REB 138: Slave to the Team?!?!?

I recently heard of a large, local real estate team who has the most asinine notion of how to get a new agent started.

Transcript

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Welcome back, welcome back. Hey, I got a story to tell you. Something that blew my mind. I recently sat down with an agent, uh, was recruiting them, was talking to them about their career and the things that they were going through, what their goals were, et cetera, et cetera. But, anyways, this person told me that they had joined a team uh inside of a very large brokerage. And the way that the team was structured, this this agent, their job as the new and newly licensed agent, who um this only happens because you know they're brand new licensed, so they have no production, right? So, as this newly licensed agent going into this team, they were given the job of basically all they could do was run around and show houses for more productive agents, right? He was getting paid a relatively low hourly rate to drive his car around and show other agents' clients homes. Um and uh I mean that's you know, honestly, that's not a bad way for a young agent who does not have a pipeline, who does not have much of a bus book of business or or no book of business at all, really, to make a little bit of money. I get that. That that um it gives them some experience, it gives them time in the field, uh, gives them time to look at homes, um, assess homes, listen to clients, have conversations with clients, talk about real estate with with people, right? Which is fantastic. But you know, on the other side of that, um I think too, like, okay, you know, this person, this agent told me that they they tended to run uh buyers for the same buyers for the same agents quite a bit. Boy, if I was that buyer, um, oh, and here's the other thing, too. They they're not really allowed to talk about the home and features of the home, um, with the exception of price. This this is what this agent told me. I'm not making this shiz up. This is what it blows my mind. So for any sort of in-depth um conversation about the property, especially regarding strategy or how certain things they see may affect um the value, how you know, okay, we like these things, but we don't. How do we strategize about prices? Well, they have to go and call. Oops, they got to go and call the agent, you know, who their regular agent who's not there at the property and who just sent this young agent out to go show houses so that they don't have to, right? Um boy, that seems to be something that might be frustrating for that prospective buyer. That, you know, hey, I want to talk about this particular house and some of the details of it, but I can't talk with the agents who're sitting here showing me the house. I got to go call my agent who's not here with me and discuss a house that they didn't go see with me and and talk through details, it doesn't even make a whole lot of sense. So um I do understand that okay, if an agent can't make it, we we call this young person up, this new agent, and have them run and pay them a little bit of money. Um, but you know, once we can get back in the field with our our clients, then then we will doesn't seem to be the way it's working over there. Now that's just one piece. Here comes the stuff that really had me cooked when he was talking about it. Things that I I don't understand. So he this agent is limited to just showing houses, okay? If this agent sort of wants to get their business going, what they have to do is bring 10 qualified leads to the brokerage, to the team, that those leads get and then get dispersed to experienced agents who are going to work those. And once the newly licensed agent has brought 10 qualified leads to the team, then they can begin to start working independently in the field with their own clients. Let me explain this to you guys. Um, if you think for a moment that that's legit or fair at all, you are terribly mistaken. So 10 leads is one thing, 10 qualified leads and active leads. That's what it is. I'm 10 active leads, okay. That those are paychecks, man. Okay, so a qualified lead, they they may be one thing, you know, they're qualified, they can buy or they can sell, or whatever, but they're not ready, they're not in the market. An active lead is in the market. An active lead equals a commission, it equals a paycheck. Okay, so you're telling this new agent they need to bring 10 active leads to the brokerage for more experienced agents to work, and and not for you. Now you're bringing active leads, man. Those are your people, first and foremost. So you're taking people whom whatever you did to get them as an active lead, you did it, you did that work. They came to you as an active lead. Now you're gonna hand them to someone who they don't know, regardless of experience level. You're gonna hand them off to someone whom they don't know to work them, and you get to sit by and watch that person take the commission. And 10 active leads, holy shit, guys, listen. Median sale price in Lorraine County is about $250,000 right now. Okay, 10 of those is $2.5 million in production. Okay, that's getting you a raise just about any brokerage that you join, or at least it should. Okay, $2.5 million in production at a 3% commission is roughly $75,000 of gross income. You're telling this new agent, in order to join my team, and and we cut you off into this great wide world to start your career and to start working independently as a real estate salesperson in the state of Ohio, you got to give away $75,000 of gross income to somebody else? That's criminal, man. I I couldn't believe it when this agent was telling me that was the program that they had got stuck into. And I asked this agent, I mean, they they've been there for a decent amount of time. Wasn't quite a year, but a decent amount of time. And I asked him about, well, at least you're getting mentorship, right? At least you're you're you're spending time with you know some of these agents and they're and they're really educating you about this, right? And and he said, not really. So then I started to ask him questions about the market and about experience and about sales, and he didn't have answers, which told me that no, not really. He wasn't getting any sort of mentorship at all. Okay. Um so again, he joins this team, he's not getting any mentorship. And then they tell him, you gotta bring 10 active leads to the team before we really start allowing you to get out in the field on your own and do this stuff. Now, one thing I wasn't sure of, one thing I was not, and uh, because he hadn't brought active leads to the team yet, one thing that wasn't certain was does he get a cut of any of that commission? Right? When he brings that active lead, does he get a cut? And in my opinion, it doesn't matter. You know, the reality is if he brings those active leads to the team, um he shouldn't be giving them to someone else. That uh worst case scenario is he says, okay, hey, team leader, I've got an active lead. I want to start working. And team leader says, all right, we're going to assign Billy or Susie to work with you on this, and they're going to get 10% of the cut. But this is your client and your customer to work with until the end, until until you've consummated the contract and they purchased and or sold the house, and your fiduciary obligations to them have ceased, right? This is your client. You brought it, it's your active lead. We're going to get working. Billy or Susie is going to mentor you through this deal. They're going to get 10%, 15%, right? Any more than that. And we're starting to gouge a little bit because I'm sure the remainder of it is still subject to whatever splits, right, are in place, whatever commission splits have been negotiated between young agent and team leader, which I guarantee aren't great for young agent, right? Um, so, anyways, but that's not how he described it to me. He described it as I've got to give this act of lead up to another agent, and it would be their client. That's how it was described. That's criminal. So even if they get any part of that $75,000, I mean, you just take it from the guy. You're just taking from him. You're basically stealing from him. I mean, how if you're that team leader, how do you feel good about that? How do you feel good about this program? And and listen, here's the thing that I do understand, right? As a broker, as a trainer, um, as someone who has seen many new agents come and go very quickly, as someone who's seen many new agents come and go and not do a whole lot, some of them not do anything, right? And and it does cost money to bring these people on and to put any kind of time into training them. Um I understand that you're you may be trying to find uh an avenue for this agent to work in that provides some value to your team while you're testing out to see whether or not they're going to be of any worth. But the reality is if they bring one active lead to you in any decent amount of time, they're proving their worth. They're proven they know how to generate those leads that turn into commissions for the organization, right? Let alone 10. 10 is crazy, man. 10 is crazy. Could not believe I heard this from this guy. Couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. Right? I'm doing a real estate bites episode about it. It blows my mind. How is that possible? If you're that team leader, shame on you, if you're that young agent who's being proposed this, if in any part of the deal they're telling you you can be part of our organization, however, you gotta give up clients to us before we really let you do anything. I mean, at the at this time, this young agent, I mean, he was showing houses for 16 bucks an hour, but wasn't even allowed to run an open house. Wasn't even allowed to run an open house. That's like, you know, that's like new agent 101. You know, okay, we start, we're brand new. What are some of the fundamental things that we do to learn about the industry, to try to generate some business, to try to win a lead, go run an open house. Find a more experienced agent who doesn't want to do it or who's, you know, has a listing that's still active. Ask them if you can run an open house. That's just one of those things. It's a small thing and it doesn't generate very much business at all, if any, but you get the opportunity, right, to go work an open house and have conversations with prospective buyers about real estate. Um, and maybe, just maybe, you win a buyer through the process, right? And you get to start working them. He's not even allowed to do that inside this team structure. He literally just has to slave around doing something that somebody else doesn't want to do. However, he's not even really allowed to completely do that. All he's allowed to do is go open doors and let people in and say, Yeah, this one's $250,000. Tell me what you think, or call your agent, actually, tell them what you think. Not allowed to run out of houses and any legion that he does, that becomes a victory, that becomes a client, he's got to give away not just one or two or three, but ten seventy-five thousand dollars possibly of gross income, gotta give that away before you're allowed to really do the job on your own. It's asinine, man. So again, if you're that team leader who came up with that crackpot program, I don't know. I don't know, huh? And if you're that young agent who's being proposed, hey, this is how we're gonna get you in and help you cut your teeth and learn about the industry, run. There's better options. Call me, I'm easy to find. Hey. As always, thanks for joining me, guys. Thanks for listening to me rant about this wacky scenario that I heard about recently. Um, and as always, take care of yourselves and take care of one another. I love you, people. Until next time.