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With a year of remote working under their belts, some real estate companies are investigating whether to shrink the size or number of their offices in Greater Boston.
Like most other employers across the state, local real estate leaders are mulling how much office space they’ll need for agents and other operations after the COVID-19 crisis fully recedes and the economy slowly returns to a new normal.
And, like other employers, there’s no clear consensus among real-estate players about what the future workplace will look like after more than a year of Zoom meetings, virtual video tours, social-distancing procedures and other pandemic-era remote-work polices that have transformed large swaths of the U.S. economy.
In interviews, some local real estate brokers say they’re looking at reducing their office space requirements, saying they’ve learned during the pandemic that they just don’t need as much space as a result of new, remote-work software.
Others say they plan to keep the same amount of office space, citing a need for collaborative workspaces and a physical presence in communities, though they acknowledge increased remote working is part of the future.
“As bad as the pandemic was, it pushed us to rethink how we do things – and things we needed to do,” said Melvin Vieira Jr., a Realtor at RE/MAX Destiny-The Vieira Group in Cambridge and the president-elect of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. “We were forced to make changes – and we needed to make changes.”
Some Question Footprint
In the case of RE/MAX Destiny, Vieira said he sees keeping the firm’s two offices, one in Cambridge and the other in Jamaica Plain, for its 35 to 40 agents.
But he said he envisions reducing the size of each office by an unspecified amount, as part of his firm’s goal of “adopting a beautiful, unique hybrid” work arrangement for both agents and clients.
Tentatively, RE/MAX Destiny is exploring smaller workstations for agents within its offices, combined with small soundproof rooms where agents can talk confidentially with clients and others about sensitive topics.
“They’re sort of like phone booths,” said Vieira of the soundproof stations.
RE/MAX Destiny has determined that remote working – and all it entails, including 3-D videos of homes, Zoom meetings and almost countless new mobile apps that were introduced before and during the pandemic – works. But there’s still need for in-person office space for agents and brokers to gather, trade ideas and discuss market trends and tactics, as well as to meet with clients who prefer in-person meetings, Vieira said.
“We were already doing much of this before the pandemic, but COVID really accelerated” the trend toward more remote work, Vieira said.
“I think there would be a revolt if we told [agents] they had to go” to certain offices each day for meetings, training sessions and other agent duties, said Pauline Bennett, president of Coldwell Banker New England, which employs about 3,900 agents in about 70 offices in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Though Coldwell Banker and other real-estate firms were already adopting new mobile technologies and remote practices before the pandemic, the public-health crisis clearly demanded that the real-estate industry step up its technological game, says Bennett.
“Even the most tech-resistant agents had to become more tech savvy during COVID,” Bennett said.
‘Billboards’ Still Valuable
As a result, Bennett said she sees Coldwell Banker ultimately reducing its office space requirements by an unspecified amount.
“A desk for every agent? I see that changing dramatically,” she said.
It’s not just what agents want and need. It’s also about what an increasing number of clients want and need, Bennett said of relying more on virtual technologies
But she stressed there’s still a need for office space for brokers and agents, as well as clients, in order for people to meet and discuss issues in person, she said.
Many Coldwell Banker offices are deliberately located in high-traffic areas, such as in small downtowns or along busy roadways, and they act as “billboards” to attract attention and clients, Bennett said.
Jack Conway & Co. agents have experienced that firsthand, President and CEO Carol Bulman said.
“We’ve actually been getting a lot more walk-ins than before the pandemic,” she said. “People crave human connections. As human beings, we like hanging out with others.”
But the company won’t be reducing its office footprints around the state, she said. The rationale: agents and clients will still need a place to meet, collaborate and discuss sensitive issues in person.
“We’ve always been conservative about our real estate needs,” said Bulman, noting that the company owns many of its retail offices, reducing its overhead.
Agents Use Offices Differently
That doesn’t mean Jack Conway agents will be required to spend a set amount of time in offices.
Some agents thrive under remote-working conditions, comfortably using mobile technologies and not needing office stations as much. Yet some agents feel more comfortable and disciplined going to an office every day, or at least regularly, said Bulman.
As a result, Jack Conway will have a “nice blend” of both remote and in-person options for agents, she said.
David Bates, an agent at William Raveis in Boston, said flexibility is key for agents today.
Personally, he said he’s a classic “early bird” worker who likes getting into the office well before most everyone else in order to send emails and complete necessary paperwork, as well as to “just clear my head.”
He generally leaves the office around noon or early afternoon to attend to both professional and personal matters.
“Everyone is different,” he said. “I’ve never seen more than a few agents in the office at the same time.”
Bates said he hopes, and expects, that real-estate firms will keep offices in the future, giving agents the option of either working in-person or remotely, depending on their needs.
“I think you’re always going to see offices of some sort,” he said.
