A word to agents: Consider more than money

Julie Greenwood knows that agents who hang their licenses with her company aren’t looking for the highest commission splits. "Good, professional agents don’t go somewhere just for the split," says Greenwood, broker-owner at Greenwood-King Properties Inc. in Houston. "I can’t really say we’ve ever had an agent join us just for our commission plan."

What good agents want, says Greenwood, are companies with good reputations in the marketplace and an established infrastructure that includes marketing, management, advertising, and brand support. "Agents should be looking at the whole picture," she says. "They should seek out a market leader who can provide them with all of the services that they need to operate successfully."

At Greenwood-King, those services include a direct-mail program, a team of professionals who show the company’s listings, a public-relations professional, and a full-time graphics designer who creates marketing materials for the company and its agents.

It also includes an in-house advertising agency, full-color brochures, and a two-page ad in the Houston Chronicle every week.

Darla J. Scott, president of Management Masters, LLC, in Philadelphia says the key factors that an agent should be looking for in a brokerage are (by order of importance): company reputation (including the owners, management, and agents), administrative support services, commission plans, technology and training, and market share.

"Agents have to focus on all of the services and support that a brokerage can provide, and not just get lured into changing or choosing companies based on the commission plan," Greenwood adds. "When I was an agent and thinking about changing companies, I never asked about the commission plan. It wasn’t what it was about."

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