{"id":7823,"date":"2009-04-17T07:23:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-17T14:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=7823"},"modified":"2009-04-17T07:23:22","modified_gmt":"2009-04-17T14:23:22","slug":"10-reasons-big-box-brokers-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7823\/10-reasons-big-box-brokers-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"10 reasons big box brokers suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did I really just say that? Sorry but it’s high time to call a spade a spade.<\/p>\n

I recently decided to cut the apron strings so-to-speak with my old broker and go “indie”. After paying in about $200K in exchange for about $12K worth of business over a five year period, I had to evaluate whether the relationship with my broker was anything other than terribly one-sided. Since about Year 1.5 when I began working full-time from home, I\u2019d managed to become pretty independent in terms of how I operated and procured business. I finally saw I wasn\u2019t getting much of anything in return for those hefty commission splits and transactions (not counting the occasional pep talk, although at times it was much appreciated.) So I left at the start of the New Year. Since making the split official, I\u2019ve had a chance to evaluate the cost of every aspect of my business compared to what it used to be. Not surprisingly, I\u2019ve found that my overall costs are much lower. More surprisingly, however, I also discovered:<\/p>\n

1. business cards were a profit center for the broker
\n2. sign installations were a profit center
\n3. color copies were a profit center
\n4. template sites (complete with crappy framed in MLS data) were a profit center that did not even generate leads
\n5. advertising was a profit center
\n6. leasing back office space to agents was a profit center
\n7. accounting services were a profit center (in the form of huge transaction fees)
\n8. sending closings through the broker\u2019s joint venture with a local title company was a profit center
\n9. home warranty applications were a profit center (by skimming off the top of agents’ referral checks)
\n10. 100% tax deductible sales meetings were a profit center – vendors paid the broker to have their mediocre template sites etc shamelessly endorsed & pushed on agents<\/p>\n

But wait, you may be thinking. Surely there were other ways your broker was adding value? Sadly, not really. Training beyond the basics was almost non-existent. Occasionally something would be offered gratis, eg a bank talking about changing lending standards, thus hoping to get some loan business. Or “training” Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did I really just say that? Sorry but it’s high time to call a spade a spade. I recently decided to cut the apron strings so-to-speak with my old broker and go “indie”. After paying in about $200K in exchange for about $12K worth of business over a five year period, I had to evaluate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"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":[62,4,212,6,5],"tags":[320,315,321],"class_list":{"0":"post-7823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-dirty-laundry","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-flourishing","9":"category-marketing","10":"category-real-estate","11":"tag-cost-containment","12":"tag-indie-brokers","13":"tag-real-estate-franchise","15":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7615,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7615\/announcing-realsearchusacom\/","url_meta":{"origin":7823,"position":0},"title":"Announcing RealSearchUSA.com","author":"John Rowles","date":"March 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No, that's not me with The Hoff and a Google Search Appliance, that's Google's UK Sales Mgr. RealSearchUSA.com will be a network of Independent brokers connected by a unique function - a natural language Real Estate search engine. Our goal is to create a true consumer benefit: A Google-inspired (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/googleenterprise.blogspot.com\/uploaded_images\/HoffGSA-799041.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9567,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9567\/real-estate-branding-post-google\/","url_meta":{"origin":7823,"position":1},"title":"Real Estate Branding, Post-Google","author":"John Rowles","date":"August 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Do real estate brands mean anything to homebuyers post-Google? When the MLS was printed in a binder that brokers hid under their desks and consumers had to shop for an agent first, brand mattered to buyers. Now, buyers come armed with a list of properties that are relevant to them\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":[]},{"id":2179,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2179\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-why-buyers-and-sellers-each-paying-for-their-own-representation-is-the-most-significant-reform-that-can-be-made-today-in-residential-real-estat\/","url_meta":{"origin":7823,"position":2},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Why buyers and sellers each paying for their own representation is the most significant reform that can be made today in residential real estate","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part I: How we got into this mess in the first place Can we be straight with each other? I'm not a soft and subtle kind of guy, and my working assumption is that you are sick to death of being hustled -- handled -- lied to. We yammer all\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":[]},{"id":1518,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1518\/consumer-is-the-loser-with-real-estate-licensing-broker-argues\/","url_meta":{"origin":7823,"position":3},"title":"Consumer is the loser with real estate licensing, broker argues","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Consumer is the loser with real estate licensing, broker argues We've been talking about real estate licensing laws, admittedly an exercise in futility. Whatever arguments I might make for repeal, it remains that the Arizona Department of Real Estate is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3358,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3358\/dead-dinosaurs-walking\/","url_meta":{"origin":7823,"position":4},"title":"Dead Dinosaurs Walking","author":"John Rowles","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As far as I can tell, the RE.net has been advocating for better broker Web sites for as long as there has been an RE.net. Many articles and posts focus on the twin pillars of eCommerce -- Search + Content -- but many brokers still have Web 1.0 sites or,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/541\/why-the-traditional-real-estate-commission-model-is-broken-and-needs-to-be-replaced\/","url_meta":{"origin":7823,"position":5},"title":"Why the traditional real estate commission model is broken and needs to be replaced . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"These are the concluding paragraphs of Mark Nadel's white paper on real estate commissions. The executive summary has been quoted all over, but I think this text is more compelling. For what it's worth, I think Nadel has hit a home run. There are things he doesn't know about, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7823","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\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7823"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7827,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7823\/revisions\/7827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}