Is joining a team a wise move for Brand New Agents?

You are a brand new agent. I understand you are stuck with this perplexing question. And this topic is in fact is a huge debate for other aspiring agents as well. 

The huge question is: SHOULD YOU JOIN A TEAM WHEN YOU ARE A BRAND NEW REAL ESTATE AGENT?

Do you need to do this if you are a brand new Real Estate Agent?

As a highly experienced team leader at Chatman Realty Group, I will give you my unbiased opinions about joining teams and its pros and cons. 

Now, before delving in any further, I will give you some insights about the structure of teams so you will know exactly what to look for in case you decide to join one. 

As you know, I have been proud to be a part of eXp. What I can say about its structure is, it's really unique and different from your conventional and average Real Estate Brokerage. At eXp, we have people who are used to calling agents, a team because they're a part of their downline hence, they're protecting my team. I have my very own team at Chatman Realty Group, but then my team is under the Honey Badger Network, where we get regular coaching and mentoring. That's the kind of structure that we have at eXp. 

When you say the word team, you might actually think that we meet in a regular office to do team meetings and huddles.  Do we actually have an office? No. 

I have a virtual team. I prefer to meet with my team virtually than having them stuck in an office building because there's no point in doing that. I would want my agents to become more productive and more experienced in the field by being out there showing houses and doing listing presentations. Unlike traditional teams, I would love that my agents get a hands-on and real-time experience of the real world out there as part of their training. 

Next, let's talk about you. 
What is your motive for joining a team? Is it to:

• Learn everything and then bounce? 
  Don't be that person. Real talk here. Have that upfront conversation with the team leader rather than join their team, use their resources, learn their systems as well as their presentations, and then take off the moment you feel confident that you can do it on your own. Trust me, a team leader takes a great deal of money to hone you to become a good agent.
  
  
• Are you serious about being part of a team environment?
  You don't need to do this if you're not the team environment type of individual. But if you are committed to joining a team, have a think about what can you do when you join that team. Think about the type of resources that you can gain or how many leads you're going to acquire.

Now let's talk about the pros and the cons.

PROS:

1. Mentoring
When you sign up with a highly productive team, you will learn and get guidance from your leader who will hone you to be productive as the rest of the team. 

2. Leads. 
When you're on your own, you will need to invest a lot of time and money to go figure how to get a good lead. Joining a team ensures that you are provided with a nice flow of leads to help you get started and grow. 

3. The Processes 
Joining teams that have good processes and systems in terms of lead generation and nurturing their lead will benefit you when you are a newbie. 

3. The CRM 
Teams usually have really good CRMs that you're not having to pay for. I joined eXp and have used KV Core is actually pretty darn good CRM. My entire team uses Real Geeks. We also use Bombomb within Real Geeks. They can call text and video so we can be at the top of the game. So that's a big pro.

4. Branding and Recognition.
Teams come with a really good website that helps with branding recognition

CONS

1. You're not the boss.
You got inspired to quit our 9-5 jobs and join this business so you can be your own boss and take charge of your life. When you join a  team, you're not the boss. You're like an employee who needs to follow what your team leader says. So you need to understand this. 

2. Commission Split
If your main motivation is just the money, then I'm sorry. You're not getting your full commission. When you join a team, you're going to split your commission with the team leader. And then after they take their cut, you will have to split the commission between you, the broker, and if there are still other fees out there. If you're not okay and uncomfortable with that, it's going to be a problem, don't join a team. 

3. Team rules and meetings.
When you join a team, you need to understand that they have rules and that meetings are a regular thing with teams. If you are one of those agents who like to skip meetings like it's not important but want to bug their team leader all the time to get help whenever they feel like it, that's not going to work in a team. 

4. You need to keep producing. 
Your team leader will check up on your on you to make sure they're doing okay, mentally and physically. But when you're not selling and you're looking at their leads, and you can tell they're not being in the system and not making the phone calls, you can expect a difficult conversation with your leader. If you're not the one who likes being held accountable, then you don't click being on the team. It's not for you.

A very important note when joining a team
Don't be shady and try to get leads from your team leader and then go bounce and be writing contracts based on their leads. So many agents to do this. What they don't know is this is a sure-shot way to kill your career in the industry, get your reputation tarnished and destroyed.

The Real Estate Market is very small and the number of agents who sell is even smaller. The last thing you want is for your clients to avoid you because people know you're doing shady stuff. 

I hope you like my blog and find it informative. I hope you find this article helpful in deciding whether you want to be on a team or be a solo agent.

You may also check out my YouTube Video about Joining Teams.