Perhaps counterintuitively, the National Association of Realtors DANGER report lists successful real estate teams as one of the biggest threat to brokerages. But that’s because successful teams have a tendency to outgrow their brokerages and become the competition. Massachusetts brokerages see if differently. They embrace the team concept and manage, rather than fear it.

Real estate agent teams in the commonwealth tend to have three to seven members, said Merit McIntyre, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New England. That’s a very different structure from teams in the western part of the county, where teams of up to 75 or 100 agents could devastate a brokerage’s bottom line with their departure.

“I see it more as an opportunity than a risk,” McIntyre said. “For some, it’s an ideal way to grow. We have some of the most successful teams in the country right here in Massachusetts. We’ve been doing it for a long time.”

When an agent is so successful that they can’t serve all the customers who come to them, it’s natural for them to hire help – and McIntyre’s firm encourages that.

“It’s the evolution of a top producer,” he said. “I would say we have four teams who do in excess of $100 million in closed sales a year. That’s how well we’ve mastered the model.”

Anthony Lamacchia has seen the team model from the perspective of a team leader and a broker. “I’m a case study on being an agent, building a team, building a power team and turning it into a brokerage,” said Lamacchia, broker/owner and CEO of Waltham-based Lamacchia Realty. “I do consider it a threat if the brokerage allows the team to get out of control. Teams are wonderful, but if brokerages don’t have guidelines, teams can hijack the brokerage’s split.”

Some high-production team leaders get generous splits from the brokerage and pay far less generous splits to less-experienced team members. This has the effect of siphoning profits away from the brokerage, which Lamacchia said does not work in his business model.

“I don’t fear teams,” he said. “I manage them.”

Teams are the future of real estate, said Stacey Alcorn, owner of LAER Realty, adding that she encourages their formation within her brokerage, especially for agents who have more business than they can handle.

“They are not a threat to brokerages, except where brokerages do not learn to embrace them,” she said. “I have embraced teams since launching LAER in 2014 because it makes the brokerage grow faster. I can sleep easy knowing that the customers who call us are being well served.”

Evolution Of A Team

Each of the brokers interviewed for this story said the team concept is a growing trend and if managed properly, can be a mutually beneficial relationship between the team and the brokerage.

“There’s an evolution that happens when a rainmaker gets to a certain point,” McIntyre said. “Some want to build a team and we coach to that. For some, it’s an ideal way to grow.”

McIntyre said when an agent gets really busy, the first thing they need is administrative help. As they continue to grow, they might hire an agent to work with buyers, so the team leader can focus more on listings. The next step might be to hire an agent to help with listings or other aspects of the business.

“Here’s an example: We do a billion dollars of relocation work in New England every year,” McIntyre said. “A team can have an agent go out and focus on relocation work. That will expand the team’s reach geographically and it has enhanced our relo business tremendously.”

Some of Alcorn’s teams serve as a training ground for new agents. They work side-by-side with successful, established team leaders and get an accelerated education on best practices in the field. She says that’s good for the team and good for her company.

“We show them how to recruit and retain team members who transact,” Alcorn said. “A great deal of our training for agents is on entrepreneurship, recruiting talent and building a business. In other words, to embrace the future of real estate, which is teams, we need to be really good at developing leaders, not just teaching people how to sell.”

Brand Management

Both McIntyre and Larry Rideout, co-owner of Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, agree that brokers need to have very clear policies regarding branding. Rideout encourages teams to develop their own brands, but he is strict about how the company brand is portrayed.

“We’ve invested enormous sums of money in our brand,” he said. “We think that’s powerful and our teams see the value in that. We don’t want to see different colored signs and logos. The integrity of our brand is important. We support agents promoting themselves, but we don’t allow our logo to be changed in any way.”

The relationship between a team and a brokerage also has to be symbiotic, he said, which has some of the top producing teams in the state. His company offers top-quality support to both agents and teams – because if they didn’t, those high-producers would quickly look for greener pastures.

“We have to adapt to the team model and make sure everyone wins. That’s the challenge of owning a brokerage,” Rideout said with a laugh “Every agent will eventually leave you. Management will only delay the process.”