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?