SD R
I’m glad you weighed in here and absolutely agree with you that it can be operated at some level of discounting also but as a niche business. I think the fact that you operate it as a second business while your wife works and also has a second business speak volumes as to the profitability of this industry. I’ve seen your transactions on the MLS and have no doubt you are doing a great job for your clients dare I say probably on par with the top agents out their (service wise not productionwise). My point is that if this was your sole source of income on a full time basis it would be difficult to do a good job for your family. If you did it full time, the volume you would need to support your family would likely exceed your ability to deliver the same level of service. Your family woudl grow frustrated by your absence at nights and on weekends. As a part timer it is easier to preserve your time as your own. I also don’t think there are enough electrical engineers that got tired of paying to buy/sell rental properties to support this industry. Being in this business requires an entrepreneurila slant which you have but most people dont.
A couple of points on Ipayone. You are correct that it was never constructed for Real Estate. I went to one of their first recruiting meetings and met the CEO/Founder. What I heard come out of his mouth was exactly the same words that I heard come out of the mouths of dot com/tech start-up companies. He in fact came from a failed tech company. It was clear to me from day 1 that his intention was to build something of adequate size that he could sell off to one of the major players in the industry.
As for spending big bucks on advertising I do not believe that was the case. Two of the biggest investors in Ipayone were Hahn (owner of Sports Arena) and Lynch (owner of 1090). The advertising was no doubt provided by them as their investment into the company. My guess is that the naming provided a great write off for Hahn and that the ad spots on 1090 were whatever was unsold inventory (and thus no cost to Lynch).
