The Judy Orr Team joined HomeSmart in April, 2014. HomeSmart is the top real estate brokerage in Arizona and we can testify to that since we own a home in Scottsdale, AZ, and we see HomeSmart for sale signs all over. The company has been cited as one of the fastest-growing brokerages with over 7500 agents in 13 states and 3 countries.
Before we ever joined HomeSmart when living in Illinois, one of our prior local independent brokerages was created based on HomeSmart's business model. I had heard about HomeSmart as soon as I joined that company over 10 years ago (from the date of this post). So when I started receiving e-mails about them franchising nationwide I was already familiar with the name.
I did a lot of studying on them before joining them when a franchise was opened in Illinois - before we moved to Arizona. It also helped that I was aware of the Illinois Broker-Owner, Dan Bowden. He has owned and managed different local brokerages in the area. He had sold his prior Illinois brokerage and moved to Arizona with his family. He joined HomeSmart when he moved. He and his family moved back to Illinois and he opened his own HomeSmart franchise in Orland Park. He's a very experienced and hands-on Broker.
HomeSmart offices
Our Illinois office has been growing by leaps and bounds since they opened. In fact, our IL broker has opened multiple offices and continues to expand. He also has an office in Indiana.
I hang my license in the corporate Scottsdale real estate office of HomeSmart, and what an office it is! It's big and beautiful, but like many agents, I mainly work from my home office.
Because of HomeSmart technology, we work in a paperless environment and the only reason I go into the office, as wonderful as it is, is for training and meetings. I have everything I need to do my business in my home office, and I've been running my real estate business that way for decades starting back in Illinois.
It's not the franchise name, it's the agent you're working with
The Judy Orr Team chose to work with HomeSmart because they provide us with the tools we need to serve our clients the best. They were a newer company in Illinois but I reminded potential clients that the brokerage is just a hub of individual agents (who are Independent Contractors vs. employees), each representing their brokerage. The service you receive is based on your agent, not some famous franchise name.
We were with one of those franchises (a Century 21) for 22 years and always felt there was something missing - a degree of professionalism that wasn't present in the independently owned "Mom & Pop" brokerage we were with. They were like family and it was difficult to leave, but once we did we never looked back. Many of these well-known franchises attract mainly new agents as they provide training for them. Most agents working in brokerages like HomeSmart are very experienced and don't need to have their hands held or require training on how to show properties and write contracts.
With that said, HomeSmart actually offers more training than any other brokerage I've worked for. They offer our Continuing Education training (without charging money), plus any kind of training a new or experienced agent would want. Real estate is ever-changing, and HomeSmart wants us to keep ahead of it all.
The Judy Orr Team is very tech-savvy along with our more than three decades of experience, so we attend seminars and webinars for the things we want to learn, and it isn't basic real estate 101. If you'd like to work with an experienced small family team (not a huge team where you'll get lost) that wants to make your real estate experience as enjoyable as possible, give us a call at 480-877-1549.
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