Joining a real estate brokerage allows agents to have a name and brand connected to them that customers can recognize, but it also gives them access to resources and opportunities that they can use to help grow their business. For some brokerages, those opportunities and affiliations include nationally-based real estate services.
Fran Broude, president and COO of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Chicago, says Coldwell Bankers’ affiliation with Realogy and NRT LLC allows local brokerages to have access to a host of resources and can tout that spectrum of resources and support to their clients, which includes relocation, mortgage, title and settlement services.
“It opens up Coldwell Banker affiliated agents to a comprehensive, yet select suite of resources that can then be tailored to the needs of their individual businesses,” Broude says.
But brokerage affiliations are not just connections to technology, but to agents across the country who can provide advice, guidance and overall support. Jenny Ames of Ames Group Chicago has utilized her team’s Coldwell Banker association in order to connect with agents with a diverse set of skills and backgrounds in order to help better her own business.
“My business has grown from networking with agents who have an entrepreneurial mindset, and who rally behind each other to be stronger agents and provide a higher caliber of service for our clients,” Ames says.
National affiliations can also lead to access to tools before competitors. Coldwell Banker was the first brokerage in Chicago to partner with Moxi Present to provide a cloud CMA to its agents, according to Aimee Lerner, director of marketing and senior strategist at NRT. But being first is not the top priority for Coldwell Banker, it is also important to seek out the best.
“In the end, we want to ensure that we are able to provide tools that can truly make agents’ lives easier by simplifying the real estate process, from beginning to end,” she says.
However, the tools and resources offered by any brokerage are only as valuable as the agents who choose how and if to use them. Figuring out the most crucial needs that they may have as an agent is the first step to finding the best tools provided that they can use to take their career to the next level.
“Partnerships can breed innovation, creativity and financial gain. Every partner — and the tools they offer — supplies our affiliated agents with a foundation to grow their business, and provide an even higher level of service to their customers,” Broude says. “Our affiliated agents are empowered to take that technology and leverage it in new and exciting ways. When agents do well, the brokerage is more likely to do well.”