In England our real estate staff act as shop assistants. Office Assitants might be a better word to describe what they do. They do not actively seek business, they do not go out prospecting and would be horrified if you mentioned the words sales and sales skills to them. In England the vendors commission rate is between 1% and 2% of the sales price of a property. Average nationwide 1.5%. The staff receive about $400 / 500 dollars basic wage, and approx 4% bonus on sales. Would someone please list and describe the USA fee split structure for me.
I understand USA RE staff are self employed independant agents, they recieve 1.5% of the total commis for listing a property, and 1.5% if they sell it. And the two brokers get the other 3%. Is this still the case.
Is there a tendency for the public to deal online, and to look for WWWW brokers offering a lower rate. Online sale agents in the UK, England, do very little business and are scorned, the public like dealing with people, with Office based agents. Does anyone have any views on this, and may know of new trends and ideas I can import into the UK. Suffice to say we have no Million-Dollars wheeler-dealers, just rather pretty salestaff on minimum rate. I’d like to attack this pitiful RE UK wage structure and expose the English brokers as being greedy-parasite, paying pitiful wages.
there is no set standard for commissions. everything is negotiable - at least in New York. everything is negotiable.
“normal” commission amounts do exist and the market is localized, hence, commissions are based on localization.
you have to remember that this is the United States. the make up of this country - states unionized under one government - make for interesting differences in many things, including real estate.
Generally speaking a property is listed for 6% of the sales price. The listing broker gets 1/2 of that, or 3%. The listing agent may get 1/2 of that (or more or less depending on his/her specific contract with the broker). The selling broker (may be the same as the listing broker but usually not) gets 3% and splits that with his/her agent according to the contract that they have.
The listing agent would get 3% if he/she both listed it and sold it - his broker would get the other 3%. Generally, over 80% of all sales are made by someone other than the listing agent.
I know of at least one real estate company who hires agents as employees, but they do not recieve a salary. They do recieve compensation for their expenses. After three years they recieve a small monthly payment ($350).
I have noticed a number of companies involved in Internet sales. the more successful ones have local agents to serve the needs of the clients. The Internet is just another way of attracting clients. One that comes to mind is Zip Realty - check out their website sometime for ideas.
I love watching and observing others at work and spotting the best sales approaches and advertising messages. I’m currently working on a few ideas, such as opening my own RE Agency. Bob