RE Ethics question

[SD Realtor]

Urban thank you for the correction. E if the home you would be writing an offer on was procurred for you by the original agent then yes any offer you would ask another agent to write subsequently could pose a problem. The agent who procurred the home originally for you could petition for the commission. This is not just true for that home but even other homes that you may have received from that agent in auto MLS emails and such. Thus it would be best to ask your original agent to send you a cancellation of contract even though there is nothing formally in ink between the two of you.

As far as rebates go urbanrealtor you missed the point. Yes a broker doesn’t care what thier own agent does with thier cut. As you know all commissions are paid to brokers not agents. Brokers then give cuts. In my post I said broker but it sounds like I should have been more explicit as you seemed to disect it a bit more then others would have. In large brokerages I don’t know of any brokers who will give up any of thier own cut or the corporate cut, or the offices cut. Thus in your model you are limiting the rebate to a fraction of the 35% of what the Prudential Agent makes. Hmm… that doesn’t sound like much of a deal to me. Obviously this is not the model other providers use. Places like Redfin or smaller independents do not follow any such practice at all and offer much more robust rebates for alternative service models.

That is one of the main problems working with a large brokerage is that there are many hands in the commission pie. Thus buyers are limited because of that. Similarly agents are biased as to working harder for larger sales as opposed to smaller sales because as you stated, it really is not worth your time is it? I highly doubt that any broker in any large brokerage will accept a reduction in THIER commission. Perhaps the brokers you work for have been overly generous I guess. So in your example above if someone wanted say a 50% commission split how would that work? Your Prudential agent certainly would not work for them for free correct? Thus would his broker accept a reduction in his money? Perhaps for a very large purchase I can see it but for run of the mill stuff I highly doubt it. Show me a Prudential Broker who will accept that and I will gladly admit I am wrong. Alternately I guess you work with very benevolent brokers.

[CA renter]

Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?

[CA renter]

Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?

[CA renter]

Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?

[CA renter]

Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?

[CA renter]

Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?

[SD Realtor]

Cutting right to it eh CA Renter? My answer is going to be slippery but is akin to the walking in another mans shoes metaphor. The general perception on this site is that brokers and agents don’t work nearly enough to justify the money that they make. I am not so sure that I believe that statement. I think most brokers do justify the cut they get but I am not prepared to argue or back that up. Look at someone like Jim K. He is an excellent example of an honest independent who has a large clientele. How much he gets as a cut from his agents is up to him but I would surmise he has earned it. Also keep in mind that all the advertising you see for large brokerages comes from… where? Well yes you guessed that right. Anyways going independent is not easy. Like ANY small business you have work many times harder, you have no corporate backing, and most of all, the perception of the general public is not to work with small independents because of substandard service. Now I would not accuse large traditional brokerages of perpetuating this perception but then again I am sure they do nothing to discourage it.

[SD Realtor]

Cutting right to it eh CA Renter? My answer is going to be slippery but is akin to the walking in another mans shoes metaphor. The general perception on this site is that brokers and agents don’t work nearly enough to justify the money that they make. I am not so sure that I believe that statement. I think most brokers do justify the cut they get but I am not prepared to argue or back that up. Look at someone like Jim K. He is an excellent example of an honest independent who has a large clientele. How much he gets as a cut from his agents is up to him but I would surmise he has earned it. Also keep in mind that all the advertising you see for large brokerages comes from… where? Well yes you guessed that right. Anyways going independent is not easy. Like ANY small business you have work many times harder, you have no corporate backing, and most of all, the perception of the general public is not to work with small independents because of substandard service. Now I would not accuse large traditional brokerages of perpetuating this perception but then again I am sure they do nothing to discourage it.

[SD Realtor]

Cutting right to it eh CA Renter? My answer is going to be slippery but is akin to the walking in another mans shoes metaphor. The general perception on this site is that brokers and agents don’t work nearly enough to justify the money that they make. I am not so sure that I believe that statement. I think most brokers do justify the cut they get but I am not prepared to argue or back that up. Look at someone like Jim K. He is an excellent example of an honest independent who has a large clientele. How much he gets as a cut from his agents is up to him but I would surmise he has earned it. Also keep in mind that all the advertising you see for large brokerages comes from… where? Well yes you guessed that right. Anyways going independent is not easy. Like ANY small business you have work many times harder, you have no corporate backing, and most of all, the perception of the general public is not to work with small independents because of substandard service. Now I would not accuse large traditional brokerages of perpetuating this perception but then again I am sure they do nothing to discourage it.

[SD Realtor]

Cutting right to it eh CA Renter? My answer is going to be slippery but is akin to the walking in another mans shoes metaphor. The general perception on this site is that brokers and agents don’t work nearly enough to justify the money that they make. I am not so sure that I believe that statement. I think most brokers do justify the cut they get but I am not prepared to argue or back that up. Look at someone like Jim K. He is an excellent example of an honest independent who has a large clientele. How much he gets as a cut from his agents is up to him but I would surmise he has earned it. Also keep in mind that all the advertising you see for large brokerages comes from… where? Well yes you guessed that right. Anyways going independent is not easy. Like ANY small business you have work many times harder, you have no corporate backing, and most of all, the perception of the general public is not to work with small independents because of substandard service. Now I would not accuse large traditional brokerages of perpetuating this perception but then again I am sure they do nothing to discourage it.

[SD Realtor]

Cutting right to it eh CA Renter? My answer is going to be slippery but is akin to the walking in another mans shoes metaphor. The general perception on this site is that brokers and agents don’t work nearly enough to justify the money that they make. I am not so sure that I believe that statement. I think most brokers do justify the cut they get but I am not prepared to argue or back that up. Look at someone like Jim K. He is an excellent example of an honest independent who has a large clientele. How much he gets as a cut from his agents is up to him but I would surmise he has earned it. Also keep in mind that all the advertising you see for large brokerages comes from… where? Well yes you guessed that right. Anyways going independent is not easy. Like ANY small business you have work many times harder, you have no corporate backing, and most of all, the perception of the general public is not to work with small independents because of substandard service. Now I would not accuse large traditional brokerages of perpetuating this perception but then again I am sure they do nothing to discourage it.

[NotCranky]

[quote=CA renter]Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?[/quote]

I’ll go out on a limb here. I think big name brand brokers are experts at stripping hopeful, new and inexperienced agents of their commissions.

With commissions in general,sometimes they are a windfall regardless of the split. This perception probably fuels much discontent towards Realtors. The amount of work agents do and don’t get paid for gets over-looked. Still, I can see why buyers and sellers hate to see it happen. My response and I think that of many agents, is to somehow arrange for compensation be aligned with the amount of marketing, effort and time a client requires.

If there isn’t a high client to sale ratio and you do have a high “image” overhead that can come with working for the big guys, you can’t afford to do this because of all the hours worked and other expenses applicable, with people who never pull the trigger. In my experience and generally speaking, big offices have worse commission splits, expect their agents to maintain a pretty high image standard, beat the bushes constantly and work with clients who are higher risk to be non-performers.( I have never worked in one. These are observations gleened from interviews when I was looking to hang my license somewhere) Under these circumstances, it could be hard to share much commission even on a windfall type deal. I don’t know anything about the broker willingness to rebate a portion of their own split. My independent broker’s policy is that we both take the same hit and he does not care what it is.

[NotCranky]

[quote=CA renter]Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?[/quote]

I’ll go out on a limb here. I think big name brand brokers are experts at stripping hopeful, new and inexperienced agents of their commissions.

With commissions in general,sometimes they are a windfall regardless of the split. This perception probably fuels much discontent towards Realtors. The amount of work agents do and don’t get paid for gets over-looked. Still, I can see why buyers and sellers hate to see it happen. My response and I think that of many agents, is to somehow arrange for compensation be aligned with the amount of marketing, effort and time a client requires.

If there isn’t a high client to sale ratio and you do have a high “image” overhead that can come with working for the big guys, you can’t afford to do this because of all the hours worked and other expenses applicable, with people who never pull the trigger. In my experience and generally speaking, big offices have worse commission splits, expect their agents to maintain a pretty high image standard, beat the bushes constantly and work with clients who are higher risk to be non-performers.( I have never worked in one. These are observations gleened from interviews when I was looking to hang my license somewhere) Under these circumstances, it could be hard to share much commission even on a windfall type deal. I don’t know anything about the broker willingness to rebate a portion of their own split. My independent broker’s policy is that we both take the same hit and he does not care what it is.

[NotCranky]

[quote=CA renter]Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?[/quote]

I’ll go out on a limb here. I think big name brand brokers are experts at stripping hopeful, new and inexperienced agents of their commissions.

With commissions in general,sometimes they are a windfall regardless of the split. This perception probably fuels much discontent towards Realtors. The amount of work agents do and don’t get paid for gets over-looked. Still, I can see why buyers and sellers hate to see it happen. My response and I think that of many agents, is to somehow arrange for compensation be aligned with the amount of marketing, effort and time a client requires.

If there isn’t a high client to sale ratio and you do have a high “image” overhead that can come with working for the big guys, you can’t afford to do this because of all the hours worked and other expenses applicable, with people who never pull the trigger. In my experience and generally speaking, big offices have worse commission splits, expect their agents to maintain a pretty high image standard, beat the bushes constantly and work with clients who are higher risk to be non-performers.( I have never worked in one. These are observations gleened from interviews when I was looking to hang my license somewhere) Under these circumstances, it could be hard to share much commission even on a windfall type deal. I don’t know anything about the broker willingness to rebate a portion of their own split. My independent broker’s policy is that we both take the same hit and he does not care what it is.

[NotCranky]

[quote=CA renter]Question:

Other than insurance and marketing, what do most brokers do to “earn” these large cuts of an agent’s commissions?

Why don’t most agents just go independent after the standard years of service, etc.?[/quote]

I’ll go out on a limb here. I think big name brand brokers are experts at stripping hopeful, new and inexperienced agents of their commissions.

With commissions in general,sometimes they are a windfall regardless of the split. This perception probably fuels much discontent towards Realtors. The amount of work agents do and don’t get paid for gets over-looked. Still, I can see why buyers and sellers hate to see it happen. My response and I think that of many agents, is to somehow arrange for compensation be aligned with the amount of marketing, effort and time a client requires.

If there isn’t a high client to sale ratio and you do have a high “image” overhead that can come with working for the big guys, you can’t afford to do this because of all the hours worked and other expenses applicable, with people who never pull the trigger. In my experience and generally speaking, big offices have worse commission splits, expect their agents to maintain a pretty high image standard, beat the bushes constantly and work with clients who are higher risk to be non-performers.( I have never worked in one. These are observations gleened from interviews when I was looking to hang my license somewhere) Under these circumstances, it could be hard to share much commission even on a windfall type deal. I don’t know anything about the broker willingness to rebate a portion of their own split. My independent broker’s policy is that we both take the same hit and he does not care what it is.

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