Pros
First to meet most new clients to help meet their buying needs. Experience multiple residential real estate listings and review them with clients and in company website.
Cons
Fee/pay schedule keeps dropping. Started at $50, then $45,now $35 per daytime single home tour. Evening tours after 5pm did rise to $60, but weekends declined from $65 to $60 for single home tours. Additional homes on a tour tour average only $10-15 per home and can be upwards of 30 minutes to an hours drive between homes. If a customer cancels or fails to show up for a scheduled tour the tour fee reverts to zero or $25 depending on the timing of the cancellation. If you schedule a 6+ home $100+ tour and travel up an hour to meet the client, if the client fails to show up for any reason your fee is reduced to $25. Plus there are extra steps to get the $25 reduced fee that is then subject to approval or rejection by a manager. Significant unpaid hours of effort to set up single and multiple home tours is a huge concern. You only get paid to tour a home. Not set it up. Many tours cancel before they start. Of recent, clients can now create and cancel their own tour at a whim without regard to the associate agents unpaid time to monitor that activity and schedule it. Salaried lead buyer agents compete with associate agents for tours. They have software tools available them to take away and cancel your tours at any time for any reason, even if you set it up. Of recent lead buyer agents will drop in to a home unannounced during your tour, take control and re tour the home with the client without regard to the hazard of extending the duration of your tour creating scheduling conflicts with your next tour. Often the next tour clients cancel out of frustration because now you can’t get there on time. Close to zero synergy between associate agents and salaried lead buyer agents working with the same clients. Associate agent efforts seldom recognized. Associate agents must choose large geographic territory to make a living, and often scheduled with distances between tours too great for reasonable travel times resulting in unsafe hurried commuting challenges. Associate agent issues openly acknowledged, then avoided, side stepped and back burnered by upper level managers. Regular accounting tactics to reduce your earned pay requiring a constant eye on your part to make sure company is not taking money from you unfairly. Often work with clients only using Redfin to find a home, but discouragingly not represent them in the purchase of one.