Apr. 20, 2006 - More Commission Stuff

In keeping with the train of thought that "Commission" is my second most popular category, here is more commission stuff. Today I will give you some Illinois law concerning commissions.

In Illinois only a licensed broker may collect a commission. In order to do that, a licensed broker must be hired by having a listing agreement in which the seller agrees to pay a specified commission. The percentage or dollar amount of commission must be clearly expressed in the listing agreement.

A commission is usually considered to be earned when the work for which the broker was hired has been accomplished. In Illinois, this means that the listing broker generally is entitled to a commission after procuring a full-price offer with no contingencies from a buyer who is ready, willing and able to buy on the seller's terms as set forth in the listing. Courts may prevent the broker from receiving a commission if the broker knew the buyer was unable to perform. When terms other than those offered by the original listing are agreed to as indicated by a contract of sale signed by both buyer and seller, the broker is entitled to a commission.

Now dear readers, if I continue to post this kind of stuff will you still visit my blog?

I am willing to bet the readers who have made commission my #2 category did not have text book lessons in mind. Do not fret though, my friends. Just keep following along and I guarantee you will be rewarded with a great rant when I tie it all together. 

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

Apr. 18, 2006 - My Second Most Popular Category

The second most popular category in my blog is commission. I have only written about commission once. That was a post entitled "The Enemy Inside Your Television Set" and that was more or less a rant about how paying for leads from the mostly useless lead generating companies out there, who prey upon unsuspecting buyers, sellers and agents, are helping to drive up the cost of doing business. Now that I know that "Commission" is such a popular destination inside my blog I will give you some text book type content to dwell upon.

Commission is the compensation that a seller pays a broker for securing a buyer for their property. The amount of that compensation must be specified in the contract (listing agreement). The compensation can be in the form of a brokerage fee computed as a percentage of the total sales price, a flat fee, or an hourly rate.

I will give you my opinion, based on experiences I have had, of flat fee listers in another post, which will probably turn into another rant. And let me tell you this, if I worked at an hourly rate and it took more that fourteen days days to sell your property, I would make way more money. There will be a future posting on that as well.

Commission is ALWAYS NEGOTIABLE. Anyone who tries to impose uniform commission rates is in violation of state and federal antitrust laws. A broker can, however, set the minimum acceptable rate for his or her own firm, which is why I work for Charles Rutenberg Realty of Illinois. There is no "minimum acceptable rate". My fee is negotiable. 

Don't misunderstand me, I am not a cut rate lister. I am a full service REALTORŪ who expects to be paid fairly for the full service I provide. But just what "fairly" is, is negotiable.

As always, if you get my blog postings via e-mail and that bothers you simple send me an e-mail telling me to remove you from the list.

Apr. 13, 2006 - Why Don't You Call Me?

One thing that really aggravates me as a REALTORŪ is other agents who won't return my phone calls. Sure enough you get a voice mail box that says "Your call is important to me". Is it really?

In the showing instructions it says "Call LA @ (xxx) xxx-xxxx". For those of you don't have to use realtorspeak on a daily basis, call LA means call the listing agent. And so I do. I have a buyer client who wants to see a listing that appears on paper (or screen) to be exactly what they are looking for. I get voice mail and leave a message that I am Gene Molloy from Charles Rutenberg Realty, agent ID XXXXXX, and I would like to show the property at 1234 Any Street tomorrow at a given time. My call back number is (847) 440-7920. After having not received a call back that day or evening, I follow up at 9:00 AM on the day I would like to show. Voice mail again. My schedule needs to be set and so this property is taken off the list. My clients are disappointed that they don't get to see the property, however, they understand that entering into a deal with a sellers agent who won't even return a call from the agent of a potential buyer might not go so smoothly. The sellers of the property would be pretty disappointed as well if they knew that there was at least one ready, willing and able potential buyer that didn't get to see their property because a phone call was not returned.

How about the agents who return phone calls when they are working on getting a contract (it doesn't matter which side of the deal they are on, buyers or sellers) but then go silent just as soon as the ink is dry. The jobs not finished, we have things to discuss right on up to the closing table and need to keep each other in the loop. If you are representing your client to the best of your ability then you really need to address any questions, comments or concerns that may arise in a timely manner, no matter who they come from, your client or the other agent.

Then there is feedback on a showing. Maybe the general public doesn't know it, but we rely on feedback from each other in order to make sure we are helping our clients to the best of our abilities. When an agent shows one of my listings I want to know two things: 1) What does your client think? and 2) What is your professional opinion? I care what you think. I value your opinion. I want to share feedback with my clients so we can make whatever adjustments we need to make to get the property sold. Why don't you call me? Are you treating your clients the same way you treat other agents?

YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO ME!

Now for the disclaimer......If you are on the mailing list of my blog it is because you asked to be there, I put something in my blog that pertains to you at one time or another, or I just think of you as a well rounded, intelligent individual who may be capable of contributing relevant, serious, funny, etc. commentary to it. If you are bothered about being on the mailing list a simple e-mail asking me to remove you will get a timely response.

Apr. 12, 2006 - A Fond Farewell

As any REALTORŪ knows, you have good clients and not so good clients. I have written rants about the time wasters who use you to test the market and then dump you when they find out they are not going to get their price. I have had two such clients so far this year, and that is probably my own fault for taking speculative, over priced listing, with the expectation that the client will see the light and adjust.

Then you have the good guys, like my recent clients Chris and Myrtle Pond. Chris and Myrtle called me after I sold the house across the street from them. I had noticed that they were in the market as a FSBO during the course of my listing across the street and being the laid back, less than pushy kind of guy I am, I left them alone. Based on my success with the house across the street I was interviewed by them, and ultimately got the listing. I do declare they were an agents delight. They were ready, willing and able to rely upon my knowledge and experience. They were rewarded with a sale, $1,000 over list price.

Alas, Chris, Myrtle and family are moving to Nashville, Tennessee. The upside to that is on my frequent road trips to Florida I will probably be able to stop in and say hello to them. The down side is I will miss the interaction that usually follows the deals where my clients become my friends.

My last couple of posts have failed to tell you that if you have found yourself on my blogs mailing list and you do not wish to be there, simply e-mail me your desire to be removed and POOF, you will be gone. 

Apr. 7, 2006 - They Just Don't Get It

So you are about to sell your HOUSE. That's right, I said your house. It was your HOME while you lived there doing all the life event things one does in their home, but now that you are about to put it up for sale on the market you need to detach. You can't be objective unless you can see the house for the commodity that it is. Buyers will not pay more for your emotional attachments.

I say all this to help you realize that when you call me to put your house on the market I am going to do a competitive or comparable market analysis (CMA). The CMA will tell us how much you can reasonable expect to get for the house based on what other houses in the area are selling for. The cold hard fact is, just because you raised you five kids there and there are twelve parakeets, two dogs, and fifteen gerbils buried in the back yard does not make it worth $60,000 more than the house just like it across the street. In fact, that above ground pool may well be a detriment.

I recently put a house on the market that was priced $60,000 too high. Why? Because the people that were selling it were past clients of mine. When they said they wanted to test the market for ninety days at THEIR price I hesitantly agreed. I put together a class act feature sheet, virtual tour, just listed post cards and even a talking house. The house was featured on my websites, REALTOR.Com, etc. What followed my $1,000+ marketing program was a hand full of showings, a brokers open and a lot of priced too high feedback, which I shared with them.

Imagine my surprise when a week before the listing was to expire, they informed me that they would not be extending the listing. They were going to call one of the "neighborhood experts". Well a week later the house resurfaces on the MLS priced $60,000 lower. I guess the "neighborhood expert" must have used the same comps I used. After having sold Grandma's Condo for them and finding two of their sons really nice deals on the purchase of their homes (that's right, for emotional purposes, when you are the buyer you are buying a home), you would think that they would have given ME ninety more days at MY price.

What a savage act on their part.

Apr. 6, 2006 - I Enjoy The NEW Des Plaines

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, moms and dads...............the long awaited, highly touted Metropolitan Square in Downtown Des Plaines is beginning to show some signs of life.

The Shop and Save grocery store was the first business to open. I must say there is a lot to be said about food shopping in a brand spanking new store. There are many imported items available there, so much so that I personally refer to it as the European Market. I have discovered plenty new goodies.

Cheeseburger in Paradise has finally opened it's doors to the public as well. It is my humble opinion that if Jimmy Buffet never wrote the song, the restaurant could be called "Cheesy Version of Paradise". Believe me, if it was possible to move Key West to Des Plaines, or any other Midwestern City for that matter, I would be the first one to stake my claim on a cabana and a beach chair. The cheeseburgers are just as good at Porter's on the corner of Miner and Laurel and you don't have to pay for the "cheesy" ambiance.

There are a couple of places like Lee Nails and The Hair Cuttery open now also. I guess if you are going to build a mall type Town Square these are standard equipment kind of places.

The real news as far as I am concerned is Flex. In their own words "Flex is the pre-eminent workout facility for Des Plaines and surrounding communities". I agree. My wife and I joined Flex this week. I have previously worked out at the YMCA and at the Des Plaines Park District facilities and my wife frequented Curves. Flex is far and above the best facility around. Either Andrea or Michelle, the General Manager and Assistant Manager, respectively, always seem to be on site to meet and greet you during the course of a workout. The front desk personnel are a kind, courteous, and attractive bunch. I hope for their sake Flex is a smashing success. I hope for my sake it doesn't become too crowded. For now it's really nice and I am sure I will be receiving plenty of inspiration for blog material during my quiet times in the steam room.