Out with the old, in with the new !
100% commission / flat fee virtual online real estate brokers have officially made their way into California, breaking the age old business model of doing real estate. There isn't much business left anymore that isn't conducted online, so it was only a matter of time until real estate brokerages caught up. Who would have thought just a few years ago what we'd be doing online; buying insurance, planning vacations, buying cars, drawing up wills, holding business meetings, and now even doctor appointments are done online! Just a few years ago we had to get in the car, drive to an office, and find a parking place to do all of that. So it should come as no surprise the day would come when real estate would be all done online as well.
Because of the technology available to all via the internet, real estate brokerages no longer have much to offer their agents, and becuse of that they are having a tough time justifying taking a big chunk of their commissions. Agents are now beginning to smell the coffee and are starting to flock to the virtual online model of real estate brokers.
In the past, agents had no choice but to be connected to traditional real estate brokerages because of access of information that only brokers had. Heck, when I started in real estate, in order to see what properties were on the MLS, you had to use this doo-hicky that only real estate companies had that had two suction cups mounted on it that you put a telephone receiver into, dialed a number, then there would be a noise signal that would feed into this machine that printed out lines of coded text on a giant piece of paper of the available properties. ..yikes ! But that was then.
The internet is is the great equalizer and no longer do brokers have a monopoly on information or technology and agents are voting with their feet. Of course there are still going to be the old school real estate agents that believe they need to give a big chunk of their commission to a brick & mortar brokerage office in order for them to function, and that's fine. But realtors that don't want to subsidize for a break room to sip coffee with co-workers are going where they can buy lots of their own coffee.
..to be continued !
Ronny Santana - Broker / Owner
CURB
California's Premier 100% Commission Brokerage
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