Posts Tagged real estate commissions

So You Think You Want To Sell Real Estate?

The business of buying and selling real estate can be quite lucrative. The lure of high commissions is certainly enticing, and leads aspiring real estate entrepreneurs to believe that it’s easy to make a lot of money in real estate. Yet, the reality of selling real estate is very different.

The truth is that more than 80% of real estate commissions are earned by less than 20% of real estate agents. Furthermore, nearly 80% of all new real estate agents fail. These statistics are certainly discouraging and usually enough to give most people pause. Nevertheless, the excessive appreciation of home values over the past several years drove many vacillating individuals to take the risky plunge into real estate, hopeful that they, too, would rake in thousands of dollars in commissions in the booming real estate market. Then, the market started to cool, a natural fluctuation in the cyclical real estate market.

I’ve heard it said that the hardest part about a career in real estate is passing the real estate exam. I would have to respectfully disagree. The real estate business is a 24/7 enterprise. Thus, the only way to truly succeed in real estate is to eat, sleep, breathe and live real estate. As far as I am concerned, sacrificing your family, friends and personal interests is by far the hardest part about a career in real estate.

In the grand scheme of things, I spent a miniscule amount of time pursuing a career in real estate. I found, after little more than a year, that I simply did not want to devote my entire existence to real estate sales and promptly redirected my efforts elsewhere. My Aunt learned the same lesson in approximately the same amount of time. I would be remiss, however, if I did not play devil’s advocate and share with you that those few persistent and committed individuals who resisted the temptations of everyday life have, indeed, made and continue to make a substantial income from real estate.

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Your Home Equity and Real Estate Commissions

If you’re like most people, your home is the biggest single investment you’ve got. You expect it to increase in value over time, and you probably have more money tied up in it than in any other investment. This money is your equity, and a large chunk of it disappears when you sell your home using a real estate agent.

In this article, you’ll learn how real estate commissions affect your equity, you’ll see just how many real estate agents make money from a single commission, and in the section called Avoiding the Pressure, you’ll get an inside look at why many real estate agents are so persistent at getting their sellers to accept low-price offers.

A Quick Word to Buyers

Buyers and sellers alike benefit when there is no real estate agent involved. The term “fair market value” has a different ring to it when the middleperson is taken out of the equation, and prices trend to a truer value when they no longer reflect real estate commissions.

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