|
Are you a Real Estate Professional? Now
you can earn like one. Earn 100%
Commission and Keep More Of Your Own Money. Only $295/Month.
WE HAVE 3 OFFICES TO SERVE OUR AGENTS
BETTER. BALTIMORE COUNTY EAST/ESSEX, BALTIMORE CITY/FEDERAL HILL,
BALTIMORE COUNTY WEST OFFICE COMING SOON!
Hello. My name is I am 37 years old and have been in the
real estate business for thirteen years. I have been successful and am
fortunate to have loyal clients that have made real estate a very enjoyable
and worthwhile career for me. One of the keys to my success was that I took
time to make my business work for me. I have control. I work only the hours
that I want to work and I choose only the best clients to work with that
treat me with professionalism and respect. I have more clients to work with
than I can handle. This is a great problem to have, and one that I hope that
you will have also. I have been married since 1997 to my
wonderful wife, Jennifer. We have a five year old daughter
named Sydney and a two year old son named George. I live in an old house (built in 1897) near LEARNING WHAT NOT TO DO I started in the real estate business in
February, 1995 with Long & Foster
Real Estate, the same company that I took the real
estate classes through. You didn’t think they held those classes as a public
service did you? Long & Foster had a large
number of agents but it seemed to me that a large percentage of them didn’t
have a real “business” and most of the agents were making the kind of income
that you could get from a “job” without the cost and expense and headaches of
being in the real estate business. I was also disappointed with the number of
bad agents that I met. When I
passed my real estate licensing exam, I was excited. I called my parents to
let them know and they were very proud. I was 24 years old at the time. I was
making $11.00 per hour slicing lunch meat in the deli at Mars Supermarket.
I got my business cards and bought a new car. I mean you can’t take customers
out in a 1984 Dodge Charger with primer spots, can you? I have always been a
motivated person and I was ready to take on the real estate business. A
famous real estate speaker I heard once said, “you don’t try real estate,
real estate tries you.” Well,
I learned many important things, the hard way. I learned how to answer the
phone on floor duty. For 3 hours at a time I answered the phone, Hello, Long
& Foster, this is Prospect:
I am looking for a house. Me:
Great, I think that I can help, would you be willing to work with me? Prospect:
Sure Me:
Are you working with a real estate agent? Prospect:
Yes. I have 6 agents. Me: 6? Prospect:
Yes, 6. Me:
Why are you working with 6 agents? Prospect:
The first agent to find me the right house, I will buy from them. Me:
You’re kidding? How long have you been looking? Prospect:
2 years. Me:
Have you seen anything that you liked? Prospect:
No. Not really. Me:
When were you looking to move? Prospect:
Next year. I am in a lease and I can’t move until June. I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t
afford a receptionist. After thinking about it, I realized that they had one,
Me. I was
never taught much. You learned by doing it. Sure they told me how to fill out
a listing agreement and a buyer agency contract. I guess they forgot to tell
me how to find the listing or the buyer, and what I should say to them when I
found them. I mean I was pretty well versed on how to fill in the blanks on
the form, but I think they were leaving a lot of critical information out. I
soon came to realize, very few agents in the office knew how to find a
listing or buyer, if they didn’t call us first, we would all starve. I
marched into my manager’s office and asked how I can drum up some business. I
was told that I could hold an open house on another agent’s listing. What a
great idea I thought, as visions of buyers and checkbooks lining up at the
front door filled my mind. The open
houses were most always a big waste of time. Nobody told me how to do an open
house, so I learned by observing and figuring it out on my own. My typical
open house consisted of putting 2 or 3 open house directional signs on the
street and putting some balloons on the for sale sign in front of the house.
Without any advertising, most of the open houses were a total waste of time.
Inside the house I was armed with a smile, a pocket full of business cards, a
notepad and little else. I can
remember holding an open house on a hot summer day on a vacant house with no
air conditioning. I can remember falling asleep on the stairway of another
vacant house because there was no place to sit down. I guess you could say
that it was my fault for not being prepared and asking questions about how
the open house should be conducted, but I thought I was giving up to half of
the commissions I generated for top notch training and support? Is this any way to do business? I did
start making sales and was soon on the fast track to success through sheer
determination, luck and hard work. In my
first 10 months in the business I made $9,600.00. Combined with my massive
income as a deli clerk at the local supermarket, I had made $25,000.00 in
1995. Oops, I had forgotten about the money that I had spent on the business.
This was my first lesson that gross income doesn’t really count. It is what
you keep that matters. I think I hated the deli clerk job worst. I can
remember waiting on customers with my paper hat
on and seeing one of my seller clients coming down the aisle. I quickly
ducked into the back and hid until he was gone. I made
a lot of friends at Long & Foster and had some good times there. Many of
the good people that I met there, I am proud to say, are affiliated with Real
Estate Professionals, Inc. now. My income went from $9,600.00 to $25,000.00
to $45,000.00 and I finally left the lunch meat counter after they gave me a
hard time about something and went full time into the real estate business.
Every once in a while I will have a dream that I am working in that
supermarket. When I wake up, I am relieved. After
3 years at Long & Foster, I knew that it was time to go. The office had
some bad agents there and the office productivity was non-existent. The whole
atmosphere in the office was depressing. I knew that RE/MAX® was the way to go.
Pay the office a monthly fee and keep 100% of all commissions, a more
competitive environment, more freedom, better agents. What a great idea!
Hopefully I can make it there. A NEW BEGINNING During
the end of 1998, I joined a local RE/MAX® franchise, RE/MAX® Elite Realty. My income
immediately went from $45,000.00 to $106,000.00 the very next year. I was
very happy there. My broker, Joe Banick was a good person and a great broker. I had
about 4 years of experience in the real estate business and I finally felt
like I had some control over where my business was headed. I felt like a
business person and I had money to finally reward myself for all of my hard
work. Agents have asked me what I did
differently during those first 12 Months. My answer, Nothing. I had a system that
worked for me, not against me. It is kind of like swimming against the tide.
You can have the tide working for you or against you. You pick. I soon
had a gross income nearing $150,000.00 per year. Sure, I had large office
fees to pay and had to pay my own expenses and advertising but everything was
going pretty good. I worked a lot but that extra income made a difference in
my life. It was during this time when I observed many top producer agents
making $200,000.00-300,000.00 a year by killing themselves. I figured that I
would be better off making less money and having control over my business and
a life outside of real estate. Many of the agents making 200-300k per year
were on a treadmill. They bought nice cars and nice houses and then had to
work 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week to pay for it all. I
was happy, but not totally satisfied and I thought that I had many better
ideas. A BETTER IDEA I am an entrepreneur at heart and I loved
the power of creating new ideas and developing marketing strategies. The idea
of negotiating handrails and furnace filters after a home inspection just
wasn’t as appealing as creating a new idea and creating a perfect system for
real estate agents to use. My idea was to take the best of what companies
like RE/MAX® had to offer and combine this with all of the benefits of an
independent real estate company along with my own unique ideas for conducting
business. In 2002, I received my broker license. In August 2002, Real Estate
Professionals, Inc. was in business. At that time, my perception of most real
estate companies in our market was that they weren’t run properly. Some of
the companies had ideas and procedures that were so outdated and dumb; I
couldn’t understand why anyone would want to work there. Not to mention that
at most of the companies, the agent was the barnacle on the bottom of the
company ship. Many of the companies thought that the agent existed solely for
their benefit, to go out and promote the name of the company. The
relationship was a more glorified employer-employee relationship than
business partner. My goal was to build an agent-friendly company where the
company and agent could be true business partners and complement one another.
I
wanted to give honest, ethical and successful real estate agents a place
where they could earn 100% commission for a very affordable fee, have a
professional image and make a high income. That place is Real Estate
Professionals, Inc. We have worked hard to make Real Estate
Professionals, Inc. the best choice for a real estate agent to affiliate
with. Will it be the right choice for everyone? Of course not. You can’t be
all things to all people. We want to make Real Estate Professionals, Inc. a
company where you can be the best that you can be, earn a lot of money and
have great quality of life. It may sound trite or clichéd, but we actually
care about all of our agents and are devoted to helping them reach their
goals. We work one on one with all of our agents to make sure that they are
successful. We
do more for our agents than any other real estate company. A PRIVATE AND ELITE CLUB OF EXPERIENCED AND PROFESSIONAL
AGENTS Anybody can call themselves a real estate
professional, but does it mean anything? Real Estate Professionals, Inc. is
not a typical real estate company. When we say something, we actually mean
it. Our company is more
like a private club where the best agents from the real estate industry do
business. We do not hire or
affiliate new or inexperienced agents. Unlike just about every real
estate company out there, Real Estate Professionals, Inc. is not interested
in creating a “body count” of agents. We don’t care about having the most
agents. We do not hold real estate licensing classes or affiliate new
licensees. We won’t throw you against the wall and see if you stick. You must
have a minimum of 12 months experience in real estate or equivalent to
affiliate with Real Estate Professionals, Inc. You also must be:
Do you want to be a part of something
special? Are you up to the challenge? If so, you will be surrounded by other
people like you. You will be associated with other professional business
people that take the real estate business seriously and have a good time in
the process. I’ll be honest; we aren’t looking to be the biggest real estate
company. I won’t even say that we are the best. When someone tells you that
they are the best you should be suspicious. We strive to be the best.
Do you really think that most real estate companies have any standards or do
they hire anyone with a
real estate license? You and I both know the answer. WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT? FAIRNESS. The other day someone asked me what Real
Estate Professionals, Inc. was all about. What was the one thing that makes
us different from everybody else? My answer was “fairness.” Deeply rooted in
our principles is a fundamental element of fairness. We want to give real
estate agents the deal that you can’t say “no” to. Our idea is that if
someone comes to Real Estate Professionals, Inc. and we make it very, very
profitable for them and treat them fairly and professionally, they will tell
other agents about the company. Hopefully over the long term we will build a
business that is of great value. We are not looking to enrich the company on
your hard earned commissions and your profit. We have a long term view of
things. We want you The agent is the one who generates the
vast majority of all business that is conducted. Most real estate company
advertising is a waste of time and brings no real business to the agents.
Many of the large real estate companies have brainwashed their agents into
thinking that the company gets them business. The opposite is true. Many real
estate companies have their agents convinced that they won’t be successful
without the “mother ship” company behind them. What a sad joke. Look at the
agents that get their business from “floor duty”, why are they broke and have
very little sales activity? With many real estate companies the deal
you sign on for today may not be the deal that you get tomorrow so you must
trust that your company will always treat you fairly. If not, you will be
constantly changing companies looking for a better deal. We will treat you
fairly. We take pride in coming up with new ideas and tools for you to be
more successful. You can trust that we will never take advantage of you. Some real estate companies think that
they are in the business of providing real estate services to the public. Not
us. We are in the real estate agent business. Our job is to offer you the
best possible environment to be successful in and to help you to do more
business and to meet your goals. Do you think buyers and sellers actually
pick a real estate company or agent by driving by a billboard and seeing a
sharp logo or a clever slogan or pictures of children and dogs? Did the last
buyer or seller you worked with use you because your company had a large
market share? Did they know or care what real estate company you were with? We know that the company is not the
critical factor when people buy or sell homes. The agent is. THE MYTH OF THE BIG COMPANY While Real Estate Professionals, Inc. is
not a small company (we currently have 98 agents affiliated with us) many
agents believe the myth of the big company. The myth of the big company goes
as follows: The company’s name is widely known and
the company is so large and they do so much advertising that business will
come to the agent. The real estate business is and always
will be a personal service business. People do business with people they know
and people they trust. The real estate business is unlike the shoe business
where people may buy “the hot brand.” I doubt that many of your clients care
what company you are affiliated with, some probably don’t even know. I know
that sounds harsh and extreme, but it is the truth. I dare you to write down
a list of your recent transactions and where the business came from. I’ll bet
90% if not all of your business was generated by you. There is not a real estate company around
that can provide you with enough leads for you to be able to make a decent
income for one person and pay your expenses. Some have tried, but the truth
always prevails in the end. By relying on the little bit of business that a
company’s floor duty or advertising generates, you are crippling your real
estate business for the long term. If you don’t learn how to generate your
own business, you will starve and die a long and slow painful death in real
estate. Think about the welfare system for a moment. The welfare system gives
people just enough to get by. After a while many welfare recipients would
rather live off of their stipend, then give it up in hopes of something
better. YOUR
SUCCESS IN REAL ESTATE WILL BE SOLELY DETERMINED BY WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU DO
AND HOW YOU DO IT. Many companies are very proud of their
supposed golden reputation, stellar sales record or 99.9% customer
satisfaction rating. These companies believe in the power of the brand and
that all of their marketing and advertising makes people destined to use the
company. In my opinion, the sales success of a real estate company is
determined by the number of agents and the hunger of these agents to procure
business. A real estate company that has 10,000 agents sells a lot of real
estate not because the brand is advertised so much and means something, but
that the company has 10,000 agents walking around handing out business cards,
talking to people and asking people if they want to buy or sell a home
through the agent. The power of any real estate company to have market share
is determined solely by the number of agents, yet that market share does not
translate into dollars for an agent affiliated with that firm. Promoting the
big company “mother ship” in your marketing or advertising will do little if
anything to improve your standing in the eyes of buyers and sellers. The mega
company may make tens of millions of dollars a year in income but the agent’s
income will only be determined by that which they have procured for the
company. Most agents care about their personal income and not the profits of
the company. You can capture 85-90% of the real estate
market no matter what company you are with as long as you have something to
offer the real estate consumer. Whether it is your award winning personality,
your great sense of humor or your 8 step home selling system, people will do
business with you because they like you, they trust you and they feel that
you can do the job for them. You see, buying or selling a home is not
like buying a pizza. It’s not like buying a CD player or even a car. An agent
gets to know their clients and customers rather intimately over many weeks
and perhaps months and can finish a transaction as a friend and referral tree
or enemies. Your skills at making people like and trust you will do more for
you than any real estate company can. The real estate business is a business,
it is not a job and it requires an investment of time, effort and money. An
investment is something that you invest in today for a greater return
tomorrow. By planning and working the real estate business the right way, you
will plant the seeds of success that will repay you with immense returns down
the road. If you do not understand this, you will be doomed to earn a dismal
income in real estate or you may be forced to leave the business. Real Estate Professionals, Inc. was made
for agents like you that want to have a real business and earn a professional
income working the real estate business on your terms. Real Estate
Professionals, Inc. has made it affordable for agents like you to earn 100%
commission for a very low monthly fee. If you are willing to listen and take
action, we can show you how to meet the goals that you have for yourself. Here are some of the many benefits that
you will receive from being affiliated with Real Estate Professionals, Inc. PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP Our management team has years of experience
actually selling real estate and making money. We can work with you one on
one to help you do the same. We maintain an impeccable reputation in the real
estate business for professionalism, integrity and ethics. Unfortunately, the
requirements to be a licensed broker are not that tough. There are brokers
and company owners in the business that you may not want to associate with.
Make sure you do your homework. You are the company you keep. WHERE AGENTS EARN 100% COMMISSION™ - KEEP MORE OF YOUR OWN
MONEY Real Estate Professionals, Inc. offers
only 100% commission programs to our agents. Why Earn 100% Commission?
* This chart is based upon sales volume and
an average commission of 3% per transaction side and does not take into account any office
fees paid. Let me lay the cards on the table. If you are not earning 100%
commission, you are behind the curve. Even at a high commission split,
you have to work harder and harder to make the same amount of money. Real
Estate Professionals, Inc. has made earning 100% commission affordable for
all agents. Our money-saving commission programs let you reap the rewards of
your own success. You are the one who every day, makes phone calls and meets
with people to make things happen; then all your company thinks about is a
new rule or fee that will cost you money or steal your time. If you are the
one that does the work, shouldn’t you receive the rewards associated with
your hard work? Many times companies extract large profits from an individual
agent and still treat the agent like a nobody. This is wrong. If you are
doing $1 Million or more in sales volume and splitting commissions with your
broker, it is like trying to drive a car on a sandy beach. You are going to
be working a lot harder than you should be and you will go nowhere fast.
There is an easier and better way to do things. WHAT
WILL YOU DO WITH THE EXTRA MONEY? Many of our agents are now saving the
thousands of dollars that their previous company was taking from them. Our
agents can now travel on expensive vacations, put children through college,
or buy the home of their dreams without working any harder than they were
before. Combine this with the fact that our company does more for the agent
than any other company and you have to ask yourself, “What are you going to
do about it?” What will you do to stop losing thousands
of dollars every year to your current broker? How much money are you losing? These charts will show you how much money
you are giving away to your current broker. The center column shows you
how much money you are giving away per each million dollars of sales volume.
This chart is based upon an average
commission of 3% per transaction side and does not take into account any office
fees paid. What
happens when you discount you commission? It gets even worse…
This chart is based upon an average
commission of 1.75% per transaction side and does not take into account any office
fees paid. With
these kind of numbers you will make just enough to be broke! Many agents are working the real estate
business like a job. They might even earn enough to make a living and pay
their expenses but they forget about profit. Profit is what a business owner
has after paying themselves for the job that they do and paying all of their
expenses. Profit is why you are in business and taking a risk. Without a
healthy profit you might as well sit in a cubicle somewhere and work for
someone else. If this is the way you do business,
you will have a little too much MONTH at the end of your MONEY! Hopefully you never receive a letter like
this:
Seriously, could you find a better way to
spend this money? I know you can. OUR OFFICE WILL NEVER CHARGE YOU JUNK FEES LIKE MANY COMPANIES DO. HERE IS A LIST OF THINGS THAT AGENTS ARE PAYING EXTRA FOR AT OTHER REAL ESTATE OFFICES: ERRORS AND OMISSIONS INSURANCE, FRANCHISE FEES, FORMS PROGRAM, TECHNOLOGY FEES, LONG DISTANCE CHARGES, SHOWING SERVICES, COMPANY REFERRAL PROGRAMS, COMPANY SPONSORED SOFTWARE, TRAINING PROGRAMS, YEARLY COMPANY DUES, POSTAGE COSTS, COPY FEE |
