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Reply: 1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Mike .
Re: How does a buyer agent get paid ?
From: Sim'
Date: 28 Feb 2001
Time: 09:24:58
I think that the buyers agent (if they were any good) would take a look at your list of requirements and have enough knowledge of your target area to say to you fairly quickly "I don't think I'm going to be able to help you" and not charge you any money.
Of course, if they try and fail, who is responsible ? They could always take the "no purchase, no charge" approach, but they still have to earn a living.
Maybe a split... smaller up-front fee to retain their services, followed by a larger, fixed fee when the deal is succefully completed ?
Then again I work in the Information Technology services industry where we have several charging models. In my experience, when dealing with smaller companies on smaller projects, they really want fixed price, as they need to keep a close eye on costs. Larger companies and larger projects (especially where the outcome is not known) tend to be more favorable towards time-and-materials, where we simply charge on a dollar-per-hour basis (pushing lawyer rates these days !!).
If the buyers agents were to think of themselves as professionals performing a service (such as preparing a report detailing potential properties that meet a particular specification), then they would be quite justified in charging an hourly rate for their time, even if their report came out saying "no properties matched your specifications".
Of course the biggest problem here is that if their target audience is individual investors (particularly those too scared to do it themselves), they would probably not find too many people willing to take the risk of letting them charge by the hour (like a big company vs small company !!).
I'd be interested to hear from more of the buyers agents in the audience about their individual charging strategies... although I'm sure some of them would be reluctant to disclose this information in a public forum, so I guess we will never know without asking them directly
Sim'
Reply: 1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Mike .
Re: How does a buyer agent get paid ?
From: Sim'
Date: 28 Feb 2001
Time: 09:24:58
I think that the buyers agent (if they were any good) would take a look at your list of requirements and have enough knowledge of your target area to say to you fairly quickly "I don't think I'm going to be able to help you" and not charge you any money.
Of course, if they try and fail, who is responsible ? They could always take the "no purchase, no charge" approach, but they still have to earn a living.
Maybe a split... smaller up-front fee to retain their services, followed by a larger, fixed fee when the deal is succefully completed ?
Then again I work in the Information Technology services industry where we have several charging models. In my experience, when dealing with smaller companies on smaller projects, they really want fixed price, as they need to keep a close eye on costs. Larger companies and larger projects (especially where the outcome is not known) tend to be more favorable towards time-and-materials, where we simply charge on a dollar-per-hour basis (pushing lawyer rates these days !!).
If the buyers agents were to think of themselves as professionals performing a service (such as preparing a report detailing potential properties that meet a particular specification), then they would be quite justified in charging an hourly rate for their time, even if their report came out saying "no properties matched your specifications".
Of course the biggest problem here is that if their target audience is individual investors (particularly those too scared to do it themselves), they would probably not find too many people willing to take the risk of letting them charge by the hour (like a big company vs small company !!).
I'd be interested to hear from more of the buyers agents in the audience about their individual charging strategies... although I'm sure some of them would be reluctant to disclose this information in a public forum, so I guess we will never know without asking them directly
Sim'
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