7 Questions You must ASK before Choosing The Right Brokerage.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed about all the things that you need to know about what to look for when you are choosing a brokerage especially if you are a brand new agent. So in today’s blog, I will tell you what questions should you be asking when you're looking to find the right brokerage? 

Let’s list down all the questions you need to know before selecting a brokerage.

1. Who is the person in charge?
Get to know the team leader for the broker. Are you going with a smaller brokerage or a large brokerage? You really need to get an understanding of who that individual is, and what their stroke is in the organization. You need to understand what it is that they're going to be able to provide for you as well as the brokers and what direction they're going in. You need to be able to understand who you will be working with. 

2. What is their onboarding process like?
You want to make sure you have an onboarding process. If not, then you're just another number getting thrown through there like a drone. You want to make sure that there’s going to be someone who's guiding you when you’re joining their organization and they have an onboarding process organized

3. What type of mentoring and coaching are they going to be giving you?
Ask them if you have to pay for any mentoring and coaching. Make sure you understand that there's not a lot that's given for free in this industry. In some of the bigger places, when you first come as a brand new agent, you go into a mentorship program and some of your commission is then split with that mentor. Make sure you ask those questions and you have a good understanding of how many deals do you have to complete in that particular brokerage mentor program. 

4. What type of ongoing support is your brokerage going to provide for you? 
What type of training do they have? Is the training actually good? Ask them if you can see what kind of training, these guys are doing. Here at eXp, you guys can get a day pass and come in with us and check out our training anytime you want to to get a feel for it, just so you can see if this online virtual brokerage is the right place for you. Pretty much anyone will let you see their training and see what's going on. If people won't do that, then that's going to be a problem. 

5. What are the fees for this particular brokerage? 
What's the startup cost? There are some startup fees within this so you need to understand how much their material costs. How much do they charge for printing? 
if you're printing on-site, there is a monthly fee involved. You need to understand that as well. Do they have a broker review or transaction fee? What's the commission split? What is the cap? Here at eXp, we have an 80 20 split in which the company takes 20% and you take 80% in the cap of $16,000. Make sure you understand what the fees are, then do the math. 

6. What kind of Real Estate Technology do they have?
What kind of CRM and Real Estate Technology do they use in their brokerage? A bad CRM is going to cost you time, energy, money, and a whole lot of frustration. You want to make sure that they have a CRM that's going to work well and help you be productive and connect to your leads. You also want to make sure that they have good document writing processes. Make sure you understand the technology that they currently use in their brokerage.

7. What are their agents like?
Look up their agents so you can check if they are being productive. Try to see what they're doing. Have a conversation with the agents and see what they actually get from their brokerage. Try to see if they're happy. If you see a bunch of people who are not happy, it might not be the best place for you. However, if you have people who are doing really well, who are willing to share their ideas with you, and be supportive that's a good place to be. No matter where you are, you want to be around people who are productive, and people who are willing to share the information.

These are some key questions that you need to understand so you can see the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the brokerage. If you're curious about eXp, and you want to see what we have to offer, let me know. Remember if you decide to go with eXp, you also need to decide who your sponsor is going to be and what network they are involved in because if you end up choosing the wrong person, you're not going to get all the bells and whistles. 

I hope you find this information valuable. Please let me know if you have any questions.