Please Help! What are duties and pay of assistants, associates and employees. $$$

[MrJodyHudson]

Many of the Realtors in our area have assistants, associates, employees and partners.

I have had, over the years, lots of all of these. I would like to hear some ideas of how these folks are paid, what they do and how licensed or unlicensed helpers are used and paid. I would also like to hear how a person could enter the real estate business by working with a top producer and then working up the ladder of success, responsibility, effectiveness and pay as they get a license and stay with the same team so that there is a sequence of success and pay.

IDEAS PLEASE! Experience please! Resources, templates and solutions please!

[Boston Condo Guy]

I would simply take a top producer out to lunch and ask all of these questions. Typically, there's at least a small handful of superstar agents in every office. Good luck!

[MrJodyHudson]

I have some pretty good folks here, Realtors that I have known for decades, but they are totally spooky-secretive about the way they pay and how much. It is like asking how they get buyers and sellers; they just won't tell or give a slippery and unuseable answer.

I was hoping because we are not competitors here, that someone would fess up!

[CafeMonkey]

Yeah, I'm curious to hear this as well!

[ashley6943]

Unlicensed assistants can legally perform only limited tasks:

typing
filing
answering phones
submit listing and changes to MLS
follow up on a transaction after contract has been signed
place signs on property
etc

Things an unlicensed assitant can't do are:
host open houses,kiosks, home show booths, or fairs
show property
interpret information on listings, titiles, lease agreement, or other real estate document with anyone outside the employing licensee's firm
negotiate or agree to any commission, commission split, manangement fee, or referral fee on behalf of a licensee
perform any other activity for which a real estate license under the act is required

Assistants can be paid in a verity of ways, just as any other profession,they could be paid salary or hourly. The average pay for my area is $10-$12 per hour.

Make sure you check with your state board to find out all the laws regarding personal assisstants!! You don't want to lose your license because of an innocent mistake. Plus it can be very costly in addition to losing your license.

Good luck

[MrJodyHudson]

That is VERY useful Ashley! I was wondering if folks were paying some HUGE sum of money or that PLUS a percentage or something....

[ashley6943]

Here is a good article also

http://www.frogpond.com/articles.cfm...leid=dzeller08


Determining The Pay Structure For Buyers’ Assistants

by
Dirk Zeller


I was recently speaking to a large group of brokers and salespeople and found myself in a firestorm at the first break.

It all started with an innocent question. An agent asked me, “What should we pay a buyer’s assistant?” I proceeded to answer the question and then added that I think most agents have a tendency to pay their buyer’s assistants too much because they don't know the profit numbers in their business.

At the break I had two buyer’s assistants of a prominent agent in the community find me and try to “set me straight.” These buyer’s assistants believed that they brought in so much business to their selling agent that they had tremendous value. They felt that they were bringing in business that the agent would have never had. These buyer’s assistants were receiving 60% and 70% respectively of the gross commission. This pay structure is more of the norm than the exception. The truth is their agent was losing money on every transaction they did. He might be able to walk on stage and receive a bigger plaque at the award presentations. But when tax time came around he was poorer for the fact they were on his team.

The interesting thing was they never listened to the logical response I gave them. They were more focused on themselves rather than on the truth or their bosses’ well-being.

My position on buyer’s assistants is if the selling agent can’t make a reasonable profit, why bother? You will need to determine what a reasonable profit is to you. For me it was a minimum of $1,500.00 profit per transaction.

Let me take you through the process I used to determine profit.

First, you need to know what it will cost you to do a transaction. Take your total expenses for the calendar year. Then divide your total amount for expenses by the number of transactions you did. It should include everything such as car, phone, staff, marketing, and advertising expenses. To be accurate don’t neglect any of your expenses. Let’s say it costs you $50,000.00 in expenses for last year and you did 30 transactions, $50,000.00, 30 = $1,666.00 per transaction.

Second, you need to understand your value per hour. Take the total commission dollars earned and divide them by the hours you worked. For example, you worked ten hours a day, five days per week for fifty weeks. 10 hrs per day x 5 days per week x 50 weeks = 2,500 total hours. Total commission earned was $120,000.00, 2,500 hours = $48.00 per hour.

Third, you need to factor in how many hours you have to invest on average to close a transaction. The actual time you need to invest from the time the offer is presented and accepted until the transaction is closed. Multiply the number of hours you invest in a transaction by your hourly rate and you will arrive at the cost of your time to close a deal. Example, five hours invested at $48.00 per hours, 5 x $48.00 = $240.00.

Fourth, add your cost per transaction to your personal hourly labor cost. That will truly tell you what it costs you to do a deal for a buyer’s assistant. For our example it was $1,666.00 per transaction + $240.00 time cost per transaction = $1,906.00. That is what it costs you to do a transaction in real estate. What a staggering number!

This is what those buyer’s assistants didn't want to look at. They were only looking at what the gross revenue was that they brought to the table. It isn't realistic to look at gross revenue since it doesn't look at the total expenses and costs to close the transaction. Gross revenue is great for plaques, but unfortunately plaques don't pay the mortgage.

Here is the truth; we see many buyer’s assistants getting paid 50-60% of what they bring in. If you really analyze the numbers, the average commission check would need to be in excess of $7,000.00 to make a reasonable profit, in our model, to come close to making sense for the lead agent. This is because the agent's average commission check was $4,000.00. He sold $4,000,000.00 worth of real estate to earn $120,000.00. If that agent had a buyer’s assistant at a 50% split he would only generate $94.00 of net profit. Hardly worth taking the risk of entering into a real estate sales transaction.

Agents need to understand their business and the specific costs to run them. As business people we need to turn a profit. We also need to reduce our egos and look at the profit. Being on the stage receiving production awards at the end of the year has no value unless we were profitable in getting there.

Check your pay and profit structure for your buyer’s assistants. Make sure they are the profit center that you think they are. You may be surprised by the results. Make sure that you are the one netting the most dollars since you are the one taking the risk in your business.

Copyright (Reprint Terms)
Copyright© 2002, Dirk Zeller. All right reserved. For information contact Frog Pond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@frogpond.com.