Let me start by saying this was NOT written with AI. I’m a developer, and we build AI, but I want you guys to read this from my actual perspective. I did use spell check, but forgive my human mistakes as I want this to be me talking to you, not some AI summary of my thoughts.
With that said…
When I first got my license, I was so excited to get interviewed by my first brokerage. They are a really big company known for their training and I had heard that I should start with them so I could get the free training (turned out it wasn’t all free). I remember going in, wearing my most expensive suit, holding my resume (with references), and a list of 30 rehearsed questions so I could “get the job”. I think I had watched too many movies, and definitely didn’t know how brokerages worked at the time.
After I walked in, I was shown to the conference room with 12 other agents and followed in by the local franchise office recruiter (who was not an agent herself). She handed us onboarding paperwork, didn’t speak to any of us individually, then asked: “Does anyone have any questions?” No one raised their hand. So now I had to be ‘that guy’, the one with the 30 prewritten questions. I decided to ask her just one. I asked “So, it looks like you guys are getting about 50% of the commission when you add up all of the fees. What percentage of the work will you be doing?” She lightly chuckled and said that I was an independent contractor and would be doing 100% of the work, but if I had any questions that they’d love to help. That seemed pretty steep a cost, and I left with two thoughts: 1. Brokerages don’t do anything, and 2. Their support is reactive, not proactive, so I will need to be a squeaky wheel if I want any real help.
Those feelings and thoughts never left me.
Fast forward to 2021, during the second lockdown, and Houston had something called the “big freeze”. Basically, the entire town shut down and everyone’s pipes had exploded in their garages and attics. Janice, Chris, and I were in the process of the second-wave of Covid lockdowns (Delta) and were hanging out at what I lovingly referred to as “the Club” aka Zoom.
At the time, real estate was hard to sell because sellers didn’t want strangers in their homes, and buyers were cautious about attending open houses and about whether to wear masks. I remember hosting an open house and checking everyone’s temperatures before letting them in (my seller required it). It was a strange time for all of us.
We were hanging out at “the club” talking about real estate and all of the micro issues that one deals with as an agent. Chris was complaining about installing a sign (the hard ground wasn’t helping), I was trying to convince Janice to do my paperwork for me as that’s the thing I hated the most, and Janice had a million showings for the weekend and no one to help with the kids. At this point, we had already complained about brokerages not doing anything except providing “tools” which we routinely mocked as outdated and not helpful. I remember making the point that using a “tool” is just another way for you to do it yourself. The brokerage wasn’t actually doing anything. We had routinely contemplated changing to another brokerage, one that would help and do some of the work. We had looked, texted each other links, read all the blogs, posted in Facebook groups, but couldn’t find anything that seemed truly different for our day to day work.
It was at that moment I asked Janice and Chris about an idea. A brokerage that worked for the agent instead of the other way around. One that did work FOR the agent and had Proactive support instead of reactive. Basically, the opposite of every real estate brokerage we could find. Janice immediately fired off that this new brokerage could do the compliance side of paperwork for the agents since some of us (me) hated it. Chris mentioned that the brokerage could install signs for the agents since he hated it so much. That became a snowball effect of “what else can we do for the agents?” That questions remained a staple of every single weekly board meeting for the next 3 years and is still something we routinely ask.
We didn’t set out to be the brokerage that had 100+ benefits. We didn’t even set out to be the fastest-growing cloud brokerage in history (that came organically later). We just wanted to help agents like us and make sure no agent felt left behind. We had all three each felt like we were on an island where being an Independent Contractor meant being alone and figuring it out yourself. Real estate sales have always been sink-or-swim, but recognizing that a sink-or-swim environment only benefits those who can swim well (sharks), not the everyday people who are just awesome agents just trying to make a living.
We recognized early that agents do enough work, and that brokerages do, and offer, very little besides a few “tools” and “opportunity”. We wanted to create something different and more that could truly change the lives of real estate agents in our industry. We set out to create a company that would encourage other brokerages to change their structures (and now they’re starting to!). It hasn’t been easy. To be honest, it’s the hardest thing any of us has ever done. But when we hear the stories of agents whose lives were saved by the mental health care, lifesaving prescriptions covered, dogs lives saved because of the vet coverage, and so many more instances, we are reminded why we started this to begin with.
From one real estate agent to another, I want you to know that we hear you. You’re not alone anymore. We have your back and we are just getting started. No matter where you end up in this industry, we are rooting for you and proud of you.
You do enough.