Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Which is why you're an appraiser and not an agent. When we start venturing into areas that our not of our expertise, we open ourselves to liability. You stay in your lane, I stay in mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LAappraiser
As an appraiser, I have the opportunity to work with Realtors on an almost daily basis. I have to say that it's really a mixed bag. I'd say 10% or less are really top notch. The next 40% are able to muddle along and the last 50% are absolutely dreadful. My biggest complaint is that most realtors do not know anything about the house they're selling. Is the family room addition permitted? "I don't know". When was the roof replaced? "I don't know". The termite report came in last week, any problems? "I don't know". On the other hand, the top brokers will know all the answers and more.
I fully understand how long it takes you - I just think you are inefficient....You outsource too much which drives your costs way up. Its not hard to do many of the things you do, especially photos, captions, blogs, etc...if you put even a fraction of the amount of time that you do on this web site into learning photography with a great camera you could save yourself thousands of dollars per year.
I honestly do believe you are a good agent, the type that gets results, but I also think that you spend too much money getting that result, and that you use your time inefficiently. There are lots of things being done that you could pay someone else to do and would be money well spent, and there are others that you do pay people to do that you could be doing yourself...but your business is just that - your business. I don't by any means want to tell you how to run your business...
When I sell my house Ill let you know how long it took me to do the process of gathering the required information. I already know what needs to be done to get it ready for sale, its just a matter of getting it all done now.
It will be a better comparison for yourself if you list a house you aren't familiar with.
I'm an advanced amateur photographer. I owned a Pentax 6x7, a Horseman 4x5 and developed my own black and white. I did some sports photography for Triathlon magazines, and probably have 36 college credits in photography over a period of a couple years in the 80's. I sold the Pentax and Horseman long ago but still have a good Pro-sumer Nikon camera and several lens, and a good Video camera. I don't want to spend $5,000 to get a full Professional Nikon body plus the pro lens, because I still would not do as good a job as the professional photographer. The pro gets the shots faster than I could anyway, and I'm there with her to make sure we get all the shots that are important for marketing.
Up until recently I took my own photographs of homes, but I decided that I want to set myself apart from the crowd. While I take good photos, I'm still not a professional, and cannot take photos as good as a pro. I still take all of my community and city promotional shots, although I have an idea for some shots that I'll want a pro to take.
I can also write good descriptions, and know how they should be written to show the buyer what's in it for them. I've written over 400 Active Rain blogs and am pretty good at writing. However, I recognize that I am not a professional copy writer. The pro's are much better than I am.
Staging is the other thing that I use a professional for. Because of my photography training, I have a pretty good eye for what it takes to make a room look good, and how to declutter. But I am not a professional stager. By me hiring a professional stager my clients are more willing to follow the professional stagers suggestions.
I could do these things a little faster, but I'm looking for "quality" for my work product, not "quantity". So my position is to use the professionals for the professional work, and use assistants for assistants work.
I'm looking at it this way. I'm hired to market the home in a professional manner for the client, and am getting paid well for that job. The client expects a professional job, so I should use my skills to determine what and how to market; and use the professional stager, photographer and copy writer in areas where I am not the professional, so as present the home to the public in the best light possible.
I'm the one who has to get all the details of a sellers home; determine what details are important, and determine who the home should be marketed to. I cannot train an assistant to do that, and the seller expects me to do that anyway.
Then I write a summary draft of the mls description, and the 500 word blog description, and tell the copy writer what key word phrases to optimize the blog for. Without that information, the copy writer would be in the blind; and I'm the only one who can get that information to him.
The photos should be sequenced in the virtual tour in a logical manner and I can do that faster than I can train an assistant to get into my mind and do it. I want certain photos in the blog, and on the individual web site, and I think it would be too difficult to train an assistant to do that, and get it the way I need it. The text on the property web site has to be tweaked, and I can't train an assistant to do it the way I want it.
My assistant does other types of general marketing work for me and communications to save time during the transaction. But the marketing area is mine alone; with the professionals.
This new marketing effort of mine using professionals should eventually reduce my marketing expenses. Currently the marketing/advertising is around 15%, with overhead and wages the other 15%. The goal of the new effort is to increase the conversion rate for listing contracts to around 80%. So far I'm 3 out of 3 for the ones I've gone on since developing the program and the listing presentation that goes with it. If I get marketing/advertising down to 10% I'll be a happy camper.
The top photo here is mine.
This second photo is the professional photographers, which is much better.
I dont see a BIG difference between the two photos in terms of quality of the image....more just using the right camera, lens, & settings to take the photo.
The difference between the two photos above look to be lens & lighting. The first photo looks like its shot with a 35mm lens and without the added natural light. The second photo looks like an 18mm lens and a much slower shutter speed....the 18mm gives you a wider field of vision indoors in smaller rooms without distorting the view.
The lighting is most important. If you dont have good lighting you will not get the photo you are looking for...slower shutter speed will make up for some of the light deficit in the first photo, but to get that picture right you will need a tripod; it cant be hand held. When you slow your shutter way down you will get fuzzy pictures if the camera moves even a micro-inch.
I think the biggest difference is that photo 1 has a bathroom in their bedroom and photo 2 is just a bedroom.
I dont see a BIG difference between the two photos in terms of quality of the image....more just using the right camera, lens, & settings to take the photo.
The difference between the two photos above look to be lens & lighting. The first photo looks like its shot with a 35mm lens and without the added natural light. The second photo looks like an 18mm lens and a much slower shutter speed....the 18mm gives you a wider field of vision indoors in smaller rooms without distorting the view.
The lighting is most important. If you dont have good lighting you will not get the photo you are looking for...slower shutter speed will make up for some of the light deficit in the first photo, but to get that picture right you will need a tripod; it cant be hand held. When you slow your shutter way down you will get fuzzy pictures if the camera moves even a micro-inch.
I think the biggest difference is that photo 1 has a bathroom in their bedroom and photo 2 is just a bedroom.
The first photo was shot with an 11-16mm lens probably closer to the 11mm.
Below is another one of the same room with the lens probably at 16mm. There was some natural light coming from the window, and I almost always use a flash, a Nikon SB 800. I believe the photo on this post was bounced off the ceiling.
Using the flash properly for the room, and adjusting color balance for certain rooms is an art, a talent that the pro's have because they do this every day. Looking at my picture in the previous post, you can see the flash reflection in the left wall picture. You can also see the flash brightening up part of the wall and the closer part of the bed spread. When I bounced it off the ceiling it didn't come out right. This was the best of the takes.
In the professional photo of the other bedroom the lighting is more balanced. While these are just examples of one room where the lighting is the primary difference, there are many other differences in angles, exposure, choices of which photos to take, and what to exclude.
The pro does all of this very fast. She can shoot a 4,000 sf house in an hour, where it would take me two. She also shoots for the virtual tour, which is another skill that requires shooting multiple photos of one room to stitch together, so they look good without distortion.
I could continue to do my own photos because they are better than the average, and would be acceptable to sellers. However, in terms of competing for listings, I show the seller a comparison of the typical mls photos and my professional photographer's photos, along with the virtual tours and blog post example with the copy written by a pro.
When I'm paying for a professional stager up to a certain number of hours, a pro photographer, and copy writer, and using other skills to help prepare the sellers home to sell at top dollar; and detail the rest of my marketing plan, that gives me a competitive advantage. Since there is tough competition, agents need to set themselves apart by offering more value. While there are some agents who are competing simply on reducing their fee, I prefer to compete on the value I provide in helping the seller achieve a higher net.
As I interpret what people are saying on the forums, this is what they're looking for; value. Of course many still won't understand the value, and may continue to think that a lower fee will improve their bottom line, and they need to be shown that a lower fee and poor service does not contribute to a higher net.
This link Single Family - Detached, Spanish - Gilbert, AZ (931785) is to a virtual tour which is "unbranded" for the mls, meaning that it does not have my contact information. It is already sold (listed $199, sold for $211 in 5 days) so I'm not trying to market a listing. It is to show what a virtual tour shot by a professional photographer can do to show off even a vacant house. The house had been a rental for many years, and in that condition would have sold for probably $180k. I advised the owner to do some updating, clean up the yard, and paint. He spent around $12k, and we sold it for $211 in 5 days; and it appraised. By following my advice he grossed $19k more money in minimum time on market.
Both the upgrading and marketing helped to bring the higher price. With a master bedroom on the first level, an elementary school two blocks away, Jr and High school bus stop one block away, and the clubhouse 4 blocks away we had two target markets. We marketed to families with school age children, and to empty nesters who needed a master bed room on the first level. We sold it to a young family.
Mark, you've made some good points but the one your not getting from the agents is you have no experience actually working full time in real estate representing buyers and sellers so you don't know what actually goes into it.
Kay, the commission is split 50/50 between the companies and then the agent is paid. It's the cost of doing business. Out of my company side of the commission I make about 35 cents on the dollar. It's not a big profit margin for agents that work at it and spend money on marketing, training, etc. And yes, I would also take less for guaranteed pay and offer that as well. I've never had anyone take me up on it in the 4 years or so I've offered it. They would rather pay more and have me assume all the risk.
Mark, you've made some good points but the one your not getting from the agents is you have no experience actually working full time in real estate representing buyers and sellers so you don't know what actually goes into it.
Kay, the commission is split 50/50 between the companies and then the agent is paid. It's the cost of doing business. Out of my company side of the commission I make about 35 cents on the dollar. It's not a big profit margin for agents that work at it and spend money on marketing, training, etc. And yes, I would also take less for guaranteed pay and offer that as well. I've never had anyone take me up on it in the 4 years or so I've offered it. They would rather pay more and have me assume all the risk.
I think your explanation is rather confusing. I believe you meant to say, "Out of my company side of the commission I am make about 70% or only about 35 cents on the total transaction dollar (income).
If you are only taking 35 cents of your company side of the transaction dollar, gee, I'll come get my license in your state and up your income to 40 cents. We'll both earn more.
The Captain can certainly speak for himself on the above; but I'd like to jump in here and add that most of the tasks required of the Realtor can only be done by a licensed agent. A sole practitioner must wear many hats. A full fledged assistant must be licensed (according to each state's requirements) in order to give basic information over the telephone. Otherwise the assistant is merely a clerk. In most states, an unlicensed assistant has no access to MLS or lock box codes and is not allowed to fill out any real estate forms, listing agreements, changes to listings; cannot sign any documents in their own name or that of the agent, and so forth.
An unlicensed assistant could take photographs if proficient, but could not upload or make changes to them in the MLS system. An unlicensed assistant is only allowed to answer the most basic of buyers' or sellers' inquiries. A good licensed assistant working 35 hrs. per week at minimum, would be worth at least $35,000 per year as wages, some even receive separate bonuses. They require E&O insurance, the Board of Realtors' fees, licensing fees, and MLS fees, lockbox fees etc. and possibly health insurance and other employee benefits paid by the Realtor; they are not considered independent contractors and must abide by a strict employment agreement containing a non-compete clause prohibiting the licensed assistant from soliciting buyers or sellers or giving referrals.
Some MLS's may require a license for anyone to have access to the MLS where the photos are uploaded along with other listing details. They could upload photos to non-MLS websites without a license. Our MLS has an exception for administrative access privileges that does not require a license (after paying for the service).
I think your explanation is rather confusing. I believe you meant to say, "Out of my company side of the commission I am make about 70% or only about 35 cents on the total transaction dollar (income).
If you are only taking 35 cents of your company side of the transaction dollar, gee, I'll come get my license in your state and up your income to 40 cents. We'll both earn more.
I may have misunderstood, but I thought he meant that his profit was 35% after the company split and his own business overhead and marketing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
