25 sales nets you $400 extra per sale, and then it seems to grow exponentially from there with the cars. It’s not realistic, but it can motivate people.

At $700 per square foot, and looking at the price of rents, I’d need more than a 3% incentive to personally purchase at Aura if I was an agent. People must be bringing in a lot of overseas investors.

The only surprise I found in your article is that the agent’s brokerage firm that they work for does not get any part of the sales commission, based on the math.

I assumed that the commission be split 50%, but any extra prizes would slip under the radar and go straight to the agent (the same way ordinary people collect personal reward miles when they fly for their employer).

I wish things were more transparent - if I bought a pre-sale where the agent was getting 6% or more, it would raise a red flag, but that’s the way life is.

Similarly, mortgage brokers try to get you the best rate, but their rewards vary and there is no disclosure.

(And if anyone is interested in making high percentage commissions, sell insurance!)

If developers could find a way to offer people with no representation the same discount, they would. They could also get rid of their crappiest suites to these people. But they would not to risk upsetting the agents.

I’m just glad that unnamed project went under. If they just dropped their prices by 6% for buyers without representation, would that have made a difference? Probably not. Developers are trying - registering people on their websites, but they just don’t have the direct relationship that agents have. Years ago, when pre-construction was cheap, fewer developers needed agents to the same degree as today. Maybe as the next real estate cycle repeats itself all the rules will change again…