03/17/2024
I really need to get some things off my chest. There has never been any kind of "Set Commission Rate" in real estate. It has always been negotiable. Realtors ask for commission based on their communication skills, their abilities, experience, offerings, knowledge, years in business, their brand exposure; their expertise in niche markets, their negotiation skills, their use of available technologies in marketing, their years in business, and their history of successes and there are vast differences in these areas to name a few. If you do not know who you are hiring.. do not hire them. If you don't know the questions to ask - and i've even told my customers what questions they should ask of me... then don't just go with the first person who answers a zillow paid agent lead or pops up on some random website.Do your research. If you're a first time buyer or a VA buyer you need an agent who knows ALL about that process and has a team of lenders who know ALL about that loan and incentives available to you. Who is on your team is important! And, it is a TEAM process.
In light of the Dept of Justice ruling on where agents post commissions (formerly in the safest place possible - the MLS), and removing it from that safe, secure, honored system that we spent decades developing, they have just knocked the real estate industry and fair and equitable commerce back to the 1900s and attempting to create even more government dependency. It is most damaging not for agents, but for the people I serve who need my help the most - First Time Buyers, VA Buyers, first responder buyers, elderly on fixed income buyers, the newly divorced or displaced buyers.
Because I have not said much publicly about this, as I have watched it unfold and can not believe my eyes that our legislators did not weigh in on it sooner, I want to clarify the myth about my life as a REALTOR and a relative majority of others in my profession and about commissions.
While I am among the top percentage of agents who sell 80% or more of properties, I struggle with the thought of the future of this profession and the now inequitable fallout from the DOJ ruling. They've ignored decades of work, my work, my values, my ethics and taken us back to the wild west. So... this post is to the public primarily, and to some agents who do need to wake up, who do need to rededicate themselves to a career or service, and who do need to try to fix this now for the largest segment of homebuyers and sellers who need our help and expertise.
First, some personal history, I am a REALTOR. I am from a family of entrepreners and have never been afraid of the work it would take to create a business. I never expected it to be easy, and I was always prepared to learn all that could and still study and grab hold of all I need to learn to this day! It was my decion to chose a 2nd profession, leaving another 20 year career, since 2002. In my mind, it allowed me to do something more meaningful with my life and when I made the decision to become a REALTOR, after being given an ultimatum to keep working for someone who controlled my future, my potential and my paycheck, who told me I wouldn't make it, I never looked back. Now... its been fu***ng hard. I made it through the market crash without filing bankruptcy like some of my peers. It was hard. I've made sacrifices, my children have made sacrifices, and that continues even now actually. It is not an easy profession, but it is one I believe in, one I have immersed myself into, one I have given my time and knowledge to serve in leadership on a local, State and National level to help create a fair and open marketplace, I've collaborated and created events with others across the country and in my State that draw hundreds of agents hungry for knowledge, and helped create some of the very tools and technologies for agents - to even the playing field to help all agents have the ability, (maybe not the motivation, but certainly the ability if they tried), to become successful. I created two brokerages because I believed that again I could reach my higher potential, and help others reach theirs, to not being held back for being creative, to be compensated fairly for their day to day work and hours of their personal sacrifice, for the encouragement of entrepreneurship, for searching for knowledge and for encouraging the association with others who were making changes in the industry for the better of ALL agents, not being kept in a bubble of "this is the way it's always been." It's been a tough road. I have put others needs above my own, sometimes appreciated, and many times, not. Welcome to leadership.
One thing I have not been is transparent enough about all that people like me, have shouldered for their customers, for their agents and for the public in general. That is where most REALTORS also have failed. We have not told the public about the way we are paid, and what we do for that paycheck, what comes out of it, and how commission based employment works. We have not adequately demonstrated our VALUE and what we bring to the table. I've barely told my sellers and buyers what I have done to help make their deals work behind the scenes, what I've paid for, what I have handled for them, what experts I have brought in to solve critical issues beyond my scope, what counseling I have had to give to irate buyers or sellers, and what physical, mental and physiological strength I have had to muster up to keep deals flowing and helping them achieve their dreams. I've shouldered my own disappointments losing weeks, months of work to deals that fall apart that i never would be paid for, that left me wondering about my own financial health. Not to mention the call from friends or family that they are using another agent, but can I "help clarify a few things"...or watching as they pay 10% more than any other buyers because their agents are inexperienced and just really don't give a s**t. (Yes, this profession has those as well.) Don't get me wrong.. again this is my fault for not sharing again, why my friends and family need to use someone they not only know, but understand has put 120% into becoming one of the most respected agents in the area. This is no plan B, no part time job for me, this is all-in. I've also guided and welcomed newer agents along in their deals because their brokers have neither trained them nor cared to get to know them and their customers. I've created a six week course for new agents to give them what I never got as a new agent - a start to success. Still, this profession is one of the hardest, most time consuming, draining yet rewarding careers in our Nation. Over 1M people have chosen it. If only 30% remain after this, it will be the 30% putting in the time, changing pace, adapting to values they should have had all along, and STILL advocating for the right for people to own homes and to purchase them affordably. It will be people like me who are Advocating for private property rights every day, not once a year at a convention or every 4 years at an election, but every day. Not a day goes by that I am not aware or what I need to do next to help a buyer or seller be able to work with government back mortgage securities to be able to navigate to thru that process. For some of my customers it may be easier, for 90%, it is difficult, it is gut-wrenching, for the self-employed it is near impossible, yet,.. I am there for them every step of the way. If you think I do that for a measly commission, you are mistaken. While no one, myself included should have to work for free in America, there is an almost unexplainable reward to this business, there is food for my soul, that comes from every closed deal where people walk away and say,... I'm home. I know that because I helped, someone has a financial leg-up by being a homeowner. It's like the pain of childbirth literally, what when it is all over, all 38 hours or it, you say... "that wasn't so bad, I could probably do it again,"... and you do. Men may not understand this, but women are getting that analogy for sure.
But, here's the point. my days are full. The after-hours calls from my own agents who need guidance, the travel to conferences for motivation that I need, that help my focus and drive. Whether I am working from home, from my daughter's house in Texas, while on vacation, or in my office or while driving across SW GA, to the Gulf Coast, my mind, my soul, and my body are working most of the time.Yes, my family can tell you, I rarely rest. Today, It's Sunday,.. yesterday I was up at 7 helping a client with an addendum so that he and the seller could accomplish a 1031 tax exchange - which also means it may be another two months before I get paid for my work thus far but the point is,.. they are now able to make better financial decisions and have both saved over $100,000 in tax dollars. That feels really good. I think I just earned that commission. At 11AM I had a conference call - taking a break from cleaning my badly needed garage, which I may never finish, in my paint soiled t-shirt with a new client calling me from Seattle to review trade analysis reports, photos, video, tax documents, zoning ordinances on a property I spent 6 hours collecting and assembling the day before after driving 3 hours to view and film and at 1PM we put an offer together - that's probably not going to fly, but he wants to try -and then I will spend more time to educate him. But I am positive we can get it done because the other agent respects my experience and time and knows who he is working with, while he does not know the buyer. At 7 pm, while eating dinner, I received a call from an agent in Northern Georgia with a referral of a land client. We spent time talking about not only the client but I wanted to encourage her to learn more about the field she was trying to serve him in, and how to gain all the knowledge she needed via our Brand. She has 4 brokers and none with knowledge about this type property. While on 'spring break" for three days with my grandchildren who i can only see about every 2-3 months and who live 13 hours away, I was dealing with a buyer and seller on a contract for a land purchase for hours, and a buyer who came back to a property without their agent who they fired, to show the listing again and write yet another offer. Yes, kids in tow, we all 3 went to the showing, and we worked through the deal. On the not so successful side, the week before, I lost a young customer who I previously helped and gave up quite a bit of commission to help get into her home, because I couldn't show a property an hour away on short notice and because another agent never asked if they were working with someone and did in fact write a contract on her own listing - which unfortunately had tons of mistakes, and that could ultimately harm my customer, This caused me to not be able to help them or list their home because of an ethical conflict of interest and potential problems with now another agent's contract. It sucked, it really hurt, and what hurt the most is that they did not appreciate to honesty and integrity of what I had to tell them and from where it came from. So... every deal.. there are emotions, there are physical and mental stresses that are unique and that REALTORS hold tight to their chest and make look easy most the time. Because.... that is what professionals do.
Surgeons don't give you the details of "complications", they just tell you they were there and they overcame them,.. or not, and they get paid one way or another. Attorneys work for you and give you the end of day choices... no matter if its what you want to her or not,.. and they get paid. REALTORS handle a lot..for the biggest financial decisions most people make,.. and if it does not work out the first time, the second time.. the 10th time... they only get paid if it does work out. Sometimes not at all. Here's what I do know,.. I will show up for you the 11th, 12th and 15th time if needed. When I help save you more money than what you pay me... when I help you make more money than what you pay me or what you would have paid an attorney to get you out of the worst gone wrong transaction ever,... that has value. When I say I specialize in real estate transactions, I mean it. When I say,.. this is not my first rodeo, I mean it. When my buyer from Seattle says, he's seen enough about me online to know that I would be a person to go to battle for him... well, I'm glad that is out there in the digital space too. I mean, woh doesn't want a bulldog to fight for their interests? When I say, don't call me if you F up on your own... well I don't mean it.. I will probably help you out of that one too.
So, despite what you hear about real estate commissions going away,.. they are not. As long as there are homes to be sold and buyers who need homes, there are REALTORS needed to help navigate a really freaking hard process and to protect all involved from over-regulated government demands, insurance fine print, borderline illegal demands, stupid mistakes, financial pitfalls, and really bad decisions.
Remember this, For Sale By Owners are going to tell you one thing,...some builder's own salespeople are going to tell you one thing.... but they are going to tell me the truth, because I will already know it most the time.
I hope you all understand a little more about the life of a REALTOR, and I am going to post a lot more.. shorter versions and examples of real-life successes and trials - you may get sick of it,.. but maybe you will know a little more about my experiences, my life as a trusted professional, and why people use me and others like me as their agent. People always say, "you should write a book,"... well that may come next.
As my friend and fellow REALTOR Cyndee Haydon has said, you need to know more about how the sausage is made. Now you do.
If you want to know more - get over to my real business page-learn something new, follow our journey and keep an eye out for some awesome stories coming soon.
https://www.facebook.com/Century21FirstStoryRealEstateTallahassee
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Century 21 First Story Real Estate Tallahassee, FL
SERVING SOUTH GEORGIA, NORTH FLORIDA, GULF COAST
