Author: Doug Quance (page 4 of 4)

by Doug Quance

Associate Broker

Author website

You gotta love how they do things in the New York / New Jersey area.

They don’t mess around.

I called a very experienced agent in the NY/NJ area yesterday to discuss her experience with one of her online service providers… as well as the usual real estate chit chat.

During our conversation, I asked her if she has had any experiences with the Redfin type of buyer brokers… you know, the kind that rebate money to the buyer.

According to her, the rebate is outlawed in New Jersey.

It’s the next item that just killed me (hence the title):

“Around here, if a buyer wants to see a house, they need to pay $150 and enter a buyer brokerage agreement. If and when they actually make a purchase, the $150 is given back to the buyer. It keeps the buyers from jumping from agent to agent,” she said.

Now that’s a shock. What a concept!

“And buyers go for it?” I asked, in disbelief.

“They have to. Everyone does it. It helps to compensate you for running around – and keeps you from dealing with buyers who aren’t serious. Show ten houses in a month, and you have $1500 to pay some of your expenses,” she replied.

I am not sure that I, as a seller, would approve of this…

I know you guys will have an opinion on this. 😆

by Doug Quance

Associate Broker

Author website

Are you working for free?

I know I have – and still do… and I’m not alone.

Realtors often do a great deal of work for which we are never compensated. Not all of our listings sell, and not all of our buyers actually purchase a property.

For most of us, we perform a service – investing our time and money – with no guarantee that we’ll ever see a dime in return.

It is typical of many commissioned sales people.

And yet if you surf the Internet, you’ll see countless examples of people claiming that commissioned sales people don’t earn their money… and how they are only in it for the buck.

Let’s shift gears for a moment.

When I was checking out of the hospital a few weeks ago, my attending physician was writing up my prescriptions and we chatted for a few minutes. He told me that he would give me a referral to a pulmonary specialist.

Before I left the hospital, I bumped into this specialist out in the hallway – and our brief encounter went something like this:

Me – “Hi Doc – they gave me your contact information and told me to call and set up an appointment in the next week or so.”

Specialist – “When you call my office, if they try to schedule you for five or six weeks out, tell them you spoke with me and that I said to schedule you as soon as possible.”

Me – “No problem. I’ll tell them.”

That was pretty much it. If there was more, I don’t remember it.

What on Earth does this have to do with the subject at hand?

Well, you might draw the inference that this specialist was performing a little commissioned sales work. You might conclude that he was trolling the hospital for new patients… and he spent a few moments with me in the interest of future business.

Well that’s the inference I had, anyhow…

So I get this letter from his office today – marked personal and confidential. I’m thinking that it’s just a reminder that I should schedule an appointment, since – at this point in time – I had failed Read more

by Doug Quance

Associate Broker

Author website

I’ve been running some stats on advertising, Google rankings and agent performance over the last couple of days. One of the top agents in Atlanta has not had a selling-side transaction all year. Very unusual for this agent. Another top agent – who ranks very high in Google and has been a very productive selling agent in the past – has also not had a selling-side transaction this year. Both agents have seen sales on their listings, but not at the same rate as 2005.

When I examine the number of homes sold in the greater Atlanta area in 2005 versus 2006, the numbers are virtually the same… but the number that didn’t sell was much higher in 2006. In 2004 – 99% of all listings sold… in 2005 – 71% of all listings sold… but in 2006, only 54% sold. If this trend continues, we will soon reach a point where a property will be more likely NOT to sell.

Meanwhile, for the umpteenth time over the last few days, GMAC Metro Brokers Real Estate has been running their television ads trying to get more people to become real estate agents. One of their ads features a guy saying that he sold $9 million in his first year. Oh yeah… we’re all swimming in cash right now. Even their website asks, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”

I wrote “How Many Agents Is Too Many” back in October.

So, with a yearly average of three or four transaction sides per agent in Georgia… why would Metro Brokers advertise for more agents?

Simple. Because these agents aren’t on salary.

Many businesses that hire commission-only salespeople don’t care who they hire, as these people only get paid when the company gets paid. To them, the more the merrier… and I fear that the same is true in real estate companies.

The questions is: “Is this a good model for our industry?”

Some new brokerages are trying a salary model, and time will tell if these models will thrive – or even survive. I have yet to hear what kind of money these salaried positions are paying.

On the Read more