We speak with so many brilliant folks across dozens of industries and when those folks happen to be working for someone else, sometimes we can’t help but wonder why they aren’t working for themselves. How do folks decide between joining a firm or starting their own? We posed the question to the community and have shared some of their responses below.

Sam Rodriguez

I stumbled upon the real estate business at a fairly young age. Like most people, I did not grow up wanting to become or graduate high school/college and say “I want to be a Realtor”, I started in real estate because of a recruiting call that was meant for someone else. I did not know anything about real estate at the time and thought to myself “sure I’ll give that a shot”. I joined a large national firm not because of the brand or anything in particular other than they were the one to present me this opportunity. Read more>>

Jessica Vazquez

When starting in real estate you have to hang your license at a brokerage in order to practice real estate. When choosing a brokerage it’s very important to make sure they are the right fit for you. Not all brokerages are the same. Some offer support, training, or education while others “throw you in the fire” with no direction. Some of them require you to be in office, others are more flexible. Read more>>

Oliver Evans

When I first started out in Real Estate, I decided to join eXp Realty. A lot of the time people join one of the big name companies because they must be big names for a reason right? I’ll do the best there? Unfortunately that is not always the case. I have nothing bad to say about them but I needed a little more structure mixed with the freedom of being able to work from home too. Read more>>

Satomi and Richard Arbeit

We took over an existing cat boarding business. They had been shut down for over a year during the pandemic and were just ready to move on. We created a different concept and moved away from cages (what you would typically see at a vet service) and built a more comfortable space. Our guests enjoy more privacy in a larger room. Read more>>