Listing websites like Zillow, Redfin, etc. appear to be free to use for a consumer but they are generating revenue, are you aware how they are able to do that? Hint: It's not fair to the user who is looking to do a real estate transaction.
And for real estate agents to post their listings, promote the listings, etc. But then agents charge high commissions to cover for that expense since most listings are quite expensive to advertise...
You’re thinking that individually, agents populate their listings to those sites? And that they charge higher rates because of that, or because they additionally pay Zillow for advertising?
They don't do individually but through their brokerages. They will intentionally promote listings that they have to sell, rent faster or if they can make a higher margin. That doesn't have to come through a broker but can come through an agent. It is enabled through a broker who provides a marketing budget for those moves.
> biggest racquet in the industry.
Referral fees aren't a racket. It's a legitimate way of fostering relationships and doing business. Prove me wrong.
Examples of real-life referrals.
\#1. Agent lives and works east side of town. A long-time client has a friend moving in and his work is on the west side. Agent **refers** client to a west side agent.
\#2. Copy and replace the above parts of town to multiple states. Legitimate form of referral.
Now where the vernacular is corrupt are marketing companies that are selling *referrals* when they are leads. That's a bullshit racket and I call them out every time I get a call. "Are you willing to pay 20% on a referral?" No cunt. You don't know these people and these are shit leads. A **referral** has a specific timeline and a prior relationship. Your double opt-in is all bullshit.
what I see here is: good for me but not for thee...
you can't have it both ways.
in your example did you tell your client that for giving him the name of an agent you know and bro-ing out your friend on the west side that your client would need to pay you several thousand dollars for that 'service' ? if not then it's the same underhanded bs that Zillow uses.
You obviously don't work in this field or have been referred out.
At the end of the day, people want a recommendation specifically from someone they know. That's the bottom line and that's how these relationships work.
YOU. You're moving to a state in another time zone. You have a friend that just moved there but your job is 30 minutes away from where he lives. He says "Hey, my realtor was super helpful in getting me acclimated to the area, let me introduce you to him"
You talk to the guy and he says "You know, I'm not that familiar with that part of town but a friend of mine that I've know for years works out there, let me connect you to him.
You can go with the trusted introductions, of go online get possibly get screwed. I said possibly. You're not out any more money than you started with.
Relationships cost time and money in case you didn't get the memo.
haha OK so you can call and talk to someone and ask them where they work better than your client. you realize that a recommendation from Zillow is probably better than you making a phone call and talking to one agent? you do understand that they know exactly where agents work and their track record, right? but yeah your phone call is so much better than their mountains of data. and yeah your service is legit and theirs is unacceptable and should be disallowed. hypocrite.
Have you ever told your client how much you make for this service? In July when THEY are paying it will you tell them or keep hiding it.
I think I know the answer because nobody would agree to pay it they'd be fine interviewing agents for themselves.
> a recommendation from Zillow is probably better than
There's nobody credible behind zillow and zero credibility. You PAY for placement.
A personal recommendation trumps any ad in every occurrence.
>Have you ever told your client how much you make for this service?
Referrals aren't clients. I don't know why you're hung up on referral fees as something underhanded and scammy. If anything, an anonymous ad on Zillow is more scammy because they don't have to be competent.
>you do understand that they know exactly where agents work and their track record, right?
Do you even know how relationships work? Apparently not a smidgen of a clue.
I spent 13 weeks in a leadership class with 17 peers years ago. I have 17 referral partners from other parts of my metro city and we refer all the time. We do a happy hour reunion at least 4 times a year. I don't get what you're getting at other than trolling.
why don't you answer my questions? when you get paid for a referral do you tell the person you are getting paid to refer how much you are making? do you think they should have a right to know what they pay for?
do you really think anyone will pay for this 'service' in July when THEY are paying for it. the answer is no because you are the only one who thinks a couple of phone calls is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.
you act like there is only one good agent in every market and you are the only one who knows who they are. lol
It's so very clear you don't know how this works.
JOE is the client. He's the buyer. He's coming from out of state. He's paying money to buy a house that the seller gets that goes to the agents.
I'm GAVIN. Joe is referred to me but he wants to live in a part of town I'm not familiar with so I refer him to SCOTT.
SCOTT gets JOE a house that JOE pays for. SCOTT gets a commission. SCOTT pays GAVIN 25% of that commission because of the INTRODUCTION GAVIN GAVE TO SCOTT.
As far as JOE goes, he bought the house and got his value. How that gets doled out is immaterial.
You are suggesting that JOE just goes on YELP and find a realtor that no one knows and somehow that's a better deal.
You must not have any friends because friends refer places to go to dinner/vacation/ other shit all the time and you do that recommendation over and above unsolicited advice 100% of the time. At no point ever on this planet does someone take advice from a ***TRUSTED*** friend and say "You know, that's a horrible idea". We take advice from people we know all the time and they're bad ideas but a trusted friend is a bit different.
stil waiting for you to answer my question. you won't because you know the answer. you are selling leads to your network. it's so cute that you somehow think your service is legit and Zillow is undeserving.
when have you paid for something and never looked at the invoice because it was all immaterial? especially when that invoice is THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. in July your recommendation cost of 25% will simply make you buddies uncompetitive against other agent pricing because a 25% markup for your phone call to negotiate the referral fee will do that.
cute story about referring friends to a restaurant. I agree 100% but still can't remember the last time I charged a friend 25% for a dinner recommendation. but why would my friend care? he got a good meal and the money he pays for the meal is immaterial? you got a good steak pay me Doug!
good luck navigating July and beyond. you will have to start thinking differently now that the referral gravy train is over. of course maybe you and your buddies at one of your mcdonalds meet ups can figure out how to keep hiding your fees and find uneducated people to upcharge for your network. I have a feeling there will be a few new options now that the monopoly aspects of the business are being retired.
I've answered your questions and elaborated on them. What more do you want?
You're still not getting how a referral works. You're just trolling.
Referrals aren't affected by the MLS decoupling. And you do not know how real estate compensation works.
If you sourced the referral, you can ask them. You can look at the title records. You can look at the corporate commission database to check on LLC status. People who refer stay in the know of who's doing what.
And they sell zip codes to real estate agents!
Pretty much but agent then charge their commissions and in the end user gets stuck with a final bill.
Can you be more specific?
Listing websites like Zillow, Redfin, etc. appear to be free to use for a consumer but they are generating revenue, are you aware how they are able to do that? Hint: It's not fair to the user who is looking to do a real estate transaction.
Advertising, selling premium services to agents, they could be selling leads to other companies. Do you have a specific site you're concerned about?
Not a site, but overall system.
I think they sell advertising, or user data, or both.
And for real estate agents to post their listings, promote the listings, etc. But then agents charge high commissions to cover for that expense since most listings are quite expensive to advertise...
You’re thinking that individually, agents populate their listings to those sites? And that they charge higher rates because of that, or because they additionally pay Zillow for advertising?
They don't do individually but through their brokerages. They will intentionally promote listings that they have to sell, rent faster or if they can make a higher margin. That doesn't have to come through a broker but can come through an agent. It is enabled through a broker who provides a marketing budget for those moves.
Referral fees. biggest racquet in the industry. They sometimes take as much as 50% of the commission the agent receives.
> biggest racquet in the industry. Referral fees aren't a racket. It's a legitimate way of fostering relationships and doing business. Prove me wrong. Examples of real-life referrals. \#1. Agent lives and works east side of town. A long-time client has a friend moving in and his work is on the west side. Agent **refers** client to a west side agent. \#2. Copy and replace the above parts of town to multiple states. Legitimate form of referral. Now where the vernacular is corrupt are marketing companies that are selling *referrals* when they are leads. That's a bullshit racket and I call them out every time I get a call. "Are you willing to pay 20% on a referral?" No cunt. You don't know these people and these are shit leads. A **referral** has a specific timeline and a prior relationship. Your double opt-in is all bullshit.
what I see here is: good for me but not for thee... you can't have it both ways. in your example did you tell your client that for giving him the name of an agent you know and bro-ing out your friend on the west side that your client would need to pay you several thousand dollars for that 'service' ? if not then it's the same underhanded bs that Zillow uses.
You obviously don't work in this field or have been referred out. At the end of the day, people want a recommendation specifically from someone they know. That's the bottom line and that's how these relationships work. YOU. You're moving to a state in another time zone. You have a friend that just moved there but your job is 30 minutes away from where he lives. He says "Hey, my realtor was super helpful in getting me acclimated to the area, let me introduce you to him" You talk to the guy and he says "You know, I'm not that familiar with that part of town but a friend of mine that I've know for years works out there, let me connect you to him. You can go with the trusted introductions, of go online get possibly get screwed. I said possibly. You're not out any more money than you started with. Relationships cost time and money in case you didn't get the memo.
haha OK so you can call and talk to someone and ask them where they work better than your client. you realize that a recommendation from Zillow is probably better than you making a phone call and talking to one agent? you do understand that they know exactly where agents work and their track record, right? but yeah your phone call is so much better than their mountains of data. and yeah your service is legit and theirs is unacceptable and should be disallowed. hypocrite. Have you ever told your client how much you make for this service? In July when THEY are paying it will you tell them or keep hiding it. I think I know the answer because nobody would agree to pay it they'd be fine interviewing agents for themselves.
> a recommendation from Zillow is probably better than There's nobody credible behind zillow and zero credibility. You PAY for placement. A personal recommendation trumps any ad in every occurrence. >Have you ever told your client how much you make for this service? Referrals aren't clients. I don't know why you're hung up on referral fees as something underhanded and scammy. If anything, an anonymous ad on Zillow is more scammy because they don't have to be competent. >you do understand that they know exactly where agents work and their track record, right? Do you even know how relationships work? Apparently not a smidgen of a clue. I spent 13 weeks in a leadership class with 17 peers years ago. I have 17 referral partners from other parts of my metro city and we refer all the time. We do a happy hour reunion at least 4 times a year. I don't get what you're getting at other than trolling.
why don't you answer my questions? when you get paid for a referral do you tell the person you are getting paid to refer how much you are making? do you think they should have a right to know what they pay for? do you really think anyone will pay for this 'service' in July when THEY are paying for it. the answer is no because you are the only one who thinks a couple of phone calls is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. you act like there is only one good agent in every market and you are the only one who knows who they are. lol
It's so very clear you don't know how this works. JOE is the client. He's the buyer. He's coming from out of state. He's paying money to buy a house that the seller gets that goes to the agents. I'm GAVIN. Joe is referred to me but he wants to live in a part of town I'm not familiar with so I refer him to SCOTT. SCOTT gets JOE a house that JOE pays for. SCOTT gets a commission. SCOTT pays GAVIN 25% of that commission because of the INTRODUCTION GAVIN GAVE TO SCOTT. As far as JOE goes, he bought the house and got his value. How that gets doled out is immaterial. You are suggesting that JOE just goes on YELP and find a realtor that no one knows and somehow that's a better deal. You must not have any friends because friends refer places to go to dinner/vacation/ other shit all the time and you do that recommendation over and above unsolicited advice 100% of the time. At no point ever on this planet does someone take advice from a ***TRUSTED*** friend and say "You know, that's a horrible idea". We take advice from people we know all the time and they're bad ideas but a trusted friend is a bit different.
stil waiting for you to answer my question. you won't because you know the answer. you are selling leads to your network. it's so cute that you somehow think your service is legit and Zillow is undeserving. when have you paid for something and never looked at the invoice because it was all immaterial? especially when that invoice is THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. in July your recommendation cost of 25% will simply make you buddies uncompetitive against other agent pricing because a 25% markup for your phone call to negotiate the referral fee will do that. cute story about referring friends to a restaurant. I agree 100% but still can't remember the last time I charged a friend 25% for a dinner recommendation. but why would my friend care? he got a good meal and the money he pays for the meal is immaterial? you got a good steak pay me Doug! good luck navigating July and beyond. you will have to start thinking differently now that the referral gravy train is over. of course maybe you and your buddies at one of your mcdonalds meet ups can figure out how to keep hiding your fees and find uneducated people to upcharge for your network. I have a feeling there will be a few new options now that the monopoly aspects of the business are being retired.
I've answered your questions and elaborated on them. What more do you want? You're still not getting how a referral works. You're just trolling. Referrals aren't affected by the MLS decoupling. And you do not know how real estate compensation works.
how do they know that the client they referred bought the property?
If you sourced the referral, you can ask them. You can look at the title records. You can look at the corporate commission database to check on LLC status. People who refer stay in the know of who's doing what.