Reasons To Work For A Small Real Estate Office

An article from The Motley Fool caught my eye recently.  The article was titled, “4 Reasons You Should Work For A Small Business”.  Having been involved in small business for most of my life, I always wondered why someone might choose that path of employment over working for a large firm.  The author gave four reasons to work for a small office.

1. You want to learn lots of jobs
2. You have access to the boss
3. You want to run a small company
4. You want flexibility

Reasons You Should Work For A Small Real Estate Office

I’ve worked in a lot of real estate offices, and I thought it might be interesting to tie the four reasons to work for a small company specifically to real estate offices.

1. You want to learn lots of jobs. Ok, as a real estate broker, sometimes I think I’m wearing too many hats.  Finance, bookkeeping, marketing, advertising, human resources, compliance, licensure are all things I deal with on a daily business.  This is in addition to showing buyers homes and helping sellers list theirs!  I think this is what motivates me.  True, you can be really average at a lot of things but you can also see what you are good at, because you always have an opportunity in a small real estate office!  A while back, I told my boss that I thought he was doing something wrong.  He told me that he thought I could do better anyway so just get to it.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to do the same job every day.    Learning lots of jobs is mentally stimulating.

 

2. You have access to the boss. This goes without saying.  Real estate brokers talk with their real estate agents and office staff on a daily basis.  I greatly prefer this to working for a large organization.  As an example, sometimes you want to understand the direction of the company.  In a large organization, you may not see the direction because you are in just one small section of the company, unable to see the entire machine.  I think this can cause mistrust between employees and management and be a generally unhealthy situation.  In a small real estate office, you know exactly what the boss is thinking and you agree to it, or you move on to another office that aligns closer to your business philosophy.

 

3. You want to run a small company. I worked for three small real estate brokerages before I opened Deerwood Realty.  Did I want to run a small company in the beginning?  Frankly, in real estate, I can’t figure out any reason to work for a franchised brokerage.  Real estate brokerage recruiters can promise technology, training, teamwork, etc., but at the end of the day you have to have clients.

 

4. You want flexibility. I generally believe this is true in most small real estate brokerages across the United States.  However, many real estate agents confuse flexibility with not working.  To have success in real estate, you have to be willing to put in the work.  We don’t typically work 9 to 5 days.  It’s usually work whenever someone wants to see a house and do the paperwork when no one else does.

Additional Reasons To Work For Small Real Estate Office

There are additional reasons to work for a small real estate office.  I’m not sure if they are exclusive to real estate or if they transfer to other industries.

5. A sense of civic pride. When you are working in a small real estate office, your clients and business come from the local community.  Local real estate companies really don’t pay attention to what is going on across the country or across the state because the majority of their clients are making moves within the community.  Many offices get involved with local charities.  Contrast this approach with something like the Zillow monster, and it makes you wonder why anyone uses Zillow at all?

 

6. You learn how to take care of people.  St. Louis isn’t that big and yet there are more than 8,000 agents!  If you aren’t treating your clients right, they will find someone who does.  This means that every process in a small real estate office must be built around taking care of your clients.  After all, at Deerwood Realty, we get to know our clients so that we can help them sell their home for top dollar (if that’s what they are looking for) or buy a home they hope to live in forever.  You can’t do this type of work and not take care of your clients.

 

7. You meet some real characters. I don’t know if real estate sales bring out the crazies on purpose or not, but everywhere I’ve been, there’s always at least one or two agents who are just nuts.  Drama, huge mood swings, obsessiveness, it’s all out there.   For a while, I would get upset, because I didn’t want to cross them, but now, with my own brokerage, I sort of like to remember all the people from back in the day and just how odd they were.

Whether you are listing your home for sale, or looking to buy your dream home, Deerwood Realty is here to take care of your real estate needs.  Give us a call today to start your journey.