Wall Street Journal - "Drop Catchers" Article

[lawpal]

Published today (2/22/06) does a decent job of telling the story of what is going on in the drop market.

However, it is a subscription based online service, so you have to pick up a copy at your local bookstore. Yes, folks, you actually have to get out of your house to read this one.

Peace

:evil:

 

[actnow]

Thanks for letting me know.

 

[QuantumBeam]

good'un......

 

[gmac17]

Will these people stop publicizing the industry!! ugh.

decent article.

 

[daniel]

Here is a link to the full story.

http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1360838332&pt=Y

 

[David G]

Thanks for reprinting this, I hate media sites which force you to pay to read just 1 article.

To me the most interesting aspect to the story is after all her SEO work and 2 years of time getting traffic to the name she would not buy it back. After all, she is a way overpaid Realtor making from 3% to 6% commission on average.

The average property in her area is priced at about 200K or more. That means she makes from $6,000 to $12,000 on just one transaction (likely involving little real work), and I am sure has many listings during the year, making the price of buying it back seem incredibly reasonable.

 

[QuantumBeam]

After all, she is a way overpaid Realtor making from 3% to 6% commission on average.

The average property in her area is priced at about 200K or more. That means she makes from $6,000 to $12,000 on just one transaction (likely involving little real work), and I am sure has many listings during the year, making the price of buying it back seem incredibly reasonable.

I am not a realtor, however, Real Estate is not an easy task as one may think, 3-6% does not go into a realtors pocket. There are fee's to be paid to the realtors broker, expenses and more. Ever try to sell a home over $ 200K alone ? The power of networking and marketing from a sellers view is limited, compared to what actually is accomplished in a real estate transaction. I have sold many homes on my own, patience is key, not to mention the aggravation of people stopping by without an appointment and having to leave your home on a one hrs notice, and believe me, it is WORTH the small percentage you pay to a realtor to get the work done. :-D

 

[gmac17]

Daniel - you might as well be robbing banks!

they should have found someone who lost a name that sold for a lot in a drop (a1.com) - we don't even know if this name was grabbed by a drop service or manually.

 

[David G]

Disagree MrTut. Many times a Realtor gets a free listing from a referral, puts it on the MLS, a different Agent has the buyer and the listing agent makes tons of money, often with no work at all. 85% of the time they sell thru the MLS with no other marketing needed. If they work for a typical broker the listing agent keeps from 50% to 80% of the commission, and many Agents work for 100% firms where they keep all the money and only pay small monthly fee to the firm they work for. A number of other agents are self-employed and pay nothing. Why do you think there are over 1 million Realtors out there?

 

[dmyre]

I am a REALTOR, and at my office, we generally receive 3% of the sales price, as either the listing agent or the buyers agent. Of the 3%, my broker receives 36%

$200,000 | 3% = $6000
My commission would only be $3840

In addition to the above fee, there are alot of other expenses; Realtor fees, office fees, signs, marketing, gas, copies, etc... Color copies at my office are .20 each, and are even more expensive at Staples, Office Max, Kinkos, etc. It's very expensive.

 

[actnow]

All that you mentioned would apply to most type of sales jobs and sales companies.

Advertising agency, food broker, sales agency, manufacturer representative, insurance agent, car salesman, domain broker, etc.

Any sales is a tough job. Plus, any sales person knows, if you screw
up there is another sales person ready to take your business.

In reality, isn't that what happened here? She took her eyes off of one of her's
sales tools and she lost it.

All of us have lost domains when we accidentally lost track of it.

Live and learn.

 

[lawpal]

Sorry - no sympathy for realtors here

 

[David G]

I am a REALTOR, and at my office, we generally receive 3% of the sales price, as either the listing agent or the buyers agent. Of the 3%, my broker receives 36% $200,000 | 3% = $6000 My commission would only be $3840. In addition to the above fee, there are alot of other expenses; Realtor fees, office fees, signs, marketing, gas, copies, etc... Color copies at my office are .20 each, and are even more expensive at Staples, Office Max, Kinkos, etc. It's very expensive.

Being a Realtor is a very low cost profession vs its incredible earnings capabilities where you can make more money than a rocket scientist or surgeon, assuming you get steady free referrals as many agents do.

 

[David G]

.

 

[dmyre]

... In reality, isn't that what happened here? She took her eyes off of one of her's sales tools and she lost it.

All of us have lost domains when we accidentally lost track of it...

I agree. She should have kept an eye on her domain, instead thinking the hosting company was doing this for her.

 

[Poker]

I hear a violin playing...

 

[Dave Zan]

I agree. She should have kept an eye on her domain, instead thinking the hosting company was doing this for her.

Unfortunately the reality is that most people don't know and don't care how
these things go. Instead of being proactive, they just pay others to handle it
for them and not worry about the devil-in-the-details.

And it's not made any easier since many registrars cater to their "laziness".

Incidentally this reminds me of ShiningMonkey's slip-up I posted here before.
(Thanks for the confirmation, actnow. )

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

If you don't pay the lease on your store, the landlord reposseses the property and makes it available to someone else.

Why should virtual property be any different than real property?

"My web hosting company was supposed to take care of it" --what a lame excuse! If you are so foolish to outsource such an important task, these are the consequences.

"The registrar didn't have my correct email address" --this may be a violation of ICANN's WhoIs requirements and common sense. I think it may also be called negligence.

 

[austinandrew]

Don't mean to ruin the party here, but reposting an entire story like this is copyright infringement. I know it sucks that WSJ makes you pay to read online, but it is a business.

 

[JMJ]

No offense to any of the realtors here but if if the shoe fits mabey you'll think twice before doing it again. The main reason for me getting out of the mortgage business is because I grew very tired of the Realtors informing the client my 3% or whatever it may have been to fund a deal was too much. I can't count the number of deals I let go to the way side because I refused to allow a third party to dictate my earnings and fees. Even killed one deal days before closing. Especially when their fee's are pretty much non-negotiable.