There are two types of real estate companies: Agent-Centric or Broker-Centric. Your first decision is to choose which one is best for you.

Agent-Centric
A company that is Agent-Centric is one that supports the agents. Although there are many facets to agent support, there is one easy way to identify an Agent-Centric company: Who pays for the advertising of your listings?  If the Broker pays, the company is Agent-Centric, and the success of the company depends on how well the agents do. CENTURY 21 Grand is Agent-Centric to the ultimate degree, which is evident by our industry leading 99% customer satisfaction rate.

Broker-Centric
A company that is Broker-Centric is one where the agents support the Broker under the guise of the broker offering more to the agents. This is achieved by offering a high split and/or a desk cost. There is one easy way to identify a Broker-Centric company: the agents pay for the advertising of their listings.  When the agents pay for the advertising, what the Broker collects is mostly profit. The Broker-Centric company's success, therefore, depends on the number of agents it attracts to the company.

When the Broker does not pay for the marketing, it is left up to the agents. The agents not only have to pay for the marketing but must also pay much higher advertising rates. The main way agents in a Broker-Centric company can cut back on fees is to cut back on the marketing of their listings, which limits their sellers' exposure. This is the number one reason why Broker-Centric customer satisfaction is extremely low. Another reason is that agents in a Broker-Centric company  tend to charge less in order to obtain business, again lowering their success rate by offering cooperating agents less.

In a Broker-Centric company, the Broker almost always competes with the agents by listing and selling. In Agent-Centric companies, managers may list and sell but the Broker does not. It is the Broker-Centric company where the Brokers control the leads and get to pick their buyers and sellers first, putting the agents at a disadvantage.

Additionally, Broker-Centric companies commonly add on fees, add additional fees to incoming referrals, and charge referral fees to agents for company generated leads.

Quality agents that spend enough of their own money on marketing to support their sellers and their business end up netting less -- in many cases much less -- than they would with a good Agent-Centric company.

For the Ultimate in an Agent-Centric company
contact the CENTURY 21 Grand office nearest you.

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