{"id":957,"date":"2007-01-27T18:44:19","date_gmt":"2007-01-28T01:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=957"},"modified":"2007-01-27T18:47:52","modified_gmt":"2007-01-28T01:47:52","slug":"its-high-time-to-do-away-with-referral-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/957\/its-high-time-to-do-away-with-referral-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s High-Time To Do Away With Referral Fees!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I submit to you – the time has come. In fact… it’s long overdue.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As someone who has received more referral money than I have paid out – it has been good for me on a personal level.<\/p>\n

But I fear that is has become disastrous on an industry level. Relocation companies, REO Asset Management companies, and online entities like Yahoo! and HomeGain are draining a ton of money out of the system without adding much value to it.<\/p>\n

In an era of transparency, perhaps we need to shed some light on this subject.<\/p>\n

Is it not odd that no other business operates in such a fashion? Do you think other licensed professionals seek to refer their clients out to the highest bidder?<\/p>\n

I think not.<\/p>\n

Do you think our clients would appreciate knowing how we’ve “pimped them out”?<\/p>\n

I think not.<\/p>\n

Do you think a buyer or seller would think twice if – IN BIG PRINT – they were told that the agent that they were being referred to has agreed to pay 35% of his commission to the referring party… especially if it was some online entity like Yahoo! or HomeGain?<\/p>\n

I bet some might.<\/p>\n

And with the Yahoo! and their relationship with Prudential, the plot thickens. Prudential has a franchise fee of 8% on top of that referral fee… and with the split between broker and agent… you can see how the agent is getting squeezed here.
\nSome believe that it’s just an issue of disclosure. Disclose and everything is okay.<\/p>\n

NONSENSE! Have you read some of these disclosures? They seem so innocent and innocuous… while obscuring the real meaning of what is going on.<\/p>\n

Here’s a disclosure in our Georgia Purchase and Sale Agreement:<\/p>\n

“Broker hereby discloses that Broker may receive a commission, rebate, or direct profit for procuring a mortgage loan, insurance, or other services on behalf of Buyer or Seller.”<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s no disclosure! That’s a C-Y-A!<\/p>\n

A disclosure would spell out what compensation the Broker received from what service provider – and would require that disclosure prior to the Broker referring the client to said provider… not at the last minute when they sign an offer.<\/p>\n

I don’t accept fees such as Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I submit to you – the time has come. In fact… it’s long overdue. As someone who has received more referral money than I have paid out – it has been good for me on a personal level. But I fear that is has become disastrous on an industry level. Relocation companies, REO Asset Management […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"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":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14249,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14249\/i-have-a-no-fee-referral-for-a-hard-working-listing-agent-in-minneapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":0},"title":"I have a no-fee referral for a hard-working listing agent in Minneapolis.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Mom has moved to managed care in sunny Arizona. Daughter and son-in-law need to get the old family homestead sold. Zip code is 55418, and it looks fairly near into town. Zillow has it at $147,000, decent money if you're willing to work. But: You'll need to be a hard-working\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":3318,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3318\/do-you-work-like-a-bloodhound-i-have-a-no-fee-referral-in-cary-nc\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":1},"title":"Do you work like a Bloodhound? I have a no-fee referral in Cary, NC","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"One of our past clients is looking for aggressive representation in Cary, NC. He worked with us on the buying side and later as a seller, so he knows all about how we work. That's what he wants in his new locale. He's smart, he blogs and he could end\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":3015,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3015\/realtors-are-important-to-an-originators-successsort-of\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":2},"title":"REALTORS are Important To An Originator’s Success…Sort Of.","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Loan originators are taught to develop REALTOR relationships. While development of those referral relationships is important, I've seen originators waste time and money on unprofitable \"partnerships\". This initial article, in my new series about REALTOR marketing, will explore how to quantify the referral relationship to more efficiently understand how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1592,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1592\/shackpricescom-a-tear-down-innovative-map-search-portal-reconstructed-as-estatelycom\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":3},"title":"ShackPrices.com a tear-down? Innovative map-search portal reconstructed as Estately.com","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The most-innovative little map-search in Seattle, ShackPrices.com, today relaunches as Estately.com, a name perhaps more fitting for a town where you can still get a decent fixer for less than a million dollars. The site is also launching its monetization model with this release: A fee-based referral system for users\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":1622,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1622\/six-daily-disciplines-of-purposeful-advisers\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":4},"title":"Six Daily Disciplines of Purposeful Advisers","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The following essay is taken from a lecture by Todd Duncan at the Strategic Equity Summit. Mr. Duncan opened the conference of 3,000 mortgage originators with an electric speech chock full of useful information. Mr. Duncan is an author, a highly sought after speaker, and a business consultant. His company,\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":5855,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5855\/digging-in-to-dig-out\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":5},"title":"Digging In To Dig Out","author":"Brian Brady","date":"November 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wholesale lenders, escrow companies and title companies are sending me e-mails this afternoon: In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday and as a demonstration of our commitment to our core values, ABC Financial will be closed Thursday and Friday (and Saturday and Sunday).\u00a0 We wish you and yours a joyous holiday\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}