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Choose your own adventure: Make more, or less.
Here’s a short story about two real estate agents, and the impact of 1 simple decision …
The first agent, Ray Hooker-Belle is an established agent who’s been working for a franchise brand for the past 5 years. He works hard day-in-day-out, and has a proven track-record of $500,000 GCI per year.
During the recent boom, he averaged 25 sales per year, with an average price of $1M. With a reputation for fantastic service, much of his success was due to him – people wanted to work with him, and most of his sales were past clients and referrals.
The story sounds good so far, right? But there’s a plot twist…
To reward Ray for his hard work, the franchise took $50,000 (10%) from his earnings for the use of their brand, and to thank him for his hard work and using their ‘office’ resources, his principal took 45% of what was left.
Leaving Ray with $247,500 😭.
It doesn’t sound so great now… but the story gets worse.
The dark forces of the housing market are about to make Ray’s life hell. With relentless RBA rate rises, ever-increasing inflation, and sales declining, poor Ray is getting worried. He’s forecasting a drop of 20% in sales and a drop of 10% in average sale price.
And what does that mean for him?
- His GCI will fall to $360,000.
- His brand will take $36,000.
- His office will take $145,800.
And he’ll be left with $178,200… Looks like he’ll be working harder than ever this year.
Let’s tell the same story, but with Sammy Brand.
Sammy is also an established agent, who has built her own brand. Just like Ray, she is a top performing agent, sells the same amount of houses (25 per year) at the same average sale price ($1M). She too is a $500,000 GCI agent.
She’s a great prospector, has a strong reputation and most of her success is due to her dedication and fantastic service. She realised that most of her sales were driven by herself, so 12 months ago she decided to work for herself, in partnership with UrbanX.
The result?
Being a $500,000 GCI agent, she was able to keep 80% of her earnings. The other 20% was invested into supporting the back-end administration of her business (utilising UrbanX’s proprietary systems and team of 75 expert support staff).
With all of the admin, marketing, trust accounting and other horrible things that no-one likes to do taken care of, Sammy was able to spend more time listing and selling, and improved her sales by 40%.
What does that mean for Sammy?
- She made $700,000 GCI.
- She kept $560,000.
- She didn’t have to work any harder than she had previously to do it.
So, is she worried about the market falling? Of course she is, she’s human after all. But, and it’s a big BUT, she knows that even if the market falls, she’ll be free to focus on listing and selling, and be making a lot more than poor ol’ Ray.
So, what’s the moral of the story?
The market might be sh*tting itself, but your bank balance doesn’t have to.
While there’s nothing you can do to change the housing market, the great news is that there is something you can do to protect and increase your income today.
→To see what your income could look like, use our commission calculator now.
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