Support@SettingYourselfUp.com cell/text: 708.888.1049
SettingYourselfUp.com
The real estate industry has changed drastically within the past few decades. It used to be little mom & pop independent shops like Thorson, John Greene, Long Realty, etc. Then, the franchisors came into town and took over.
Traditional real estate brokerages like Century 21, Baird & Warner, Prudential, Coldwell Banker, etc. used to start people on splits like 50/50 with no fixed monthly charges. Then the non-traditionals like RE/MAX, Keller Williams, and Realty Executives started offering 100% commission plans to compete with the traditionals.
Today, the differences between traditionals and non-traditionals are becoming blurry. Most brokerages now offer a buffet of plans that range from 100% commission and pay larger monthly fixed fees, to 60/40's & 70/30 splits with just a small monthly fixed fee. Not too many brokerages are on pure splits without any fixed monthly fees, and most of the non-traditionals have even thrown away the 100% plans and are now down to 95/5, etc.
The real estate brokerage competition is fierce, profits are down, and there is less loyalty amongst real estate agents -- people are switching brokerages left and right. It's more important than ever to build and protect YOUR brand, and your brand is YOU -- not the brokerage.
We've seen the changes over the decades and have a good feel on where things are going from here...
The future is independents and/or mega-offices on the scale of tens of thousands of agents per online office -- just like all the colleges are doing with their huge online classes.
About Us & Our Mission
Being in and around the real estate industry for over 40 years has allowed us to see a lot of changes...
At first, we saw Mom & Pop shops employing salespeople that focused on forming relationships with clients. Most shops were small and allowed for strong mentor/apprentice training from broker/owners to their Realtor salespeople.
The late 80's and early 90's brought about two very significant changes...
First, the corporations and franchisers came into town and put the little Mom & Pop stands largely out of business. The large offices did have training programs, but the focus turned from building long lasting relationships between agents and clients into one whose goals were focused more on the making money aspect.
Secondly, the advent of buyer agency turned everything upside down for existing agents who were used to only being loyal to the seller. Suddenly, the real estate selling industry became a lot more legal oriented. In addition, new technology allowed things to become a lot less personal. Instead of meeting a seller to present an offer, things now got faxed. Negotiation no longer became an art, and things just became robot and impersonal like.
As a result of technology being invented or becoming cheap for the masses to buy, the corporations and franchisers started to lose business back to the Mom & Pop stands who found it easy to enter the industry and compete head to head with the big boys. There was one big change from before the 80's though -- there were no more master/apprentice relationships; most people were now just in it for the buck.
What changed everything though was the boom of the housing market until 2005 and early 2006. EVERYONE got into the business, selling was easy as shooting fish in a barrel, and there was less training, and unfortunately, less ethics.
After the crash, everyone expected a lot of Realtors to get out of the business, because if they didn't sell, how could they afford to stay in the industry. However, the days of $2,000/mo. Realtor bills of the 90's now turned into only $35/mo. -- many Realtors (still untrained and some still unethical) stayed in the business and just got a part-time job to make things meet.
That brings us to today. There are four types of Realtors out there now...
First, there are the highly professional, highly successful, highly ethical, and relationship oriented agents that really care about their clients and offering the 5 star service their clients deserve.
Second, there are those that are just like the above, but are newer to the industry or who need help adjusting to the new technologies, and would like to also offer personalized high-level services to their clients. Note that there is still a large portion of the housing pie that cannot be serviced by the first group alone, because you can only handle so many clients before running out of time in the day. This second group is in high demand. They are ethical, (and sometimes, because of not having as much business), they have time to offer better services to the client than the first group, and they are good people that are looking to do a great job. And with our services, they will.
Third, there are the part-timers that have not committed to an all-or-nothing approach to sellling and who probably will not be able to satisfy all their client's needs in a professional manner. They are unsuccessful, and should not be competing in this business.
Lastly, there still are existing agents that will do anything to make a buck -- even if it means putting themselves before their clients. All of the Realtors in this area know who these agents are, and we're going to help our agents blow them out of the water by offering the best, most professional, and most ethical services a client can get!
Together with our Realtor partners, we will transform the local Northern Illinois real estate selling industry into the pinnacle of professionalism. We will compete like none other, and together, we will win for our clients while putting the untrained, uncaring, unprofessional, and unethical out of business!
To the public -- you are guaranteed that we will only work with the best of the best whose loyalty and professionalism exceed your wildest dreams. For the American Dream is worth it and so are you!
Sincerely,
Mike Brennan
CEO SettingYourselfUp.com
"When you work with talented people... You become talented yourself!"
cell/text: 708.888.1049