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I have over 100 calls, texts and emails in my communication file for one transaction. Can I mock up a listing contract package in 45 minutes, sure. How long does it take to review each page with the seller is dependent on the seller.
I usually put in 10-12 hours before it is listed in the MLS. Then, the fun begins.
I had a mba candidate shadow my team on Monday. I think we scared them.
Can you explain what it is that you do for 10-12 hours? I really would like to know and haven't ever gotten an answer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeJaquish
It is a "real estate" forum. The discussion is about "real estate," and your desire to pointedly limit sales and brokerage roles to one very specific segment of brokerage and to one transaction sequence to try to make a very dull point does not alter facts.
Welcome to real estate, where buyer and seller clients DO absorb a great deal of time prior to entering into contract and closing a transaction.
So...
When I spend 200 hours with a buyer client, and 45 minutes writing a successful offer, I should only get credit for that 45 minutes?
Or when I put 100 hours into a listing, and spend 45 minutes getting signatures on a successful closing, I should only get credit for those 45 minutes?
I think not, but, to repeat:
Get a license and make a living with your business model.
Don't forget that in most states, "client" puts you into a fiduciary role which places no limits on the amount of time you spend on a file.
Ok. So what is it that you do for 200 hours to close a deal? That is equivalent to five full weeks at a full time employer. You really spend every second of every work day on one person?
The same for selling. One hundred hours is almost three weeks of doing nothing but working on one listing. What exactly would you be doing for every single second of a workday working on one single listing?
Like I said in my previous post, I'd really like to know and it should be an easy answer. So far I've gotten about what I expected. A whole bunch of "we're super busy" but nothing actually truly breaking out the average time spent on a sale.
My last home sale I found the best agent I could and negotiated down to 4.5%. Took me a couple tries to get someone willing to go that low but I found one. I wanted to go lower but I didn't really care at that point since my job would reimburse the entire commission. My hope is the future will continually drive commissions lower via technology to somewhere around the 3% range. 30K to list and sell houses in my area seems like a fair deal if it involves full service. There's no possible way I'd ever pay someone 70K to sell my house.
Can you explain what it is that you do for 10-12 hours? I really would like to know and haven't ever gotten an answer.
Ok. So what is it that you do for 200 hours to close a deal? That is equivalent to five full weeks at a full time employer. You really spend every second of every work day on one person?
The same for selling. One hundred hours is almost three weeks of doing nothing but working on one listing. What exactly would you be doing for every single second of a workday working on one single listing?
Like I said in my previous post, I'd really like to know and it should be an easy answer. So far I've gotten about what I expected. A whole bunch of "we're super busy" but nothing actually truly breaking out the average time spent on a sale.
My last home sale I found the best agent I could and negotiated down to 4.5%. Took me a couple tries to get someone willing to go that low but I found one. I wanted to go lower but I didn't really care at that point since my job would reimburse the entire commission. My hope is the future will continually drive commissions lower via technology to somewhere around the 3% range. 30K to list and sell houses in my area seems like a fair deal if it involves full service. There's no possible way I'd ever pay someone 70K to sell my house.
1 hour or less, on average.
Closing takes an hour at the attorney's office.
I sit there.
Of course, I could skip closing and get the big bucks for no time and never doing anything at all, right?
It's windy today. Maybe I will walk out on the porch and see how many checks blew in...
Of course, the banality of focusing on "closing the deal" is the province of people with no experience.
what kind of job do you have where every second you spend during the day is accounted for?
Uh, a normal salaried position?
Is that a serious question? You do realize nearly every professional job requires you track/bill hours. Every professional job I have ever worked tracked my hours. In fact, when I worked in consulting you had to break hours down to 1/10th increments to bill the clients correctly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeJaquish
just_because! He Lives!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeJaquish
1 hour or less, on average.
Closing takes an hour at the attorney's office.
I sit there.
Of course, I could skip closing and get the big bucks for no time and never doing anything at all, right?
It's windy today. Maybe I will walk out on the porch and see how many checks blew in...
Of course, the banality of focusing on "closing the deal" is the province of people with no experience.
"100 hours" is actually 4 days and 4 hours, BTW.
Just the response I expected. No answer. Just more nonsense avoiding the simple question.
I don't understand what is so hard about breaking out hours. Nearly every profession on the planet can break out hours but somehow Real Estate agents just can't.
For one house sale, how much hours are spent on it? That was my original point that started this. 5? 10? 100? What exactly is being done during these hours? Don't worry, I don't expect an actual response by anyone in the profession.
And 100 hours is 2.5 weeks. Unless you count sleeping as billable work hours for the profession.
Is that a serious question? You do realize nearly every professional job requires you track/bill hours. Every professional job I have ever worked tracked my hours. In fact, when I worked in consulting you had to break hours down to 1/10th increments to bill the clients correctly.
Just the response I expected. No answer. Just more nonsense avoiding the simple question.
I don't understand what is so hard about breaking out hours. Nearly every profession on the planet can break out hours but somehow Real Estate agents just can't.
For one house sale, how much hours are spent on it? That was my original point that started this. 5? 10? 100? What exactly is being done during these hours? Don't worry, I don't expect an actual response by anyone in the profession.
And 100 hours is 2.5 weeks. Unless you count sleeping as billable work hours for the profession.
just_because,
Nonsense begets nonsense, so you are clearly reaping what you sow.
You punch a time clock, and have an 8 hour day.
I don't and your time clock is irrelevant to real estate brokerage. Attempting to make it relevant is a fool's errand.
Some weeks I work 75 hours. Some weeks I work 20 hours. Such is the nature of a service profession wherein the provider is bound to the clients' needs and responsive to requests.
The requirements for time vary for every client, every transaction, and that is true of buyers and sellers.
What would you qualify as service hours?
Do you accept travel time?
Would you accept the trip I made to a listing at 6:30 this morning to take down the sign because we were expecting tropical storm winds?
Or the trip to replace it?
1 hour, 10 minutes total.
Of course, I made trip to install it in the first place, and will have to collect it when the sale is completed.
1 hour, 10 minutes, again.
Would you allow me credit for the trips I have made to turn lights on for showings?
Or, the trips I have made after an agent shows, or the trips I make to check on the property because the sellers have moved across the country?
Would you accept the hours I spent negotiating on an offer last weekend, including multiple calls with the seller, and well outside your Monday-Friday, 8 hour time clock day?
I calculate that I have about 50 hours in this listing, so far, and we missed getting to contract last weekend.
Would you allow hours for open houses in your calcs?
Buyers may look at 1 house, or 40+ houses.
They may need over an hour per house, or may average 20-30 minutes.
They may need a second visit, may want me to let them show Mom and Dad, or the kids.
In an overheated price range, they may score on the first offer they write, or may need to write on multiple properties to get to contract. I run comps on all those offers.
I go to buyer's inspections, including follow-up with HVAC, plumbers, structural engineers, whichever are required or desired during and after their due diligence period.
I opened a house under contract recently so my buyer could have it measured for custom blinds to be installed after closing.
I help them make arrangements with a closing attorney, chase their lenders, track deadlines, terminate deals when they tell me to, and none of that happens in a time void.
Buyers or sellers may need a lot of hand-holding, or none. The ones who claim to need the least often require the most.
So it goes. It is a people business.
The clock punchers are never satisfied with this, but truly, it is like playing third base.
While we have some routine tasks we do for nearly every transaction, we also have to field whatever is hit our way.
Sometimes we get lucky and it is three up, three down. But, quite often, we have to handle something we haven't seen before.
"Handling something we haven't seen before" is how one gets experience. Experience is core to delivering value to the consumer.
I would love to just pay an hourly wage to my listing agent for ACTUAL time spent working ONLY on my listing.
Open the MLS to all, make it free to list, and we will see how valuable listing agents are based on their skills and what they really bring to the table.
I would love to just pay an hourly wage to my listing agent for ACTUAL time spent working ONLY on my listing.
Open the MLS to all, make it free to list, and we will see how valuable listing agents are based on their skills and what they really bring to the table.
I think you can easily achieve your desire to pay by the hour. Tell agents you will pay them for every hour they work, and you will have no problem finding agreeable licensees.
Would you pay on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis, or billed by the task performed?I.e., $100/hour for the 50 hours I have in on a current listing would be a current balance of $5000. I would predict that weekly payments would be easier for a lot of consumers.
Anyone can have an MLS. Not all are REALTOR-owned.
There is no legal or regulatory prohibition on you making yourself an open MLS, and providing an open API for those who want a website.
Many markets are served by multiple MLSs. The MLS opportunity is open to any entrepreneur.
All you have to do is convince consumers and agents that your MLS is superior to others, and they need to put their homes or inventory of homes into your MLS.
Invest in what you want, like MLS members did and still do.
Of course, you will bring your seed money to start your MLS. A couple of million should get you rolling.
Don't short yourself on the seed money. You will need to get through the startup phase, marketing and maintaining required until you reach critical mass.
My local MLS has about 8000 member subscribers. $50/month, 12 months a year = $4.8 million annually. for maintenance and upgrades. You will need a plan to fund your MLS on an ongoing basis?
I suspect most agents would quickly realize that after going to an hourly basis that they aren't spending nearly as much time on a house as they think. Billing hourly requires attention to detail and submitting invoices. You're not going to get paid submitting an invoice for waiting by the phone, driving (in most cases), or going to other home sites.
I would gladly pay by the hour on a weekly basis based on detailed invoices submitted to me similar to the other professions I deal with. I'd even be willing to pay up to 50$ per hour since it would be an independent contractor realationship. Still think most wouldn't go for it once they realize they can no longer gouge the client and would have to be truthful about time spent working.
Last edited by Pyramidsurf; 09-15-2018 at 10:17 AM..
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