Still, Century 21 has a big market to educate: Only about 15% of Chinese buyers use a broker, compared with about 90% in the U.S. For those franchisers that can navigate China's ways, the prizes can be big.
And, many brokers say, compared with the square footage of a co-op or condominium, a town house offers a bargain.
Although home prices are 12percentt higher than they were a year ago, the rate that prices are increasing actually seems to be cooling a bit, brokers say, compared with the rise of 20percentt at the beginning of 2003.
Ultimately, she added, echoing other brokers, comparing the values of resale condos with new ones can be as futile as an analysis of apples and oranges.
Now it has 240 brokers in the city, compared with 154 for Cushman & Wakefield.
According to the Financial Research Corporation in Boston, 68percentt of the cash Americans funneled into 529 plans in 2002 passed through commissioned brokers and financial planners, compared with only 20percentt in 2000.
The commercial occupancy rate downtown is 70percentt, up from 50percentt a decade ago, according to local brokers, but still low compared with Norwalk, a rehabiliated port town in Fairfield County, about 90percentt occupied.
Tellingly, that still makes it by far the industry leader, even though it has a staff of just 15 and has to make what money it can from the float on clients' cash holdings (which puts it at a further disadvantage compared with traditional brokers, who pay interest on cash).
Even with the commission and listing fees, which are much higher than the 1.25percentto5percentcommissionssion and listing fee of 25 cents to $2 that eBay charges, most eBay broker users come out ahead, compared with what they would pay an offline consignment shop.
