As a new agent or broker, if you want business — and don’t have an existing sphere ready to buy/sell — there’s no doubt you’re going to pay a (hefty) tax. Either to Zillow for Premiere Agent, 25-40% referral fees for leads, or a sizable investment into a tech platform such as Boomtown & marketing spend to drive traffic. Or, you could spend months / years building your sphere (not likely to make much money in the first few years). You could also spend years building organic SEO, and still be left in the dust.

Key Takeaways:

• The potential of a fake market in real agent selection.
• There is a lack of clarity to the general public around real agent selection and a lot of different ways for real estate agents to build up their sphere. Real estate agents don’t always see the long-term harm in fake markets vs short-term gains.
• There is some evidence to suggest a fake market exists but as of now it is all guesswork.

“I think it’s clear buyers don’t know what buyers don’t know.”

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