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The point i was making although it seems not very well, is if you are going to a COMPLEX, where the management company are responsible for all the units, in most cases if an agent takes you there, regardless of which unit you end up selecting, the initial agent will get the fee because they brought you to that complex. If they were private units owned by different landlords and run by different management companies then that is a different case. I dont understand why now you say you would bring a different agent in to show you another unit in the same complex. You would go by yourself, particularly as you seem to think by not using an agent you have better bargaining power, and i dont understand why the complex wouldnt pay your boyfriend the referral fee if you had used him to arrange the visit. If he is a Licensed realtor and he takes you there and you didnt register or have another agent make the arrangements, then they have to pay him the referral fee. They wont pay him the fee if he made no contact with them on your behalf and simply visited the unit with you after the agent you asked to set it all up made the arrangements for you. If you dont notify the complex of your agents details on your first visit then no agent can claim the referral fee. This is fair because lets assume you find the place by yourself, then decide later after you viewed it that you want your boyfriend/agent to earn the commission. Well he didnt source the complex for you otherwise you would have put his details down.
Just from what you said previously it sounds as if you thought you would have another agent run around for you making contact and getting you a viewing, then take your boyfriend and try to negotiate the fee to come to your boyfriend. If this is the case and you and your boyfriend had done this, then assuming he is is a member of the association of realtors which would allow him to have the designation REALTOR, the other agent could file a grievence and your boyfriend could be found in breach of our code of ethics.
In allowing the agent to make all the arrangements in the first place he was introducing you to the Complex. As far as the complex is concerned, the reason you are considering them is because your agent captured you as a client and introduced the 2 parties. As an agent your Boyfriend should know this. If he doesnt that only tells me he is a new agent with very little experience.
In this situation in all honesty the amount of the referral fee is inconsequential. I dont understand seeing as your boyfriend is a realtor you didnt use him to begin with. He WOULD have been paid the referral as your realtor. It is called a referral fee because your agent is referring you. Personal relationships play no role in the matter.
This will be a good learning experience for you and your boyfriend. But given how you do keep quoting CORT it does seem you are advertising it.
I should add CORT pay a fee it seems upto $200, but unless they are licensed real estate agents which it doesnt seem they are as they say they will work with your agent to find you tempory housing if you are buying a home, then they will not receive this in compensation from the developer/complex. They are licensed leasing specialists. From what i can tell, they are company with an online presence that charge to advertise properties once they have been leased through them, and also manage them. In that case, they may be paying a gift card from monies collected in advertising communities. Now i cant confirm this as i havent run an indepth search, but unless they are licensed, they cannot earn a referral fee from the complex. So if that is the case you have no idea what the complex are paying out in a referral fee because the $200 would be taken from how much CORT charge the complex to advertise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dopplebock
you are correct as far as the realtor doing the work with the initial visit, the initial visit to the complex where I did not decide to sign a lease! had i signed a lease ... i would not have any issue with him receiving money for his time and effort and yes we did have my boyfriend there who is a realtor (first visit), but the complex was not allowing him to be the referring agent, again we didnt make much of it b/c i decided not to sign a lease for that unit that was available
the referral fee for this particular place was definitely closer to $1000, reason i know that is that is what CORT would have received....makes no sense for them to offer a $150 gift card when they were only getting 100-200 dollars
anywho the initial reason for this thread was to just make it aware to other consumers that they do have a choice on the FIRST visit on who to put as the referral, it isn't just a fill this info card out and get to see the unit, you could be locked in with that agent for a long time, even if you decide 6 months later you want to work with a different realtor, the initial agent can still collect because he was your initial point of contact, and i dont think that is fair b/c now the new realtor would not get anything for the work!
what I don't get is why are you complaining what compensation the agent gets anyways? Is the referral fee coming out of your pocket? Why do you care if that complex compensates the agent or not?
The irony of this "conversation" is that the original poster probably didn't know anything about how the (rental) referral end of the real estate business worked until after the fact. Now that they know they actually get compensated for their efforts to help a renter locate a property it seems that they want to play that same role (for themself) and somehow get "paid" to do it - possibly in the form of reduced rent or some other way.
They even mentioned that they had a tough time getting in touch with the property owners originally - something the agent was apparently able to do ... that's certainly worth something in my book.
However, apparently the OP's efforts to "get paid" for doing their own future apartment search efforts were unsuccessful and now sour grapes are the result so they want to put all real estate folks out of business, except possibly the one they are dating, out of spite.
I previously held a real estate agent license, I've used real estate agents to help me find a property and I've used apartment locators -- especially helpful in larger cities. I can certainly see a very different perspective of this situation.
Do your homework and be smart when you establish a relationship, business or otherwise. Some of the people I worked with were great, some were a waste of time. That's the way of the world.
Unfortunately, in this case I just don't see the problem. This "warning" is not at all helpful.
i sound like a broken record but the realtor did his job the first time! so i decided to not rent out the place and got a different place in a different building....... had to move again and decided to rent from the original place .....so since he was put down as a referral agent he is FOREVER my referral agent? even though he did no work the second time around? i suppose there are no time limitations to that (sarcasm)
i suppose he should have gotten a second referral dollar amount b/c i actually decided to extend my lease to a 2nd year? and moved again in the same building to another unit eh?
whatever it is....he initially screwed me out of the $150 i was going to receive ... but the squeeky wheel gets the grease...... and he not only was let go of his existing company but he had to cut me a check for the $150 i would have gotten were i able to put my actual referral on.
It sounds like you expect an agent to do all your research, show your properties but not get paid. Did your agent get paid when you went with the other property. If the money were coming from your pocket I could understand, but agent referral fees come from a fund which is non negotiable and has nothing to do with the lease. It is a marketing fund already in place. If a tenant is not using a realtor, it doesnt mean they get a better deal, only the funds were not used, which will be put as a surplus and used for other projects.
Seeing as your partner is a Realtor or so you say, I see no reason why you wouldnt use them to begin with. It just makes no sense, as you know they would get that money.
The management company look at it in terms of the realtor took you to that property and brought it to your attention. If your realtor had not done so then you may never have gone there.
The moral of the story, you should have used your partner to begin with. The only reason I can see that you didnt is they dont know what they are doing and probably a new agent, otherwise why didnt you use them?
Unfortunatly, for the folks reading this what I would say as a realtor is we provide a valuable service, and the OP obviously knows this because they engaged a realtor. Unfortunatly, there are people out there who want to use our services for free.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dopplebock
i sound like a broken record but the realtor did his job the first time! so i decided to not rent out the place and got a different place in a different building....... had to move again and decided to rent from the original place .....so since he was put down as a referral agent he is FOREVER my referral agent? even though he did no work the second time around? i suppose there are no time limitations to that (sarcasm)
i suppose he should have gotten a second referral dollar amount b/c i actually decided to extend my lease to a 2nd year? and moved again in the same building to another unit eh?
whatever it is....he initially screwed me out of the $150 i was going to receive ... but the squeeky wheel gets the grease...... and he not only was let go of his existing company but he had to cut me a check for the $150 i would have gotten were i able to put my actual referral on.
a) he doesnt deal with rentals
b) when does the realtor that made the phone call as a referring agent no longer tied to you? how long before its ok to have a different realtor show you property...?
i didnt intend to use a realtor to rent...i looked on craigslist and i found an ad, low and behold in the end it was tied to a realtor not the actual property
Realtors who advertise any and all listings on sites like craigslist have to publish their name, their companies name and their logo. If not you can file a grievence over this. In any event, it is illegal for a realtor to advertise a property which they do not represent without express permission from the management company. The realtor must have an agreement with the management company to market that property. Seeing as you found that property through that realtors marketing campaign I dont know why you are complaining. If it hadnt been for the realtor marketing that property on Craigslist there is nothing to say you would have ever found it so they obviously did their job.
This thread is becomming quite ridiculous now. The OP is slamming a realtor because he was marketing a property and found a tenant for it in the form of the OP. Basically he or she did their job.
Cort began as a furniture rental company and expanded to corporate relocation rentals. They operate or are affiliated with a major apartment search engine. They are a Berkshire Hathaway ( Warren Buffet) company.
Most of the corporate rentals in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago pay Cort to drive prospective renters from all over the world to their respective complexes. When a unit is rented, Cort obtains a fee.
You are not likely to find ma/pa landlords using Cort to fill their vacancies. Those are often listed on Craig's List or listed with a broker. When a broker is used it is compensated for driving prospective renters to the unit, when the lease is signed. It's the owners choice to use a broker or not. Many do because they tire of the whack jobs that haunt Craig's List.
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