Agents Unite: I'm SICK of Having to Defend My Job!

[Tom Webber]

Here is a little something that is really starting to get under my skin... It seems that everyone in the real estate community across the nation (I've been licensed now in 4 states) has SOMETHING to say about an agents role, knowledge, skills, accessibility, longevity, and most importantly compensation.

Here are the facts. Commissions due to agents are how we make a living it is how we survive and support our family if you can't comprehend that then you should pick another hobby, career, or see it for what it is and stop beating agents up over it. What most people don't seem to get is that the small percentage 3-7% in most cases gets severely chopped up and goes to many different parties or expenses. So maybe at the end of a transaction the agent who procured the deal might only walk away with enough to pay their car payment for the month or whatever. Hopefully they have another deal in the pipeline to pay their bills again next month..

This notion that all agents are out there crushing it and screwing people out of profit or equity return has got to stop. It is hard work and you work long hours. Yeah, some agents are making hand over fist but that is because they are hustling and grinding year after year in their market to close LOTS of deals. 

The average agent makes somewhere around 35K a year and that is pure feast or famine which is why most agents get in the biz and leave before their first license renewal. Because it is HARD WORK! 

General Public - I'm tired of you thinking we are obsolete, someone has to be accountable for showing property and responsible if something happens. Someone has to be licensed. There are so many tools to help buyers and sellers do a great deal of research on their own but most of it is off the mark and to have the in depth knowledge of a market or historical data, that is held with the agents and our systems. So stop assuming we are all rookies and don't know what we are doing and you can do our job better etc...

Make no mistake I am not speaking about the handful of terrible agents that can give us a bad name. I am talking about the ones in the trenches day in and day out.

You also don't see the countless hours of free work that we put into deals where if and I mean IF it actually closes you might only be making $2 an hour on that deal. Thankfully some other deal will hopefully make up for that but I can't tell you how many deals have collapsed at the 11th hour through no fault of my own over the years and for me to get a fat $0 in earnings. Oh but no one talks about those numbers.. only when you get paid a lot in commissions then everyone complains.

I'm sick of it, I don't know what else to say. If you want our help than by all means we will help gladly and give you tons of information and guidance but to then turn around and back stab us or weasel us out of a deal is unethical and unprofessional. I'm over it. Put into your spreadsheet of choice a column called (Marketing Expenses) and put in the commissions there if you use an agent, and if you don't then best of luck on selling that property and doing all the leg work to get it sold. But don't come crying when it is 90, 120, 150 days and you have held open house after open house and blah blah blah and no offer yet. The power of the MLS is just that. POWER. Would you try and sell a stock not on the stock market? So why would you try and sell a house not listed in front of hordes of buyers.

Enough ranting.. just had to get this off my chest. Agents I hope you can relate with me on this.