More fake news, compliments of the New York Times. Fine, billable hours. What Nina said. They'll be dying to go back to commission.

I think sellers would get the surprise of their lives if we charged by the hour... or as attorneys do by the quarter hour. Buyers, too. Add that to the out-of-pocket costs to market their homes I think they'd be happy to go back to commissions.

Some will

Some wont

So what

Next

that's not happening.... and my hourly wage would be $2,000/hour.... minimum.... double time on holidays.... and time and a half for evening hours.....  that's a decent starting wage.

Imagine the documentation!!

Richie,

New York Times needed something to write about, and so on they go and go.  The news media makes money through advertisers who expect this type of stufff to get more people to read half assed headlines and have people react to it...and more cornflakes or whatever gets sold.  This is why we read with a huge bucket of salt!

There are many different business models.  Definitely this idea/concept applies to people and specific transactions too.  You can likely toss timing along with other factors into this mixed salad of a question. 

I have been offering an hourly fee for services for the last 4 years. It fits a need for some of my clients. The commission compensation system is a legacy. Consumers want choices. The legacy commission compensation system is high risk/high reward for the agent/broker. And low risk/high cost for the consumer. The biggest consumer complaint in the real estate industry is that commissions are too high. Reducing commission without changing the risk is idiotic.  Paying by the hour for professional real estate services changes the risk/reward calculus. Offering a choice of payment options to consumers should be commonplace. But few agents/brokers/brokerages do so.

Note - the NY Times article hourly rate was $120 per hour.

I think if most of us really broke it down, considering all the hours of marketing and research, we would be amazed at how little we make an hour Richie Alan Naggar .

It could work, Many attorneys charge by the hour. The challenge would be to inform people just how much goes into a listing and/or helping a Buyer.

I do not charge by the hour as a Notary Public but I can tell you that ruffly each remote closing I do pays me $50.00 an hour and I'm okay with that as a part time, semi-retirement occupation.

I read that article, it was very well written and very thought provoking.  But no, that is not going to work for everyone 

Never heard of this before but I'm saying its total nonsense. There aren't that many FSBO's in my area at all so the phrase 'all these people' just isn't so.

Gosh, what is a 'killer commission'?

Everyone is in interested in what we make. I've had people, not clients, ask me straight out how much I make. I don't participate in discussions about my income, just how I wouldn't ask anyone else what they make at their job. It's rude. 

I had missed this article but just went to read it. The article is mostly about buyer agents, not listing agents, getting an hourly rate. Buyers don't typically pay any commission directly now, but if they were to start to do so, they (the buyes) might like the option of an hourly rate. But they'd have to pay for any agent activity that had to do with their purchase of a home. And I do think a lot would be surprised how much time goes into helping a buyer; even one who might only look at three houses. There's the up front work of finding out what they need, helping them as needed with pre-approval process/preparation, investigating market for the right houses, doing research on houses before showings to make sure they're not wasting time, setting up the showings and all changes/etc, going to the showings, getting there early to get house open/lit, doing all follow-up, doing market analysis re: price, getting offers prepared, submitting/discussing/negotiating offers, working with attoneys if needed in state, providing direction on getting inspections set up, going to inspection, doing follow-up work from inspection, submitting and negotiating re: repair lists, etc etc etc. It could add up.

Maybe someday the media will get back to reporting news instead of opinions!

If it happened there would be someone saying the hourly rate is too high!

In my opinion, the commission structure is "win win" if communicated and understood correctly. 

The hourly wage is just not the "correct" inducement, in my opinion, for maximum benefit to the parties of the transaction.  We get rewarded when our clients get rewarded and when our clients find agreement. 

Everybody has a different opinion on the value of their time. Some would benefit from hourly rates and some would pay through the nose. 

Don't worry there will be more changes coming to fix it. Our area there are brokers willing take $100 post on MLS per listing. 

Stop reading the paper. There's a reason one can refer to the media as Merchants of Chaos. Talk about no responsibility for the effects one creates - the media is the worst. Lets create an effect and draw as many eyes as possible regardless of the enturbulation spread and any negative effects of how enturbulated people are going to treat their family and friends and associates for the rest of the day/week/month etc. In other words lets just try to keep folks upset about one thing after the other for their entire life. Stop reading the paper.

Most great Realtors have all the experience, schooling and knowledge in real Estate as a lawyer does in law. Charging per 1/4 would be  a must. $400 an hour minimum. Double time and a half for nights, weekends and holidays when most of us are called to duty. Double time after 40 hours i would hit by Wednesday night. 4 days of OT would be nice. EVERY great agents knows the hardest work is done behind the scenes. Billing $100 per phone call at a 1/4 minimum is how the lawyers do it. The dozen calls to and from the inspector, loan officer and appraiser. The calls to show Uncle Joe the home, the calls to measure for curtains. The calls becuase they are nervous. I do not see it happening soon, i have had people ask for a list of paying hourly but it is rare. Most people know the value of a great agent and that the services we provide are more than covered in a quick sale at the highest price. I can see the discount agents now charging bare minimum and all those new listings on the expired list for me to turn into my clients

Real Estate is certainly changing. Sure, hourly could work but, the consumer would complain about that as well. Think about getting paid by the hour for all the phone calls you receive, the buyer's appointments you go on, the things you currently do yet never see a dime for, and the marketing and paperwork you do. In some ways it could be better. I don't see it changing though. The consumer gets so much for nothing and they just don't know it.

Wages are paid weekly and commission when the deal is done. I wish they would ask sellers if they would like to be billed weekly or at closing and see how sellers react

It's the New York Times ~ it's hard to believe anything you read in that these days.....

I am standing with Nina Hollander ... stated just how I feel about this subject!

Might as well just have sellers pay us up front. Let's see, your home is worth $500,000.00, I'll list it until is sells for $25,000.00. Listings would never expire because no seller wants to pay a new agent another $25,000.00. But sellers could just advertise they have an offer to sell their house for 25000.00, and do any other agents want to beat that? Bids would go down and down, until some agent would get the listing and be working for close to nothing.

I can always switch to something else if California are going to start telling me how to get paid.

Sellers would be shocked at the price if we presented some of our actual hours spent. 

And, if their house doesn't sell because they refused to list at a reasonable price or reduce the price... then what? Where does the money come from to pay the agent for their billable hours?

I think they would all be in for a surprise.  What are they thinking.

OK, what is per hour?

$50? $100? or we will charge $150?

No way!

Real estate in New York is TOTALLY different than it is in most of the rest of the country. We don't use Lawyers in CO. We get a limited license to practice law in the area of real estate here and we do everything concerning the showings, the contracts, etc.

FSBO's, killer commissions, hourly wages, oh my! LOL

Yeah, and the Washington Post called the leader of ISIS a "religious scholar".  I don't trust these #fakenews pieces of filth.  They're not even worth using to line bird cages or to start a fire.

Redfin is already at an hourly wage for paying their agents and still charges a commission.  My hourly wage is twice that of the agent in the article... and that was BEFORE I was a Broker.  Now it's going to be MUCH higher.  Probably in the $500/hr neighborhood.  Why?  Because I'm worth it!

Like Candice A. Donofrio said, if we went to that model, we'd all be charging by the quarter hour and even a 5 minute up-call from a buyer or a broker call would be billed as 25 minutes.  It would cost the sellers MORE that way.  Besides, you know how many "ethical Realtors" would be overbilling and adding junk charges.

Buyers and sellers should pay their agent DIRECTLY!

Only then can an accountability be applied by the consumer.

Hourly wages DO NOT promote efficiency.

Of course it matters not what agents think. How are the brokers to be paid?

And here is how that works. Brokers become the 'staffing center.' They way that works is these temporary employment folks assess a agent compensation of $50 an hour. Meanwhile they apply a bench rate of $250 an hour to the client plus any mandated benefits required of ALL employers.

The end result will be a larger percentage of agent will make sufficient income toi pay their mortgage. There will be fewer that 1.2 million licensed agents. 

What do you think best for the public, direct pay or temporary employment agency? The latter very often become an F1-B clearing house.

The current model needs disrupted because of the prevailing practices of brokers, NAR, local associations and the participating franchises. If we don't clean up our house, someone will do it for us. When others make  our decisions for us, it rarely ends well. 

The next think you know we are punching time cards, I think NOT!

I can see it now ... people questioning the actual hours spent.  They don't see what we do to create the results we create ... it would be an issue.  The flat fee seems more reasonable to me provided the client signed an agreement indicating exactly what is covered and what is not.  

Pay me 150.00 per hour with a 5 hour mininum, I'm in, won't happen but it is what it is.

I used to work at a buyer brokerage that tried several pricing options over the years. The hourly commission was simply too expensive for buyers. What is often overlooked is that agents often forgo any income if a home doesn't sell or a buyer doesn't buy. And even when there is a  transaction at the end of the work, the agent delays payment until settlement. If agents begin charging hourly fees, they will want to bill for the hours as they are used, regardless of whether there is a closing. This means that buyers and sellers will pay out of pocket, which may work for some and not others. 

Yeah,price it unreasonable and once it sells, I'll be glad to take my billable by the hour commission! That way, I only need to list 2 per year (thinking conservately).

Always less than minimum. As usual the 'bell-ringers' do not have a clue.

This comes up frequently. But has been defeated. My hourly would be 6% of the sales price divided by the number of hours I spent

I don't see this ever working.

Not at all.

I wonder if the author of that article was paid by the hour, on straight salary of paid by the word. In any event, judging by the content, it was too much.

I'm not even sure how this would work! What if they seller doesn't agree to pay at closing? Do we stop everything and impose a lien on the property?

With some past clients, would LOVE to charge by the hour, I would have been way ahead.

Prior to working in real estate I was a consultant on Wall Street for awhile, the billable process isn't that difficult and you have to figure the administrative time into your rate. I used to bill out at $1,000/hour for days where I was training (as a classroom trainer) and less for development days...though that was for a typical vanilla 45-55 hour week (some banks required a 40 hour cap). 

This business is very different, and I think by the time all is said and done- clients would prefer the fixed percentage model. The weekends, night showings, holidays, the routine questions, the hassels, etc. There are of course some clients that would be way ahead with an hourly model- but it would be rare. Most of my clients are extremely busy professionals and don't have time for all the noise a pay per hour model would support. For that matter- for the client that doesn't need/want the support I would normally provide- I am happy to quote a lower percentage- but I would want it all spelled out responsibilities in the listing contract. I wouldn't casually recommend this approach- but there are situations where it might be a good fit for everyone.