Dependency is hardwired in humans, we love structure, predictability and approval. We see these fundamentals solicited by real estate brokerages in different forms to pull agents in off the street and offer them shelter in this world of real estate. It’s not wrong, they do offer this authority and even the most competent agent will gravitate unconsciously towards these fundamentals. We love to tell ourselves “if something goes wrong, I’m not alone.”
The psychology of dependency often keeps many of us in places we don’t belong. It can be the governor to our success and dreams. When we pursue those successes and dreams our human hardwiring loves to draw us in a lateral direction into another place of dependency. You have seen this and likely experienced it yourself, it’s not uncommon for agents to work at three different brokerages in a five year period while chasing their goals. I’m not arguing the purpose of a real estate brokerage, it’s my goal for you to consider that the perfect brokerage, may be your own.
Our conversation here at the Independent Broker is not anti-brokerage, it’s pro-ownership. It goes without saying, this is not for everyone but everyone should consider it. You own your clients and generate the revenue. You carry the workload but operate inside of this structure with rules you didn’t design and don’t control. This is all masked by the psychology of dependency we discussed, these things can often feel good on the surface but you’re paying for permission to produce while funding a brand that isn’t yours. A lot of agents thrive and belong here in these environments and I’m in full support of them. For the others who want to design the structure, control the economics and build equity in your own company.. You’re in the right place.
I sat in my windowless office in the basement of a prominent mom and pop brokerage waiting for our team meeting to begin when a phone call came in. A phone call that would rapidly change the course of my career. It wasn’t my phone that rang but my team leader’s phone, I knew it was his in large part to his ringer volume set to the max and more logically, I was the first to arrive in our team’s office which felt more like an underground bunker void of the warm August sun. The team lead answered, and thanks again to his volume settings, I was able to hear most everything said on both ends..
TL “how’s it going”
B “Not good”
TL “what’s wrong”
B “I need you to pack your things and leave the office, you’re terminated effective immediately”
There were additional exchanges stemming from complete shock by the team lead and some frustration from the broker, none of which made any impact. The team leads affiliation had been cut, MLS access was already dropped and by the end of the call he was legally not allowed to provide real estate brokerages services. As you can imagine, this is a doomsday event in the world of real estate and our little bunker was not protected from it. Making matters worse it was a Thursday afternoon leaving the TL very little time to find a new home and get back to business before the weekend which was only one small difficulty he would have in the road to starting over again (new signs, branding, website, compliance, and everything that made his business tick).
My phone rang next, I was greeted with a warm and caring voice from the broker who filled me in one what just happened not knowing I was there for the whole fireworks show. He was pleasant and asked I stick around. I kept my composure and simply said I had no intention of leaving, however, I just watched the rug get pulled out from under my TL so hard it took his shoes with him. It turns out the broker caught wind that our team had a discussion about possibly finding a new brokerage more suitable to our needs. That action was enough for the broker to consider this a breach of loyalty to his brokerage. Regardless of the fact these were very preliminary conversations about leaving and every agent including the TL was by all measures “good agents”, it didn’t mater, this was his brokerage and his rules.
That event was the spark that ignited the Independent Broker and changed my course. I did stick around. Just long enough to pass my brokers test and start my own brokerage. The ugly truth about dependency was exposed right in front of me. No real control, no safety in structure, and here the loyalty was a one way street with an eviction notice. The threat of a rug pull like I witnessed is reason enough for most agents to pursue their own brokerage but the real value in ownership and how to get there is what the Independent Broker is here to discuss. If you generate the value, you should control the success.