It’s tough to win without talent.

However unlike the Celtics, Red Sox, or Patriots, when real estate companies see a player they like, they can add them to their team at any time if they make the right offer. And with the real estate market down, the free agent market is up.

Because real estate agents are basically independent contractors it allows agencies to identify and pursue those Realtors in their market who will make their business better.

“When you’re working in the local marketplace, we know the reputation of the agents in the marketplace,” said Nancy MacDonald, senior regional vice president, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Connecticut and Westchester County, New York. “You get to know the players in the business who have been consistently producing.”

Often, the next step is a simple phone call to see if that agent is happy with his or her current company, and if they would be interested in a change.

“It can be as blunt and as open as that,” said Sue McDonough, sales manager at William Raveis Real Estate in Wellesley. “It’s an extension to meet and change ideas and information. It’s very harmless. Sometimes people need information, and sometimes they don’t.”

Fellow Realtors reach out in person, or ask the agent being recruited to call a company manager and set up a face-to-face meeting to discuss switching companies.

Fran Cooley, an agent working in Connecticut for 30 years, said that good agents are constantly contacted by other companies seeking their business.

“If you’re a decent agent in this marketplace and you have a good reputation, people want you,” Cooley said. “Experience counts, because you’re money walking in the door. They don’t have to train you; they don’t have to wait for you to get up and running.”

Cooley recently returned to Prudential Connecticut Realty (PCR) after spending eight years at William Pitt Sotheby’s in Avon, Conn.. On Oct. 21, Coldwell Banker bought Sotheby’s offices in Avon, Simsbury and Farmington, and suddenly there was a bidding war for the displaced agents’ services. Many went over to Coldwell Banker; 12 went to PCR, including Cooley.

Cooley said in the hours after Coldwell’s acquisition, real estate companies were constantly making offers to her and her colleagues.
“That happens right up until the minute that you sign,” she said. “It’s easy to get your head turned on to that kind of thing.”

Cooley said PCR offered them more money, but it was a better Web site than Coldwell Banker and a dedication she was familiar with after her earlier 15-year stint with the company that led her back to PCR.

“It’s flattering to have all these people making offers for you, but long term you have to decide what’s going to be best for your client base, and where the company will be in five years,” Cooley said. “Agents cannot be bought. A professional has to go where they think they can make money in the long term.”

Looking For Direction

With the market down, some agents are feeling even more restless than usual. The real estate business was a lot easier when the market was roaring, and now agents look for something to help them in tougher times.

“We are getting calls from agents without provocation,” said MacDonald. “They are doing that because their business is down, but they are also looking around more closely at their current environment and saying, ‘Something is missing here.’

“The independent contractor mentality is reduced,” she said. “They’re looking for direction and they’re looking for support, and if they’re not getting that, they’re looking in other directions.”

If companies constantly seek to attain the best agents, then they must also work to retain their own talent. Each company offers training programs, benefits and support structures; different companies tailor their approaches to the kind of agents they’re looking for.

“Everybody is there, for the most part, voluntarily,” said Chris Bernier, regional VP of Coldwell Banker for Eastern Massachusetts. “We have to earn their business every day, and we have to work hard to do that. In this business, it’s like other businesses: He who has the most talented people generally prevails.”

Bernier said Coldwell Banker keeps costs as low as possible for agents, paying for marketing and legal support.

“In the end, the agent has to decide which model works the best for them, and how to maximize their earnings,” Bernier said.

Dick Cahill, president of Jack Conway Realty in Massachusetts, said the family atmosphere at his company has led to a high retention rate despite constant recruiting of his agents. Of the company’s combined 800 agents and employees, 250 have been with Jack Conway for 20 years or more.

“It’s what we do on a day-to-day business,” Cahill said. “We don’t even have to worry. Once they weigh the cost of the franchise fee, the cost for advertising, they realize that grass isn’t greener over there.

“It always sounds good when somebody say they’re going to throw you X [amount of money], but when you add it all up you realize it’s not worth it,” he said.

Cahill said the company has a specific commission schedule on a sliding scale based on sales volume: there are no favorite sons who receive a better rate.

“Some [agents] get very upset at other companies when they find out the person sitting next to them cut a better deal,” Cahill said.
But agents do occasionally move on.

“There are people who are never happy,” Cahill said. “The grass is always greener in the other guy’s yard. There are nomads in this business.”

“They see a greener pasture,” said Bernier. “Sometimes it’s a relationship [with another agent]; sometimes they’ve found a niche that they want to work in the marketplace.”

Bernier, McDonough, MacDonald and Cahill all said their companies have agents leave for a short time, then come back and return to their old agencies.

“They often come back,” Bernier said. “We often find they return to us after testing the waters in another company, and decide it wasn’t too bad [here].”