Feels good referring to your coworker as your “colleague”, eh? Did for me. I came from a background between the Marines, factory work, and the culinary industry. In none of those situations did I have colleagues.

In real estate, it can be tempting to be a solo agent and do your own thing. Most companies don’t have tons of support and comradery built into them, and you can pretty quickly and easily find yourself not really spending time with anyone in the business other than your own clients.

It’s been important for me to have people that I was close with. I have a business partner now who’s somebody that I’ve known for about ten years — prior to either of us getting licensed. We’re close. We were close before we worked together in the partnership, and even before we worked together in the same company.

If I had a stupid question early on, I would call him. Sometimes he asks me about things that I’m more adept at than he is. I pay attention to and admire the way he handles certain social situations. We feed off of each other.

There are a couple other colleagues and former colleagues we have and we’ll reach out to each other when one of us has a question or if we’re looking for buyers for a listing or a listing for a buyer or whatever. Having people that you’re close enough within the industry goes a long way to making this game seem less lonely, and it contributes positively to one’s success.

I’m not as interested in giving 30% of my commission to a company so I can have weekly office meetings and rah-rah get-togethers. If that’s where you’re at or what you prefer, more power to you. My point is that even if you’re in a low-touch firm without much support or face time with colleagues, creating a circle of people that you can (mostly) trust makes a difference in your ability to thrive in real estate brokerage.

While it may be possible to be successful and do it alone without other agents, it’s going to be easier and more enjoyable to do it with other agents. And that’s coming from the guy who’s never attended a Christmas party at my local Realtor board since ever. They’re still my competition, but having a few close ones that are good is important, and then I smile and nod at the rest.