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research the market for prospective buyers and sellers, solicit
business, provide consulting expertise, negotiate agreements with
prospective clients, and assist with paperwork, Rogers'
compensation as a percentage of petitioner's gross revenue is
"much lower than the [real estate] agents' median commission",
which is 55 to 63 percent of the commission paid by the seller to
the real estate broker.
Petitioner's experts, however, ignore the fact that the
industry publication that they relied upon for their data reports
that the median amount of the net compensation paid to real
estate sales agents in the South in 1992, who are compensated on
a sliding scale, is approximately $31,000.10 The amount of
Rogers' compensation in 1990 was $4,439,180. Thus, although the
amount of Rogers' compensation is more than 140 times greater
than the median amount paid to persons who, according to Hughes
and Benesh, perform comparable functions, Hughes and Benesh
conclude that Rogers' level of compensation is comparatively low.
Previously, we stated that the absolute probative value of
measuring compensation as a percentage of income is often minimal
when used as an isolated factor. We do not find that the data
10 The report also states that the typical established real
estate salesperson is a 49-year-old female who derives 67 percent
of her household income from the practice of residential real
estate brokerage. We have not given any weight to these
differences between the typical real estate salesperson and
Rogers.
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