If you leave – you can’t come back

Heard from Broker’s whose agents leave their office.  Agents fear this.  They are afraid if they leave their broker, and join another brokerage, that the door closes behind them forever.  Really?  Agents still work for a broker who would threaten this.  They should leave.

This is a huge mistake in my opinion.  This is a bully tactic.  It couldn’t be a more wrong approach to treat people.

You have heard the phrase ‘If you love something, set it free….’  The point is that if that agent is leaving for something better, you should wish them well.  After all, up to this point, they were a GOOD agent to your brokerage.  All of a sudden, they are unwelcome.

Here is a thought.  Wish them the best.  Send them on their merry way.  If it doesn’t work out, you can show all of your other agents that it wasn’t such a great idea to leave in the first place.  Oh yeah, and do a great job as a broker treating your people so good that they wouldn’t consider leaving.

Maybe, just maybe it is the fear of the broker that is driving this process.  The broker fears the agent will actually do well and not return.  This will cause more agents to leave and the fear compounds.

So bullying is the result.  Make the agents fear there are no alternatives.  No coming back.

But agents have their hands tied in a significant way.  They MUST work for a broker.  Agents can’t be ‘free agents’.  They are actually agents for their broker.  The broker is actually your agent if you hire an agent to sell your home.  Follow that?  The real estate agent is the agent for the broker, not for you.  This is fact, although in practice most clients never interact with the broker.

Why talk about these topics?  Transparency.  It is important to know the inner workings of brokerages to determine exactly how your house will be sold.  This is important because you need to know how you can get your best net price as a seller.  You need to know and understand the motivations of the parties involved.  It can make or cost you real money.

Adam Conrad is the broker/owner of Perry Wellington Realty, a regional 4 location real estate brokerage.  Adam is the Director of Education for Advance Academy, a real estate school.  Adam is a part time lecturer at Pennsylvania State University and part time faculty for Saint Francis University.  You can reach him via email here or at Advance Academy.

photo credit Carolyn_Sewell at flickr.com