To all the agents in the house,
Do you use an office provided by your brokerage? Is it important that your brokerage have a physical office?
I thought about these questions while walking around Santa Monica this weekend.
Traffic from the east side of Los Angeles to the it's-never-not-sunny seaside town was frustrating enough to suggest that the physical economy is returning. When I got to Main Street in Santa Monica, most stores were open with outdoor dining in very full effect.
Main Street includes a Sotheby's Realty office, an upscale Realogy brand. It includes a Compass office, but the building was boarded up. Agents I later reached out to said it's been like that for months. But a Compass spokesperson told me the brokerage has no plans to shut down the office.
Before the pandemic, what I'm describing might be a big deal. That's because brokerages -- namely Compass and Douglas Elliman -- were flooding L.A. with sleek new offices in expensive locations like Santa Monica and Beverly Hills to literally mark their presence.
The entrenched brokerages responded in kind: In February 2020, Coldwell Banker threw a party for all its Southern California agents to commemorate its redesigned Beverly Hills office.
Obviously, the L.A. luxury market has its quirks. With that in mind, I'd like to know more about the functional and cultural role offices play in your market, as work space for agents, branding opportunity for brokerages, and, well, a convenient venue for a party.
If any managing brokers are reading this, I'd also like to hear about your cost-benefit analysis. Is virtual brokerage eXp correct that the office is a thing of the past? Or is something gained in morale and productivity from having an office?
Please respond anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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