My name is James Dingman. I got my first real estate license in 1976 (I was 12). In a couple of years I became one of 
the first Century 21 franchisees in Georgia. After selling that office in the mid-80s, I went to work as a business consultant for Century 21 Corporate, rose through the ranks and ended my career with that real estate giant in 1995 as VP of Training. 21Plus was one of my ‘children’, as was The Sales Performance System, Quality Service Course, and dozens of less massive programs.
Since then I’ve functioned as an independent consultant to various real estate organizations, focusing on the national franchises. I’ve done projects for Century 21, Coldwel Banker, ERA, Prudential, and several others. In 2002 I did a project for the original flat fee real estate brokerage, Help-U-Sell: creating their new Franchise University. That experience changed everything.
See: I knew the traditional business model was broken. I knew that when I left Century 21 in 1995. The business had been hijacked by the agents (I stop short of saying the lunatics were running the asylum!) and brokers weren’t making any money. They had cash flow, but almost no real profit. It pained me to watch them faithfully send 6% of their gross to the franchisor while dropping a big goose egg on their own bottom line.
What I learned at Help-U-Sell was an entirely different way to do the real estate business. It is a model that consumers love and that can be hugely profitable for the broker. At Help-U-Sell, the offering is consumer centric, and the business model is broker centric. There’s a whole lot in that statement, more than would be appropriate for this ‘About’ page. But that’s what this blog is all about: The Industry, where it’s going, flat fee real estate and where it fits.
Thank you for the reconnaissance, Joe. Just last week I relocated the Set Fee Blog from one server to another. It was a royal pain in the hindside, but seems to have turned out ok. However, you’ve clued me in to the fact that I now need to check my links. Meanwhile, I visited the Real Estate Metro website. Looks like you are into a great consumer service. I will put it out there at some point in the near future. Thank you.