{"id":775,"date":"2006-12-17T11:43:28","date_gmt":"2006-12-17T18:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=775"},"modified":"2006-12-17T11:44:04","modified_gmt":"2006-12-17T18:44:04","slug":"see-the-pursuit-of-happyness-because-there-are-worse-fates-than-straight-commission-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/775\/see-the-pursuit-of-happyness-because-there-are-worse-fates-than-straight-commission-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"See “The Pursuit of Happyness” — because there are worse fates than straight commission sales . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

We see everything through the lens of real estate, including films and television programs. It’s baked in the cake. Houses, always, and rooms and neighborhoods, and god help us if there’s a real estate transaction in a movie or TV show. When we were leaving The Pursuit of Happyness<\/a> last night, Cathy said, “That makes starting out in a split shop look easy.”<\/p>\n

(For non-Realtors, a split shop is one where you have to split your commissions with your broker. New agents often have to give the broker 50% of their earnings, and they may have to pay a mandatory mentor 50% of the remainder. The attested quid pro quo<\/i> is training, but most new licensees starve and quit before they see much training. They often leave a ton of money behind in other people’s pockets, though, so almost everyone is happy.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, the travails Chris Gordon undergoes in “The Pursuit of Happyness” make everything associated with mere<\/i> straight commission sales look downright easy. Yes, I know successful salespeople go through a lot to get to a place where money problems seem remote, but few of us take the path through Dante’s torments followed by Gordon.<\/p>\n

Despite a dogged persistence he is dogged by persistent failure. His wife leaves him, and he voluntarily undertakes the burden of single parenthood. All of his capital is invested in portable medical devices that street people keep stealing. He is evicted from his apartment. His limited savings are confiscated by the IRS. He and his son end up homeless, vying and sometimes failing to get space in homeless shelters. Through all of this, he is working as hard as he can in an internship at a stock brokerage, competing against nineteen other applicants for the one available paying position.<\/p>\n

This is a Hollywood movie based on the real-life Chris Gordon’s autobiography, so you know how it’s going to end. It’s the getting there that makes this film worth seeing. To say it is inspirational is a massive understatement.<\/p>\n

I’d tell you to go see it, but I can’t imagine that anyone who cares about human achievement would not<\/i> see this Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We see everything through the lens of real estate, including films and television programs. It’s baked in the cake. Houses, always, and rooms and neighborhoods, and god help us if there’s a real estate transaction in a movie or TV show. When we were leaving The Pursuit of Happyness last night, Cathy said, “That makes […]<\/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":[13,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-casual-friday","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1019,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1019\/is-your-broker-profitable-traditional-brokerage\/","url_meta":{"origin":775,"position":0},"title":"Is Your Broker Profitable?- Traditional Brokerage","author":"Brian Brady","date":"February 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Have you ever analyzed the business model your broker has? Try to run the numbers sometime and see just how much profit the owners(s) of your real estate brokerage really earn. I learned a lot about running a mortgage brokerage and real estate brokerage from 1999-2002. I've owned both and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3191,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3191\/true-confessions-of-a-real-estate-broker\/","url_meta":{"origin":775,"position":1},"title":"True Confessions of A Real Estate Broker","author":"Cheryl Johnson","date":"May 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The times are indeed changing.\u00a0 I am not a real estate salesperson.\u00a0 I am\u00a0the broker\/co-owner of a small real estate office.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Please put the hammer away, Greg.\u00a0 My partner Bob, and I, opened it up\u00a0precisely in order to\u00a0own our own\u00a0systems,\u00a0 and develop our own approach to business.\u00a0 Initially, it was\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":724,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/724\/ask-the-broker-giving-the-bum-the-bums-rush\/","url_meta":{"origin":775,"position":2},"title":"Ask the Broker: Giving the bum the bum’s rush . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"What do you do when the dual owner of a house refuses to leave or cooperate after signing the purchase and sale and a document to agree to sell the house? This is a nasty divorce situation. The divorce court's finding was to sell the house and split the proceeds.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":393,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/393\/blogoff-post-16-ask-the-broker-why-are-the-lots-so-small\/","url_meta":{"origin":775,"position":3},"title":"Blogoff Post #16: Ask the Broker: Why are the lots so small . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This question comes from my mother-in-law, Cathy's mother:Why do builders make yards so small?This is a question that applies to the Phoenix area, but I know it fits in many markets in the southwest. Phoenix was settled in sections, 640 acre square-mile parcels. A farm might be a section, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask the Broker"","block_context":{"text":"Ask the Broker","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/ask-the-broker\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1077,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1077\/why-the-traditional-real-estate-model-is-fading-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":775,"position":4},"title":"Why The Traditional Real Estate Model Is Fading Away","author":"Jeff Brown","date":"February 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Kris Berg and Brian Brady inspired me to add my eye witness experience to the subject of the traditional real estate company business model. Their recent posts on the subject were excellent as usual. I've seen real estate from the inside since 1967. I was able to follow the owner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1924,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1924\/supplanting-the-nar-can-we-get-to-a-better-quality-of-real-estate-representation-by-way-of-the-licensing-laws\/","url_meta":{"origin":775,"position":5},"title":"Supplanting the NAR: Can we get to a better quality of real estate representation by way of the licensing laws?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Coming back to this, with my apologies for the delay. I realized I was never going to have time for the whole feast at one sitting, so I resolved to take it on one bite at a time. I want to examine some of the ideas and objections people have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}