All Forum Posts by: Catherine Emert

@Hobie Day Yes, we took on the upfront cost and the monthly cost. We order a floor plan for each one as additional information to be provided to potential buyers. We never charge our clients for anything as there are costs we incur to be their broker and earn their business.

@Jeremiah Neumann congrats on becoming a new broker! Best advice I can give you on determining where to hang your license is to ask as many questions as possible prior to choosing. Interview with as many companies as possible. Ultimately they all want brokers and so you are the one that gets to decide this. I see a lot of new brokers pick a company and then a month later switch. This can harm your business as no one will know where to find you.

As for getting started...talk to EVERYONE! Make small talk in the grocery store lines, get to know ALL your neighbors. Let literally everyone you know that you are a broker. Communicate with everyone, if you don't know the answer to a clients question please tell them you don't know but that you will find out ASAP - I often see people guessing at the answer and then they have to go back and tell the client they were wrong. Be honest, be personable and keep moving. There is always something you can be doing to grow your business.

@Greg Hoffman their are specific search fields in the MLS that an agent/broker uses to send you alerts on properties. Each MLS has different fields. Maybe if you guys sat down and looked over the fields together you might see something you want defined more. Also, if you see what he is putting in there and it's not what you have asked for then you will have your answer. Unfortunately I don't know what else to suggest as I don't know how their MLS system is setup or what fields there are available for the search.

@Greg Hoffman my advice would be to ask for a face-to-face meeting. Have him open your search and go through each field together - the reasons I say this is it sounds like you have a somewhat relationship with this agent. AND if you decide to switch you will know exactly what the fields are and have a head start for all future searches and needs you are looking for. 

If he doesn't want to do this then maybe it's time for a new broker. If you switch brokers ask a lot of questions and make sure it's a good fit from the start so you don't have to keep experiencing this frustration. The majority of brokers I know what to make their clients happy, some just aren't sure what questions to ask or how to ask them to get the job done.
 

@Hobie Day I have heard of brokers charging but I have never personally charged. We invested in a MatterPort 3D scanner last year and I have to say it's AMAZING. Clients love it. The floor plan really does help get showings faster and I have noticed we get offers a lot faster since we started using it. I have heard photographers charge $300-400 depending on the size of home, but we own ours so we can scan as many as we want.

@Darin Tripoli I always feel horrible when people have this experience with brokers/agents. And I do hear it. I used to work at the REALTORS Association here locally, before I became a broker and owner, and I realized that there is a very loud minority of brokers that you hear about. The reason you don't hear about the ones that buckle down and do their job is because we are so busy working that no one has time to complain. I am sorry you had a bad experience but I am so glad that you found a broker who you trust and gets the job done!

A lot of MLS systems make it hard to narrow down a property by condition. As a broker we do our best, but I live by the rule I'd rather do my very best and send a few extra properties than to risk one you might be interested not coming through. I think if you are receiving too many that you are not interested in have the broker refine the search, add in key words maybe. Most brokers I know are willing to take the time to learn what makes you happy and most strive for that.

@Darin Tripoli I think you are speaking in a very general sense. The national average takes into account brokers like me who have closed (or have in escrow) 17 properties this month and the brokers who do more than I do AND the brokers who work very part time and only sell or purchase their own investments for example. National averages as these tend to make brokers look lazy in my honest opinion. Yes, there are lazy brokers/agents, just like any industry there are stand-out performers and those that think it's going to be easy. As for it being easy and cheap to get a license you are partially correct. Gettin a license is the cheap part - maintaining your license however, is not cheap. We have to pay for classes, renewals, memberships to MLS and associations (required if you are an MLS member), advertising, forms, e-sign software, signs, flyers, the list goes on and on. I love my career choice and I choose to work endlessly for every client I have, the majority of brokers/agents I know work well over 40 hours a week and will drop anything they are doing for a client's needs. But to read a generalized statement like this I felt the need to respond.

@Jessica Jaboor We own a small brokerage but we do things pretty big all things considered. I have an advertising budget of about $1000 per month, website budget (IDX site) of about $750 with a CRM and Lead Generation built in. I have my home office, but we do have a brick and mortar office as well. Then we have MLS Dues, REALTOR dues, subscriptions for esign, forms, dropbox, quickbooks etc. All in all I think that our monthly expenses are about $10k per month. But again, we go pretty big and are pretty busy.

If you are just starting out I would make sure to line out all your must haves - MLS membership, forms, e-sign subscription. Start small and add as you go. I have a running spreadsheet of all of our subscriptions, the cost and how often we use them. If the market ever slows down I can quickly and easily tell which subscriptions I can let go of.

@Robbie McCarthy Man, that sounds like an awful situation - I am so sorry to hear you are dealing with that. I am not sure if this helps but maybe you could reach back out and see if they would allow at least one of the days. Stress the importance of it and hope for the best. In Oregon if a tenant says no there's not much you can do unless it's an emergency.

Best of luck to you!

@Bruce Frick No, all the owner carry deals I have done the bank has accelerated the mortgage and required it to be paid in full prior to the promissory note being filed. Which required the buyer to bring enough of a downpayment that the seller is able to do that.