What To Do Regarding An Office With Multiple Realtors??

[Mich]

I've read a few posts on this issue but can't really find the specific answer I'm looking for, so I'm going to lay it out in detail.

Let's say you have an address with dozens of businesses operating out of it. The address in question is an office that Mortgage company and Real Estate company share. So between both, there are probably 500+ mortgage brokers and realtors operating out of the same address.

So if I create a listing with this as my address, there is a very good chance that someone else has and, if not, that they might in future.

Should I be worried enough about this to add an unique identifier to the address (office number or suite number) or is this not really an issue given that I would imagine it would be a prevalent issue in the Real Estate/Mortgage business world (where it is very common to have one address and hundreds of agents operating out of there)?

Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Mich,

I know some consultants here have worked in that market and have dealt with the situation, but I haven't. Sundays are pretty quiet here so hopefully some folks will weigh in tomorrow.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Mich, I edited title to try to help you get more relevant replies.

When title read Multiple Businesses, I assumed you were talking shared office space with unrelated industries - like a Regus office.

This issue is different, so I changed title to Multiple Realtors to be a little more specific and try to get attention from someone that's dealt with this situation.

(This post also serves to bump your thread up for Monday AM eyeballs.)

 

[Mich]

Thanks! Yeh as soon as I hit submit I realised the title was a little misleading but it wouldn't let me edit it!

 

[Lee Alley]

Normally, realtors (independent contractors) pay a "desk fee" (i.e., rent) and/or commission split to their brokerage for office space and amenities. Is it accurate that this multi-realtor/single-brokerage address situation is similar to a multi-startup business incubator? (I have one of those. Each startup business is legally separate from the business development center that is their landlord/mentor.)

How would the multi-realtor/single-brokerage situation relate to Google's "Shopping Mall" category of business?

 

[Mich]

Hi Lee

Yes that sounds about right regarding a multi-startup business incubator. However, I don't think the shopping mall category will work - Google does have categories for mortgage brokers/realtors. What I'm wondering is if the Google algorithm takes into account that this type of business is likely to have multiple agents at the same address...?

Thanks,
Mich

 

[Mich]

Ok I'm going to probably go ahead and use this address, on the assumption that Google has probably factored this into their algorithm regarding Realtors and Mortgage Agents... Unless anyone has anything else to add?

 

[James Watt]

Well... this might not be super helpful advice exactly, but here's what I'd consider doing at least. I'd pick 10 likely cities that are high competition in your industry, and I'd take stock of who's on top there. If you can find realtors/mortgage brokers that are sharing their address with a lot of other related businesses, then that's a strong sign that you're good to go. If you can't find even a single instance of a well ranking business in the same circumstance though, then that'd be a little concerning to me at least.

My guess though is that you're probably fine, and if you have no other option anyway, then so it goes. If it ends up looking like it's going to be a problem and you don't have a choice, then focus as much on backlink building and other things that'll help you both with local ranking and organic ranking, so you at least get organic exposure. You'd need to do that anyway if you're an agent sharing the same website or corporate umbrella with a bunch of other agents at your location. (Saw this article earlier this month that would be relevant if that's the case for you).

Either way, good luck!

 

[Mich]

^^ Great post! From the article you quoted, it seems that ranking at the same address is possible, as long as the website and business pages are unique (not the 'out-the-box' sites that some major brands give to their agents).

 

[Mich]

For anyone interested, I actually found Google guidelines on this at. These guidelines concur with the discussion held on this forum (see
http://www.localsearchforum.com/loc...ocation-google-places-best-practice-tips.html)

"Individual practitioners (e.g. doctors, lawyers, real estate agents)An individual practitioner is a public facing professional, typically with his or her own customer base. Doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners, and insurance or real estate agents all are individual practitioners. Pages for practitioners may include title or degree certification (e.g. Dr., MD, JD, Esq., CFA).
An individual practitioner should create his or her own dedicated page if:

• He or she operates in a public-facing role. Support staff should not create their own page.
• He or she is directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours.

A practitioner should not have multiple pages to cover all of his or her specializations.
Learn more
[h=4]Multiple practitioners at one location[/h]If the practitioner is one of several public facing practitioners at this location:

• The organization should create a page for this location, separate from that of the practitioner.
• The page for the practitioner should be titled with name of the practitioner only, excluding that of the organization.

[h=4]Solo practitioners belonging to branded organizations[/h]If a practitioner is the sole public-facing one at this location and represents a branded organization, the practitioner page should not be separate from the organization?s page. Instead, create a single page, titled using the following format: [brand/company]: [practitioner name].

• Acceptable: "Allstate: Joe Miller" (if Joe is the sole public-facing practitioner at this Allstate-branded location)"

See: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en&rd=1#pract