Adriaan Grové, I agree that these “super teams” (few listing agents, buyer agents + couple of PA’s) have the edge by specializing in their respective neighborhoods. Plus, if possible to go about this as a fully independent entity with smaller overheads, higher ROI’s, ability to undercut big franchise commission levels, etc, it’ll be very interesting to see how the bigger real estate agencies will cope with this fierce competition!
As we all know that technology has indeed leveled the playing field and will only further facilitate the ease of entry into the real estate brokerage business.
And, as more (new/existing) agents take that route, realizing there’s no longer a need to have R12,000/page in the weekend newspaper, seriously questioning handing over a 50% cut of their hard-earnt commission to a big agency ‘just for the brand’ for helping to find them buyers which they got online or via their own show houses anyway, the seemingly endless supply of agents rushing towards the big agencies is likely to dry up.
Given those changes, I wonder what possible value propositions these big franchises could possibly offer to slow down their ever-losing market share?
P.S. I’m not even going into how they’ll react with lower commission levels used in the market place. Whereas a minimum of 5% commission is pushed from management (where the first 2.5% goes to the company), how’s an agent in the field to compete with all these upcoming low-cost agencies and independent ones who can provide similar service, professionalism & results but at 3–4%, whereby they still make more than they would working for a big agency?!
Interesting times, to say the least, Adriaan!
