UlTImATE SUccESS GUIdEMr. Johnson arrived at my office to bring me some paperwork to begin
processing his loan. He handed me a folder of all the documents I had
requested in order to put his file in underwriting. Obviously a little frus-
trated, as he sat in the chair across from me, he began talking about the
process of finding his new home. Mr. Johnson just like so many other
buyers I’ve worked with uttered this exact comment “I found my own
home by searching on the Internet and my Realtor didn’t do anything
other than write up the contract!” He went on to say “And just think, my
Realtor is going to make a full commission and I did most of the work!!”
To say the least, Mr. Johnson was a little perturbed. The more he talked
through his subtle frustrations about how the Realtor was going to make
a full commission, he ended up talking himself into asking the Realtor for
a portion of their commission due to him finding his own home.
Mr. Johnson was buying a $310,000 property in which the Realtor was
due to make $9,300. Although I have heard Mr. Johnson’s story a few
hundred times over the years from different buyers, his talking out loud
to make sense of his situation allowed me to observe his thought process
and how it made him feel. I was blown away! I thought to myself, “I
have heard too many people complain about the same issue.” I went on
to think, “What is going on? What are Realtors doing or not doing that
has so many people feeling like Mr. Johnson?” Well, that afternoon I
shared this story with a friend (a Real Estate Broker) as I tried to quan-
tify how many people that my Loan Officers and I have worked with
over the years that have made this same statement over and over again.
I thought to myself, “This is a new problem that needs a solution! But
why is this happening?”
Being a Realtor and Broker for several years, I asked a close friend a
plethora of questions like: How many clients have you worked with that
have found their own home? How many times have you worked with
buyers and they already had a list of properties they wanted to see? How
many times have you worked with a buyer and you have to hold their
hand through the entire process? How many times are you asked for a
portion of your commission? How has the Internet helped your busi-
ness? How has the Internet hurt your business? Are buyers changing,
and if so how? Are sellers changing, and if so how? How many times do
you list a house for sale and you charged less than the traditional 6%?
How many times have sellers asked you to lower your fee? How often
do sellers sell their house and in-turn buy a home using you for both