All Forum Posts by: Gary Lucido

First I would demand that the agent do more work. Sounds like you're doing a lot of the up front work. If they are incapable of doing the work then get a different agent. 

There might be an agent out there that you can pay by the hour and then refund the entire commission to you. We offer that to home buyers and sellers in the Chicago area but it is pretty rare. The problem with the traditional model is that the buyers that know what they want end up subsidizing the ones that don't know.

We've been doing this for several years now in Chicago and the suburbs and it's very popular with a certain type of buyer - super smart and focused buyers. It's not the only way we work but we do offer it. We've actually done it on deals as low as around $200K and the buyer netted money back. 

In response to Charlie Macpherson above, the only time it has cost our buyers anything on a net basis is when they changed their mind and decided not to buy at all. But when they close the commission rebate more than offsets what they paid us up front. It saves buyers money and we're guaranteed that we get paid for our time. We've written rebate checks for as much as $45,000.

Just stumbled on this post. The funny thing is that we've been working by the hour for several years now. Our rate is currently $125/ hour and I would rather get paid hourly to do a rental than to get 1/2 month's rent. The problem with the real estate industry is that the easy clients end up subsidizing the high maintenance clients. Paying by the hour is more fair.