As a long-time lurker, seldom-time Poster I’d like to offer my 2 cents here……..
My parents are both realtors, and my dad has had his brokers license since 1979. Since I was raised in a realtors’ home I think I have a pretty damn good understanding of what that career is all about.
Adam (aka SD Realtor) offers discounts because he realizes that selling houses is not rocket science and a realtor should not become a 6% vested owner in a property just because they wrote up the sales contract.
You can talk til your blue in the face about all the wonderful tips you have for your clients, but if you think that you have earned your 30 GRAND commission, then you should come to work with the rest of us and see what it takes to make 30 large. (of course the 30 thousand commission is based on a house selling for 500K and the agent keeping both ends of the deal).
My dad would always try and defend their commissions by arguing that as a realtor/broker he is liable for all kinds things and can be sued at the drop of a hat….BS! That’s just a way for him to rationalize being overpaid. If it were true, then why did he pay so much money in E and O insurance?
Anyways, Adams pricing structure is brilliant as it compensates the realtor on a sliding scale based on how much work he has to put into the deal. WOW, getting paid based on how much work you do……..what a novel concept!
Most realtors got into this game because of the dollar signs in their eyes and the potential *home runs* they could hit. The bubble boom years bore that out as the number of real estate agents multiplied like locusts.
FULL DISCLOSURE…………
Adam is going to be the selling agent for my wife and I when we finally get a “yes” to one of the several offers we have in the pipeline.
Even though we stand to save a lot of money because of Adam’s discount scale, I have advised him that at this point I want to pay him his FULL commission. At this stage in our house hunting, he has ALREADY put in a lot of hours on several different houses.
I think that on MOST deals the realtor is overpaid, but I would be a hypocrite if I did not offer to fully compensate one if they have more man-hours invested than the norm……even if MY interpretation of the norm is on the low-side.
