Corcoran Group Reviews

Pros

Great support. Expert management. Personal attention from many of the most successful brokers in the world. Stable and effective operations and most importantly, in-house training is bar none.

Cons

Not for entry level brokers. Can be costly if you are not effective in bringing in revenue.
Formal corporate environment is not suitable for all.

Advice to Senior Management

Make a greater effort to train and supervise mentorship with-in the company. The concept is great, the execution could be better with structure and guidance.

Pros

Managing Directors are great and very caring towards employees. The brokers also tend to be very helpful with one another and understand that to be successful in the business, you must collaborate with each other. There is also a lot of pride in saying that you work for Corcoran because it has a good reputation in the industry and has done a wonderful job of marketing its brand. They also provide a generous ad budget.

Corcoran also does a great job of providing agents with excellent marketing tools/sheets, as well as offer an array of training courses for new agents, as well as legally mandated courses to keep up on new laws which affect the industry and individual agents. The offices are always very clean/ well kept, which is a big plus when you bring customers.

Cons

The database can always use improvement, and it wasn't until recently that you could logon to it on a Mac, which is was just "too bad" for anyone who only had a Mac but needed to continue working from home in the evening which is often the case in real estate. Nonetheless, there is an nearly $2,000 "technology fee" that you have to pay on a yearly basis. There have always been "improvements", but the bugs and kinks never seem to be quite fixed. You can lose an hour's worth of research if it decides to freeze up and re-load itself. Where's that tech fee going to again??

The overall concensus is that the company has gone a bit too corporate- this change started shortly after the departure of Barbara Corcoran and it has become very corporate now. Of course, it is expected that with increased use of technology, internet, emails and texting, the personal touch is somewhat lost, but it is just about the bottom dollar at this point and I don't know that the loyalty which brokers used to have to the company is still as strong because of this shift in the company's dynamic.

Advice to Senior Management

When you have the annual rewards party or are communicating to the brokers, remember that you are communicating to people and not just a corporate audience. Oftentimes, it feels like Pam Liebman is addressing shareholders instead of the bread and butter of the company. It is important to acknowledge and reward the people who are progressing in the "smaller" end of the sales volume scale in order to keep them motivated and excited about Corcoran. It is not just about the big sharks- everyone who sells/rents contributes to the success of the company. I'm not suggesting that you recognize every single person, but look at the big picture and perhaps broaden the horizons.

Pros

Corcoran Group has a great reputation in the industry. People respect agents that work there. Also the other agents are very supportive of each other, like a family. The best thing for me is my manager, he is very knowledgeable and always accessible. He is also kind and you know that you matter to him. I can't imagine working anywhere else.

Cons

Often the more successful brokers get special treatment, even getting referrals that others could use and they don't need. Sometimes we don't get the support we need, with things like board packages, money to advertise our listings etc.

Advice to Senior Management

I think management should give some attention to agents that are struggling. When we have the town hall meetings, don't make us stand up it is humiliating. Our web presence could be better, and the web tools we have like eCorcoran and Taxi could really use updating and to be more proficient

Pros

Lots of tools and technology to help succeed
Great reputation in NYC
Perfect office locations -- can switch offices if focus shifts

Cons

Better for those who are already connected
Definitely on your own -- don't expect colleagues to help you
Management not always available

Advice to Senior Management

Try to hire people with more experience. Newer people with little experience or exposure will mostly sink. Need to screen better or have more training if you think someone has potention.

Pros

If you don't have much experience, you can get your foot in the door. You have lots of leeway to take care of issues as you see fit. (No micromanaging, etc) There is plenty of work to be done.

Cons

You can get your foot in the door because the pay is so low. Lots of layoffs due to the debt problems that Realogy (Corcoran's parent company) is having. The reason there is so much work to do is because the I.T. infrastructure isn't organized very well, and the messiness leads to mistakes.

Advice to Senior Management

Get away from Realogy as fast as possible. They will end up dumping most Corcoran employees and just using the name. More than likely, they will eliminate a lot of Corcoran I.T. and shift the job responsibilities to Parsippany, NJ.

Pros

At the time, benefits were good. In addition they some perks for employees such as desktop massages, employee discounts and free refreshments. In addition they didn't skimp on the holiday party. Always throwing lavish affairs at exclusive venues.

Cons

management is very money and power hungry. The culture allows for people to stomp on others in order to rise to the top. it's all about who you know, not what you know. Managers often played favorites. If you were disliked by one manager for whatever reason, you had a hard time being acknowleged by others.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at your managers and directors to see how they treat employees. Brokers are not the only people who make the business run. Value the "little people". Recognize that your staff work hard and need to be recognized on as a group separately from brokers and assistants.

Pros

Large company means name recognition. If you get lucky, you can get people who create an easy going atmosphere. Also, there are many communities to work for so the commute to work can be shorter than the traffic into the city.

Cons

There is a larger turn around and management treats you like your a child. Required to work all sorts of weird hours including weekends but on weekends, the office isn't open for eight hours so you have to come back to make up the hours missed on your day off. And sometimes, people use their sick and vacation days on the weekends so you could be the only one left in the rental office

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees a little better and maybe you would get better results. Also, this company is huge and makes lot of money so stop penny pinching. The pay for this company is below average.