Brick Nest Realty was intentionally designed to be a different kind of real estate company. Our primary goal is to do the very best we can to help our clients achieve their real estate dreams while operating under the highest ethical standards. One of the ways we do that is by supporting our agents - giving them the freedom to operate their business within that framework as they see fit, while simultaneously being available to provide help and guidance when needed. We are structured to minimize barriers and maximize rewards by eliminating fees and providing higher commission splits.



Independence:
We recognize that no two people are completely alike, and when you are a real estate agent, you are essentially the CEO of your own company - you are running your own business and are responsible for your own brand. Although there are rules and regulations handed down by the Department of State and the Board of Realtors, while operating within those guidelines, we feel that you should have the automomy to run your business in the way that works best for you. Brick Nest Realty does not maintain a traditional "walk-in" office with a receptionist desk, cubicles, break room and copier. As a Brick Nest Realty agent, you essentially operate your own office in the way that works best for you, whether that is a fully decked out home office in a spare bedroom, a computer desk in the corner of your living room, or your kitchen table and a smartphone.

Support:
In many real estate brokerages, the broker does not view their agents as members of their team, but more like a lead generator to bring new business into the firm. When someone gets their real estate license, their first clients tend to be friends, acquaintances and family. The broker is only too happy to bring in a new agent, burn through that person's contact list and then put them out to pasture. Although one of the key benefits of the way we operate Brick Nest Realty is to give our agents the independence to work on their own, we are still here to provide as much support as you need. Whether you are interested in pursuing real estate as a full time career or for part time supplimental income, we don't want to see you sign up only to burn out and drop by the wayside. We are here to provide you with the help that you need to achieve long term success.

Higher Commissions:
Because we don't have the overhead of a traditional office and we allow our agents the freedom to operate in a more independent fashion, we are able to pay our agents better. In the typical agent/broker business relationship, the split is 50/50 with half going to the broker and half (or less than half, after fees) going to the agent. At Brick Nest Realty, in addition to eliminating fees, we offer our agents a baseline split of 60/40 which very quickly ramps up to 70/30 and continues to climb to 90/10 such that the more commissions the agent earns, the more this split increases in favor of the agent. We want to set our agents up for success, and feel that using this tiered commisison split system is the best of both worlds, simultaneously enabling us to cover our expenses while maximizing agent commissions.

In addition, 100% of any income you generate from BPOs, referral fees and seller bonuses are paid to you with no split or fees.

Fees:
It is very common for real estate brokers to charge desk fees, transaction fees, royalty fees, franchise fees, design fees, marketing fees, training fees and on and on! These are set up as either a percentage or flat fee on each sale or paid on a monthly basis. A broker who is a franchisee of a larger firm may have to charge a franchise fee which gets sent up to corporate. Many brokers charge mandatory "desk fees" for the use of office space and "transaction fees" to attempt to recoup some of the expenses involved with rent, utilities, office staffing, etc. Because Brick Nest Realty is a boutique brokerage that does not operate under a centralized office business model, we do not incur the overhead expenses associated with that, so there is no need for these fees! The only fees you would be responsible for are the MLS and membership fees charged by the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Board of Realtors, as well as the fee to the New York State Department of State to renew your license every two years. All of those fees are collected directly by those organizations or are passed along to them - Brick Nest Realty does not receive any portion of them. Currently, the only fee you might possibly need to pay to us is for E&O Insurance - but please see the next section for details on that.

Professional Liability Insurance:
Brick Nest Realty maintains a professional liability insurance policy (also known as E&O Insurance) which provides blanket coverage to the brokerage and all of its agents for claims that might occur from the accidental or negligent actions of an agent or broker as well as property damage or injuries that might occur during a showing or open house. This in and of itself is not uncommon; most real estate brokerages carry some level of E&O insurance, however the brokerage will normally charge a fee to its agents for this coverage. Because of Brick Nest Realty's desire to set its agents up for success and eliminate fees, we have structured our E&O insurance in such a way that as long as you have at least one commission generating sale during the year, your share of the E&O insurance will be covered by us. Because the cost of this insurance is directly proportional to the number of agents in the brokerage, any agents who are not active enough to have a sale during the year are asked to contribute their share towards the policy. By structuring it in this way, we can accommodate those low volume, part time agents who need a place to park their license and do an occasional transaction while also eliminating yet another fee for the vast majority of our agents.

Yard signs:
Yard signs are expensive - even a generic sign can easily cost $100-200 each, let alone a unique one like ours! With at least one sign needed for each listing, this expense adds up fast! Brick Nest Realty provides yard signs for our agents to use, so your only sign expense would be if you wished to have your own headers made so that you can personalize your listings with your contact information.

More Time:
In a traditional real estate brokerage, a good number of leads will come in over the phone and those will go to the "on duty" agent who has signed up for a "floor time" shift when that call comes in. Although getting leads is good, sitting in an office waiting for calls isn't exactly the most efficient use of your time. At Brick Nest Realty, we use a VOIP phone system which can transfer these calls directly to your cell phone. So, if you are interested in being able to take phone calls that come in to the main brokerage number, all you need to do to opt in is to let us know! No need to warm up an office chair, you can multitask and be out and about doing things to grow your business or spending quality time with your family.

Our web site has a feature that allows potential customers and clients to contact us via live chat. Obviously, this is also a nice potential source for new leads. Any agent who wishes to participate simply needs to download an app to their smart phone (a tablet, PC or laptop can be used as well), and when a chat request comes through on the web site, everyone who has currently marked themselves in their app as "available" will receive a notification. Should you be the first to answer, you will be connected to that person to assist them. Since it is an app, you aren't tied down to an office cubicle - you can chat with our web site visitors from anywhere in the world!

No icky "Sales Culture":
Many real estate brokerages are steeped in "sales culture", reminiscent of a boiler room call center. You will hear so-called gurus and coaches throwing around terms like "cold calling", "pop-bys" and "door knocking", selling "proven scripts" and coming up with all sorts of demeaning gimmicks to rope in desperate or frustrated agents. Frankly, its enough to make our skin crawl, and Brick Nest Realty sits at the complete opposite end of that spectrum. We aren't here to "sell", trick or pressure anybody. We're here to help buyers and sellers to achieve their goals while providing as much value as possible to all parties involved. Our philosophy here is pretty simple - we aren't about sales, we are about relationships. If you establish actual relationships with your customers and clients and do your best to provide value to them without the expectation of reward, the sales will follow. All we ask is for you to be your authentic self and do your best to legitimately help people!

You can take your listings with you:
Under New York State law, any listings a real estate agent may have are actually the broker's listings. This can make things complicated when an agent wishes to change broker affiliation, because your listings aren't actually your listings! We aren't all about the dollars here - we want you to succeed, whether that is with us or elsewhere. Although we hope that the agents in our nest would choose to stay with us, should you decide to fly the coop and roost with another broker, as long as the seller of each property is in agreement, we will allow you to take your listings with you to your new broker.

Free virtual tours for your listings:
The broker of Brick Nest Realty also runs a company that produces 360 degree panoramic virtual tours. Typically only very high end homes receive the benefit of a virtual tour, mostly because it is almost always the agent themselves who has to foot the rather expensive bill to generate such a tour. All homes listed with Brick Nest Realty are eligible for a virtual tour, so if your seller wants one, it will be provided to you free of charge. This is an awesome marketing value for your listings, provided at no cost to you or your seller.

Buying and selling your own property:
Real estate agents need a place to live too, so like anyone else, from time to time, an agent will find it necessary to buy or sell their own home. In such cases, Brick Nest Realty will not collect a commission from you on these transactions. It doesn't matter if you are upsizing or downsizing, buying or selling a vacation home, or are a real estate investor who buys a dozen flips or rentals every year - as long as you are an active Brick Nest Realty agent, you can purchase and sell your own real estate through us at no expense to you. What this means is if you are selling your home, we will not charge you a commission (if another real estate company sells your listing, we would obviously be responsible for paying the cooperating broker split to them, but you still save 50%). If you are buying a home, the entire amount of whatever commission the other real estate company is offering will be passed on to you - the equivalent of a 100/0 split. In practical terms, this means that you can use the resources of Brick Nest Realty to market and sell your home at no cost to yourself, and if you are buying a home, you are basically receiving a discount in the amount of the co-broke commission being offered by the seller!





Whether you are a seasoned agent looking for a new opportunity or don't even have your license yet, as long as you are interested in putting the needs of your clients and customers first, focusing on relationships over sales and being guided by ethics, morality and the desire to always do the right thing, Brick Nest Realty would love to take you under our wing and make room for you on our roost. If you have questions or are interested in exploring this further, please feel free to reach out.