Many people have attempted to start a real estate brokerage, but most have failed. The reason for this is that they don’t have a strong story. When they meet with someone who might join their company, they are unable to effectively communicate what they do, leading the potential recruit to question why they bothered meeting in the first place.

You need an impactful message if you want to be successful in recruiting agents to your real estate brokerage.

The author explains how to make a brokerage attractive to producing agents. Attracting producing agents can be done by creating a powerful message. This message can be delivered in many ways, such as through marketing, events, or even through brokerages themselves.

Get Clear on What’s Important to You

The first step to writing your story is to figure out what’s most important to you. Real estate agents can choose from many brokerages to join, so their choice is often an emotional one. What is it about your brokerage that will attract them? To get clear, start with these questions: Why does your brokerage exist and how is it different from the other brokerages?

If you created your brokerage, the answers to these two questions should be easy. However, they may be more challenging if you work for an existing brokerage.

Why did you create your brokerage? Was it to provide better service than other companies in the industry, or to specialize in a certain area? Be clear on your motives so you can better explain them to others.

If your brokerage wasn’t built by you, try studying the company’s mission, vision, and values to see what parts interest you and why these elements are important to you.

Examples: Reasons Your Brokerage Exists

• To achieve #1 in market share in Des Moines, Iowa
• To provide a luxury experience
• To create WOW in our clients’ worlds
• To save our clients money
• To promote and preserve the Mission Beach lifestyle

When you have a clear understanding of the purpose of your brokerage and how it benefits you, it will be easier to be passionate about it when you speak to others. You won’t have to force yourself to “sell” the brokerage because your passion will come through on its own.

Bonus Tip: Attract Top Agents With High-End Custom Marketing Templates & Design Tools

Not every brokerage can afford to hire a talented marketing manager. The reason that great marketers and graphic designers are expensive is because the work is hard.

Maxa Designs offers a service to create custom marketing materials for your brokerage, as well as an app for agents to edit them quickly and easily, even on mobile devices.

Craft a Story That Excites

We only have a limited amount of time on this planet, so we shouldn’t waste it doing things that don’t matter. If we look back on our lives, we want to be able to say that we did something meaningful and that we made a difference in some way. This is your life story. Don’t you want it to be an interesting tale?

Your brokerage’s story should be one that excites and inspires the type of people you want to work with. This is your life story. Don’t you want it to be compelling? You don’t need or want every real estate agent to join your brokerage. In fact, you only want agents who share the common interest, value, or view that your brokerage exists to promote.

You are the central character of the story and need to be able to explain where you are taking your brokerage. In order to successfully attract producing agents, you need to tell a story that gets them excited about wanting to be a part of your journey. There are five parts to crafting a powerful story. Your brokerage’s story begins with where you are going. You are the central character of the story and need to be able to explain where you are taking your brokerage.

Part 1: Where You’re Going

To attract top agents to your brokerage, you must begin with the destination your brokerage is going. Most people want opportunities to grow in their careers, so you need to be able to articulate where your brokerage is going to excite them.

The secret to being an effective recruiter is to think of yourself as a train conductor and your brokerage as the train. You are pulling into the station to pick up passengers. The people standing on the platform have just one question: Where is this train going?

Otherwise, you will deal with the same problems that the conductor will. The conductor only wants to pick up passengers who want to go to the specific destination the train is going. If the conductor picks up the wrong passengers, chaos and disruption will follow. The same is true of your brokerage. You only want to bring on agents who share your common objective. Otherwise, you will face the same problems as the conductor.

Your goal as a recruiter for your brokerage should be to make prospective agents curious about where the brokerage is going in the next five years. Only invite agents who are interested in going to that destination to learn more about the journey.

Examples: National Brokerage Destinations

• Keller Williams Realty: To be the real estate company of choice for agents and their customers
• RE/MAX International: To be the worldwide real estate leader
• Coldwell Banker Real Estate: To provide our clients the very best customer service in all aspects of residential real estate

Part 2: Identify the Villain

The villain is what will make your story powerful and attractive to producing agents. Without a villain, your story will be lacking and not as appealing.

This is also true when recruiting. Agents are more likely to change brokerages to avoid experiencing loss, pain, disappointment, and embarrassment than they are to save money, gain awards, or even to sell more houses.

This is a controversial topic because it can be seen as disparaging to others to have a villain, but the villain doesn’t necessarily need to be a direct competitor. The villain could be something that is affecting the industry as a whole, like technology or changing consumer preferences. Additionally, the villain could be something that is directly affecting the community, like gentrification or a lack of affordable housing.

When thinking of a villain for your story, consider something that your brokerage is fighting against. This can help rally passionate agents who also care about the same cause.

Examples: The Villain With Brokerages

Baird and Warner are automatically adding $10 to their Good Will Network for each real estate transaction in order to help with homelessness.

Redfin is a company that is “totally different” from others because it is designed to put customers first. It has teamed up with agents who want to advocate for customers, not sell them things they don’t need.

This is the company’s tagline, and it’s something that sets this real estate brokerage apart from others. Despite being an independent contractor, you are never truly alone when you’re a RE/MAX agent. At RE/MAX, being an independent contractor doesn’t mean you’re alone. The company’s tagline, “you’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself,” shows that RE/MAX agents always have support.

Part 3: Why They Should Follow You

There is no doubt that productive agents have many choices when deciding which brokerage to join. However, you can offer them the support and guidance they need to be successful. You have the knowledge and experience to help them overcome any challenges they may face.

The purpose of your brokerage is quite simple–to achieve a specific objective. It is like a train and tracks, created specifically to take passengers quickly from one destination to another.

You have a dream that one day your brokerage will be free from the tyranny and oppression of the villain that is preventing the happiness and greater good that you wish to see in the world.

It might sound intense, but if you don’t have a lot of conviction and passion for what you’re doing, you won’t be as successful as you want to be. Your passion for the result is what will attract the right people to help you achieve your goal.

Part 4: What They Will Gain

An agent’s decision to join your real estate brokerage should be based on a clear understanding of what they will gain from the association. This goes beyond simply features and benefits like a better website or nicer marketing. It is the result they want to see for themselves, the brokerage they affiliate with, or their community.

If the agents are working towards the same goals as your brokerage, they will receive the same or similar benefits when the objectives are met. These objectives could be the mission or defeating the villains, or both.

Your brokerage’s success depends on your agents being part of a community that provides more housing options.

Part 5: Why They Need to Get Started Now

If you want to attract productive agents to your brokerage, you need to create a sense of excitement, passion, and urgency. Urgency creates momentum, which in turn attracts even more productive agents. This is the fuel that allows successful companies to grow.

There is a difference between being pressured by an external force to do something and feeling a sense of urgency from an internal motivation.

The current situation is dire and urgent. Your brokerage can have a profound impact on your clients, community, or industry. The sooner your agents make the change to your brokerage, the sooner they will see the change they desire in the world.

The Profitable Power of Storytelling in Real Estate

The Human Brain On Storytelling

 

• Dopamine – The brain releases dopamine into the system every time it experiences an emotionally charged event.

• Neural Coupling – A story activates part of the brain that helps the listener turn the story’s ideas into their own.

• Cortex Activity – When processing facts, only 2 parts of the brain are activated, compared to 5 parts when processing stories.

Strong emotional attachment to products and homes is created through story.

How Can You Wield the Profitable Power of Storytelling in Your Real Estate Business?

 

1. First, identify the story behind the home. Maybe it’s the history of the town it’s located in. Or, maybe it’s the unique features the original owners added.For example, instead of selling a two-story brownstone in New Market, Maryland sell a “piece of Colonial history.” Instead of selling a 12-bedroom mansion in South L.A., sell a “touch of Old Hollywood that remains unchanged.”
2. Second, paint a picture for the buyer. Instead of talking about the center island in the kitchen, help them imagine cooking appetizers for their guests while they sip wine, laugh and share stories about their summer vacations.
   Instead of selling a renovated room in the basement, help them plan out their family movie nights, eating popcorn while watching “Lord of the Rings” movies on the big screen.
3. Third, evoke emotion. Good property stories use emotion to make the buyer wonder “What will happen next?” or “What will it feel like to live in this property?”
4. Fourth, use the power of “good vs. evil.” Having a common “enemy” in your story will increase its power. Is the home you’re selling centrally located? Maybe the enemy is a long commute. Buying this home will not just be convenient; it will “save them hours of drive time and help them gain a better quality of life.” Is the home located in a rural area with a generous amount of land? The enemy is business and a fast pace of life. This home will help them “slow down and enjoy the peace and quiet of nature.”
5. Lastly, don’t limit your stories to face-to-face interactions. Use blogs, e-newsletters, videos, social media and even your own website to widen each story’s impact. The more people who see it, the more likely it will sell.

You can use storytelling on an ongoing basis in your real estate businesses in several ways:

Real Estate Storytelling Through Social Media.

An increasing number of real estate agents in the US are using Pinterest boards to promote their listings and properties. When the right image is paired with the appropriate content, this activity on Pinterest can generate a lot of sales, with some websites receiving millions of visitors.

For every property you sell, create a separate Pinterest board and highlight its unique selling features, interesting historical facts, and hidden benefits.

However, here are just a few words of caution.

Although Pinterest is commonly known as a site for sharing real estate information, it is also used for other purposes.

It’s important to keep providing value and not to focus only on selling property. High-resolution images that look appealing to buyers are a good way to do this. Try mixing in home decorating tips with featured properties, so you don’t seem like you’re just trying to sell something.

Thankfully, there are also plenty of graphic arts tools out there to help you:

• Canva is one of the most popular ones on the market. Most templates are free to use, look professional and are already optimized in the right size for Pinterest.
• Another great tool is PicMonkey, which comes with plenty of free features, too.
• Also, if you’re running short on actual property images, use Creative Commons, Pixbay or Unsplash to find free, high-resolution photos that will help you tell the story of each home’s unique selling points.
• Here are a few more great social media management tools to use in your campaigns, and this post will teach you how to measure your success.

Bottom Line

When you have a clear understanding of the purpose of your brokerage and how it can help others, you will be able to create a compelling story that will attract brokers who generate business.

The sign of a good story is that agents who share your vision have few objections. They will be excited and passionate about being part of something great, and if they’re not a good fit, they will leave with a clear understanding of what your brokerage is all about. They might even refer other agents to you who want what you’re offering.