Broker Identity Crisis

Many brokers who have chosen not to provide agents with co-branded websites are beginning to suffer an identity crisis online. Consumers are easily confused when one broker's agent has a website, another does not, and none of the websites really look or work the same.

I understand why it happens. Websites are expensive and agents are independent contractors. Brokers who want to overcome the identity crisis have only a few choices: buy a website for each agent, share the cost with the agent, or somehow compel the agent to buy the co-branded site. None of those are really fun choices, but more and more, I think that brokers need to make a decision to deliver a co-branded solution to unite the broker's brand.

We always believed that the broker website and the agent cobranded websites need to be from the same vendor. That truly is the best option, but the second best option is to have the broker website from one vendor and the agent websites from another.

The benefits to broker co-branded agents websites are clear:

• Brand consistency
• User consistency
• Agent recruiting
• Agent retention
• Cost reduction

If you have not thought about co-branded agent sites in awhile, you may want to take a look at it again. CoreLogic, for example, has some programs that are about one-quarter of the cost an agent would pay for a website on their own. Lone Wolf, Real Estate Webmasters, and WolfNet also offer options for co-branded agent websites. For a full list of website providers, see our Product Directory.