If you’re just about to start your career as a real estate agent or realtor, your first and foremost mission will be to find a good broker to work with. The success of a real estate agent and their job satisfaction is hugely dependent on how supportive their broker is. There are lots of nationally popular brokers offering detailed training programs for fresh real estate agents. Then there are the smaller brokers who are somewhat informal, but still have an effective method to help out new agents to successfully start their careers.

Initial Research

Doing your homework is important before you leap out to choose a real estate broker. These are the opinions of most experts on what you should do while looking out for a potential broker:

• Think from a consumer’s perspective. How much do you already know about the real estate brokers around your area? Who are the most popular and why?
• Make a thorough internet search for brokers around your area. There will be many brokers with poorly designed and worthless websites. Then there will be the ones having very effective and nicely designed sites showing that they are progressive minded and innovative.
• Make a list of the most famous national and international real estate brokers and check out their sites to see if they have a local office in your area.
• Ask the local realtors or real estate agents in your zone and also the firms which are working with brokers, for instance – mortgage and home inspectors, real estate lawyers etc.
• Go through the site of National Association of Realtors. They offer some great articles, news and data about the current real estate industry as well as real estate brokers.

Understand how a Broker’s Business works

After making a shortlist of the potential brokers in your area, check out what each of these brokers are offering to their agents and how their business runs. These are the items that you must investigate before or during your conversation with a real estate broker.

• Learn if the broker is offering any training or mentoring program for helping new real estate agents to start their careers and assist the active agents to improve their skills and performance.
• Find out the number of agents the broker is currently working with and their levels of experience, their attitudes towards sticking to the company and the levels of turnover.
• Make sure that you know exactly what the broker is expecting from you within a specified time frame. Many brokers fix the number of hours the agents must be in the office for office time or handling open houses for other agents. If you’re comfortable with flexible working hours, this is an important option for investigation.
• Learn how the referrals and leads are handled by the broker. Determine the marketing policies of the broker. Make sure if you’ll be held responsible for marketing fees, such as listings in the newspaper or if the broker will even help you set up a market strategy for yourself.  

Decide Carefully

Saying ‘yes’ instantly during an interview with a broker is not a very smart approach. You don’t have to make an on-spot decision. It’s a good idea to talk with as many brokers as possible and be sure that you’re making the most comfortable decision to start your career as a real estate agent or a realtor. Decision making plays a vital role in deciding your future career and choosing the best real estate broker is just the beginning.