Major Brokerage Shutdown in Bay Area - Biggest Lesson?

Realogy to shutter Climb, integrate it into Coldwell Banker

That was the Inman headline and news that shocked the Bay Area last week.

It was so shocking b/c Climb has done a beautiful job building a formidable brand in the Bay Area since its inception in 2010.

We at JVM had been watching it closely b/c we got started around the same time; we work closely with many excellent Climb agents; and we have been aggressively building our own independent brand in much the same way that Climb has over the last nine years.

What made the news even more surprising is the fact that Realogy had purchased Climb only 3+ years ago.

Realogy execs stated that Climb agents will be able to take advantage of Coldwell Banker’s scale.

In reality, however, “scale” does not seem to be that much of an advantage in real estate, and many Climb agents went to Climb for the image, branding and culture that Climb offered.

It seems unlikely that Coldwell Banker will offer the same appeal to many Climb agents, so many might end up leaving Realogy altogether rendering the entire Climb investment somewhat of a waste.

NOTE: I’m not in the real estate brokerage industry, so I am sure there are many facts about which I am unaware and/or don’t understand – just to be clear. The above comments are just my observations as an outsider.

BIGGEST LESSON FOR AGENTS

The demise of Climb should be a giant reminder to all agents to build their own brand so as not to be tied too closely to their brokerage.

We work with many excellent brokerages who have done a beautiful job of building their unique brands and cultures.

So, we certainly understand why agents would want to associate with those brands, and it no doubt benefits them in many ways.

But, all of our biggest producing agents are brands in and of themselves.

When you Google them, they personally dominate page 1 of the search results.

Their names are their brands and they are barely associated with their brokerage at all.

I’ve blogged about this numerous times, as building a super-powered personal brand is probably the most important aspect of digital marketing.

Here is just one of those blogs from last January.

The first step of building a personal brand is completing a full digital audit along with creating a well-crafted master bio that will be showcased across the web.

These are musts in the digital age for anyone who wants to not only thrive but merely survive.

And once again – we can help 😊.

Please let us know if you’d like assistance building your personal brand.

We have a full Digital Marketing Program that we love to share with our agent partners – b/c when they get busier, we get busier.

Jay Voorhees
Founder/Broker | JVM Lending
(855) 855-4491 | DRE# 01524255, NMLS# 310167

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