RE/MAX Greater Atlanta files bankruptcy!

[Joel Owens]

Just came out that RE/MAX Greater Atlanta has filed for bankruptcy protection.

There are stories of the more than 300 agents not getting their commission checks.(checks are already bouncing).The brokerage says earnest money and escrow deposits are safe but who knows.

If you are a buyer or seller with a broker/agent from their firm I would seriously consider not holding any money with them.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/27524829/detail.html

[Joel Owens]

I started out at Metro Brokers then went to Solid Source.Have had my own brokerage since 2007.

Originally when I saw Michelle's success from 45 agents to thousands I thought I could do the same thing but doing a virtual brokerage to keep costs low and not have brick and mortar costs (leasing or owning a building) for agents to use.

I spent about 5 months recruiting and was up to about 50 agents charging a 300 per transaction fee with no dues and FMLS only access. GAMLS you have to pay an ongoing fee for instead of when a sale occurs like FMLS.

With FMLS you still have to hit yearly minimum brokerage sales numbers or get hit with a big fee.

What I learned from that experience is that many agents have a sense of entitlement.I would find that maybe only 20% to 30% of the agents would have a closing that month.

So to scale this if I had 100 agents you might have 6,000 to 9,000 a month gross coming in.

For that though it is a major headache.Many agents are part-time and rusty or an investor wants to run a hair brained scheme.My favorite is a new agent that just left a 50/50 brokerage that has almost zero training and wants to join my firm.

They would want you to train them and spend hours and hours for a 300 trans fee.I am not even mentioning the amount of paperwork you have.

Agents not keeping up with education requirements,not paying license fees and getting a lapsed license,getting a suspended license for child support, government loans,etc.

Getting IRS orders to take any commission your agent gets and pay to them etc.

I now have about 18 agents and haven't taken anymore for over a year.I do way better and make more working my own deals.Paperwork and headaches are less and I don't babysit have to constantly watch agents anymore.

I would say it's good to have the brokerage license just don't add any agents unless you keep it small and they agree to a fat commission split for your time invested.

If they him and haw kick them to the curb!!

The 100% model everyone and their brother is doing it today in Atlanta.I see stuff for 150.00 a transaction now.It's saturated and there just isn't the money in it now that used to be.

Hope it helps.