{"id":520,"date":"2006-10-07T08:40:44","date_gmt":"2006-10-07T15:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=520"},"modified":"2006-10-07T08:42:44","modified_gmt":"2006-10-07T15:42:44","slug":"why-a-flat-fee-for-buyer-representation-because-the-money-is-in-the-meter-drop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/520\/why-a-flat-fee-for-buyer-representation-because-the-money-is-in-the-meter-drop\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a flat fee for buyer representation? Because the money is in the meter drop . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, I read the first couple of chapters from a book by an investment guru — “How Dilberts like you made me rich”<\/i> or something like that. I must have seen it while I was staying with someone, because, as you might guess, I don’t have a huge store of respect for that kind of book.<\/p>\n

But the first chapter, at least, was interesting. The author was talking about his youthful experience as a taxi driver, how he discovered that every other driver’s ideal — the long trip out to the suburbs — was in fact a money-losing proposition. His epiphany was that the real profit in driving a cab came from dropping the meter arm, and the more times he could do that — the more short trips he could make, in other words — the more money he would make.<\/p>\n

When I started thinking about moving our compensation for buyer representation to a flat fee, I went through my own sales for last year. I had a great year, as did every agent with a pulse in Phoenix. I sold some very expensive houses — although Cathy landed my ultimate prize when she showed for me one day when I had a class. But I did many less expensive homes, along with some work that I did for no compensation at all. At the end of the year, I netted out to $7,638 a side. Not great, not awful.<\/p>\n

But you can look at $7,638 as my gross value “per trip,” in taxicab terms. My belief is that, with the right marketing, engineering and support, I can do at least five times as many trips, and possibly more than that. I believe that one good agent, properly supported, should be able to sell 300 buyers a year, maybe many more. And<\/i>, incidentally, throw off a lot of listings and referrals.<\/p>\n

I did rentals when I was first licensed. I knew I needed experience, and I wanted it fast. New residential agents can starve for months, but I made money in my first week. It was lousy money, but the demand was Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many years ago, I read the first couple of chapters from a book by an investment guru — “How Dilberts like you made me rich” or something like that. I must have seen it while I was staying with someone, because, as you might guess, I don’t have a huge store of respect for that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7653,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7653\/should-blogs-enjoy-the-same-first-amendment-rights-as-traditional-press\/","url_meta":{"origin":520,"position":0},"title":"Should Blogs Enjoy the Same First Amendment Rights as Traditional Press?","author":"Mark Green","date":"April 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Aaron Krowne, Founder of the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter, posted the following article yesterday. New Hampshire Judge Orders ML-Implode To Divulge Identities of Anonymous Posters Questions: 1)\u00a0 Should blogs\/consumer advocacy websites enjoy the same First Amendment protections as traditional press? 2)\u00a0 Does Justice McHugh's decision disturb you as much as it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dirty Laundry"","block_context":{"text":"Dirty Laundry","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/dirty-laundry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/502\/bloodhoundblogs-wordpress-plug-ins\/","url_meta":{"origin":520,"position":1},"title":"BloodhoundBlog’s WordPress plug-ins . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Daniel Rothamel is swapping over to WordPress, and other people have told me that they are, too, so here, for canonical purposes if for no other, are the WordPress plug-ins BloodhoundBlog is currently using:Akismet Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web serivce to see if they look like spam\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2913,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2913\/who-knew-it-turns-out-condotels-stink-as-a-real-estate-investment\/","url_meta":{"origin":520,"position":2},"title":"Who knew? It turns out condotels stink as a real estate investment","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Hey, pal, let's make a deal. You can be in the taxi business just like that! Here's how. You buy my cab, see? You own it, pay the note on it, handle the maintenance, all that stuff. But you won't have to work all those crazy hours driving the cab,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3365,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3365\/why-arent-the-dinosaurs-extinct-already\/","url_meta":{"origin":520,"position":3},"title":"Why aren’t the Dinosaurs extinct already?","author":"John Rowles","date":"July 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In my last post, I made the case that many of today's old school brokers are Dead Dinosaurs Walking. In the last couple of days, two things have happened that have me questioning that theory and its keeping me up at night: I learned that a intelligent guy I know,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carnival of Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Carnival of Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/carnival-of-real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1586,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1586\/seven-days-of-the-dog-carnival-of-the-bloodhounds\/","url_meta":{"origin":520,"position":4},"title":"Seven Days of the Dog: Carnival of the Bloodhounds","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My father manufactures mens' outerwear -- overcoats, raincoats, jackets. He was with Windbreaker and London Fog for many years, but for the last couple of decades he's been a private-label vendor: He supplies the goods, the designer or department store supplies its label. One year Consumer Reports reviewed mens' raincoats\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1711,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1711\/a-simple-question-what-can-you-blog-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":520,"position":5},"title":"A Simple Question, What Can You Blog About?","author":"Morgan Brown","date":"July 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I imagine that many of the readers of this blog are bloggers themselves; who in their daily perusal of the blogosphere for inspiration and news land here as a reliant destination for intellectual discussion of the issues at the fore of our industry. 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