What a Good Broker Relationship Is … and What It Isn’t

Part of finding the right licensed broker is establishing a good relationship that works for both parties. Now, just like any relationship, brokerage arrangements can be positive or negative depending on what all involved parties put into shared work. I want you to avoid a bad relationship with your potential real estate agent broker, but bad relationships do happen. 

Unfortunately, that’s part of the real estate business and too often, agents stay in bad relationships with brokers for several reasons. 

Here’s how to gauge a good broker relationship vs. a bad one. Plus, we’ll cover the characteristics of each, so you know how to potentially avoid red flags before they become a problem. 

Examples of Good Broker Relationships

The best real estate brokerage relationships are those where the broker and real estate agent have the same views, goals, and desires for conducting their business. If you need someone to mentor you and find a broker who is passionate about mentorship and training – especially with new agents – you might have a perfect match. 

If you have lofty goals for yearly sales and are a high-achiever who is constantly on the go and wants to feel more independent, a real estate broker who allows you that agency and pushes you to succeed might be a better fit. 

By partnering with a broker who understands where you are today, your long-term goals, and your short-term goals because they share the same mindset as you, a good relationship is likely in your future. 

Examples of Bad Broker Relationships

I think the key indicator of a bad brokerage relationship is when your core values don’t align. For example, if you are transactionally minded and focused on making 300 transactions in a year, you want a transactional broker who shares your mindset and will help you meet those goals. 

If you’re partnered with a real estate agent broker who is more relationally minded and focused on connections with past clients, other agents, referral sources, and future clients, they likely won’t have the same goals as you. Where you’re focused on making the next sale and collecting that next paycheck, they will be focusing on building relationships and making connections. This can eventually lead to a situation where you are frustrated with the way your broker handles business, and they might be frustrated with how you manage yours. 

Other situations that might foster a bad broker relationship include cases where someone is a new agent and needs a lot of mentorship or training, but your broker isn’t necessarily interested in helping you to that level or has a different focus, such as a more transactional focus. 

It’s important to find the best brokerage for new agents instead of partnering with someone who doesn’t want to take the time to help mentor and train you because they’re focused on making the next sale, this can lead to a bad relationship. If your broker isn’t prepared to give you the emotional support you need or doesn’t think you need more extensive training to build your confidence and increase your likelihood to make sales, this is going to lead to frustration and conflict on both sides. 

At the end of the day, bad relationships tend to come down to miscommunication and a misaligned view of how your broker wants their business to run vs. how you want your real estate business to run. 

Why Do Agents Stay in Bad Relationships with Brokers?

You may ask yourself: Why would an agent stay in a relationship with a broker if it’s not a good relationship? Why wouldn’t they just change their brokerage? 

There are a couple of reasons why this happens. 

• Financial reasons: Listing contracts are signed by the broker, so if you’re a strong listing agent with a strong listing inventory and a steady incoming stream of listings, your broker may not want to release those sellers from the listing contract. If you want to leave your brokerage agreement and your broker won’t release those listings, you might end up losing a lot of cash. Because real estate is a business, someone might choose to stay in a bad brokerage relationship because the price to leave comes at too high of a cost.
• Lack of personal branding: Someone might choose to stay in a bad brokerage relationship is that they’re too linked with their brokerage and haven’t established enough of a personal brand. In the eyes of the public, the agent is very linked with a specific brand and they might not have the same reputation if they changed brokerages. In this situation, someone might fear going out on their own and losing the business they’ve built under a certain brokerage. 
• Friendship with your broker: When you have a close working relationship with someone, it’s human nature to become friends. Sometimes, when you enjoy working with someone as a person, you can lose sight of whether the business relationship is still a good one. Even if your friendship is solid, the business relationship you share with your broker may not be doing you any favors. Some real estate agents have a hard time disconnecting from their brokers simply due to not wanting to disappoint or potentially causing professional hardship for a friend. 

Ultimately, real estate agents stay in tough brokerage arrangements that aren’t serving them because of financial, emotional, or branding costs. While breaking up is hard to do, sometimes it’s necessary to ensure that you see long-term success in your real estate career – and find the best real estate brokerage for your individual needs.