Inevitabilities: Death & Taxes a.k.a. No, I am NOT Rich!

It's that time of year again. Time to bend over and. . .well, those of you who are 1099ers know the next part. Tax time. Time to feel like you're getting screwed, and not in a good way. UGH. I am so scared to check my mail and see what horror awaits me in the form of 2006's 1099. I'm going to tell my accountant to be extra aggressive this year, and can provide the receipts to back me up. 2005 was my first tax year in real estate, and dammit if I didn't get reamed.

From comparing notes with other realtors, it seems some of my colleagues, who definitely make more, are paying significantly lower taxes than I am. What's up with that? To add insult, the Real Estate Board of New York is considerate enough to choose this very time of year, tax time, to collect dues. From what I can gather, they send out invoices right around New Year's, when everyone's feeling spent, literally and figuratively, after the holidays. Even a couple hundred extra dollars can really hurt around this time.

Oh well, REBNY's strong suit has never been consideration, or even accuracy when it comes to calculating dues. They sent my office all sorts of wildly varied calculations last year. It seems the longer you've been in the business, the more dues you pay. From what I can gather, they don't base it on your income, so some broker making six figures who has been in this business six years would pay the same dues as another broke ass broker who has also been doing this for six years. (Not that anyone who is doing that badly should still be in this racket after six years, but I digress.)

Which brings me to another pet peeve. People seem to think that we Manhattan realtors are rich. Folks, let me assure you that in this instance, the 80/20 Rule definitely applies. Twenty percent of the realtors are making 80% of the money. Trust me. When I tell people back home that I work in real estate in Manhattan, they have visions of dollar signs in their eyes. If only. They don't know the reality of how expensive it can be to live here, and how difficult to get ahead. How you can be about to make several thousand dollars one minute, only to have some idiot back out, or some landlord or co-op board destroy the whole deal.

Now I won't lie--when the money's good, it's good. For me, it's the best money I've ever made. (Which may not be saying much. See also my introductory post.)However, there are times when the money sucks, or doesn't flow at all. Winter is generally awful, for example. A few realtors I know get part-time retail jobs during the holidays in order to make ends meet. Those who have done well enough in the busier season just take off on extended vacations if they can.

If you're like me, hovering somewhere in the middle, you do neither. You pray that your next deal doesn't come crashing down, that you might get to take a long weekend somewhere warm, and you wake up in the middle of the cold nights, with no heat in your prewar aparment, frozen with worry. You have perpetual tension and compression in your shoulders from the strain. Just ask my yoga teacher.

Any honest realtor, if you corner him or her after a few drinks, will tell you what I've just told you. Let me put it to you this way: According to the New York Times, "28,700 brokers and sales agents in Manhattan alone and 66,700 in all five boroughs." They can't all be making six figures or higher. Sometimes we really struggle in this business. But we have to always smile in public and act like we're moguls-in-the making. After all, who wants a broke loser as an agent?

All of those perky positive "the market's never been better" realtors you hear about in the New York Times and elsewhere have a vested interest in making themselves look good, like players, and in making the market sound solid. It's how we all make our money, after all. It's spin, plain and simple. Or, as we brokers might say, "marketing language."