Diligent agents who take seriously their obligation to their clients can easily spend hours working with a buyer before ever showing a house. Once the process of house hunting gets underway, the agent might invest another 10-50 hours for a typical client, and as many as 100 hours for some clients, in the house selection process. Once a property has been selected, an agent might spend another 10-20 hours on negotiations, scheduling and attending inspections, and preparing for and attending the closing. Thus, a typical buyer might require 40-75 hours of his agent s time over the course of the transaction. In the case of a listing agent, the time commitment is typically less than that required for buyers, but the expense of advertising can be enormous.
Many agents spend several hundred dollars per month on advertising listings.
This does not include the cost of agent promotion, such as billboards or commercials, which is largely discretionary on the part of the agent. Most agents pay as much or more for regular business expenses than they pay to keep a roof over their heads at home. Good agents commit huge sums of money to their businesses to ensure that they are well equipped to represent their clients as effectively as possible. That is, agents do not get paid not one cent until a client successfully closes on a purchase or a sale. Not realizing the agent s stake in the transaction, many consumers play musical agents without considering the implications, or a buyer may decide to ditch her agent under the erroneous assumption that it will save her money if she buys a For Sale by Owner or chooses to build new construction without being represented by an agent.