One of the most important things you can do as a new real estate professional is to approach a number of brokers and conduct an interview in a professional manner. I see so many agents not treat this business as a real business and it all starts on day one with selecting the right brokerage and broker. Here is a list of questions and a sample interview you can use and model.
Broker Interview
Brokerage______________________________________________
Location_______________________________________________
Person I spoke with_______________________________________
Date___________________________________________________
General marketing questions:
- are there any restricted farming areas?
- does the office advertise any listings?
- if so how are the calls handled?
- who gets the general sign calls or listing calls?
- how do you handle scheduling of up time?
- if an agent is doing up time and gets a hot prospect can the agent pass up time to
the next person to devote full attention to the customer?
- is there any other office marketing picked up by the brokerage?
- is there any marketing an agent is forced to do for a listing?
- for a buyer client?
- at what cost?
Marketing technology:
- do you design or host a website for the agent, and what’s included?
- at what price?
- can I point my own domain name at my company website?
- do I get a direct phone number here?
- does my phone have forwarding to my cell phone?
- do you offer agents an info hotline / voicemail / fax on demand service?
- is it a local or 800 number? If 8XX can I request a vanity number?
- how much does it cost per month?
- any per-minute cost?
- can it forward a live call to my cell phone?
- any extra cost for that?
- how many mailboxes are there?
- how many fax broadcasts can I load into it?
- can I create one spoken advertisement and copy it to multiple mailboxes to check
effectiveness of advertisements?
- does it capture caller ID / ANI / name and address?
- what’s your opinion of the Do Not Call list and using caller ID from the system?
- what reports do I get by email?
Overall marketing approach:
- if I were a potential listing client what do you do that is unusual or special that another
brokerage might not offer?
- same question as a potential buyer representation client, what do you do that is special?
- can I “roll my own” marketing materials?
- if I wanted to offer a 90 day sale guarantee could I?
- if I wanted to offer an EZ out EBA could I?
- how many of your agents tend to work under EBAs?
Office culture:
- how many agents do you have space for, and how many do you seat now?
- how many agents come here from other offices and why?
- is there an office manual I can read and take home?
- what’s provided in terms of desk, phone, equipment?
- can I see it?
- do you do tours of listings?
- what training is there?
- is there a mentor program?
- let’s say my first day I get a listing, who will help me with paperwork?
- let’s say my second day I get a contract, any help?
- any help for my first closing?
Market share:
- what is your Dallas market share?
- what’s a descriptive cross section of this office’s listings (where are they, average cost, time on market, etc)?
- how would you describe this office’s average buyers?
- how is the market share in this office trending?
- what is the breakdown of listings vs. buyers?
- what is your average listing commission?
- is it negotiable? how so?
- what percentage of your agents are at the top commission split?
- what’s your opinion on so-called discount brokerages?
- who’s your biggest local competitor?
- what are you doing to compete with them?
Commisson split (assume I do 1 transaction a month at $1M each, 6% brokerage with 3% going to other broker, standard deal):
- how does the commission and split get broken down by transaction fee, split, other
fees? (please walk through a full breakdown)
- when do I get paid in the above deal?
- what’s the starting split, how does it escalate and what’s the cap?
- how do I get paid, if at all, for referring business to affiliate lenders, services, out-of-area offices?
General office expenses:
- how much are signs?
- E&O insurance?
- fax?
- MLS?
- board fees?
- do I have to be a Realtor, and what will that cost?
- lockboxes?
- copies?
- desk fees?
- any other fees?
Thanks so much for your time! Is there anything else I should know or that you’d like to know about me?
