But You Didn't Do Any Work

As a real estate agent, you are probably going to come across someone, somewhere who says, "Well you barely did any work at all! Why should I pay you this much?" You may feel that you are charging too much in light of this, especially if you are new to the game. However, there is a very good reason why you get paid what you do and why you should continue charging that amount.

Your client is paying you for time, both yours and theirs. Yes, the client could meet with all the listing agents, arrange all the home tours, research home purchasing and put together their own offer and do all the paperwork and come out with a nice home. The truth is that their time is too valuable for that, which is why they have contracted you. If their time is too valuable to put in the hours of research, learning and hard-won experience, why do they think yours isn't?

You can be sure that if you were in your buyer's place of business and asked THEM to take a discount for THEIR services, they would say, "Of course not! I work hard to provide the product or service that I do and I'm not going to charge less just because YOU think I should!" Why, then, should you charge less for guiding your client through the process of what is perhaps the most expensive real estate transaction of their lives?

How much time did you spend learning your trade? How much money? Your client is paying for the knowledge and experience you have; something that is only achieved by immersing oneself in real estate and keeping up with the market. If they fork over money to their lawyer to ensure that they keep the law on their own side, they should realize that ALL knowledge has its price. Your knowledge is no less pricey because you set up a transaction in a single day than your solicitor counterpart who may get paid several hundred dollars an hour for a single day's worth of work.

Your client is paying you to do the footwork of finding a home, setting up home tours, managing paperwork and helping them with the closing. They are expecting that you will take time out of your day, defer things you would rather be doing, work around problems, research homes and be involved with negotiations and closings. It might take only a few hours or it could take a few years to bring a client to the closing of a real estate deal. It doesn't matter; you deserve to be paid.

Carolyn Capalbo is an expert military relocation specialist and real estate agent serving Northern Virginia real estate. Visit Just4Real.com to find updated market information about areas in Prince William, including Haymarket VA real estate.