By: Guest Author, Virginia REALTORS^® Senior Vice President of Member Programs, Adam Smith

We all know change is inevitable. And often, change happens at the most unexpected or inconvenient moment. Thus, it is important for a firm to have succession plans in place. Take some time to think about where you see your business in the near and distant future, how your business will remain successful when you retire, what happens when you have agent turnover, or what needs to happen if the market takes an unfortunate turn. Are you confident that your business is sustainable and can thrive through change? Prior succession planning can turn an overwhelming disruption into a manageable workflow.

There are a great deal of resources available to you that can assist in building succession plans. The Society for Human Resource Management provides a great toolkit for Engaging in Succession Planning over the course of one to three years. This toolkit provides several overviews and additional articles that may help you in deciding how thorough you want to be in your planning.

NAR has also provided some great advice on Succession Planning for Real Estate Brokerages, particularly in an emergency situation (including stipulations in the Code of Virginia).

If you are interested in determining the value of your brokerage, the REAL Trends – Valuing Small- to Medium-Sized Brokerage Companies can be very helpful in understanding different ways to do that.

And lastly, we have a great Caveat REALTOR^® podcast episode on Business Continuity that discusses what to do if a broker becomes deceased or disabled.

We hope these resources help in your planning process. Let us know if you have resources that would be helpful for other brokers throughout the Commonwealth.