Choosing Your Boston Area Real Estate Broker: Big Chain or Small Local Firm?

We are creatures of comfort.  We tend to like the known and choose the familiar.  This is true especially with big financial decisions, such as selling or buying a home.

In the Boston area you are blessed with seemingly endless options of real estate brokers to represent you.  But when the same three companies are dominating your area’s for-sale signs, it is likely you’ll choose to call those three.  I don’t blame you.

But here’s some insider information, from someone who has sold real estate in the Boston Area through three different real estate firms.  Here some major differences between choosing a big chain or small local firm.
1. Customization.  Big real estate firms offer some great services, but they’ll never truly customize to your needs.  The offices streamline the business for good reason – efficiency, timeliness and organization.  But in this need to avoid chaos, the individual need of the client is lost.

A small firm has much more flexibility, and thus a greater ability to market your home appropriately, and cater to buyer clients easily.  No cookie-cutter marketing plans.

For example, I worked with a large agency and there were specific marketing steps to take, a checklist of materials and deadlines to meet.  But many marketing methods were useless to the type of properties I was selling.  I did not have the option to move the money from, say, newspaper ads to online exposure.

2. Agent Control.  You’d think a big company would have more resources, and thus be able to meet your needs.  In a large firm, the agent has company rules and timelines, less control over the transaction.  In a small firm, the business is centered around the individual agents, giving the agent control.

If you were a repeat client and I wanted to give you a discount on commission, my large agency would cut my pay substantially.  The company would not compromise over its share of the commission.  After marketing expenses, I could be left with nothing.

3. The Office Space.  Real estate offices of large firms, especially in the Boston Area, seem to be on a race of which is fancier and more modern.  Sure they look nice, but do they have a purpose?  Most real estate client meetings are not in the office, but in your homes or touring properties.

So next time you are impressed by the lobby of a big-name agency think about this: it’s there to attract the agents, more than anyone else.  Real estate agencies must keep hiring agents all the time, it’s the most important job of the sales manager.  A nice office surely helps.

This has nothing to do with the quality of service you get.  Most agents are on the go with a smart phone.  Busy agents are not in the office much.  As my first manager used to say, “If you are in the office, you’re not selling real estate.”

4. Broker versus Agent.  Large companies have call centers and agents on “floor duty,” answering the calls.  As a seller, this is not good for you.  Picture this: a potential buyer sees the sign or ad, calls up the company number, and one of two things happen.  Either the buyer gets a call back a while later from the agent, or talks with a “floor duty” agent who has no connection to your home.  This agent’s job is to pick-up business and sell that buyer anything, not your home.

Wouldn’t you rather have the buyer connect directly with your agent, intent on selling your home ASAP?

Next time you consider hiring a real estate broker in the Boston area, please consider to get out of the real estate comfort zone, and perhaps aspire to a for-sale sign that is not blue.

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