The Future Real Estate Agent

What does the  real estate brokerage of the future look like?  It would look like this:

1.It would be consumer-centric in every way, from the core of its business model to every substantive and procedural aspect of its business.
2.It would have numerous free services on the Internet for consumers that are easy to use, easy to navigate, and provide the kind of information that helps consumers get what they are searching for immediately.1
3.It would shed archaic ways of doing business that are expensive and unproductive.
4.The epicenter of the brokerage would not be a brick-and-mortar building, since clients are not typically walking into real estate offices anymore but using the Internet.2  There’s nothing wrong with a central office, but having one with dozens of agents and thousands of square feet just takes us to a traditional model again, which is expensive and which clients don’t care about.  When we realize that clients just want to buy or sell a home, we begin to comprehend that clients don’t care if we own a big building.  They don’t have a need to meet in a beautiful and expensive office.  That’s our notion, not theirs.
5.The brokerage would give agents everything they need to serve their clients with the best possible customer service tools, the best online resources for their clients, and the best training and mentoring available to all agents, no matter their experience level.
6.The brokerage would create a virtual presence on the Internet second to none, with websites, blogs, and search engine optimization that generates great leads and pleases potential clients.  This is the melding of extraordinary technology (a modern invention) with the best sales and marketing methods (principles that have been around forever).
7.The brokerage would teach their agents how to bridge the gap from their PCs to the mobile Internet.
8.The brokerage would have the best online virtual training tools for their agents, accessible at the convenience of agents 24/7, with daily live training and seminars, and with an extensive archive of training material.  I realize some franchise brokers will think they already have these tools, but many of their online tools are either poorly designed or outdated.  I share this from personal experience with two major franchises.
9.The brokerage would create a network of masterminds on a nationwide network that specifically trains their agents.3
10.The brokerage would give all their agents the highest practical commission split, perhaps 80% without nickel and diming them on dozens of other costs and fees.
11.The brokerage would create a compensation system that goes way beyond standard commissions, giving agents the opportunity to recruit and train other agents and be compensated accordingly, but this compensation model would have to be substantially better than any of the current profit sharing or residual commission plans, none of which are working especially well now.  The idea is to create true residual income.
12.Because the brokerage places the consumer at the center of the Universe, all of these tools, training, and motivation it gives to its agents redounds to the benefit of consumers.  The consumers are the real winners in this model, and the agents are better equipped to help their clients in every way.

Where in this world, you ask, would one find such a real estate brokerage?  There is one, and few know about it yet.  It’s called eXp Realty, and in my humble opinion, this is the brokerage of the future.  The description above of the ideal brokerage of the future is precisely a description of eXp Realty.  So impressed am I with their business model and their infrastructure, I joined eXp Realty recently as the broker of a branch office in my area.

Agents who have an interest in being a part of the ideal future real estate brokerage ought to take a look at the eXp Realty website, FutureRealEstateBroker.com.  I can be reached anytime at 360-775-5424, or via email at chuckmarunde@gmail.com.