We are a boutique real estate brokerage, founded last September. We serve our clients by providing assistance in purchasing and selling residential real estate. This is a second career for both of us — our first careers were in sales and sales management — and we realized early on that the real estate school does not give new licensees any training or education on how to market and run their business. Yet Realtors®, in effect run their own business within a brokerage.
When we hire a new real estate agent, we have the time and the resources to properly train them and we walk them through the setting up their business properly and effectively. We are extremely vested in their success.
This addresses one of the challenges we face as a new boutique real estate brokerage: hiring new agents. Many look to the large established brokerages. Their belief is that the larger brokerages will give them better training and better opportunities. In reality, the opposite is true. The new agent is one of many and the broker rarely has time for one-on-one training. This drives new agents to teams within the brokerage for support and training. The problem with that is, they have to give up 30 percent or more of their hard-earned commission. This is on top of what the brokerage charges them. In reality, they wind up keeping less than 60 percent of their earned commission.
Name recognition is another challenge faced by most new boutique real estate brokerages. In today’s world, the brokerage name plays a significant role in the higher-priced properties but not so much in the $500,000s and below. The reality is, these lower-priced sellers do business with the Realtor more so than with the brokerage. So, the challenge is with the higher-priced properties, but that comes in time.
We will be starting a property management division in mid-2020 to provide our investor clients property management services for rental investment properties.
The most valuable piece of advice we’ve received is to not be everything to everyone. In other words, narrow your offering and stay in your lane; as the business grows, you can widen your offering and services.
Technology is a must in our industry, and it is quite expensive. You simply cannot do business in our industry without good technology,” relate Lynn Janson and John Cabezas, co-owners of LIV AZ Realty regarding challenges to launching a boutique real estate brokerage.
Lynn Janson, as broker, and John Cabezas, as Realtor®, are co-owners of LIV AZ Realty.
