SW03ES

LOL Army

I have Nationwide also. Finding a good agent is really more important than the insurance company to be honest.

You have to understand that from your emails it appeared that you had discovered this cash cow and "invented this great business" and refused to acknowledge that it already existed and required licensure and training. It sounded like coming in here saying "I've got this great idea, when people have problems with their teeth they'll come to me and I'll fix them!" it sounded rediculous. There still is the question of the 10%, thats still totally unreasonable. Car brokers do exactly the service you're providing for $500, what makes you think you're worth 10%?

lovlex- Leather seats are supposed to be dull, they're not supposed to shine. Trust me, in no way does it dry leather out, just the opposite. Some say it puts so much moisture into the leather that is wears away at the seams. Look at the leather on brand new cars, its never shiny. 90- Its possible, but not likely. The Lexol would just sit on top of the dash material and not be absorbed.

Cool! I'm surprised so soon, the limo was replaced in 2000 usually they wait 8 years.

I'm the same way, I never wear T shirts I look like some sort of homeless guy in them LOL. As long as you dress casually with the polo you'll be fine, we were in slacks and dress shoes, makes a difference lol. The sound is unbelievable. If you really get into it you have to go do the Richard Petty driving experience and go drive one...

Yep, its genuine california walnut.

Cool! You will love it. My dad does business with MeadWestvaco Coated Papers and they sponsor Rusty Wallace so I've been to several races. I've been to Dover and I've been to Bristol. In Dover they have a sky suite and in Bristol they have the normal bleacher seats. Bleachers are much better, its just not the same up in the box when you have to wear business casual attire and hob knob with all his clients and business contacts lol Nascar is supposed to be watched in a T shirt while drinking a beer. Actually a funny story, the first race we went to was 4 years or so ago. We'd never been and we were going to Dover. Well, we wore the polo shirts and slacks according to the dress code and we went in his LS. Well, we got there and we had VIP parking. Well normal parking was nice and paved...VIP parking was a mudhole LOL. He almost got the car totally stuck and we had to tiptoe in our dress shoes to the sidewalk. When we got there everyone else kept looking at us like we were aliens or something. So, don't go and watch in a sky suite and don't drive the Lexus LOL. You'll have a great time!

Oh yeah, I don't care about hard work. As long as there's a tangible reward waiting there for me at the end I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I'm also not overly concerned about the evenings and weekends as I view that as a part of being self employed. One of my customers that owns a car dealership once said "I'm self employed, so I'm always working" and I think thats true in a lot of fields. I like the idea of being able to say "You know, I'm not going to take this call right now" and have it be my decision with only myself to hurt in the process. As for commercial vs residential I'm still kicking that one around. Like you said the residential market is very cuthroat, especially around here. Property values have doubled in some areas within 5 years and homes for sale are scarce while theres a huge influx of people looking to buy. Commercial is a little quieter. Thats why I was pleased to know that my license will enable me to sell either side. SK- I'm gonna start out using the Lexus, then we'll see lol

Its not the credit history as much as the youth. Some companies won't sign teenagers for their own policies without having an entire year in advance.

But you have to understand there is room to negotiate on the $28k 03 he saw also. As for the pricing my car was $39,670 and I got it out the door for $35,500 in January of 2003. That was a very good deal. They're a LITTLE cheaper now and the car identical to mine tops out just under $39k. I agree with you, but a lot of people are happy to save that 20%. We have several members like that at the LOC. To me a car isn't an investment anyway and purchasing something like a Lexus is purely a luxury so why not go all out? Unless you're buying one thats significantly used and getting into it for very little money I don't get buying a used one. I could have had a 2000 LS400 with 30k for the same money as the ES, I bought the ES mostly because it was new. I don't regret it either, the LS never would have felt like it was mine.

Commissions around here aren't 6% as a rule anymore but its closer to 5%. Thing is that at least around here commissions are set by the listing agent, thats part of the strategy you can't set a commission too low in the listing or you'll make agents avoid showing it to their clients. After the sale is over you can do whatever you want with your half or whole, including rebate it back to the client. There's a company here called Zip Realty that does just that they give a "cash back" to the client of their commission. That way the property is listed high enough to be attractive to other brokers but their clients get a savings. Thats one thing that I love about real estate, there's a solution to every problem. I don't know how it is in Canada but here an agent can put 100 hours of work into one sale, if you're getting say 2.5% of a $400,000 home thats $10,000 if you have a 60/40 split with your broker thats $6000. $6000 isn't an unreasonable commission I don't think. In the US the independent brokerages have a really hard time staying in business. Thats what I originally wanted to make a goal too was to get a brokers license and open up my own brokerage but knowing what I know now after talking with people and taking this class I don't know if thats the right way to go. The #1 agent in the nation for instance works for Long and Foster right here and he does between $150-$160,000,000 worth of business a year. Thats totally insane, think about that. Even if he makes 1% of that, thats $1,500,000-$1,600,000 a year. Now, he has a team of 5 marketing specialists and agents to pay, but still. He makes more than 1% too, closer to 3 is a better figure probably, guys like him don't do commission split. Thats totally nuts. I'm not neccisarily interested in anything like that, imagine the kind of work he put in to build that business and puts in to maintain it. My goals hover around the $30,000,000 mark making $300,000-$400,000. Thats still a lot of business to maintain Making a lot of money has always been important to me but I've learned I'm not content making it and sitting around the house all day. Working for a company even in some sort of commissioned sales deal like my dad does has always seemed distateful to me. I like to be in control of my own day, if I don't want to get up one day, I don't. If I want to take off for Disney World for a week and I have the money, I do. Thats the best thing about being self employed. He makes a lot of money, but he's got to go to work every day. When I was a kid he wasn't able to go on vacation with us or he had to come for part and then leave, I don't want things to be like that for me. Great thing about real estate is that if you view it as a business that has profits and losses and pay yourself a salary out of your earnings then you can plan for these things and do them...

I don't know what happened to that post either, I never saw it. Still, what you are talking about is being a car broker, and you need a license to be a car broker. If you are caught operating as a car broker and you are unlicensed you can and will go to jail. If you're operating as a broker illegally in my area, which you would be I will turn you in myself. All that does is give legitimate brokers a bad name. Run a google search for "car broker". The exact service you're talking about is what a car broker does, I know, I used one to look for LS400s. They find the car, buy it, inspect it, handle all the paperwork etc. There is nothing new about your idea, car brokers have been doing that for decades. Here's an article all about it http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/artic...83/article.html Here's a quote from that article "Your broker should charge you on a flat-fee basis, agreed to before purchase. This way, the broker only makes money when he or she gets a great deal for you and can't drive up the fee by putting you in a more expensive car." I've never seen an auto broker operate on a commission. As a broker you must give your client the benefit of agency, meaning that you have to shop with their best interests soley in mind, how can you do that when you're charging a sliding scale of fee? This isn't a joke, becoming a broker of any kind is a serious legal and ethical commitment.

What you need to do is find a good insurance agent. A good insurance agent will go over all your options with you and reccomend a package and be fair about it, meaning he'll design a package with your needs in mind. One thing you may run into is insurance companies that don't allow you to pay monthly but require a whole year upfront. How old are you?"

Please don't type in caps.

Maybe not, but there's not a chance that I'd pay $28k for an '03 even if it had 10k miles and navi/ml when the base invoice price for an '05 is also $28k(add a few $k's if you'd go for navi/ml). Dealers are hurting in Janurary, so I'm sure they could come somewhere close to invoice. I'd live in the dark and eat Ramon noodles a few months more and drive one off the lot. ← But see, there are no base ES'. Lexus only ships the ES a couple ways, you would have to special order a new totally base ES and it would be sans HID lights, wood/leather wheel, navigation, rear sunshade. A special ordered car wouldn't be sold at invoice lol. So lets say it does have nav/levinson. Well thats a $39,000 car. The best deal you could make on it is $34,500-$35,000 thats invoice. The 2003 is still $7,000 less and thats before any negotiation on the 2003. $7,000 is 20% of the cost of a new one in that scenario! Not to mention you'd have to work to get to 35k on a nav/lev car (Lexus dealers are tough even in January) Lets say you were looking at full price, well thats an $11,000 drop in price, or 30%. 30% is right on for 2 years depreciation. The only way that can be a ripoff is if the car doesn't have nav. When you're looking at 1,2 year old cars you can always buy a new one for a few k more. I'm like you, I'd buy the new one but there are people that won't. They're not as much looking for people who can't afford a new one, just people who are happy to save the 20%. A CL or UL 03-04 LS430 will cost more than a brand new base LS430, doesn't make it a ripoff.

I didn't get any response about setting you up as an authorized trader. I'm serious about this, if you're going to discuss your business and get customers off of this forum (you already got one) then I have to set you up as an authorized trader for a fee. If you don't respond to this I'll have to insist that you stop all discussion about this venture on these forums. Anyways, vevro is right you need to do some research into what car brokers charge. 10% is fair if you were buying cars, re-habing them and selling them but 10% is outrageous for just going up and buying a car for somebody. You first said flat 10% no haggling now you're saying it varies, well thats haggling. Already you're trying to justify your fee which means its too high. If your fee is right and the service you provide is warranted and valued then you won't have to argue with people over it.

I think probably you'll have tyo wind up buying a new key entirely...

AMF- I've thought about that LOL. This is a pretty expensive,, high class area but if that proves to be a problem I'll buy something exclusively for driving people around to see properties that I can not care about. A Chrysler 300 or something. SK- You can have a realtor just close and I bet they'd do it for $200. Lawyers are just that, lawyers and it actually can be illegal for them to participate in certain parts of a real estate transaction for profit, at least in the United States. Realtors can give you advice as to market pricing, repairs that can be made and how much value they'll add to the final sale etc. Plus they market the property for you, a lot of realtors won't even show for sale by owner properties because they don't want to deal with/negotiate with owners. Generally comissions don't take anything out of your pocket, they're built into the sales price above and beyond what you want to get. For instance you're selling a $400,000 house, well the comission built in would be lets say 6% or $24,000, well the agent would list the property for $424,000. You'd still get the $400,000 you would have gotten had it been for sale by owner and you have an agent that negotiates for you and gives you the benefit of agency. Plus like I said if you're buying a property that is listed by a realtor you're paying the 6% anyway, its just all going to the listing realtor instead of half going to your realtor instead. If you're selling and your buyer has a realtor then thats still 3%. LF- Thanks! I might just do that! I really won't be doing it part time as my business that I own now doesn't take any time at all. If I do well at and enjoy being a realtor I will probably sell my other business. In this area one license is good to sell residential or commercial property (industrial is considered commercial) so in order to get it I have to learn all of the laws. So far the class has been really interesting, but its long. 3 days a week...8 hours a day. Thats a long time to sit in a classroom. I'm not sure which brokerage I want to go with yet, around here the big three are Long and Foster, Weichert and probably Prudential or Coldwell Banker. We also have ReMax, Century 21. We also have WC & AN MIller and Lewellyn which are really high line "fancy" types of realtors. I'm not sure which would be the best, Long and Foster unquestionably dominates our area but they, as well as Weichert aren't independently owned by brokers like most brokerages, they're all owned by the corporation and run by a managing broker who is payed mostly on salary. I don't know that thats an optimal setting for success. Also most of the brokerages operate on Commission Split (I'm sure you're familliar with that but I'll explain it to those that aren't) every real estate deal that is represented by at least a listing broker has a commission built into the sales price, 5,6,7,8% depending on the listing. Well if the listing agent sells the house, he/she keeps the whole 6%, or if a buyers agent sells it he/she gets half or whatever is stipulated in the listing. For agents on a commission split, their broker gets half, 25% etc of their half or whole commission. Brokerages like ReMax and some others don't have commission splits, instead you pay a flat monthly rate for a desk, a phone etc. That can be $800 or it can be $3000 depending on what kind of facility you want. Steve- Thanks! I appreciate it.

Yep, I bet its in the wrong zone. I had the same problem.

Well not really changing, more adding onto, for now. As a lot of you know I own my own business. I design customer retention and satisfaction systems for car dealerships. I've been doing this for ~3 years now and its been going well. I've however come to a point where I'm not sure where to take this business. I have it set up now where my only task is making and maintaining the relationships with my clients, I outsource all the actual work of building the materials used by my customers etc. It gives me a lot of free time, I mean a lot. I may only work 2-3 hours a day when I work, maybe 10 hours a week. That was really nice, for a while. I've also reached capacity with the people I'm outsourcing the actual work to and if I work harder to grow my business I'll need to find other sources for work. SO, I've decided to go back to school and get my real estate license and try my hand at selling real estate. I'm still going to be overseeing my business as it is (which is nice, you know I've gotten used to being able to eat). I've done a lot of research into the business and talked to a lot of people and it seems like it might be a good fit for me. Real estate agents are self employed which is very important to me but it will give me more hands on contact with people, which I really like. I've already started the course and am really enjoying it so far. There's so much more to it than I ever realized, and there is so much potential for people who are good both in personal fulfillment and in money. One thing I have learned already is...never buy a house without a realtor. It is so complicated and involves so much tehcnical knowledge and paperwork you just have no idea. What a lot of people also don't realize is if they're buying a house that is listed with a realtor then they're paying the same amount in commission to one realtor that they could be paying half to their own realtor who will negotiate and fight for their best interests. Buying a house on your own that is listed by a realtor is like suing someone who has a lawyer when you don't have one, but paying for your own anyway. Makes no sense. The job of a realtor hardly is driving people around and showing them homes and listing properties, it involves a lot of knolwedge of law and the whole transaction seems a lot more like a legal proceeding than a purchase. Its sort of like being a lawyer actually. There are a lot of legal and ethical responsibilities realtors have towards their clients (the realtor listing the house has the house's owner as a client, so when you go to negotiate with them they fight for their clients best interest, not yours. But if you have a buyers agent then you are their client and they do the same. A lot of the same responsibilities of agency that lawyers have. Even if I dont stay in the real estate business, I'll never buy or sell a home without a realtor. So, feedback, opinions or advice are welcome.

28k isn't a ripoff depending on the mileage and equipment. Remember that the depreciation on the ES isn't as steep as the LS because of the lesser overall cost when new.

Run a search for maintenance schedule, it has been posted several times before.

Yeah here it varies by state. In Maryland we pay a title and licensing fee thats $100-$200 depending on what type of tags you want and sales tax which is 5% of the purchasing price. Thats it. We used to have luxury tax of 7% on any amount over something like 35k but thats been removed. Taxes are the same used vs. new. Now in some states, like Virginia they have personal property tax and the car tax that makes it more expensive, these have to be paid every year. In Delaware there is no sales tax and all you have to pay is the title and licensing fee! I'd buy all my cars in Delaware except you have to pay taxes in the state you register it in, so I'd still have to pay the 5%. In some states you can pay whats called a monthly useage tax on leased vehicles which means you pay sales tax on each payment instead of the entire principal. In MD we dont have that, we have to pay sales tax on all leased cars same as purchased. Thats really unfair because we're paying sales tax on 1/2 the car's price that we're never going to use.

Well, you learn something new every day!