Well after three years of running my business from a home office, I have made the jump and signed a lease today for my first office.

So now I have to outfit it. Other than the Reception and Opportunity Desk, would you prefer conference tables or desks?

I am fully expecting some agents to request private offices, but in general, which do you find better to work with?

I am leaning to 4'-6' round conference tables. Easy enough to sit with clients at and yet agents can still use them to work from. In my previous office, there were three floors of desks. Empty, but every desk was claimed and most personalized, just never used.

So your thoughts, What would you get the most use out of?

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Larry Jensen, Principal Broker
St. Lawrence Properties, llc
Ph. (888) SLP-NYCT (888-757-6928)
www.SLPNYCT.com
New York & Connecticut Real Estate & Property Management
Follow Me: St. Lawrence Properties Blog
When in Doubt Check it out: REALTORS Code of Ethics

Congrats on your new office Larry.

Actually, we find a combination of both to work well.

The round conference tables in a private room work very well for consulting with clients.

We employ 3 types of offices for agents:

• Semi-private agent offices (agents pay the desk fees and can share a room) paid monthly by the agent or taken out of closing
• Fully private agent offices paid the same as above
• As well as a 'bull pen' with a counter top and computers that agents can utilize when they come to the office and use a desk when they need but there is no privacy. Also no fee for using the 'Bull pen'.

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I'm not Jennifer... I'm Jessie : Panama City Beach Real Estate, Panama City Real Estate and Panama City Beach Condos

Congrats, Larry!


Computer access is the #1 priority for us.

If the room/table doesn't have a readily accessible computer, it rarely gets used in our office.

__________________
Jennifer Karlen & Jon Karlen
Kentucky Horse Farms - Louisville Kentucky Real Estate - Lexington Kentucky Real Estate
Serving the Louisville KY metropolitan area including Jefferson County - Prospect Shelby County - Shelbyville Oldham County - Goshen, La Grange and the Lexington KY metropolitan area including Fayette County - Lexington Woodford County - Versailles Scott County - Georgetown Jessamine County - Nicholasville

Wireless is important too... I work on projects on my laptop, drive to the office sit in the truck to print. Then run inside to get the printouts.

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Randy Watson Texas Real Estate Agent
Mission Realty-San Antonio Real Estate
San Antonio Blog

So you find agents still look for computers even though everyone should be using a laptop today?

Jessie, Thats similar to what I was looking at doing, only mine would be Private Office and Bull Pen. Office is not big enough for the Semi

I do plan on having a full secure wireless set up in the office, VoIP call controls for the agents laptops

__________________
Larry Jensen, Principal Broker
St. Lawrence Properties, llc
Ph. (888) SLP-NYCT (888-757-6928)
www.SLPNYCT.com
New York & Connecticut Real Estate & Property Management
Follow Me: St. Lawrence Properties Blog
When in Doubt Check it out: REALTORS Code of Ethics

We have around 120 agents in our office - and the areas/rooms that offer computers/printers (particularly the ones with large displays like 32" screens, etc) are used WAY more than those areas that only offer wireless internet.

Makes sense if you think about it. Why gather around a 14-17" laptop screen, when you can have clients looking at a big screen.

__________________
Jennifer Karlen & Jon Karlen
Kentucky Horse Farms - Louisville Kentucky Real Estate - Lexington Kentucky Real Estate
Serving the Louisville KY metropolitan area including Jefferson County - Prospect Shelby County - Shelbyville Oldham County - Goshen, La Grange and the Lexington KY metropolitan area including Fayette County - Lexington Woodford County - Versailles Scott County - Georgetown Jessamine County - Nicholasville

The only big screen with be in the reception area. For now anyway. I am actually the ONLY broker opening an office in my region. All others have either relocated or downsized by closing their office all together (and working from home) or just reducing the number of offices.

So I am going to be very conservative with the initial expenses.

BTW: Check out the new car graphics! The sign shop just finished it tonight.

Attached Images

    

__________________
Larry Jensen, Principal Broker
St. Lawrence Properties, llc
Ph. (888) SLP-NYCT (888-757-6928)
www.SLPNYCT.com
New York & Connecticut Real Estate & Property Management
Follow Me: St. Lawrence Properties Blog
When in Doubt Check it out: REALTORS Code of Ethics

Unfortunately this seems to be true many places.

Example:

We just brought on a new agent, that we'll probably be removing from our team next week. This agent misrepresented their technical ability and computer literacy completely.

When asked if they had a lap top and knew how to use it, they or course said yes, and 'I just bought one'. When I went through training with them it became quite obvious they couldn't send an email using anything but Y! But I digress...

There are many agents in our office who not only do not have a laptop, but their skills are let's just say 'Less than average' with no desire to improve and no inclination as to why they need to be 'mobile'.

Nice wrap btw. Have you had a wrap before?

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I'm not Jennifer... I'm Jessie : Panama City Beach Real Estate, Panama City Real Estate and Panama City Beach Condos