02/29/2024
Here is a Short story AND your Gentle/Not so Gentle Reminder…
I have a client that I met in 2016. I have helped them to find two or three rental homes over the years. At the end of 2022, they decided they wanted to buy a home. We got preapproved and started shopping! Since then, we have not been able to find the perfect home for them until this past month (January 2024). In 2023, I suggested that they have a home built, they were not interested, we continue to search for the perfect home. Last month they decided to give new construction a chance, we found the perfect home!
Contracts are signed and Everyone is elated!
The next day I received a phone call from my client and they are asking me for OVER HALF of the commission….
*Please take a moment to read, understand this and Share it!*
Hello friends, before you go and ask for a discount on the commission paid to a Realtor for helping you sell your home, please understand what you're truly asking for them to do ... and ask yourself this question: If your boss came to you and asked you to work overtime, but wasn't going to compensate you for doing so, would you still do it?
Another day, another person who says realtors are overpaid and an unnecessary part of a transaction. I’m assuming that those who think this have either been watching too much Million Dollar Listing or think they know how to do it all on their own.
A few things to consider:
Real Estate Agents don’t get to keep all the money they make on deals. You see 3% on a $600k home as $18k. The agents sure don’t.
That commission is paid to them:
- Before taxes
- Before broker splits
- Before marketing
- Before board dues
- Before office bills
- Before professional photographs on your home
- Before professional staging on your home
- Before all the other costs of doing business
Out of what’s left of their checks after all this, they can then begin paying for everything else. But wait, that’s not all!
They don’t get afforded a lot of the things you enjoy at a 9-5 job.
They don’t receive:
- Employer healthcare
- Employee matched retirement accounts
- Paid vacations
- Weekends off
- Nights off
- Maternity leave
- Bereavement pay/leave
- Company car
They pay for all of this out of their own pockets. Every single penny.
Yes, there are some realtors married to people working company jobs who receive some of these benefits. But the vast majority of real estate agents, they support their families on what’s left after their benefits are taken out and spoken for.
Yes, they did choose a career in real estate. It’s a career which they love and it allows virtually uncapped growth and income potential. But often they have to be available at any time of the day. Whether it’s showing homes at 7pm, writing offers at 11 pm or doing final walkthroughs at 6am. They are there, available to help their clients when they are needed.
So before you tell another one of them that they make too much money and aren’t really needed anymore, I encourage you to do the following ...
Get your real estate license, start lead generating on your own, find clients who like you and trust you to help them with the BIGGEST purchase of their lives.
Make sure you know what goes in the blanks of the contracts, but also what the promulgated parts of them say. Learn the legal steps of what happens once you write a contract, and what business partners are a good fit to help your clients and who’s a scam.
Try and keep deals together when they’re about to go south with critical thinking skills all while staying within legal parameters.
Educate your new homeowner clients about what’s going to happen after they close and what to expect in the couple years to come.
Then listen, repeatedly, as others tell you the money you’ve been paid is WAY too much and they could do what you’ve done for much, much less.
Exhausting, isn’t it?
*Reposted!
Darrell E Anderson II
Anderson Luxe Living Group - Team Lead
EXP Realty
Broker Associate
318.518.2541
[email protected]
