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Comments:
From: remaxlr@swbell.net [mailto:remaxlr@swbell.net] RE/MAX Affiliates Realty 10311 W. Markham Street Little Rock, AR 72205 501-225-1950 remaxlr@swbell.net
National Association of Realtors FTCDOJworkshop@realtors.org RE: Project No. V050015 To Whom It May Concern: If I understand the question, "How competitive is the Real Estate business?", correctly, I would like to answer. I am a 28 year veteran in Real Estate, an Ex-owner of a RE/MAX franchise, a Broker, a Life Member of the Little Rock Board of Realtors' Million Dollar Club, a 6 year member of the RE/MAX 100% Club as well as a home builder. The average full time real estate agent makes approximately 10 real estate transactions a year and makes about $17,000.00 per year. Why? The reason for the averages are because of the sheer number of agents in the business. My workday consists of the following. In the morning at 9:00am until 12:00pm. I will make "cold calls" to about 50 to 75 people, and I simply ask if they are thinking of moving or know of anyone. I do my Real Estate work from 12:00pm on, by showing houses, going on listing appointments, etc. At 6:00pm until 7:00pm I follow up on my leads. I also mail out 2000 postcard a month. By doing these things I make a good living but one without benefits, retirement, health care or paid vacation, etc. In about 95% of the leads I get, I have competition from at least one other Real Estate Agent, and on listing appointments, I am often competing against 2 to 3 other Agents, and I lose quite a few from those who list with lower commission rates. This does not include the leads I never get in the door. In summary, I spend about 70% of my time just trying to find business. While my competitor is reducing their fee, they have the same access to the MLS as I do. We have unbundling of services with some agents offering to put a seller's house in the MLS for $500.00. Folks, we are in the most competitive business in America. Understand that the Broker owns the listing and cooperates with other Brokers through the MLS. We really should have greater control of who uses the MLS system. It was our monies that built the Multi List System and our cooperation, again we should not be compelled to let just in anyone. The new ILD (Internet Listing Display) policy gives all Brokers / Buyer's Agents access to all listings. This only makes the business even more competitive. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Mack Blann Executive Broker RE/MAX Affiliates Realty
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