Editor's note: This version corrects the spelling of broker Caroline Dugas' name.

After the franchise real estate firm they worked for went through four name changes in eight years, colleagues Caroline Dugas and Gary Traflet decided to make a change.

“We wanted to be in control of when our name changed and wanted some consistency,” said Dugas, who owns Living Seaside Realty with Traflet, the firm’s broker-in-charge. “We liked the idea of having control over our firm and our reputation and all the things that come along with that.”

Dugas and Traflet previously worked for a Prudential franchise, where Dugas ran a team within the firm called Living Seaside. 

“We would sit in these meetings and get these customer surveys that came in … and her customers surveys looked a lot and sounded a lot like my customer surveys,” Traflet said. “We just really started seeing that we shared some of the same core philosophies.”

Living Seaside can be counted among a growing number of smaller firms in the area, sometimes referred to as “boutique” realty companies with 10 employees or fewer.

Three brokers work at The Property Shop, which relocated to a new, bigger office on Oleander Drive last month. Owner Tony Harrington said one advantage of working at a smaller firm is the possibility of more pay.

“My commission structure and my overhead is a lot different,” Harrington said. “I’m able to share more of the commission and the earnings with my staff and with my brokers than you would at a Coldwell Banker.”

But the chance to make more money isn’t the only factor, brokers at boutique firms said. Dugas and Traflet said they value customer service above anything else.

“Neither one of us are money motivated,” Dugas said. “We do this job to help people with their real estate issues, problems, selections, needs. Gary and I both care deeply about doing a good job.”

Traflet and Dugas opened an office in Suite C at 6314 Oleander Drive about a year ago and employ six other agents. So far, they said, they’ve been successful.

“We hit the ground running. We were profitable our very first month,” Dugas said. “I’m having the best year that I’ve ever had. I’ve already sold over 10 million for the year.”

And lately, sales overall “have been through the roof,” Traflet said.

The close-knit atmosphere at smaller firms seems to help foster team work, agents said.

“Everybody becomes everybody’s assistant,” Harrington said.

Glenn Neighbour, who founded Neighbour Realty & Associates in 2007 with his wife, Stephanie, said his firm’s team, including seven agents, is like a family.

They’re able to combine a variety of expertise, from one agent’s knowledge of photography to
Glenn Neighbour’s background in construction.

“We all get input on each one of our listings, and we come up with a much more thoughtful approach,” he said.

Agents noted some upsides to working at a larger firm.

Dugas said the education she and Traflet received from Prudential helped build the foundation for Living Seaside’s success.

“If we had not been in that environment and gotten that kind of background and had the sage advice from the broker-in-charge that we had for a number of years, we would not know what we know,” Dugas said.

Training is a major benefit that can come from joining a large firm, said Jody Wainio, president of the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.

“If you’re a new agent coming into this business, you probably need to start with a larger firm to get training, to get experience, to have some mentoring and to get leads,” Wainio said.

Wainio said she, too, has noticed an increase in smaller firms in her role as WRAR president.

“I would say there’s a growing number of small firms in our association as experienced agents leave the larger firms and establish their own businesses,” she said.

Dugas said that’s a departure from what often happened in the past.

“Before, it was really the big companies, and then the agents who just didn’t want to work for a big company would work for themselves,” she said. “It was sort of rare that you had good agents who paired up.”

When they were considering making a change from Prudential, Dugas and Traflet thought about the possibility of working for another established agency.

“We just didn’t see anyone doing it the way we wanted to do it,” Traflet said.