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Adam Hergenrother is the founder and CEO of Livian. He believes that business is nothing but a conduit for personal growth and embraces the company’s vision to Love How You Live. When he’s not leading and growing his organizations, you can find Adam either in the mountains or out in nature with his wife and three children.
The real estate industry is nothing if not innovative. The latest iteration in the real estate world is teamberages (which is what we call them) or teamerages (as others have coined). Either way, they are an interesting new offering for real estate professionals and may just be what many agents want (and need) to streamline their business and grow.
What is a teamberage/teamerage?
So, what is a teamberage? It’s similar to how it sounds. Part team, part brokerage, a teamberage lies somewhere in the middle in a space that emerged as large teams and brokerages moved further apart.
How we got here
Think back to the earlier days some of the big five brokerages — they largely operated as one big team, providing leads, administrative and marketing support, transaction coordinator, training, and more. As the entrepreneurial real estate agent started to grow, hire their own staff, and tap into new technology, teams started to form.
Over the past five years or so, teams have taken on a life of their own and are now larger and often more profitable than brokerages.
As teams grew, they often replaced the need for extensive brokerage services and brokerages focused on what they did best — providing a space for individual agents to hang their license, receive training and coaching, tap into a common culture and get their deals closed.
Teams have been all the rage for the past decade. And yet, there are still hundreds of thousands of real estate agents who have no desire to grow a team or be part of one.
Enter the teamberage. A teamberage is usually a separate division within a brokerage, where the brokerage hires staff and invests in leads — essentially building a team of support professionals and support services inside the brokerage — that are there to serve and support the independent agents.
Generally, these are set up as a la carte services, such as listing management, transaction coordination, marketing, lead generation, courier services and coaching. It is a shared services model funded by, and supported by, the brokerage.
Most traditional brokerages do not invest in the lead generation systems or staff to support independent agents, and leave that up to teams or the agents themselves. A teamberage is a great alternative and a value-add model for independent agents who want to pick and choose the support they use, without having to invest in a full-time hire or buy new, extensive software platforms.
Why it works
A teamberage is the next-level, more robust offering for agents between a brokerage and a team. Agents get the benefit of continuing to operate independently, while being able to access various leverage points to support and grow their business, without the full financial risk or managerial burden.
As someone who owns a large national real estate team, as well as three brokerages, I see the teamberage model as being a great value-add to independent agents. It meets them where they are and allows them to build a business that works for them.
Teams are not for everyone. And yet, many independent agents don’t necessarily want to reinvent the wheel. Teamberages are the middle way and yet another example of how anyone who is driven, growth-minded — and willing to put in the work — can have a successful career in real estate.
Adam Hergenrother is the founder and CEO of Livian, the author of The Founder & The Force Multiplier, and the host of the podcast, Business Meets Spirituality. Learn more about Adam’s companies and culture here.
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