however, does not have a significant impact on how your agent will perform.

Agents Do the Work

Regardless of what brokerage your agent works for, how your business in Real Estate goes on mainly depends on your agent’s abilities or lack of. It is your agent who markets your home and decides the best practices. How an agent helps you involves a series of practical actions and also his knowledge and experience on which their brokerage has no impact. However, some brokerages have standards and parameters around what needs to be done to promote listings when selling homes.

Good Brokerage / Bad Agent

We have a lot of great brokerages whose name is not unheard of by many people. However, this does not mean that the agent working for this brokerage will be the best fit for your needs. We have seen a lot of great agents working for a great brokerage who may not even be interested in working with you. Or they might have been known for being ignorant about answering their client’s phone calls. The breakage can be in business for a long time and hire an agent who has been in business for 6 months.

On the other hand, we have seen a lot of great agents will tens of years of experience who work for lesser-known brokerages that have been in business for 5 years. What we are trying to say is that in every brokerage there are dozens of new and experienced agents who can be a good fit for your needs or not regardless of their experience. Only you can tell if an agent is fit to work with you. While doing so you need to consider agents’ experience, knowledge, background, expertise, etc.

What Does Data Say

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers included a graphic that showed only 3% of home buyers and sellers chose an agent based on the brokerage they were associated with. This goes to show you that people do not really care which brokerage you work for. Instead, your expertise, brand, helpfulness, and value proposition are considered when judging if you are a good fit.