How To Keep 100% of Your Real Estate Commission

The phrase “100% Commission Real Estate Brokerage” has been a popular trope for about 10 years. 100% Commission has taken on the meaning of a low-cost brokerage, typically where a licensee pays a small flat fee to the broker and keeps the rest of the commission. There are variations, but this the general idea.

It can be argued, from a purist standpoint, that 100% commission isn’t truly 100% commission because if a licensee has to give even $1 to the brokerage then it’s not a true 100%. While the term may not be a full 100% to the purist, it is very close to 100% and still far better than tradition brokerage splits.

However, there is a caveat to all this. A clever licensee can structure a transaction to where they keep the full 100% commission and not a penny less. I will show you two ways to make the broker fee a pass-through cost to the client so that they pay the broker fee rather than the licensee.

The first is on a listing agreement, when the licensee is a listing agent. Since there are variations of the transaction fee paid to the broker, we will use $500 as an arbitrary number for our example. Paragraph 3 of the listing agreement is where the licensee will put the listing fee percentage that is being charged. After the space for listing percentage there is the word “AND” with another blank space (see image below). In that space the licensee will put the amount of their broker fee. In the case of $500 the licensee can write something like “$500 broker processing fee” or “$500 brokerage administration fee.” This will cover the licensee’s transaction fee and allow the licensee to truly keep 100% commission.

100% commission real estate brokerage

The other way to truly keep 100% of the real estate commission is with the purchase agreement. Paragraph 7  is the allocation of fees. Section D, lines 8 and 9 are generic blank lines where the licensee can check a box for the seller or buyer and then write in a fee. In the case that the licensee is representing a buyer they can write check the buyer box on line 8 and then write $500 “processing” or “administration fee” to Balboa Real Estate.

This will ensure the buyer pays the licensee’s broker fee thereby allowing the broker to keep 100% of the commission.

If you want to learn more about a 100% commission real estate broker that services all of California then please contact us at info@balboateam.com

 

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The Best 100% Commission Real Estate Plan

With so many different 100% real estate brokerages in California,  agents often wonder which company has the best plan? It’s been our goal at BalboaReal Estate to create a flat-fee-per-transaction-inspired commission model that allows full-service real estate agents to pocket as much commission as possible. Our company started in 2011, and in that short time we have tested just about every low-cost commission option for real estate agent. The goal was that despite agents keeping more money, there would be no compromise on the service. On the contrary, the expectation is that our 100% commission plan is a reward only available to deserving agents that offer excellent service to their clients. In turn, we offer excellent broker support to Balboa Real Estate agents.

As mentioned before, 100% commission is not all the same. Basically every company has their own take on what that is. Many companies charge a monthly fee; we do not. In fact we don’t charge any sort of application fee, initiation fee, risk management fee, E&O fee, desk fee, franchise fee, or other fee. We just charge one simple flat fee per transaction. This begs the question: what is Balboa Real Estate’s flat fee per transaction? The answer is simple: 10 basis points of the sales price. Written another way, it is 1/10th of 1%. This means that if the sales price of a property is $500,000 then the broker fee is $500, that’s it, no other fees. Another example would be if the sales price is $800,000 then the broker fee is $800. You can multiply .001 times the sales price to find the broker fee. The licensee keeps the rest.

Real estate agents mught ask if this is the best 100% commission brokerage program. Our answer is unequivocally yes. An agent typically earns 2.5% of the sales price as the gross commission when it’s all said and done. This means that 2.4% goes to the agent. If the agent earns 3% then 2.9% goes to the agent. Some times agents will ask about transactions with the sales prices in the seven-figures. They notice that the higher the sales price the higher the broker fee. This is correct, however, it’s commensurates with how much an agent is earning too. If a licensee sells a home for $2,000,000 then the broker fee is $2000 while the licensee keeps $48,000 in a 2.5% commission scenario, or $58,000 in a 3% commission scenario. We sell a fair amount of homes in the seven-figure range and our overhead does increase with larger transactions. This is why we feel the “basis points” model is fair for the company and generous for the licensee. If you have any questions about this program please email admin@balboateam.com or CLICK HERE

 

 

 

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Does Outbound Calling Work in Real Estate?

Real estate agents often ask, “does outbound calling work,” or, “does cold calling work?” The answer is at the end of this post, but first it’s important you know why. Real estate agency is competitive and has a long ramp-up period. New agents are super motivated and are eager to be proactive in order to drum up business. This means holding open houses for other agents, sending direct mail, and even picking up that ice cold sales phone to dial for dollars.  While outbound calling is  better use of time than additional training for agents, it’s not a good use of time.

Several years ago and before, let’s just say 2007 and earlier, outbound calling was still a fairly effective way of generating business. However, a lot has changed since then. The internet has become a huge factor in consumer thinking. If a consumer is considering a service or even using a particular agent they will go online and do some investigatory tail sniffing to see if they check out as a professional. This has created a major shift in how professionals and consumers meet. We’ve moved from sales-system oriented marketing to relationship-based sales. Social media and internet presence meet consumer research. Connections are made and quality informative content is delivered to consumers which often results in a sale. This is unequivocally a higher quality way for consumers and professionals to choose to work together. Consequently, it makes outbound calling look more desperate and less credible. The relationship model has has been naturally selected over outbound calling as the winning marketing strategy.

It’s not enough to just say that outbound calling is less credible as the reason why it’s not as good. It’s also important to mention that because it is an outdated method facing extinction, the conversion rate is worse now too. This makes it harder for the remaining die-hards still out there in the boiler room trenches. Will these outbound callers drum up any business through cold calls? Some might, but at painfully thin conversion rates which beg a bigger question – is cold calling a reasonable and sustainable longer term business model? The answer is simply NO.

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Is there really such a thing as a 100% commission real estate brokerage?

Is the term 100% commission real estate brokerage accurate or a misnomer for low-cost brokerages? By now 100% commission real estate brokerages have been around long enough to represent a considerable slice of the the real estate brokerage world.  Many real estate agents know that there are brokerages that charge less than the traditional broker-agent split. Some of these 100% commission brokerages charge a flat fee per transaction with a monthly fee or without a monthly fee. Some brokerages charge a flat annual fee and the licensee keeps every penny of the commission they charge. Many charge licensees separately for  errors and omissions insurance. The point is that this isn’t exactly a 100% commission in the literal sense of the word.  If a brokerage charges a flat fee per transaction, even a very small flat fee, then the licensee isn’t getting 100% commission, right?  Maybe they are getting 99%, which still isn’t 100%. Therefore the term 100% commission encompasses a variety realty brokerages with a structure of very low-cost brokerage fees for the real estate licensee.

 

Now, it should be noted, that this is simply an analysis of what 100% commission real estate has grown to mean. The variety of 100% real estate companies are still vastly better that their traditional counterparts. Many traditional companies charge a substantial percentage of a licensee’s commission that is way more than any 100% commissional estate brokerage. As recent as 10 years ago from the date of this post, the industry was still overwhelming using the traditional model in which brokers took 20%-50% of a real estate agent’s commission. This was justified because agents got to use the office, copy machine, fax machine, and all sorts of “brick-and-mortar” tools. Technology has made most of this obsolete. Realty documents are rarely printed, most of the transaction is done online through email, using Docusign or scanned PDFs. In-person meetings are held at the home of the listing appointment or at properties being viewed by the buyer. The days of bringing a buyer back to your office and having them sign a stack of papers so that you can fax an offer to a listing agent are gone. Agents that seek 100% commission real estate companies realize this and typically have no interest in paying the overhead for tools that they simply don’t need.

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