{"id":210,"date":"2021-06-10T04:21:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T04:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/?p=210"},"modified":"2021-06-10T04:21:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T04:21:13","slug":"the-case-for-not-charging-a-higher-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"The Case for (not) Charging a Higher Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last week, I talked about Defending Your Commission<\/a> by presenting yourself as a rare pink diamond instead of a crusty old rock from the pawnshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a highly skilled and experienced agent, who consistently delivers outstanding results, shouldn\u2019t you get paid more <\/em>than the \u2018average\u2019 agent? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, but it should be through increased demand for your services and improved efficiencies\u2014not by charging more, one deal at a time. I mean, you could <\/em>charge more, but is it really worth it?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big picture thinking is how much you make in a year. Small picture thinking is how much you make on an individual transaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you charge a little more to ten different clients, enough to make up one full extra commission. You do a great job for all ten clients, and they all still recommend you to their friends, but now it\u2019s with a caveat, \u201cHe\u2019s great, but he charges a bit more,<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll never know it, but that caveat was enough to prevent two potential clients from calling. You think you\u2019re one commission ahead, but actually, you\u2019re two behind. And the missed opportunities snowball from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides, the public should expect a high level of service to warrant a five-figure expense for a single transaction, don\u2019t you think? I want my clients to say I was worth every penny, and then some. I want to confidently tell my clients that I charge only the average rate, but I deliver results miles above average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a hot topic for me right now because I\u2019ve recently heard about a Mega Team where the new agents have to sign a contract (I\u2019ve seen it) agreeing to a commission split of 30\/70 (30% for them and 70% for the team leader) if they charge \u201conly\u201d the typical prevailing rate in their market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To \u201cearn\u201d the \u201cfull\u201d 50% split on a $500,000 property, the commission earned on the seller\u2019s agent portion is over 84% higher than the prevailing rate!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This percentage goes higher and higher on more expensive properties, crossing the 100% higher threshold at $800,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, this means that the seller is now paying three full commissions\u2014one to the buyer\u2019s agent, one to the seller\u2019s agent, and one to the seller\u2019s agent\u2019s boss\u2014the greedy Mega Agent who is doing absolutely nothing. If only the sellers knew that the famous Mega Agent cares so little about their listing, he\u2019s probably not even aware of its existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All commissions are negotiable, but in my opinion, charging this much is an obscene abuse of the public\u2019s trust. Do you think these Mega Team agents tell their clients the \u201cstandard\u201d rates charged by the majority of their competitors? I think not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And by the way, who do you think is willing to pay these outrageous fees? I\u2019ll tell you who:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honest, trusting people who don\u2019t know any better, including the elderly and immigrants. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sad irony is that the folks paying these ridiculously high commissions probably actually believe they\u2019re getting more for their money. But despite the flashy advertising and misleading promises, the listing agent they\u2019re dealing with is most likely inexperienced, unskilled, and poorly trained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mega Team is charging more money for an inferior level of service compared to any high-integrity, highly-skilled, individual agent (or small customer-service-focused team). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about how you would feel if your parents or grandparents were taken advantage of in this way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll tell you how it makes me feel. My blood is boiling as I write this, and if you know me, you know it\u2019s not going to end here in this little blog post. Stay tuned…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hold onto your integrity. It\u2019s worth a thousand times more than charging even a tiny bit more on a single commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I talked about Defending Your Commission by presenting yourself as a rare pink diamond instead of a crusty old rock from the pawnshop. If you\u2019re a highly skilled and experienced agent, who consistently delivers outstanding results, shouldn\u2019t you get paid more than the \u2018average\u2019 agent? Certainly, but it should be through increased demand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agentskills2.dvsrvr.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}