Sequim real estate broker Chuck Marunde is expanding his brokerage in a time when brokers all over the country and in Clallam County are going out of business and closing. What gives? How can one Sequim real estate broker expand when others are closing?
Sequim Real Estate Broker is Virtual
The traditional brick-and-mortar real estate office was a successful business model for decades (for the Sequim real estate broker and brokers around the country), from the 1950s up to about 2006. For 56 years at least brokers built large buildings with big conference rooms and hired as many agents as possible. The broker/owners eventually built large rooms with lots of cubicles as they packed as many agents in a room as possible with the least amount of overhead. Because top producing agents only made up a small percentage of agents, that meant that the majority of agents were average or below average producers. Brokers had to bring in as many licensees as possible to make it profitable, meaning they would take any Tom, Dick, or Jane who had a license. Traditional print media, particularly newspapers and magazines, were the primary means of advertising. Consumers called off the ads or the signs, and sellers listed with the big offices because it seemed like that’s where the action was.
Sequim Real Estate Broker uses Technology
Alas, this Sequim real estate broker realized that things were changing starting in the late 1990s as technology and the Internet gained momentum. It’s no longer business as usual for the traditional Sequim real estate broker, but this is true all over the country. Many agents have gone out of business in Sequim and Port Angeles as well as around the country. Offices have closed, even in Port Townsend, Sequim, and rumors have been circulating that a Port Angeles office will be closing.
Sequim Real Estate Broker Joined eXp Realty
I started Sequim and Port Angeles Real Estate as a brokerage almost three years ago. I originally got in real estate sales about 30 years ago, practiced real estate law for 20 years and then came back to real estate sales and transactions. After retiring from law practice, I joined a traditional real estate brokerage, but I quickly found out they were not using the latest technologies and tools to help buyers and sellers. They were seriously stuck in a 20-year old business model, and they had excessive overhead that clients didn’t care about. Buyers and sellers use the Internet and they don’t care about big conference rooms and big expensive buildings. That’s when I decided to become a Sequim real estate broker and build a business model that truly put the clients at the center of the Universe.
That was very successful, and then I discovered a brand new brokerage that was doing what I had learned to do with technology and the Internet and that also focused on helping agents and their clients to be successful in entirely new ways, and that’s when I joined this national brokerage, eXp Realty. There’s nothing even close to eXp Realty and what we are doing to help agents succeed in this market with low overhead, high net commission splits, and residual income.
Brokers are going out of business all over the country, and others are struggling to survive. This Sequim real estate broker is not just surviving but thriving.
Last Updated on September 5, 2011 by Chuck Marunde
