A decade ago, the agreement between a real estate principal and a major network was relatively straightforward. Agency owners sought a recognisable brand badge, marketing support, and the broad reach provided by free-to-air television and traditional referral channels.
Today, the operational landscape facing property agency owners has changed significantly. Real estate principals are navigating an increasingly complex commercial environment defined by legislative overhauls, escalating cybersecurity costs, software fragmentation, artificial intelligence governance, and an acute talent shortage.
These operational pressures are forcing real estate business owners to re-evaluate the exact value equation provided by network headquarters, sparking a broader industry debate between traditional corporate franchises and member-owned cooperative networks.
According to David Edwards, CEO of First National Real Estate, the core issues keeping agency principals awake at night have moved far beyond basic marketing collateral.
“Ten years ago… what the independent owners or entrepreneurial owners were looking for, related to the strength of a brand. Definitely marketing support, and maybe even at a time when the media channels were different, and there was the opportunity where free to air television did play a role still at that time.
“I think definitely today, the challenges when I speak to our members, the issues that they’re trying to address, and they’re looking to either franchise or a cooperative like us to help them navigate, is the avalanche of compliance issues, legislation,” he says.
Where agency principals once sought standalone tools for their customer relationship management or hyperlocal advertising, the burden of managing multiple disconnected vendor subscriptions has created software fragmentation for many independents.
David explains principals are now demanding unified technology ecosystems that reduce administrative friction and commercial overhead.
“Definitely a desire to have far more integrated technology or platforms rather than best in breed in either CRM or best in breed in hyperlocal advertising, local area marketing support. They’re looking for a far more integrated approach to this now,” he says.
At the same time, risk management has expanded into digital infrastructure. Standalone independent agencies face steep financial liabilities when attempting to secure client data against cyber threats or establish internal rules around emerging artificial intelligence tools.
“Cybersecurity is not only challenging but very expensive to deal with as an independent,” he says.
“One of the areas that I think all brands in the real estate industry are looking at at the moment is how best to provide guidance and direction on AI. It’s meant to be there to assist and make people’s lives more efficient in getting tasks done. But at the same time, there’s definitely a significant risk associated with AI unless you have established policies, processes in place as well.”
Franchise vs cooperative
The debate over how networks should support agencies often comes down to operational governance and where decision-making power sits.
In a conventional franchise structure, top-down mandates are designed to protect brand uniformity across national locations. By contrast, David says a cooperative structure functions as a member-owned collective where local business owners retain higher degrees of operational independence.
He illustrates this structural divide through the ratio of central control versus local flexibility:
“In franchise models, predominantly, big franchise models that are super successful, they will establish 80 per cent of the direction for how a business is to be run, but provide anywhere in that 20 per cent flexibility to overlay their entrepreneurial skill,” he says.
“Whereas from a cooperative perspective… we provide direction that acknowledge that up to 70 per cent of what a business owner does is based upon what they believe is going to be the most successful approach in their local community.
“And 30 per cent is what we would provide is strong guidance on key topics, whether that be the consistency of the brand and the protection of a national brand in the way it’s presented, portrayed, or whether it be on matters of compliance and legislation,” he says.
To reflect this cooperative philosophy, David restructured the network’s corporate headquarters upon taking the role, renaming it the National Support Office to reinforce a service-oriented culture.
“People that work in a cooperative and especially in a leadership role, I look for servant trait mentality. The servant trait mentality is effectively you’re not here to feather your own nest or to further necessarily your own career.
“You’re here to do a job for which you will be rewarded, but your job is always, first and foremost, to support the member to make sure they have a strong and viable business.”
Succession planning and the cross-brand talent trap
Beyond technology and compliance, people management and recruitment remain a persistent operational bottleneck across Australian real estate.
The industry is currently confronting two distinct demographic pressures: an ageing population of agency owners seeking clear succession plans, and an ongoing talent war where competing agencies actively poach experienced agents from nearby offices.
David describes this practice as the cross-brand cannibalisation of teams, which inflates salary bases and commission splits without expanding the broader talent pool or improving overall service capability.
“Many of our members are constantly under siege from other businesses, whether it be independents or brands, providing higher commission levels or higher bases to retain and to win people over.
“So rather than… purely the recycling of existing real estate professionals, we believe it’s an opportunity to bring good people in with good behaviours or good values and allow them to learn the art, if you like, of the real estate industry through seasoned professionals who’ve run these businesses for decades,” he says.
Rather than relying on traditional online job boards like Seek or LinkedIn, network leaders are championing an Always Be Recruiting philosophy, a principle popularised by industry veteran Chris Hanley. The concept focuses on identifying candidates with strong personal standards in everyday settings, recognising that industry skills can be taught later.
First National says it is trialling funded, localised recruitment evenings in regional zone markets, beginning in New South Wales, aimed at attracting candidates from outside the real estate sector and connecting them directly with local business owners. Outcomes from these trials, including attendance and placement figures, are yet to be independently reported.
Central support offices are also helping aged principals structure formal succession plans, enabling senior employees to acquire equity in existing businesses or facilitate family transitions.
“We believe localised recruitment evenings are something that the national support office for First National can help to create, fund, and see if we can get people from outside of the industry who have an aspiration to become part of real estate, to give them the opportunity in an informal environment to understand what the opportunities are.”
Why independent agency owners are transitioning
The decision to move from a standalone independent business into a collective network often stems from a desire to access scale without surrendering local identity.
When Tracy Crome, principal managing director of the long-established Helen Munro agency in Townsville, chose to join a cooperative network, securing national backing while preserving local heritage was her primary objective.
“She said to me, ‘My existing independent brand that my mother started still resonates in the community, but the time is right to transition from a successful local brand to a strong national network that I know will continue to thrive,'” says David.
For regional agency owners, the value of network membership often centres on peer collaboration and shared operational insights during regional zone meetings and rural events.
What the next generation expects from a network
As a new cohort of tech-literate, highly entrepreneurial agents in their early twenties prepare to step into agency ownership, their criteria for network selection are focused squarely on value and career support.
Meeting with emerging agents across regional Australia, Davis says that young leaders want access to structured HR frameworks, risk guidance, remote learning academies, and technology tools that support growth without restricting local initiative.
“They really want to understand what support they’re receiving, how much flexibility they have because… this person is highly successful, but he’s highly entrepreneurial.
“And so the very collaborative network nature of our network, of our members, is one of the things members value most in terms of how you can build your career whilst being guided through the spectres of compliance, of cyber risk,” he says.
Ultimately, whether an agency chooses a corporate franchise or a member-owned cooperative, the survival of support networks in modern real estate hinges on their ability to empower local leaders rather than manage them from above.
“The future belongs to business models, regardless of how you categorise them as franchise or cooperative, that combine local decision making with collective capability… best networks don’t replace entrepreneurship. We enable it.”