Welcome to The NorthCompass Group and REAL Broker
Thanks for your interest in our real estate team, The NorthCompass Group at REAL Broker. It’s our goal to help you build a meaningful business that’s ready for the future with a company that’s changing real estate for the better. We have prepared materials which cover licensing, joining a board and what REAL Broker and our team has to offer.
This page will outline becoming a Realtor® and what affiliation with our group looks like.
This page is a bit lengthy, but it should outline the process and detail the costs and benefits of joining our brokerage and our team.
Why Join a TEAM in the Real Estate Space?
First off, I want to let you know that who you are in business matters more than where you are in business. The sales profession is an equal opportunity employer, unfortunately it’s an equally powerful “un-employer”.
Joining would allow you to have access to years of experience and help with navigating as a fledgling real estate agent. The learning curve in the residential real estate business is very steep and is major contributing factor to the high failure rate in the industry.
Many new agents focus too much on the split and not enough on the “cost of learning”. No matter the endeavor you undertake as a profession, you will always have a learning curve and a requirement of some form of apprenticeship required in order to be successful.
Too many agents focus on the split and this becomes their criteria of choosing a firm or team to affiliate with. A speed square in the hands of the uninitiated looks like simple triangular tool, but in the hands of the master carpenter it’s the key to building a magnificent edifice. Your real estate career in the beginning is going “thrive or sink” based on the coaching and support you get from your mentor, the team support and not necessarily the the split you “negotiate”.
There are 27,000 licensed agents in Massachusetts. Evidently fogging a mirror may be the requirement to get into the business. The real estate boards and the MLS’s don’t care if we are successful or not, they get paid their subscription fees whether we sell or not. In 2021, 100,000 more people joined the profession in the United States. People think it’s an easy profession based on all the reality television programs on Netflix and the rest of them. Shows like “Selling Sunset” and “Selling The Hamptons” excite people to get their license. Many would be sales people leave once they realize how difficult the profession is.
The business is harder now than it’s ever been in the two plus decades I have been in it. The consumer is more difficult, the legal pitfalls are deeper, the competition is steeper and Wall Street and Silicon Valley are building more and more start ups designed to minimize the need for real estate professionals. It’s even more important than ever to have a guide. If you don’t have a treasure map, you probably won’t find the treasure.
Who You Affiliate Matters More than the “Split”
Many offices just hire anyone because they want to give the appearance of looking bigger and better than they are. In a recent exercise with our staff, we explored the productivity of an office with over 100 agents. After reviewing each licensee’s production, we learned that only a 3rd of the office we were analyzing sold any real estate in the last 12 months.
You ask why would they have over 60 agents on the company roster who have not sold anything all year? Simple…
It’s all about capturing the monthly or annual fees from the agents. You see 66 agents paying you $100 or $200 becomes it’s own little business. Why sell steak when you can sell sizzle? That’s what a lot of brokerages sell. A friend of mine who owned a brokerage said they all like to “buy the dream”. It’s like the gym…do they care if you work out once they swipe your credit card? Have you ever “belonged” to a gym and not attended? Many gyms benefit from people “making monthly donations”.
With Real Broker and The NorthCompass Group, there is no monthly fee collected from you. We invest our time and treasure in our candidates based on potential. We need to both be successful in order for us to both be successful. We are interdependent “ecosystem”, not one where we just collect monthly fees.
We are selective and don’t care if you can just “fog a mirror” like the MLS, the boards and the subscription generating real estate firms around town. We don’t want to be a “subscription based” brokerage model. We want to be in the business of creating successful outcomes with our teammates.
We don’t sell the dream. You have to work to win in the sales business. We will be your mentors & guides. You will learn how to run your own business. The say “the dream is free, the hustle is sold separately”. We don’t want you to be one of the 2 of the 3 that fail.
The right coaches and advisors will be a contributing factor to whether or not you become one of the three who will make it past the two year mark in the real estate business. We have personally watched salespeople come and go for almost 3 decades. The business can be like a revolving door.
The key differentiators for us lasting in the business this long has been that we have always been learning based and chosen the right mentors.
Think about this…If you were about to embark on a path to find the treasure, wouldn’t you look for a a treasure map. If you don’t know where the road starts nor ends, it’s going to be the mentors and peers (battle buddies) that will make all the difference.
Our team and REAL Broker has an incredible online offering of training and tools via the REAL Academy. In addition to that platform, there is an intranet hosted on Facebook Workplace where you be able to connect to all 16,000+ REAL Broker agents in the country for support with various marketing, negotiating, operations and training groups 24/7.
Startup Costs for Realtors
There are startup costs if you are not currently licensed. You will incur costs for education, taking your exam and affiliating with a firm.
First, you need to take a pre-licensing course. The current requirement for pre-licensing is 40 hours. The classes are approximately in the range of $350-$500. Requirements can be found on www.Mass.gov by searching for “real estate license”. Here is a link.
Next you have to take an exam. Exams are currently proctored by PSI. The fee for taking the exam for the first time is $85.00.
Upon affiliation to any firm, you have to join a real estate board. The board inside the 495 Belt is The Greater Boston Association of Realtors. You join as a Realtor (affiliate).
Here is the link to The Greater Boston Association of Realtors.
Finally, you have to join a multiple listing service. The MLS we use in Boston is MLSPIN. Dues are approximately $90/ quarter.
You can visit the MLSPIN site here
Startup Costs
Pre-licensing Course = $350-$500
Exam = $85.00
Association to Real Estate Board ~$600
MLS Dues = $87/quarter
We know that there are costs associated with your business startup. In order to help defray some of your costs, we are attaching a coupon for $250.
We will add and additional $250 onto your first commission check to help you recoup your initial costs.
Video from Sharran on Discovering REAL
Affiliation with a Firm
When you become a Realtor and join an office, you join as an independent contractor. You are not paid a wage by the office. You are paid commissions based on what you sell. You will be responsible for your own health care, insurance, and income taxes.
technology fee for some tools we offer for lead generation and transaction management. We outline this in our C21 Benefits page attached below.
Our office is staffed by a full time manager and administrator. Our office is owned by a real estate attorney. You will not find a better support system.
Our office address is: 246 Main Street in Walpole, MA.
Agents are free to do business anywhere in Massachusetts and Rhode Island(we are a licensed brokerage in each state). Many of our agents work entirely remotely and just come in for administrative support and sales meetings and company events.
We have agents who have been with us for over 35 years. I think this speaks to the type of agents we have.
We have an amazing team and people are genuinely helpful. Here is a great video our agents did as a tribute for one of staff members.
We do hosts career nights about once per month. I have attached our career night presentation for you to get a feel for our office.
Download Presentation Here
We give you business cards and handle signs. When you list a property, we handle all the signage, flyers, and hire a professional photographer for you. Our focus here is for you to sell and not be worried about minutiae. We give you marketing support.
To give you some highlights about Century 21, I am attaching our onboarding guide and what’s included in our plan at the bottom of this page.
New Agent Training @ Century 21
We will personally mentor all new agents on their first 3 deals. Here more about me
Below is the agent development pathway for newer agents. These are live class offerings taught over the web via C21University.com
Here is the current catalog of courses available to all Century 21 affiliates.
CENTURY 21 University Agent Course Catalog
Weekly Ongoing Classes with Real Academy
Each week, Real Academy has amazing live class programming. Below is an example of some classes for a week at Real. In addition to being able to attend classe
s live, the classes are also recorded and available on intranet “Real Broker Workplace” for agents to watch anytime at their convenience. Here are a few examples of weekly classes.
We Are a Full Service Marketing Team Designed to Support You
We offer our agents full time admin support Monday through Friday from 9-5. You have a manager who is available for support in what I like to call the “zero moment of truth” or when the rubber is hitting the road. You will find me personally accessible for you to get deals done. Am I going to be your “tech support guy” when you cannot print – maybe…but really I am going to be the guy in your corner who will help you decipher the code and make money.
We don’t charge for printing. We don’t charge for phones. We don’t charge for admin support. The firm is owned by a real estate attorney, who happens to own the building. We have a lawyers in the building who are available nights and weekends to support us.
We provide the photographer for all your listings. We provide signs. We provide the “sign guy”.
We provide the brochures. Here are a couple of samples of our in house design work for our agents. These are turned around in less than 24 hours from the time our photographer shoots the property.
Sample Flyer – 150 Rumford Mansfield
All you have to do is sell.
What’s Next For You?
If you are ready to get started on your career let me know. If you are looking to build a business and a lasting career let me know. If you want to be in sales, show me.
To get started, here is what we happens next:
- Send me your resume as a PDF
- If you manage any web sites (side hustle, MLM or side businesses) or Facebook Business Pages send me those. I am not going to judge you. It’s so I can see what your ability to “market” in a digital sales world looks like.
- Send me your Linkedin.com Profile link
Take the DISC profile test on Tony Robbin’s web site and email it to me.
As soon as I get your DISC assessment and read it, I will schedule a telephone appointment with you. From there, we can see if it’s a good fit. Before our call, please review and have questions ready regarding the industry, affiliation and about the reference documents shared below.
I welcome you to look @ our office Facebook Business Page
I also would suggest that your read some of my newsletters that are sent to the team at the office. On Monday, I produce the “TGIM: Thank Goodness It’s Monday Newsletter” and on Friday’s I send out the “5 Bullet Friday E-Mail Newsletter”
Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. I look forward to the potential of meeting you in person.
Mike
P.S Check out my background on Linkedin here and read my “Michael Mahoney Realtor Boston Brochure”