Skip to main content

Building your brokerage from the ground up

By Lon Mills, Real Estate Business Magazine, March/April 2008

Two staples of the American dream are to own your own business and own your own home.

When one achieves the dream of owning their own business by starting a real estate firm, they in turn can help so many achieve the dream of home ownership.

Obviously, starting your own real estate brokerage isn’t something that can be done overnight. It requires education, money, experience, passion and above all, the ability to make smart decisions.

When first considering the idea of starting a real estate brokerage, it’s best to approach it from a small-business angle rather than a real estate one.

“It’s a small business that happens to be in real estate,” said David G. Crockett, CRB, and member of The Crockett Team at Howard Hanna Smythe Cramer REALTORS® in Mentor, Ohio. The basic mechanics of running a small business apply and the prospective new owner needs to be secure with these before the buying and selling can begin. Reading books on how to start a small business or talking to a broker who has been through the process are two good ways to get started.

Members only feature

The rest of this page is only available to members of the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers. If you are a member, please sign in.

If you are not a member and are interested in becoming one, please read the membership information.

The CRB courses have changed how we analyze our books, agents and long-term retirement plans. They allowed us to pull ourselves out of potential financial ruin and create systems that even my tax accountant has been impressed by.

Jodi Wachholz Monroe, CRB Candidate, TEAM-UP Realty LLC