This post comes to us from the BoomTown blog:

Thanks for joining us for Part Two of our "Everything You Need to Know About ISAs" series. In Part One of our series, we discussed the differences between licensed and unlicensed ISAs. We will continue this series by addressing some questions regarding training, compensation, and virtual assistants.

How Do You Pay Them?

Mike Grbic, the guest speaker in a BoomTown U webinar series "Ignite Your ISA Model," discussed his pay structure, among other things. He found it problematic to have a commission-based salary for the ISA. First of all, some agents expressed negativity over having to split their hard-earned commission. Secondly, the ISA's role is not only to contact but also to nurture leads. The average lead spends approximately eight months in the database searching for homes before an agent can close a deal with them. A commission-based worker is less likely to take the time and focus to incubate those leads. Mike found that ISAs who were hired on a consistent wage were better at long-term nurturing compared to commission-based agents who focus on, and cherry-pick the "now" buyers.

Though there are a few brokers who do prefer to pay their ISAs based on a percentage of commission, more brokers are starting to employ a pay structure that is based on an hourly rate, plus a flat dollar amount per pre-qualified appointment (for example, $15/hour plus $50 per pre-qualified appointment). This is a good pay structure because it rewards the ISA for something they themselves can control, as opposed to the closing of a deal which depends more on the agent.