Ah, The Life...

Ah, the life of a professional realtor.the money, the glamour, the women, the fame. O.K., not so much.

For those of you who care (and even for those who don't) the life of a realtor is no better or worse than that of anyone else who works for a living. Please allow me the liberty of setting straight some common misconceptions about my profession.

1) Making a commission as large as 6% on, say, a $250,000 sale is a lot of money for the effort. That $15,000 commission (generally paid out of the seller's proceeds) is more often than not, split evenly between the listing agent and the agent representing the buyer. So, from $15,000 we're now at $7,500. Unless you own the agency (or are Broker of Record) you have to split that $7,500 with your broker. The industry average here is 70/30, so now we're at $5,250. Deducting your self-employment tax (we're all "independent contractors", read, no security, no benefits) and income taxes and we're now down to around $3,500 for that $250,000 sale. Out of that $3,500 we pay for our overhead which includes, but is not limited to, automobile expenses, advertising, websites, franchise fees, professional dues (national, state and local), E&O insurance, health care, etc., etc.
2) What does our customer/client get for the less than $3,500 that I pocket? Unlimited access to me, my office, my experience and proprietary MLS data 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Many clients do not respect the fact that you have a life outside of your office. Why is that? If I hire the services of an attorney, do you think I get his cell phone number and can call him anytime of the day or night. Do I expect him to miss his children's soccer games on Saturdays or church on Sunday to be at my beck and call? How would he react to that if I had those expectations? My only guess is that people think that for the money we make, we should be on call.see #1 above.
3) On average, a homebuyer takes three months (or longer) to make the decision to buy a particular home. For us, that three months (or longer) of showings, phone calls, hand holding, driving, faxing, e-mailing and explaining an enormously complicated financial transaction to people who , generally speaking, are unappreciative of our efforts and expertise, especially in light of our compensation. Again, see #1 and brake that down per hour over a three month (often longer) period.
4) Realtors are exposed to a tremendous amount scrutiny and liability. We get blamed for everything that can go wrong in a deal and we can easily (an in some cases rightfully) be held liable for any number of things. Hell, I can get in trouble for writing "realtor" and not "Realtorr". As with any profession, we have our share of slackers, idiots and scammers. Most folks I know in this business, folks who do it everyday and make a nice living of it, are honest, decent, hard-working people like everyone else.

Oh shut up, you chose this profession, you knew what it was like. If you don't like it, quit. Good point. Yes, I know this business well enough to temper my expectation accordingly. The question raised by this missive is do you, dear reader, know this business?