Estate Agent... Minimum Wage?

[freenote]

Correcting a poster earlier, I have 15 years in sales.

You're right in that working hard is no absolute guarantee of success, but life doesn't give guarantees.

Sales is simply a numbers game in my experience. You put in the hours, work your arse off and most months you will make good money. Some months will be crap but you have to take the rough with the smooth as some months every deal will come together and you'll be rolling in it.

Work attitude in this country drives me mad. We complain about working too hard, too many hours, not enough money, not enough thanks from our bosses etc etc. We have it easy here. Go to a developing country and they work dawn til dusk 7 days a week just to get fed.

Work hard and you can get by. If you work really hard, you MIGHT be very successful. No guarantee, no promises, no early retirement, no 2 holidays a year, no new car, no £700 iphone. All luxuries which a lot of people seem to think are necessities.

Sorry, bit of a rant...

[remkingston]

Wacky Racer said:

The best salesman in the world can't sell you a Mars bar if you don't want to buy one.

The best salesman in the world has the knowledge of who needs a Mars bar before he himself realises.

[Type R Tom]

Does make you wonder if there is a correlation between being paid NMW and the horrendous service many people seem to receive for agents. As we all aren’t PH stereotypes spending £500k+ those of us spending below the average in our area aren’t going to get decent service from an agent because if he isn’t 100% sure you’ll buy he’ll be concentrating on the next customer as he wants to earn the minimum wage!

Will explain why I got the kids with “I’ll have to come back to you on that one” for every question I asked when spending £200k but my parents a slightly better service when spending double that.

[BigGingerBob]

Evening all, just finished my first day.
The question was asked, really, to see whether the basic was acceptable. After all, we would all want an extra 1500 - 2000 pounds a year if we could get it.
Another thing, selling property involves quite a lot of work, I think you can all agree that putting in the work to make it mininum wage is galling, especially when you know you can earn more stacking shelves in aldi!
I have been an agent before and I left to relocate 10 months ago so I know what it involves. I enjoy it ans I know full well that I will be out on my arse if I only sell one a month!

[N Dentressangle]

okgo said:

All sales jobs I've done (inc estate agency) - generally putting more in generally gets more out. You can not and will not convince me that the bloke doing a couple of viewings a week will sell more than the guy out there doing 5 a day and working every weekend. Of course there are deals that fall through, but on average he who does the most viewings, is going to get the most offers, and likely the most tied up offers and likely the most offers that go through to exchange/completion etc.

Honest question: who gets the commission?

The guy who persuaded you to sign up with that particular EA?
The guy who did that particular viewing which resulted in a successful offer?
The guy you always needed to speak to at the EA who was managing 'your' sale?

I would hope it was the 3rd guy - I would say he earned his money on my last house sale, and the EA provided a valuable and decent service - but just curious how it's all divvied up.

eta In answer to the OP, whilst I agree with minimum wage, going into a sales job with concerns about whether you're going to make minimum wage is probably an indicator that sales might not be for you. Doesn't mean you're lazy, but 'Glengarry Glen Ross' is worth a watch. Dramatised, but the same underlying principles (or lack of them) than every sales environment I ever worked in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XW6P0tiVc

Edited by N Dentressangle on Wednesday 2nd December 18:37

[okgo]

N Dentressangle said:

Honest question: who gets the commission?

The guy who persuaded you to sign up with that particular EA?
The guy who did that particular viewing which resulted in a successful offer?
The guy you always needed to speak to at the EA who was managing 'your' sale?

I would hope it was the 3rd guy - I would say he earned his money on my last house sale, and the EA provided a valuable and decent service - but just curious how it's all divvied up.

eta In answer to the OP, whilst I agree with minimum wage, going into a sales job with concerns about whether you're going to make minimum wage is probably an indicator that sales might not be for you. Doesn't mean you're lazy, but 'Glengarry Glen Ross' is worth a watch. Dramatised, but the same underlying principles (or lack of them) than every sales environment I ever worked in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XW6P0tiVc

Edited by N Dentressangle on Wednesday 2nd December 18:37

Been nearly ten years since I did it but generally (not sure really on your first point, you don't sign up to anything, you just register with them, or ask to view a place you have seen?) the same person does all of the things you mention, or they did when I was doing it.

Estate agent charge 2% (lets say) of sale price, that sales person specifically probably gets between 5 and 10% of that 2% pot depending how low his basic is, at the place I worked the lowest you could go to was £10k and 10%, but some did £17k and 5% - I think people who did that were generally looked down upon by the top brass as it didn't show 'hunger' - or something similar.

[N Dentressangle]

In that the EA gets their commission from the vendor, not the buyer, it seemed to me the two real pieces of work that the EA had to get right were:

Persuading vendors to appoint them as EA
Seeing a sale through from accepted offer to successful completion

Doing viewings seemed to be something they just left to whoever was available at the time.

[okgo]

N Dentressangle said:

In that the EA gets their commission from the vendor, not the buyer, it seemed to me the two real pieces of work that the EA had to get right were:

Persuading vendors to appoint them as EA
Seeing a sale through from accepted offer to successful completion

Doing viewings seemed to be something they just left to whoever was available at the time.

The EA works for the vendor, not the buyer, and yes, that is probably one of the biggest parts of the job hence the people that generally go out to pitch are more senior.

It rather depends on the set up etc, generally whoever did the viewing where I was would get the deal.