I hope all of you read what the "The Lighter Side of Real Estate" posts on social media. It provides me with much-needed laughs sometimes. Every now and then, their satire is so good you'll think about it years later. Like I did a few days ago. Check this one out:

"Realtor looking for people to do their job at a discount
I am a Realtor and since people always expect me to cut my fee I assume they must also do their job, or provide their services, at a discount.

I am looking to hire all types of people to do all sorts of jobs for me, as long as I do not have to pay what you're actually worth. I'm sure you have a lot of extra time on your hands and you probably make enough money anyway. Think about it, helping me will actually help yourself because I know a ton of people and I'll tell them what wonderful (discounted) work you do.

So if you have a job or service you provide, and are willing to devalue your worth, please let me know because I'm sure I have work for you and will hire you in a second.

Feel free to email me with the services you can provide, when you can start, and please include references.

I look forward to your discounted service. Thanks."

There is a strong chance you have been asked to discount your fee before. Take a moment to think about other professions/careers where people discount their fee. Do people negotiate with their doctors, attorneys, accountants, banks/bankers and other professional services? How about retail/service industry? Do you haggle at the grocery store? Do you tell your server that you will not pay what the menu says for your dinner? What about your stylist/barber?

Outside of auto sales and real estate, it doesn't happen much. And I think, since one of our key functions is as a negotiator for our clients, maybe we forget to have the "defend your fee" mentality. Sellers and Buyers should negotiate on home sales price. But why is our paycheck, what we use to feed our families and pay our mortgage, something they want to negotiate?  

1. They don't understand all that we do for them. It is our fault for not telling them.
2. We've allowed it. And as an industry, we do a terrible job of expressing our value.

We are going to be challenged on our fee more often in the coming years. And Bellator will be providing you with the help you need. But come to terms with it now, it doesn't have to be a big deal. There were far more changes for us to digest in the years after 2008 and 2009. And all of them are standard operating procedure now, if you have been licensed less than 12 years you wouldn't know things changed. Everything will be fine. But you need to stay on top of what's going on. When you get your NAR newsletter, read it. AAR sends one too, read it. BR does the same, read it. Attend some webinars. Keep learning.

And as soon as possible, find your comfort zone with "bragging" on yourself. We need to make sure that our clients know every little thing we do for them. It has always felt good when we hear a client say, "That was easy," at the closing table because it validated all the work, we did to take the stress off of them. I'd argue that today, that's the last thing we want to hear them say. If they think it was easy, they won't grasp our value to them. They need to know how hard it was for you and everyone else who got them to the closing table! This is a big challenge for a lot of us, I know. Work at it, get better.

Think about the way we handle things, take pressure off, take all the stress during a transaction because our goal is to shield the client. An attorney (charging by the hour), every time they even think of their client- boom it's a billable hour. We deserve to be paid for the time we spend thinking about clients, talking to other Realtors about their needs, talking to your Broker, Inspectors, Lenders, etc.… Our services are valuable! We are in a Buyer Beware state, if Buyers don't use an agent in Alabama, they are putting themselves in danger.  

Showing our value is going to be key to asking to be paid for our services.