Fairfax Marin Broker

Salaries for Realtors?

It’s a very small thing, almost completely overlooked by local media and far beneath the radar of everyday citizens. In fact, by the time you read this it could be gone, voted out of existence by a pragmatic group of Fairfax leaders at the June town council meeting. Make no mistake, however; the call in Fairfax to begin assessing individual Realtors an annual business license fee did not go unnoticed by the Marin Association of Realtors .

The response from the association was direct: “The Marin Association of Realtors opposes efforts to impose a business license tax on real estate sales people…or to classify real estate salespeople as being anything other than employees of the brokers for whom they work.”

The original ordinance – on the books since 1983 but never imposed -- calls for a tax levied on anyone, “Conducting, carrying on or managing business consisting of the buying or selling of real estate within the town.” Base tax would be $100 plus a percentage of an agent’s gross income, ranging up to $250 for agents earning gross receipts of $350 -$400,000 and $31 for every additional $50,000 earned beyond that.

The compromise position is to charge business license fees to brokers only. Fairfax officials say that either way, the amount of revenue raised would be the same. The council should welcome the compromise.

And why wouldn’t they? As the city of San Rafael learned in 2003, when they tried to impose a similar tax, Marin’s Realtors aren’t shy. That time, city officials were blindsided by the association’s response to their proposal to charge agents an annual fee of $135. Insisting that the move wasn’t a vehicle for revenue generation, San Rafael City Manager Rod Gould eventually dropped the proposal, saying, in a letter to association president David Fahrner, that “(San Rafael) will now accept your contention that all real estate salespeople are employees for the purposes of business licensing.”

From a practical standpoint, the decision to drop the fees makes perfect sense. If it’s true that licensing brokers only will produce comparable revenue then there’s no reason to antagonize real estate agents by charging them a fee just large enough to be a pain in their necks. You don’t want to give businesspeople an excuse to do business somewhere else, especially during a recession.

On the other hand, real estate agents aren’t really “employees,” not in the classic sense. They’re more like independent contractors. In almost all cases, they earn no salary, working exclusively on commission. They don’t get health benefits and they pay for most (if not all) business expenses – advertising, phone, business cards – out of pocket. As much as I think charging Realtors a ticky-tack little business license fee is an unnecessary pinprick in their hides, the argument that they’re employees of their brokers doesn’t really hold water.

Marin County Towns – 30% Buyer CASH Rebate – Fairfax Homes | Bay ...

* Bay-AreaHomes requires a minimum fee of $12,000 per transaction with the balance rebated to our Buyers, up to 30% of our commission. There is no Buyer Rebate on homes under $500,000. This Buyer Incentive Agreement is based on a 30% REBATE of Bay-AreaHomes’ commission. We usually receive 2.5% of the sales price. Buyer(s) should be pre-approved by a lender with a pre-approval letter prior to viewing homes. Buyer to notify lender about broker rebate at loan application. All parties involved in the transaction must be informed of the Buyer Rebate (incentive) to be credited through escrow. If your Lender does not allow this credit in Escrow, Bay-AreaHomes will send you the 30% REBATE 10 days after closing escrow.

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