[CAUT] finder's fees?

[Chris Solliday]

I don't believe accepting a bird dog referral fee would have precluded Kent
being offered any of this other work. It really amounts to how comfortable
you are with compartmentalizing. Personally I have no problem receiving my
5% referral fee which would otherwise go to some previous buyer or music
teacher or salesmen when I know the education I have provided has benefitted
both parties. In essence this fee comes from both parties. As Eric W has
said I then have no problem working for the buyer in additon to that by the
hour or the job. I am careful, however, to not help the seller after I begin
working for the buyer. My bird dog fee is simply for making the connection,
anything else would be in conflict or in addition to that. I could at that
point also choose to help the seller by maybe improving that piano and
encouraging the buyer that it will be great after that work is done. At that
point I wouldn't feel comfortable working for the buyer within the sale. Hey
that's where I draw the line.
In most recent years I made a fat 5 figures from referrals. So to me it's
either my new shop tool or the saleman's boat payment or the music teacher
food on the table. That's a no brainer here.
Chris Solliday rpt
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Swafford" <kswafford at gmail.com>
To: "College and University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 7:03 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] finder's fees?


> I have turned down commissions in the past. This assumes that I did
> not put great time and effort into the sale. Turning down commissions
> will discourage blame being hurled in your direction if the piano goes
> bad. I don't think commissions would be a big part of a tech's income,
> but turning them down can buy some good will. After one sale resulting
> from my introducing buyer and seller, I was hired by the buyer to do
> fairly extensive work on his new piano, _and_ I was hired by the
> seller to put new hammers, shanks, and flanges on his other piano;
> after all, he had just sold a piano so he had plenty of money to
> s(p)end my way for work on his other piano.
>
> Kent
>
>
>
> On Jun 3, 2008, at 2:13 PM, John Minor wrote:
>
> > Just curious what a typical finder's fee is for facilitating the
> > purchase of a customer owned piano. Is it a percentage of the sale
> > and who pays?
> >
> > John Minor
> > University of Illinois
>