No “bricks and mortar” to pay for Connect Realty – The Big Breakthrough in Real Estate

In this case there is a thin line between self promotion and actually offering helpful information, so, with that in mind, I will try to keep a healthy balance.

I am the Broker/Owner of a 300 agent real estate company in Minnesota. Most of my agents have their primary office out of their homes, but we also offer full office access for agents on an as needed basis. There is no charge for copies or faxes and we have several high-speed workstations. We plan to go paperless this year and will add high speed scanners to get rid of printers/faxes.

My agents keep 90% of their commissions and can negotiate their fee with clients without brokerage interference. We charge a monthly fee of $125 which covers E&O, 30 hours of CE, Zipforms, use of company signs, Showing Solutions appointment desk, access to two trainers, and all the other usual brokerage-supplied benefits.

Agents are responsible for the bulk of costs associated with building their business and the emphasis is on agent promotion, not company branding.

My full time staff of 4 handles accounting, (agents get paid the same day they bring in the HUD 1) and operations (every file is audited twice.) We outsource whever we can, as long as the quality of service doesn’t suffer.

We don’t affiliate with Title or Mortgage and all our revenue is generated by real estate activities. We are a financially solvent company, even in this market.

I assume there are other similar business models that combine virtual office and brick and mortar philosophies. It’s all about controlling costs and using technology to streamline the process.

For us, it has given the freedom to offer more value to our agents and more flexibility for them to grow their businesses. So far, it has been a win-win arrangement for everyone involved.

I’ve been blessed to work for a truly great broker who I trust completely. There are two of us over here at WeRockChicago.com, and even in the “down” year of 2007, we did about 30 transactions – never a single hitch with getting paid by our broker.

As with everything in this business, from both a consumer’s and practitioner’s perspective, everything comes down to trust.

The good brokers will never have an issue with paying agents in a timely manner, and the poorer brokers will be out of business if they don’t stand by their agents and use proper business practices.

1) One of my approaches has been to transparent in my fees and expenses.

2) Virginia has a law that requires disbursement within three days of closing; I have faxed a copy of this to settlement companies before to speed them up a bit.