What is really going on in our lifes as real estate agents

So, here it is my second post after a long week in real estate. Well, all but 2 of my deals got pushed to next week. All were over lending issues. Now, that no one knows really what to do because it is still changing from day to day most underwriters etc have been told to leave common sense at home.

It is simply amazing to me how is stead of the government and the banks which personally in my humble opinion are one in the same. See, it was the banks who came up with all these great loan ideas and funny who were the major stock holders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while all this crap was going down? They made tons of money and guess what they will do it again. They will re-package it dress it up in a new dress and put on the street for us to go googly eyed over. So, silly really it is all just so silly.

The news of the week, they want to get do away with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac interesting since the Banks were really trying hard to get in their business the bast few years till all that they did went wild and then they all ran like the rats they are. When the largest bond buyer in the market says they won't buy any bonds that are not backed by the USA then that tells you something. Most of our large banks are not US owned or the major owners of them are not US. Check out Citi see who owns them or a major player?

Anyway, what all did we solve this week? Well, we had fun deals where we keep having some creepy person or people that keep posting one of our listings for lease and getting innocent people to send them money for keys because they have moved to WA state or some form of the story, thought we had it wiped off after spending about 9 hours of our time tracking all emails, postings on many sites, turning in the fake email address to Google, Yahoo and Hotmail as well as turning all the emails phone records etc to the FBI to follow up on. They showed up again on Craigs list. So, we are back on the trail again.

One listing that we have had which is priced right, show great and is ready to go can't get even one showing on it in the past 4 weeks. So, I did some calculating to see what we had spent and time involved on just this one listing. We have re taken 4 different shots of photos, First at the beginning of the listing period. Then because the season changed. (we do this for all our listings if listed during a time without leaves etc), then once more because they completely re-did the backyard and repainted the house since they would not do it at the beginning of the listing, then we re-took them again when they moved out. The cost for each time was $75.00 so, there is $300.00. We did an brokers open house cost of food, drinks, marketing and door prizes total cost $337.21. Someone broke the top off the flyer box so we had to replace it cost $22.00. Color Flyers for info box to date $37.00. Time staff has worked on posting and re posting the listing over the past 4 months plus time to set up open house which we have had 3 on this home 27 hours at a cost to me of $379.00. Now my time in on this listing trips to the home and talking on the phone with clients I have 26 hours involved. Now, lets break this all down.
Also, just so to be completely clear. I offer a $200.00 gift card if a agent would even just preview the home during a 30 day period no one even did that? Plus, I am offering an extra half a percent to the buyers selling agent.

So, hard money which if the listing does not sell I will be at a loss of $1,075.21 the sold price for this home should be between 125-129K so, let's continue the math here. So, my total gross commission on this one deal is going to be approx and I will use the higher sold price of 129k that comes to 3225.00 minus 1075.21 a gross profit of $2149.79 now lets deduct the taxes, insurance and gasoline cost from here. Taxes are a total of 53.60 percent yes that is right 38 percent to IRS and 15.6 to social security. That takes it down to 1152.29 and gasoline cost from my office to the property is approx 16 miles I have made 8 round trips for a total of 256 miles total at avg miles per gallon on my car is 15 so my approx gallons used is 17 at an avg cost of 2.69 equals 45.73.
Note I have not taken into account wear and tear or cell phone cost here. so that takes my net to 1106.56.

So, far I have 26 hours involved to get this one to close I will still put in another minimum of 15 more hours plus more trips to home as well as title companies etc. Taking just what I have into this one deal I am netting approx. 42.56 an hour which will be more like 30.00 a hour by the time it is complete. So, all that being said, I don't know another professional licensed group of people that make this low of an income. I am not complaining I just don't think that most people understand how we get paid. In my case I am the Broker and I get to have all the liability as well as the profits etc. However, if I were still under another Broker you can take that number to half of more per hour. The other Brokers will not be paying none or very little towards the hard cost this comes directly from the agent you hired pocket. So, by the end of the day they are making about $13.00 an hour. So, when someone ask if we can reduce our commissions, I simply say no.

By the way the sellers are going to lease the property which I believe is the best thing for them and this time. Yes, I told them that because that is the right thing to do. That means I have a net loss on the deal of $600.00, but that has nothing to do with doing what is right for my clients first and always!

Now, I know some deals don't work out like this and sometime we make a lot more or a lot less, but it all depends on the market we are working. To make a real living out of being a real estate agent it is very difficult and it is a very expensive job to keep. When I got into the business agents would put on their business cards they were a million dollar producer which meant they netted maybe $17,000.00 a year an assist manager at a fast food place made the same amount of money. So, unless you were moving about 4-6 million a year minimum you were just barely getting by in life.

I know there are many people out there that make this kind of money doing the jobs they have and there are many without jobs right now that would like to make this amount of money because it beats the fact they are not making any money.

The reality is we as agents get to set our pay checks is a wonderful thing but at the same time we have so many that are finding no value in what we do, because we don't talk about it.

We mostly work weekends and evenings because that is when most of our clients are off and available, we have to go in early to keep up with the paper work and marketing to keep the business coming in the door. We have to spend time and money keeping up with all the new contracts, lending issue etc. Some like me spend a lot of time and money being involved in protesting and showing up at city hall, state and national capitals to let our elected government know we won't stand by and allow them to harm our private property ownership rights here in America.

The real estate agents is the largest PAC in the US and REALTORS wheel a lot of power and since we are self employed which is unemployed with an attitude people we are the grassroots of America we have been for over a 100 years.

I love this country of mine is it messed up sometimes? Yes. Is it wrong sometimes? Yes. Can we the people have something to say or do about it? Yes.

I love my industry as well and I want to see it earn the respect of those who become our clients, it starts with being a professional and making sure you do what is right for the clients always, and know your value as a professional. There are plenty of order taking careers out there we don't have to turn real estate into one.