Transcription of Video:
Hey. Jim Duncan here in Charlottesville, Virginia also known as Seattle East because it has been raining for so, so long.
The thing about brokerages, big and small, what defines a brokerage? I wrote a story a few weeks ago and a friend of mine who is a real estate brokerage said he took umbrage to the fact that I was using “big brokerage” in a negative way. I see what he’s saying because his brokerage is a fairly sizable brokerage, but it’s not acting like a big brokerage anymore.
By big brokerage I mean resting on its laurels and depending on the three S’s – size and scale and in my mind, squandered opportunities. Big brokerages have an an opportunity for a number of years to really dominate their markets, but for whatever reason – I think we could get into them – they just haven’t. They have been complacent and they have been stagnate in their growth and their adoption of new trends and technologies. Small brokerages have taken this up and have really leveraged their competitions’ inability to react to new trends.
I’m just wondering what a brokerage means. A big brokerages’ identity is lost in my mind. You could go to any one of the big brokerages around the country and ask them what the franchise means – what the brokerage means to that particular agent and I guarantee you would get 1000 or 2000 different answers.
Whereas if you go to a small brokerage that has popped up in the recent past, you would get a fairly cohesive answer from the few agents in each brokerage. I think if you would ask anyone in the RE.net who have gone out on their own in the last 18 months what their brokerage means you would get a fairly distinct and good answer. If you asked any of the agents within those firms what that brokerage means to them you would get a good, distinct, and strong answer.
So I’m wondering: what does ones identity as a brokerage mean? How do you define that for yourselves and your customers? Where are we going from here? Are you out there seeing a big rejuvenation of the big brokerages or are you seeing the same stagnation that has been persistent for so many years? I’m curious to know your thoughts.
