One forum member recently asked the community, “Anyone have any experience starting up an independent as a partnership with one other individual?”
Words of warning came swiftly, with many members cautioning against the idea. Sure, sometimes it works when friends or colleagues make the leap to go into business together. But often it’s like the old adage about never lending money to friends.
“Avoid agent partnerships,” one member warned. “Typically a dependency relationship exists because one of the partners can’t prospect. That’s not to say to avoid mentoring and splitting cases as needed. Definitely do that… but no long-term partnerships. Either you can hack it, or you can’t.”
Another member responded that unless a partner is bringing something to the table that you can’t do for yourself or contract out, and based on prior work ethic can pull their own weight, it’s not worth the risk. “And even then, probably a bad idea.”
One member advised doing a SWOT analysis before proceeding, even providing a good list of questions to consider.
“You need to materially demonstrate to yourself that you will be better off in this partnership, the member said, ending with a warning that if the other agent is pushing toward this partnership, that might be a red flag right there.
Would you ever consider entering into a partnership with another agent?
