I gave this company a long chance to deliver on its promises, but looking back on it I shouldn’t have stayed nearly as long as I did. After a couple of years of being a “warrior”, I couldn’t stand it anymore and found another real estate brokerage to (proudly) represent.
Why the harsh words? Just what’s so bad about being an agent for this company? (Warning: this is a wall of text, but it is thorough.)
Let’s start with the business model: it is infuriatingly limiting and most of the limits don’t even make sense.
For example, would like to list your investor’s flip on the MLS once they’re done with the project? How about help a friend or family member sell their house or find a house to live in? Too bad! As a New Western agent you can’t represent a buyer or seller in ANY real estate transaction. You have to give the lead to a retail agent for them to make the commissions instead!
Additionally, you’re not allowed to sell any property unless an acquisition agent gets it under contract for New Western. One of my out-of-state investors came to me with a property in my market that she found on Redfin. She wanted to use me as her buyer’s agent to help her add it to her portfolio, but I had to explain to her that I couldn’t do that, and as a result I missed out on thousands of dollars in commission. I did eventually sell her a property from New Western’s inventory, though . . . and I made a whopping $800 from that sale. Whoopee!
Speaking of earnings, these limitations (along with the rest of them that I didn’t mention) would be tolerable if the opportunity to make big money were still there, but for the most part it’s not. Despite following their playbook and making some sales every month I barely made as much as I would have at a regular job with benefits. Not exactly the “life changing opportunity” they told me this was going to be in the interviews, then again, I don’t know what I was expecting. When the company takes 68% of all wholesaling fees leaving only 20% for the acquisition agent and 12% for the sales agent, it’s kinda hard to get rich! Yes, I know there’s a bonus program, and if you ever hit the top tier you can expect that 12% to increase to (drumroll, please) 18%! What a deal!
As for all those promises about advancement opportunities here, don’t listen to them. I was promised many times that a promotion to acquisitions was *just* around the corner, but it never came. Even though I performed well in the sales role, the promotion just never happened!
Beyond that the culture is far from supportive and wholesome. There’s lots of inappropriate behavior in and out of the office that not only negatively affects productivity, but also just makes the company look bad. Management on all levels will try to lead through intimidation. Bullying and micromanagement are far too common, and even though this is a 1099 job, they treat you like you’re a salaried employee. Make no mistake: you do NOT have the “freedom to work your way” as their job ads say you do!
In case I’m giving the impression that these issues are isolated to one region or office, they’re not. As I continue to talk to agents in other markets (and even other states) who have either moved on from New Western or are strongly considering it, they report the same issues with lack of opportunity, not enough pay despite strong job performance, problems with management, a toxic culture, and a business model that does more to limit success than to facilitate it.
As if mistreating their agents weren’t enough, this company has a notorious reputation among investors in most of the markets they service. They have a long history of inflating after repair values, high pressure sales tactics, purposefully underestimating repair/rehab costs, misrepresenting New Western’s policies and processes, etc., etc., etc., etc.
I could go on, but hopefully that’s enough info to save yourself the headache and avoid this company like the plague!
