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Here’s your list:
Stalked and begged for clients – I’m sorry you felt like you had to do this, but this is a personal business decision on how you find your clients. I have asked friends and family to let people know I’m in the business and I would be appreciative if I had the opportunity to just talk to them about their situation. I ask to compete for the business. In short, ..I try to solicit an interview. Stalking is never recommended as that scares people away and actually may invite mace or pepper spray in someone’s face.

Wasted time marketing yourself – Again, a personal business decision on how you want or if you want to market yourself. Many agents do this, …I have agents marketing in my neigborhood and it’s mostly, look at me, look at me! We’re offering a service, …we should be marketing the service…in effect..the product… we provide..rather than ourselves.

Drove around previewing/showing homes – Previewing homes has its place and time. I don’t do it for every client…rather I do it based on the situation my client is in. However, it can be an incredible utility in building your personal knowledge of an area. I recently previewed 13 condos in about 7 different buildings in Queen Anne/Belltown for a client. Strangely enough, I’ve talked to another person who’s interested in the same area, ..and now I can talk to him with first hand knowledge of what’s there and what they’re like. Knowledge that cannot be gleamed off of a listing or photos.

Set your own work schedule – for some people, this simply does not work. Some of my close friends cannot operate without a routine or schedule. But if you can figure it out, …this is one of the best attributes of the job.

Didn’t have health care – agree with you here…this part bites. However, you can purchase individual insurance poliices whose costs aren’t that crazy. I’m about to start a policy for my family of 5 and it’ll run me about $550 a month for 80% coverage. The 80% coverage thing is probalby the best you can get for individual…which isn’t as cool as the 100% coverage i got while in corporate America. This is an unavoidable fact of being self-employed in any industry.

Paid for all work related expenses: Side-effect of being in business for yourself. You run your own business and therefore you provide your own tools. As an analogy, ..Glenn Kelman is running his own business and therefore must pay for his own tools…which in this case are employees and the stuff his employees need. In the individual agent’s case…the only needs are your own. However, there are ways around this. Most offices have computers for agents to use and phones. License fees etc. bites for sure, but it’s what enables me to do my work. Kinda like driving a car, or in the corporate sense…you need the car to get to work.

Had to compete with fellow agents – …if i’m not mistaken, ..you still are regardless of where you go. You may not be competing with people in your office, but you’re still competing.

Was part of an old, stale way of buying real estate – Even though I agree with this statement for the most part, it is reality for many people. I think newspaper ads are dead…yet one of the most common questions I get from sellers is ..what papers will I have an ad in? New ways to do things will continually come up in our lifetime, …Redfin’s way is by no means the be all, end all. The challenge is deciding how to balance it, … do I screw all the folks who aren’t progressive enough and just focus business on a specific segment of buyer or do I try to provide services to a more broad group. It’s a personal choice.

Shamefully took ridiculously high amounts of money in commission from sellers and buyers – …we can argue about this, but first…technically, you don’t take money from buyers, …the seller is the one paying the agents. I know the arguments, ..the buyer is the only one bringing money to the closing table yada yada yada. However, if you follow the paper trail…money goes from lender to buyer to seller. Then it goes from seller to all the people they owe money to…ie their lender, agents, government, etc. People who make the claim it’s the buyer paying all the commission will then have to say that it’s the buyer paying the excise taxes, the fees, ..basically everything…but they don’t , …they only point out the commissions. Ridiculously high is relative to the service the agent provided to the client. If they did nothing but write up the deal then I agree with you, …the commission is ridiculously high. What if the service you provided saved that client hundreds of thousands of dollars? What if the service you provided prevented a client from buying into a mess? It’s kinda all relative. also, as a listing agent, you negotiate the commission. If you think the service you provide isn’t worth 3%, or 2% or whatever, you should be able to set it at what you think is right. Your broker may not like you, but tough..you can always go somewhere else.

Stuffy office environment – different for everyone wouldn’t you say? I love my office environment. It’s about 30 feet from my kitchen and 20 feet from the tv. My office office is a space I frequent maybe once a week if I’m feeling bored. Not all commission based agents work in a stuffy office environment.

Please remember, ..I’m not bashing your choice of work. I’m always happy for people who’ve found what works for them. However, I do take exception when people take what they don’t like or what doesn’t work for them and …in a sense..bashes the people who are in that situation. Some of your points are valid for commission based agents . Most however are personal choices of how you want to run your business, what you may want to spend money on, or how you perceive your business.

When I left my corporate america job, I left for reasons that were only applicable to me and I’m doing real estate in a way that I am happy with and under my rules (mostly). I do miss many aspects of the corporate job…mainly the people i worked with and saw every day. However now, it’s the clients I get to see and on more than one occasion i’ve become very close friends with a client…so in the greater picture, ..i still get the camaraderie, ..just in a different way. The biggest thing I miss…people to eat lunch with on a daily basis.

Anyway, I’m here to speak up for those that actually feel the commission based model works for them. So I guess to answer your question..no…sorry…didn’t convert me.

so again, congrats on finding a good fit for you, have a wonderful christmas holiday and a happy new year.

Redfin is a labor of love.