I would like to know your thoughts about working as a consultant in a traditional brokerage. Does this course help brokerages to adapt to these new businesses practices? As for myself, I am completely sold on consulting, but would like to know more about how other real estate firms are adopting the new models.
HL - Texas
Judi Bryan
Many of our ACRE grads work within a traditional brokerage. What is most important for that to happen is for the managing broker to be supportive and cooperative. It's helpful if they "get" the consulting approach as being one designed to expand the services available to the consumer and at the same time respect the time and value of the agent.
Our approach focuses more on "choice" and "transparency" in the real estate process, rather than being a simple "fee for service" model. When an agent can offer a variety of options (commission, fee for service, hourly rates, bundled / unbundled approaches, etc.), both the agent and the consumer win! That capability alone opens many doors to agents that would otherwise never have been available to them. Brokers who understand that are supportive. A good resource to help them "get" what ACRE is about is our video series: Stop Working for FREE!
We find brokers have varying approaches on how compensation will be delivered to the agent (after each transaction...even if the fee is small...or on some other basis), but that's up to the agent and their broker.
In addition, several of our members have joined our ACRE Ambassador program which provides additional resources for discussing consulting and ACRE with colleagues, brokers, local associations, etc.