The real estate market has long established financial growth, security, and avenues for entrepreneurial ventures. A real estate franchise is a reliable and efficient approach for people considering wetting their toes in the industry or further expanding on their established business.
In real estate, franchise ownership presents unique opportunities to work under a recognized brand. These brands have built-in strategies and resources to prolify your business.
Here are four reasons we believe opening a real estate franchise should be your next step.
1. Established Brand Recognition and Trust
This is a tale as old as told. New businesses face their biggest hurdle in gaining trust from customers. When you start from the bottom, it will take years to build credibility and authority, two factors that are essential for sales. However, by opening a real estate franchise you will have the benefit of an established name with a trusted reputation.
- Established franchises have a strong reputation for offering quality services, reliability, and professionalism. This will make it easier for potential clients to trust your agency. There is a reason there are so many McDonald’s franchises across the globe. And that’s the business model.
- A trustworthy brand name could be a deciding factor for new clients. This could give you a competitive edge in the market and bring in offers over other lesser-known agencies. Especially in competitive markets, having a strong brand name that people recognize could be the difference maker is securing a client or not.
- Franchises have pre-fabricated marketing techniques including campaigns to boost your brand’s visibility and authenticity. Instead of spending money on building your brand, you could harness the franchise’s existing marketing.
Brand trustworthiness is getting more important across most industries, including real estate. There are countless real estate companies that pop up out of nowhere and start acting as if they’ve been around the block for decades. It can take years to establish a legitimate brand that homeowners in your community know and trust.
What if you could skip past that step and dive right into operating as a company that people trust? That is a huge timesaver and benefit for real estate franchisees. Common names like Keller Williams, Remax, and Coldwell Banker immediately gain trust and credibility among home buyers and sellers. This is partially what you pay for when you open up a real estate franchise. Ideally, you can open up and instantly start doing business. A credible brand helps you catapult into that successfully.
2. Proven Business Model and Training Support
Time and again we have seen professional real estate businesses fail because of their operating model. This is a daunting aspect that could scare anyone. When you open a real estate franchise, you can bypass the trial and error phase and simply hitch a ride on the tried and tested operating strategies of the franchise.
- Franchises come with guidelines and procedures that have undergone years and years of refinement. This reduces the learning curve and allows you to focus on building and expanding your business rather than developing the internal systems from scratch.
- Real estate franchises typically offer training programs that cover everything from client management to market trends to compliance. This helps you as a franchisee to be equipped with the necessary tools to succeed in your business.
- Unlike independent businesses, franchises benefit from consistent support. The franchisor will provide any kind of support required in aspects such as training, resources, or even technical assistance.
For smaller real estate companies, you may not need to worry about this as much. However, if you plan to grow and scale your busines, you’ll need a team. Growing a solid real estate team around within your business is incredibly tough.
First off, finding the right fit can take forever. While you can use platforms like Indeed to attract talent, candidates may not recognize your brand or company name. That can sometimes dissuade people from applying, as they assume they won’t receive much support once they get hired on.
Once you finally make your first hire, training can be a hassle. Try coming up with a multitude of different training processes on your own. It’s very hard! When opening up a real estate franchise, you inherit their training regiment that you can plug and play into your business. Larger real estate franchises know what works and know what doesn’t.
This will save you massive amounts of time learning how to train and teach others in your company. Ultimately, if you’re looking to scale your business, a solid training plan with help you do exactly that.
As hard as hiring can be, firing is up there too. Fortuntely for real estate franchisees, there is a process for almost every situation. Firing can be tricky, especially for business owners that have never done it before. You’ll receive a protocal and support on how to hire and fire employees through the franchise that you open up with.
3. Access to Technology and Marketing Tools
The real estate sector is highly dependent on technology. This is to streamline operations, generate leads, and buy more properties. For independent agencies, acquiring the latest tools could be costly. But when you open a real estate franchise, you can gain access to all the technological resources that are required to thrive in this fast-paced environment.
- Tools are needed to simplify operations. The real estate market has moved up from only using basic spreadsheets to keep track of the deals. MLS, property management software, and more advanced spreadsheets have now taken over the market and are a must to stay ahead in the game. All these are a package deal when opening a real estate franchise.
- Lead generation is one of the most critical aspects of real estate. Real estate franchises often offer lead-generation tools that could help identify potential buyers and sellers.
- With the right use of marketing, anything is possible. Franchises often include access to marketing materials, social media platforms, and other templates ensuring that your marketing approach is professional and cutting-edge.
This is a bigger advantage than most realize initially. Real estate is an incredibly slow industry when it comes to adapting to new technologies. Because of that, it’s easy to get caught up in software tools that aren’t actually that good. Inadequate softwares can slow your business down and stymie growth.
Real estate franchises have been through it all. They know which softwares work well - and their goal is to get you setup with the best tools possible to help enable the success of your business. Don’t go against the grain here! Working under a real estate franchise name grants you access to well-known tools that will grow your business fast.
4. Built-In Networking and Growth Opportunities
Real estate requires you to be at the top of your networking skills. Relationships go a long way in this business and the more connections you have, the more deals you could close. A franchise could offer immediate access to a network of other franchisees or potential business partners for sustained growth. So tap into that network.
- Collaboration is essential. When you join a franchise, you become a part of a collaborative network with other franchise owners, share ideas, and develop innovations to stay ahead of the curve. You can learn from the success of others and teach others your skillset.
- Many franchises offer mentorship programs that allow new franchisees to learn from more experienced people. This could help strengthen your ideals and accelerate your growth. Mentors are hard to find! When you’re already on the same team (franchise), people are much more likely to become your mentor and help you grow.
- Once your first franchise location is established, there are always expansion opportunities. Because of the structured model, scaling up your operations becomes much more reasonable and manageable.
Real estate is a team sport. It’s not always about what you know, but who you know. If you can network with experienced real estate professionals that are doing exactly what you want to do, that is invaluable to your success.
You can learn the steps that others have taken before you to grow a specific real estate franchise. Real estate franchisees don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Learn what has worked for others and implement best practices that are proven to work for others. Real estate professionals are typically willing to share trade secrets, especially when within the same franchise. Sharing is caring when it comes to being successful in the real estate industry.
Conclusion
The franchise system has time and again displayed its potential and success stories. Smart business people are aware of the strengths of this model and are always on the lookout for opportunities. Real estate is selling and buying properties. But it is so much more than that too. The business has long crossed this threshold and is now on the cusp of achieving more success. And opening a real estate franchise is one of the most financially attractive aspects of this success.