Here at Team Pinto, we recently made a very exciting (for us) move in joining eXp Realty. For many different reasons, some of which we'll elaborate on later, on both a personal and professional level, the move from ReMax to eXp Realty is one we are very glad we made.
However, this raised a very good question from a client recently: does it matter which real estate brokerage my real estate agent works for? And as no matter with whom we are affiliated on a professional level our commitment to our clients always comes first, it's a question we wanted to answer here today.
Do Real Estate Brokers Have to Work for a Real Estate Brokerage?
There are many reasons why individual real estate brokers - and real estate representatives- must be registered with a licensed real estate brokerage when they work in Canada (and indeed, most places in the world.)
Managing "trust" accounts, guaranteeing security when handling deposit money for real estate acquisitions, audited record keeping, and other factors are a few of the reasons.
On order to maintain their particular brand at the forefront of people's minds and to get agents to work for their brokerages, many real estate brokerages (the brand) invest millions of dollars in advertising.
They make an effort to persuade members of the public and real estate professionals that if their brand is more well-known, their real estate brokers would have a better chance of gaining a larger market share (if you are a real estate broker).
Or if you deal with a real estate broker or real estate representative from that brokerage, your home has a better chance of selling for more money.
For anyone who thinks that, it is a harmful misconception that has to be dispelled.
Please understand that firstly, real estate brokerages do NOT sell anything, their people do. As in their agents, none of whom are employees of said business. They ALL work as independent contractors.
Secondly, you (the client) do NOT hire the company (the brand) to provide the overall experience and results when you sell or buy a Waterloo Region home.
You hire the INDIVIDUAL who you deem most capable of achieving the results you expect, and who you trust, and respect, and most likely have a good rapport with.
You hire them based on their credentials and ability, and also their personal style and personal fit for you. You - if you follow best practices - will interview possible matches and choose the one that you feel most comfortable with. The chances are that in those interviews the brokerage they are affiliated with will rarely be mentioned (if at all.)
Consider the following two scenarios:
1. “ABC Realty” has a great recruiting program and has been in the business for 100 years, do a LOT of marketing, and are a very recognizable name to many people. But the agent you hired (from “ABC Realty”) has only been in the real estate business for six months.
He has very little experience and is notorious for not returning client phone calls and for not being thorough in his paperwork. Additionally, he does not proactively market properties to potential buyers.
2. “XYZ Realty” has been in business for nowhere near as long, and is only now starting to become a recognizable name to the general public.
However, the agent you hired (from “XYZ Realty”) has been in the business for a number of years and has extensive training in sales, customer service, and marketing along with being highly trained in negotiating.
Furthermore, this agent - or our in our case, real estate team, is known for returning client phone calls within minutes and managing expectations to ensure you avoid disappointment.
They are also proactive—working long hours to aggressively and effectively market your property to potential buyers—and he follows up on buyer showings and hustles offers .
Which real estate professional do you think would provide you with a better overall experience?
Which one will achieve greater results for you—as in more money in your pocket?
Which individual would you rather hire to help you buy and/or sell your most valuable asset – your Waterloo Region home?
The moral of the story here is the importance of hiring the right INDIVIDUAL real estate broker or team to help you sell or buy your single largest asset.
Why We Made a Switch
So, if it is the individual team, not the brokerage, that should really matter to clients, why did Team Pinto make the switch from a long-established, globally recognized real estate brokerage to one that is considered, in many ways, to be the new kid on the block?
The answer is not easy to put in a few words. For Team Pinto as a business, and for us as people, the move made a great deal of sense. One of our biggest strengths as a Waterloo Region real estate team, one that has helped us sell a lot of homes, is our commitment to ensuring that our clients are given the best possible service.
This has meant doing things that others don't, like producing very high quality property videos - even using drone photography - making heavy use of digital marketing and social media to help our clients achieve their real estate goals and ensuring that we are not just available whenever our clients need us, but that communication is in the form they prefer, whether that is over the phone, via text, email, video conferencing or over a great cup of coffee in person.
This is not business as usual in the real estate world, and we were hoping to find a real estate brokerage that appreciated - and even supported - our approach. And, in eXp Realty, we have.
In addition to enjoying great support in terms of additional resources and even more training, we also now have a chance to grow Team Pinto - something we have long wanted to do - in order to serve even more Waterloo Region homebuyers and home sellers - by adding additional real estate professionals to our team, and ensuring that they grow and prosper right alongside us.
If you would like to learn more, either as a home seller, a home buyer, or as a real estate professional interested in joining an exciting new team, we would love for you to get in touch with us. You can do so here - and as promised, we'll open the line of communication in whatever way works best for you!