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Industry News, TechnologyVirtual office increases communications between REALTORS®
Cafe office in Bucks County
Changing to a “virtual office” seems like a dramatic change but it basically takes advantage of new technology.
Coldwell Banker Hearthside, REALTORS® started a “virtual office” for agents in its Malvern location several weeks ago. The goal of this pilot project is to reduce the office’s overhead costs and eliminate the need for agents to be in the office.
Agents are no longer married to an office. Nearly everything they need to do business is available to them online and the phone system routes calls directly to them. If an agent needs to go to a physical office, they can use any of Hearthside’s 19 locations.
REALTOR® Lori Vanderbilt had her first settlement since the office changed. She finds people are actually more accessible. “It feels like we’re ‘virtually’ surrounded by people because we’re able to get a hold of someone 24/7,” she added.
Communications between agents has increased despite the reduced hours in the office, according to Chris Beadling, Coldwell Banker Hearthside vice president. “Our agents used to talk when they were in the office for a meeting but now that they have Skype available to them and they’re talking to each other more.”
Floor or opportunity time where agents need to be in the office has gone down nearly 100 percent because calls are forwarded to them, Beadling said. “We followed NAR’s research about what buyers are doing and where they’re coming from. They’re using the Internet more and they don’t know whether an agent is in an office or at Starbucks when they answer a call.”
Chuck Barbera, a REALTOR® for about a year, sees the virtual office as a win-win solution for everyone involved. He said, “For agents, things are faster with the new technology. The broker/owner is reducing his overhead costs and our buyers and sellers are gaining more attention, efficient results and hopefully they having a better experience with us.”
Beadling said the transition to the virtual office has been smooth because as a company, the office decided two years ago that it would train its agents to work with emerging technology. “We have someone within the company who provides in-house training for our agents and has brought them to a different level,” Beadling said. “Our agents have embraced the change our technology expert Stefanie Hahn has brought and they’re excited to leverage the technology to improve their business.”
Pam Sheehan, associate broker/manager, said the agents like the change. “We’re thrilled with how well everyone has adapted to the change. In a recent meeting everyone agreed that the change was seamless, especially to our clients.”
The company also launched a café office in Bucks County three months ago. The office offers free wireless Internet service and coffee to anyone who stops by and the office is gaining popularity within the community. Coldwell Banker downsized the office from 4,500 square feet at its previous location to open a new location with 1,400 square feet.
“The agents feel the office is more inviting to clients,” Beadling said. “It does have its challenges since the audience is always mixed and you have to be very aware of privacy issues. We’ve worked to develop open and closed wireless connections so we don’t have security issues.”
Within the Coldwell Banker brand, West Coast offices have transitioned to similar virtual offices and café locations.
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Kim Shindle is the Manager of Media Relations at the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors®. |
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Hank and Melanie (and others) make some great points. I think the success of a virtual office is going to be up to the agent that chooses to work that way as well as the Broker who CAREFULLY chooses agents that can successfully do that.
Last week. I was in a coffee shop near my office. As I sat I drank my coffee, I was exposed to almost an entire offer negotiation between agent, seller client AND a buyer (who was also represented by this agent).
Although a description of the conversation would really prove a great point, (and possibly cause Hank to go into Cardiac Arrest), I’ll refrain from posting that.
Let’s just leave it at: In the course of the conversation, there were AT LEAST 3-4 violations of Agency, Code of Ethics and Disclosure laws.
My point is. If the conversation I heard took place in the office, the manager / agent etc may have been around to hopefully “save this agent” some potential litigation.
Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of a Virtual Office. I think I could function well at one – as would many agents with experience, skills, (and possibly a few that speak a bit lower in public).
In the end, it’s all going to come down to Broker / Manager supervision. Just like at a traditional office.
GREAT TOPIC
All good observations so far. Four technical follow-ups from a legal & regulatory standpoint:
(1) Brokers are always responsible for their affiliated agents, so a broker in ANY brokerage model should have serious systems in place for oversight and training.
(2) PA brokers with a standard license must have at least one “fixed office” approved by the State Real Estate Commission prior to a brokerage being licensed. Of course how the broker runs that office, what they require of agents, etc., is up to the broker.
(3) The only site that can be called an “office” is one that has been approved by the Commission as the main office or a branch office of the brokerage. If an agent works from a designated area in his or her home, it is technically not correct to list it as a “home office.”
(4) The “business…telephone number of the employing broker” that must be included in every advertisement must be the the number that rings through to the brokerage office, not a home or cell phone number (although they can be included in addition to the brokerage number).
While there are many advantages to a virtual office there are also disadvantages as well. A well balanced arrangement between the Broker and the Agent is critical to the success of this business arrangement. For the broker the advantage is the lower overhead cost but as Melanie points out, there is a problem with the supervision of agents and how they conduct their real estate business in a virtual setting. The broker must also consider the cost of what a company’s reputation is when there is the lack of supervision and we have what they would call a Rogue agent operating under the brand. I think agents are treating most conventional brokers as virtual offices anyway but a well balanced training program and standards need to be in place for this concept or for any concept to work well. I have been on both sides of the fence and have seen the positives and negatives from each side…. My thought is as an agent, be careful, be coached and stay connected!!! To the broker, I recommend the same…. Coach your agents, educate your agents, stay connected to them and don’t forget; we must also stay on top of the industry trends, our local markets and offer the agents systems that make them more profitable. It’s not the split that provides value to an agent but the ability to make more money!
I’m all for saving money and justifying all this as better for the consumer. There are certainly downsides too. My feeling is that it be included as an alternative model. If it is the only way to hook in to an office, you may be passing up the opportunity to recruit (or keep) a top performer who happens to need a physical office for his business. The key is to remain open minded…
Hi Melanie – I completely agree. The challenge with overhearing an agent in the office is that they have to be there in order to be heard. We have learned (and quite frankly NAR statistics support) that agents are working from places other than their company desk these days. In essence, they are the “virtual” part; the office is still there, it is just the salespeople who move about more and communicate differently. That said, we all agree with the assertion that training remains key in this environment – the cool part now is just that we can deliver it in more exciting ways that don’t require coming to the office.
Actually what makes this company so Virtual? It seems like they are just not requiring agents to come in to the physical office, they still have 19 brick and mortar. For a true Virtual Office Visit our web site.EVERYTHING is online, training, file management,forms,agent forums Broker instant messaging.
Great Article,This is the model our company has adopted and we couple it with a 100% commission structure. The lower overhead means we can pass that along to our agents.
This is a great business model for today’s modern agents–here’s my only BUT—but it’s a big one: How does a broker supervise agents in a virtual world? Having been a broker of record, I can say much of my supervision was listening as they took phone calls and explained contracts; I often took them aside and said: “You can’t say that about a neighborhood” or “What that paragraph in the Agreement of Sale really means is….” I hope brokers who adopt this model couple it with very strong management support and TRAINING!!!!