6 Tips to Find a Real Estate Brokerage for
newly licensed real estate agents to join and work

make informed decision when join a real estate brokerage as new real estate agent

Kick starting new real estate agent career

A real estate brokerage that matches your working style and provides tools, technologies, support, motivation and coaching for success as a new real estate agent just entering the market can give you a kick-start needed for a life-long success in real estate career and business development. A solutions-driven mindset, keeping agents' success a top priority and supportive agency culture is the future of real estate.

1. Broker Support

As a new real estate agent, you will have a question on every little step of a real estate business. A newly licensed agent has received some theoretical training from the required real estate licensing courses, from initial onboarding courses by the local board. But the practical training may be quite different for some associates. The computer skills may be different for different agents. This may require real estate broker patience when the agent learns to practically use the multiple listing service portal. A skilled broker identifies those skill limits and walk the real estate agent through the system as the agent starts to work with its clients.
Facilitating the training on the property showings and the training on the lockbox systems in the field is how the knowledgeable broker start with the new agent. Doing open houses by taking the new real estate agent with him or her or delegating that duty to some other experienced real estate agents is important as well. This is how the broker start nurturing with experience to the new agent in the field. Guiding through the negotiating process when an agent works on an offer, the documentation process during making of an offer and dealing with other brokerages' agents is where the new real estate agent needs the initial hand-holding. By asking the questions in details to the real estate broker of the real estate agency is important. The agent should compare as much as broker support information of the different agencies as the agent can practically do. The research will help the associates finding the right real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents.

3. Commissions & Fees

Why the real estate agents are in business is not all about money, but it is a lot about money. What you are taking home from your real estate deals and what are other brokerage fees, training fees, technology fees, transaction fees and marketing fees? These all should all be calculated when comparing real estate brokerages hiring new real estate agents. Some brokerages also offer passive income in real estate agency where a real estate agent can recruit other real estate agents for the real estate brokerage. This builds agent's own team. The brokerage then shares the commission it earns from that real estate agent' team with the agent. This provides the real estate associate an opportunity to earn passive income.
In return the team building real estate associate may have some responsibilities like training his or her real estate team and providing some level of support to its team. This is a great real estate marketing tool for agencies as well. This creates win-win situation for both the real estate agencies as well as the associates if implemented effectively.
The fees and commission splits in these real estate agencies may not seem attractive at the beginning. But when you consider the passive income earning potential from the team, they may well outweigh in the long run.
And finally, if the real estate brokerage's support, coaching and training is strong, then you may take into account these factors. You can evaluate if it is worth giving away a little bit more real estate commission split or a bit higher brokerage fee. But just because you are new and nervous entering into new field, you should not let agencies exploit your fear of lack of experience and charging sky high transaction fees or outrageous commission splits. For most agents it just takes first 2-3 deals to make your confidence shot up. So a thorough research of real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents should be conducted evaluating costs and commission splits.

5. Opportunities for Growth

The traditional real estate brokerages' business model revolves around the associates bringing their own clients and closing the deals with them. The brokerages either keep an agreed upon commission split or a flat transaction fee on per deal basis. This is like a real estate career model where the associate grows its career as an associate. There are more innovative models evolving where the real estate associate can build its own team within the brokerage. This model goes one step ahead as it gives the associate an opportunity for business development. As the associate gets the part of the revenue generated by the brokerage from its team, it creates a potential for passive income for the associate. The different brokerages may have different opportunities for career growth or business growth and other unique commission structures. The associate must ask the real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents what the growth opportunities the agency provides.

We hope all these tips help you finding a top real estate brokerage that is rewarding as a New Agents to join and to work and we wish you the best of luck

2. Real Estate Technology

A modern real estate brokerage utilizes apps, tools and technologies to make the real estate agents' life simple and smooth. Paperless real estate brokerages are getting more and more now. When interviewing with a real estate broker to join a real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents, you should ask how the real estate deal submission process work in the brokerage. Some real estate agencies have developed transaction management systems. Some of these tools can make the entire deal management process paperless. Some transaction management systems have reduced paperwork and some brokerages still have entirely manual process. In manual process, the real estate agents have to drive to drop the paperwork at the real estate brokerage office. There may be some learning curve in the beginning to get used to these transaction management tools and technologies. However, in the long run they save lots of time, effort and costs. These tools and technologies make the real estate broker's life easier as well. Automatic commission calculation displayed on the agent's portal, progress indicators, performance comparisons year-over-year or month-over-month about sold properties can keep the agent on track. A snapshot of real estate revenues on various time periods, easily accessible income and tax slips on the real estate agent portal are some other examples. These all make difference in making the agent focusing on finishing the real estate deals and focus on real estate leads generation and worrying less about documentation submission or access to information.

4. Training & Coaching

Training and coaching provided by the real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents should make one of the top priorities when considering to join a real estate agency to work. The real estate business is one of the highly regulated fields. You will will have to be compliant with laws, rules and regulations on many fronts. These include your local real estate regulator or licensing body, FINTRAC, your real estate board, your provincial real estate association, real estate exchange fund and laws around handling trust funds. Training and coaching on these items should be top priority for a real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents. Effective training on the tools that the agency is using, checklist of the forms and training on how to complete each of those real estate forms should be part of training. Ask the real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents if they have step by step training and onboarding program. The program should include how to effectively serve the home buyers and sellers by utilizing the listing services, doing comparative analysis to estimate market values of the properties etc. An effective real estate broker not only focuses on the documentation and compliance but also provides mentorship to its real estate teams.

6. Real Estate Lead Generation & CRM

Online real estate lead generation is popular. COVID-19 has taken this trend to new heights. There are generally two types of real estate leads people generate online: residential buyer leads and residential seller lead. Residential home buyer leads target the potential buyers by placing attractive homes for sale ads. The seller leads are generated using ads like "What is my Calgary home worth?" The potential home sellers then complete the home evaluation form with their contact info. This generates a targeted hot and warm leads that are much better than the cold calls. These real estate leads are then saved into CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. These potential home buyers and home seller leads are automatically followed and nurtured via text messages and by sending email listings. The real estate brokerage hiring new real estate agents that provides the agents the ability to participate these ads is a big plus. Especially for new real estate agents, the paid lead generation option can give a jump start to the career of a new real estate agent.