Some agents work for a large company for many years before breaking out on their own. Others work for a small office acquired by a global corporation. Both paradigms offer their own advantages, but in the end, it all comes down to the agent.
Kevin Keating, owner of Keating Brokerage in Milton, opened his own independent office six years ago after a long career at DeWolfe, which was subsequently bought by Coldwell Banker. Coldwell Banker is ultimately owned by Realogy, a huge global company that owns more than 180 real-estate-related subsidiaries, including Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Sotheby’s International Realty and others.
What large corporate-owned offices do well “is make you think the reason you are successful is because of them,” Keating said. “I’ve been in the business for 36 years and had my own company the last six. After the first year I wondered why I didn’t do this 20 years ago. There’s a comfort level there. They supply you with excellent marketing materials and make it easier for you to fall into the hole of thinking you need them.”
An agent’s success depends on their relationships, their work ethic, their integrity and the extent that they network, not whose name is above the door, he said.
“None of the people who own the corporate companies live in or care about my town,” Keating said. “I’m a town meeting member, I sponsor baseball teams and girls’ softball teams and I’m the president of Milton youth hockey. I don’t think that can be said for the big companies whose corporate offices are in New Jersey or Connecticut. We get paid a lot of money for what we do and we take it seriously.”
On the side of the big guns is Merit McIntyre, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage of New England.
“Close to half of our people starts out in the independent firms,” McIntyre said. “I’m pro-local. We cooperate with them. If people are ethical and treat people well, we love them. But an agent’s success is up to the agent.”
A big corporation’s global advertising reach advantage is drastically reduced in the age of the Internet, especially with portal sites like Zillow and Trulia.
“We put our listings in MLS and all those other websites. For my high-end listings I buy Lux, which goes into all those international websites. I can put a listing everywhere they can,” Keating said. “What I can’t do is go on national TV, but that’s not knowing your market. I’m specialized. If you want to go outside the box when you’re marketing your property, I can do that. Agents working for the bigger companies don’t have that flexibility.”
McIntyre said the international reach of Coldwell Banker’s brand and marketing is something smaller independent companies just can’t compete with.
“The budget allocations for an international reach is certainly in our advantage,” he said. “I mean, we advertise in the Hong Kong edition of the Wall Street Journal. We have the reach to get in front of those international buyers.”
Brokerages come in all sizes and types, and somewhere in the middle is Benoit Mizner Simon & Co. Amy Mizner, principal and broker, cofounded the company with her partners in 2010, after a 16-year stint as a vice president at Coldwell Banker in Weston. The company sells homes in every price range, but focuses on the high end of Boston’s western suburbs.
Mizner said her firm’s marketing is unique, from their signs to the way they stage homes for photos and write up their property descriptions. She said the personal attention to every detail makes all the difference.
“Everyone has access to the same platforms to market real estate,” she said. “We customize our marketing plans. We can think out of the box and we’re always changing and finessing. We can go up against the large brands and get signature listings. [And] we embrace social media; it’s part of our company advertising.”
Agent Assessment
Being part of a global brand or taking the independent route is a matter of an agent knowing who they are and what they want, then choosing the path that’s right for them, said Larry Rideout, CEO and founder Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty.
“If one chooses to join a brand they immediately have an infrastructure, corporate consulting guidance, an identifiable network to utilize for referrals both nationally and internationally,” Rideout wrote in an email. “If they choose wisely, they also get a preconceived consumer preference as established by millions of dollars of corporate marketing.”
An independent brokerage “chooses an entirely different route,” Rideout wrote. “They create their systems, tools and image. They tend to utilize the local real estate boards as a source more frequently. They can handpick what referral network that they wish to be a part of. They also have the distinct ability to create a niche market, and sometimes be more nimble with corporate decisions.”
That jibes with Mizner’s experience setting up her brokerage.
“We differentiated ourselves by having an entrepreneurial culture – the antithesis of an institutional company,” Mizner said. “We’re looking for a person who brings something to our company and we feel can be successful in our market. Our agents have a diverse business background. It’s a young, forward-thinking group of associates. We mentor and grow their brand individually. We teach them how to be successful in this business.”
Independents may spend more time and money establishing their brand and reputation, but it can afford a greater level of choice and flexibility down the road.
“The advantage of being in a brand or an independent eventually comes down to the culture of the company and the quality of the agents,” Rideout said. “I had a boss in Realogy that used to say, ‘A brand can’t make a good office bad or a bad office good. It can only provide the opportunity to enhance your business.’”
