I didn’t know Hahn and Lynch were IP1 investors. That explains the volume of commercials. Radio time is not cheap at all and when I counted the number of IP1 commercials in a single Padres broadcast I could not figure out how in the world they could pay for it. Now it is easy to see.
I think you may be correct in the sense that if I did it full time I don’t believe I would match my engineering income. I may come close depending on the market conditions but it is doubtful. Also if I had higher operating expenses then no way.
I think the thing that is most interesting is we see sooooo many posters complaining about the costs associated with transactions. Like everything else it is much easier to complain then to do something about it. I complained alot as well but did something about it. I had a friend who I was going to hang my license with after I go it and then I could simply by/sell on my own in order to save a side of the commission. The idea to start the second business got spun up because I had a bunch of engineering friends who wanted homes and didn’t want to pay as much either. Also the rental numbers in San Diego didn’t make sense anymore. So it goes from there.
The HUS story is one you probably already know. HUS has some great people. The franchise owners were all good. The regional guys were pretty crooked (in hindsight) and you may know them or of them. They completely over saturated San Diego. When I bought my franchise there were 22 of them and 3 months later there were over 30 of them! The guys I sold my franchise to already have closed it up. Many other of the HUS franchises have as well.
I often wonder why more people have not done what I have done. I am not sure if it is the entrepenurial slant or just the time involved. I can honestly say it is much more time consuming then anyone here realizes. There is so much free work that you need to do and more often then not potential buyers or sellers bail on you. MINIMUM 80% of the time to say the least, at least in my case. My wife says I am way to accomodating to leads and she is definitely right. So everyone thinks that they are getting ripped off by commissions but they don’t think of the other 8 people that the agent took out to see homes, or ran comps for, or dedicated time to but who walked.
A few weeks ago I posted about a listing appt I had in Coronado and how the guy wanted to list but was not willing to price competitively. The guy completely ran me through the ringer and in the end he ended up simply using me as leverage to get the commission lowered by his agent that he has always used. Those are the breaks though right?
Nobody forces them to use agents. Call a real estate attorney, FSBO it yourself, or go get a license and hang it with a broker.
