Do you want fries with that…?

Throughout my varied career in real estate, I’ve only once, briefly, been associated with a franchise. And I’ve thought long and hard about the pros and cons of those relationships.

My decision is that some of the large, well known franchise names can benefit the real estate agents by driving clients to them through their closed system for national referrals. I honestly don’t believe that the franchise name benefits clients or customers. Buyers and sellers may think they are getting some inside track or special services, but I’m not sure that’s always true.

As an independent contractor based at an independent firm, I think I provide as much or more benefit to buyers and sellers .And here’s why...

- With the Internet being the primary place that buyers look for property, they can find me and my listings on dozens of sites and search engines. I advertise in Realtor.com, as well as HomesandLand.com (the largest nationally syndicated real estate magazine), TCPalm.com (local Scripps website for the Treasure Coast). Plus I have my own website, GetaFloridaLife.com, and the company website CompassPointRE.com. All those listings are circulated to various search engines and can be found on Zillow, Front Door, and the Florida State fed information data exchange (IDX). Often I have a listing featured in The Wall Street Journal. My listings are everywhere they need to be to be seen. That means both buyers and sellers receive a high level of service.

- Buyers and sellers can count on me to provide them with referrals to qualified real estate professionals in all areas of the country without regard to issues of loyalty to a company brand. I belong to a number of professional organizations that supply members with referral guides. I am then able to identify and interview real estate salespeople and narrow the field to a few who might work best with a particular client or customer.

- I personally do more advertising and marketing of my listed properties and my personal brand than most other agents. I can design and produce marketing materials that work best for each property without having to follow instructions from corporate headquarters. I make certain to disseminate the listing details to agents in other areas of the state and country with whom I’ve done business or who might have the appropriate client for a specific listing. And I also write a 'market condition' report for both Vero Beach and Sebastian on Realtor.com. That gets my name out there, driving more traffic to my website getting more potential buyers to see my listings. I publish this monthly electronic newsletter which keeps people coming back to my site and listings! All for the mutual benefit of buyers, sellers and me, as their real estate agent.


You, as buyers and sellers, don’t need a franchise to get good service. And I don’t need to be part of a franchise firm to give it. Bigger isn’t always better.