Here’s everything you need to know to decide for yourself if real estate is the franchise opportunity for you.
In return for your franchise fee and a small share of your profits, Clarke says franchisees should receive ongoing support from their franchisor.
“The franchisor is responsible for maintaining the brand’s competitive edge and – ideally – helping the franchisees reach their full potential,” he says. “The better the franchise, the better the support – you can tell a lot about a franchisor by talking to their franchisees.”
“No need to spend months – and millions – defining your brand, business model and strategies, or building market presence from scratch,” he says. “With a franchise, you’re buying into an established brand where all the groundwork has been laid for you. That dramatically reduces the time it takes to get up and running and bringing in clients.”
“For starters, real estate as an industry is thriving,” he says. “A lot of other franchises suffered during Covid, while real estate had two record-breaking years.”
Setup of a real estate franchise is also a lot simpler – and less costly – than other industries, most of which require purchasing stock before you can make your first sale.
“With property, the stock is already out there,” says Mott. “All you need to get selling is your industry certification, a laptop, a cellphone and a go get ‘em attitude.”
Even certification has become easier of late, with updates to the Property Practitioner’s Act (PPA) dramatically reducing the time constraints on agent qualification.
“This is great news for franchisees, because it means new agents can hit the ground running, becoming productive, income-earning members of the team in a fraction of the time,” says Clarke.
“You obviously want to look at the success of other franchises under the brand,” he says, “and talk to some existing franchisees about their experience, if possible. Weigh up the costs of the franchise against the level of support and training the franchisor provides, and make sure their goals align with your own. The most successful franchise operations are partnerships, not dictatorships. You want a franchisor that is ready to listen, collaborate and support.”