Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with agent

Can I negotiate rental agency tenant-changeover fees?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:12:42 -0800

I live in London in a flat of three, and someone wants to move out. We have someone else ready to move in. The lettings agency wish to charge £150 for swapping a person over, and £100 for admin fees. Can we dispute this, for a more reasonable fee? The fees were similarly massive when we moved in (and we paid 6 weeks rent as deposit). When I visited the building we ended up saying yes to, the agent actually never came down (the janitor let us in). In fact, the first time I ever actually saw the agent was going into their offices to sign the contract and collect the keys.

While I understand that credit checks must be done, and some phone calls must be made, I fail to see the justification for paying half a months rent to change some names on a piece of paper when I found the other tenant. £100, that's going to sting but it's doable. But £250?

Two options seem to present themselves:

1) Try to negotiate, asking them for an itemised breakdown of these costs and making a case for them to reduce the fees for good tenants who have paid all their bills on time and never broken anything or asked them to do anything or fix anything.

2) Go straight to the Landlord. Do this actually have to be done through the Agency? Problem is in this case the 'Landlord' is a big company and I'd expect they'll just want the agency to handle it and will happily pay whatever they're being extorted for, in turn.

The person moving in is having a hard enough time getting 6 weeks rent, plus one months rent up front together, without high fees adding to the troubles.

Thanks!

Small press. No, not THAT small.

256 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:47:42 -0800

As a writer trying to press into the next stage of my career, how can I emphasize in my publishing history that "small press" isn't always a euphemism for "vanity press"? Having recently completed the first draft of the manuscript for my debut full-length novel as well as a query package for a non-fiction book, I find myself about to embark on the quest for a literary agent. There is no shortage of general advice, guidance and hearsay on this subject available online, but I have a more specific problem.

It comes in the form of my publication history. I have had a couple of semi-regular paid freelance gigs writing for print lifestyle magazines. I've also made a few fiction sales to minor magazines, both print and online. No problem.

The problem is that I also wrote a novella. I thought it was pretty good, good enough to see print, but I also knew that novellas are a really hard sell. In fact, from an unknown writer, they're an impossible sell.

I lamented this fact (with no ulterior motive; I can be quite dense when it comes to business sense) to a friend of mine who was the proprietor of a successful local independent record label and events promotion company. He asked if he could read the manuscript.

Long story short, his label offered to publish the book, provided that I would come on board without charging a fee to help them make it happen. We signed a contract (which involved no financial risk or obligation on my part) and the label basically dumped some money in my lap and said "bring us a print run."

I then did all the things that someone self publishing with money from their own pocket would do and, in the end arranged for a small perfect bound print run of 500 copies. We had a launch event and I promoted the book online. The label sent me on a reading tour of Canada and the northeastern USA. The books were sold at these events, online, and were on the shelves in a few dozen, mostly independent, bookstores in the USA and Canada.

We ended up selling out completely and having to do a supplementary print run of 250 to meet demand. Eventually, that sold out in entirety as well. Both the label and myself ended up with a decent amount of money in our pockets. It was the first and last book they ever published and the label has since closed down shop.

Anyway, the problem is that there doesn't seem to be any elegant way to compress this nonstandard publication experience into a query letter. On the other hand, I think this is my most significant publishing experience and, when properly framed, reflects quite well on me as both a writer and as someone who is willing to work to promote my own work.

My goal is to:

1. Make it clear that this was not an instance of self-publishing or vanity press.

2. Maintain professionalism by not shoehorning too much autobiography into the query package (as I have done in this post).

3. Most importantly, not misrepresent (or look like I'm trying to misrepresent) this publication as something more than it was.

I fear that if I just list it as "Title of Work," Label, Year as though the label were a conventional publisher the agent or publisher may simply not have heard of, then I'm violating #3. On the other hand, if I do something like "Title of Work," Label (Small Press), Year then I'll be violation #1 unless I violate #2.

Am I overthinking this plate of beans?

Do you have to pay taxes on money paid during a seller rent-back?

unclezeb — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:31:20 -0800

You buy a house in California. You agree that the seller can stay up to 2 months after escrow closes (a "seller rent-back") if they make your (PITI) payments. Do you need to pay income taxes on the money they pay toward your PITI? Also, what was your "seller rent-back" experience? We are buying a house in California. The sellers (who are very nice) want the option to rent the house beyond closing while they look for a house to buy (e.g., a seller rent-back or Residential Lease After Sale [RLAS] agreement) for up to 2 months. If they stay beyond escrow, they will pay our PITI, say $100/day for the sake of convenient calculations.

Suppose they stay 20 days and pay $2000 toward our PITI during that time.

Is that $2000 considered our income for tax purposes? In other words, would we (in the 25% federal and 9% state tax brackets) need to pay taxes on that $2000, effectively reducing it by one-third?

I understand we can deduct our interest and mortgage insurance payments from our taxes, does that mean this comes out in the wash?

What was your experience with a "rent-back" or a Residential Lease After Sale agreement?

Query email format?

bobbyno — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 08:55:48 -0800

Should I maintain double spacing in an agent query email? Submission guidelines ask for the first 5 pages of my manuscript. How faithful should I be to the actual document? Hey there all, I just wanted to get some backup on this. I am sending a query to an agent and his submission guidelines ask for the first five pages, pasted into the body of the email.

If I was sending a copy of the manuscript in Word format, it would be double spaced. Should I send the 5 pages in the email in this format? It would be nice to get a little more content in there by single spacing it in the email, but I don't want to annoy him.

So, should I a) double space it and send the first 5 actual pages; b) single space the same content as a); or c) send 5 single spaced pages?

I kind of think the answer involves sending the content of 5 double spaced pages, I just wanted to see if anyone had any on the ground experience with this.

Thank you very much!!

He Took the Money and Ran

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:11:16 -0800

What to do about an Outlaw Agent? I work in a creative field. Let’s say for the sake of discussion I’m a graphic designer. I had an agent who would procure for me the occasional commercial gig. The agent had fallen quite behind on payments and he insisted that the clients had not paid him yet and he could not pay me until they did, which is understandable for a small company. I finally contacted the clients and asked about my invoices. They said the invoices had been paid months before. I left the agency immediately, sent a cease and desist for my works on the agency’s website and an email requesting a full accounting of what the agent owed me. I calculated this to be around $5,000, but it is likely more.
The agent skipped town (NYC) and continues to run the agency remotely. He does not respond to my emails or phone calls. It has been two months.
I would love to recover my money but am feeling this is unlikely at this point since I can’t afford a lawyer. I figure the next best thing would be to see this taken to the next level and I would like to press charges. I know for a fact that this agent has done this to several other designers to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars. I’m not sure what I can press charges for or even how to go about doing it. Do I contact the NYPD? The FBI since he’s conducting his shady business across state lines? Help me, criminal minds of Metafilter!

This indecision's bugging me....

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:58:37 -0800

I've got some doubts about our current SoCal real estate agent. At first, there didn't seem to be a problem. But recent events have made me wonder if we're wasting his time. His typical clientele is in the $600K+ range in Pasadena, but my hubby and I max out at $300k and are looking in Granada Hills, with some fairly stringent square footage requirements. At first it didn't seem to be a problem, but a few things have stood out to me and made me believe he thinks we're wasting his time.

1. He always advises us to offer at asking price or above. This seems like poor negotiation to me, but is that what we have to do in this market? Certainly it makes it easier for him if negotiations are shorter.
2. He tends to disregard our requirements. We've been out to see properties in the wrong neighborhoods, properties that have been stripped of all their copper, and other very distressed or very wrong homes. I feel like he's being dismissive of our concerns. Is he being insensitive, or just a little forgetful of our needs?
3. He keeps bringing up a 203k loan, which is some sort of double-loan thing, one for the property and one for repairs. My husband and I are only interested in 30-year fixed rate loans. Is his tendency to hype certain loan programs a bad sign?

We brought our concerns to him last week. He basically said, "Look, I sell houses that are much more expensive than this all the time. What reason would I have to lie or push you? You can take my advice or not, and in the end I'll do what you want. But I feel like I'm acting in your best interest when I tell you these things." These statements don't sit right with me because his actions don't seem to coincide with his words.

Other than these specific concerns, we work well together, but should we continue? Are we being unreasonable with our requirements? More information available from realtorindecision101@gmail.com. I know you're not my agent.

What agency is he with?

bodgy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:20:13 -0800

Are authors very private about who they use for a literary agent? I am friendly with a successful, published author. I wouldn't say we are FRIENDS, but very friendly. We've known each other for three years, communicate by e-mail several times a year, he kisses me on the cheek when he sees me, etc.

I am now in the process of writing a book that is in a similar vein to his works, but nothing that I feel I'd be stepping on his toes by writing. Given the similarity of our works I was thinking his literary agent would be someone to whom I should send a query letter. (Mind you, I am not looking to send a letter of: I'm friends with X, will you look at my book. More along the lines of: I know you deal with material such as X and as such I feel my work may be of interest to you).

However my best Google-fu has not helped me to find who this man's literary agent is.

I'm seeing this author this weekend at a professional event. I am wondering if it would be a horrible faux paus to ask him for the name of his agent. If these relationships are incredibly private (as a good agent IS hard to find) then I don't want to make him feel like I'm trying to use him; however, if they are normally publicly known then I thought I would ask.

Thanks for the help, mefites!

Photographer's agent cornered in bankruptcy filing!

tangyraspberry — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:17:39 -0800

I am an agent representing a group of professional photographers and, among other things, am responsible for billing on their behalf as well as collecting and dispersing the moneys upon receipt. I just received a notice regarding a job that took place 3+ years ago informing me that, because the client filed for bankruptcy shortly after I was paid, I have been judged as having been given preferred treatment and therefore I owe the trustee handling the bankruptcy the full amount paid, nearly $10,000.00! To make matters worse the invoice in question was nothing but the photographer's expenses. In other words, the minute I received the payment I simply turned it around and paid it all to the photographer who has long since gone his own way and isn't responding to my calls or e-mails. What, if any, are my options at this point?

Standing out, in a good way

crewshell — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:51:19 -0800

I'm in Real Estate Sales. I want to stand out & be different. What are some creative ways to capture that in my Agent photo? Disclaimer - sure some people think agent photos are cheesy and not needed and while I think there is some truth to the idea that they are overused I do believe they have a place and time.

With that being said - I do not include my photo on my card and I do not have any mugs or frisbees with my face blastered on them, but I do have a website that I want people to see a photo of their agent and I also want my automated emails to have a small shot.

So far I was thinking about taking a photo with a "For Sale" sign in it, with a house in the background. Leaning on the post, or having my arm over it or something, then a friend also suggested it might be funny to have a photo of me hugging a building or otherwise changing it up with some comical shots.

The idea here is to break the norm of craptastic blue background photos and stand out from the pack without seeming childish or unprofessional (its a thin line to walk)

Ideas?

Wondering if I can save a few bob on a housing deal

mjg123 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:46:55 -0800

You are not my lawyer filter. Can I avoid estate agent commission and fees by approaching a seller directly (in the UK)? My wife, kid and I are currently renting a 3-bed house in a small town in Wiltshire. My next-door-neighbour-but-one has put their house on the market. Can I approach them and ask if they would sell it to me under the counter, as it were? I do not know these people except to say "good morning" to, but it is totally plausible that I had heard about their upcoming house sale before the massive "FOR SALE" sign appeared in their garden.

It seems like it could save us both a few 000s of pounds, as typical estate-agency fees are 2-5%, I think.

Specifically:
1/ Am I breaking any laws by asking them to do that?
2/ Am I asking them to break any laws?
3/ Would doing this affect my ability to get a mortgage from my bank?
4/ Is there some other reason why I don't want to do this?

Perhaps it is relevant to say that this is definitely the cheap end of the housing market...

Agent for web video

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:33:59 -0800

My company (a small LLC) is in talks with a large entertainment company (very large, you have heard of them) to develop an original property of ours (internet video series). After a few rounds of offers back and forth, we have come to realize that we should really have an agent -- this is above our head, especially the intellectual property ownership aspects of the negotiation. How do we find an agent that knows and understands new media/internet video, ideally in Manhattan? Will the fact that we're already in talks with a company (with actual money on the table) help us get someone? Thanks! (Email me at metafilterquestion@live.com if you have advice but want to stay private.)

Desperately seeking Representation

Anonymous — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:47:22 -0800

I'm an aspiring screenwriter and I need help finding an agent or manager. Askme, please help! So I've been writing scripts for several years. I've written ten scripts, seven of which I would show people. I've won some honors (a Gold award in one contest, semifinalist in several others), have had producers interested in one script (They actually met with me, had me do a rewrite, on spec of course, but didn't want to proceed because I didn't have an agent) but I've yet to find an agent. I've also yet to do the big push to find someone (i.e. sending out 300 query letters)

What are your suggestions for finding one? Should I just get the Hollywood Representation Directory and e-mail everyone? Should I mention one script? A few? All of them? I actually put together a "writing resume" which lists the scripts, with a logline, the honors I've won and my screenwriting education. Should I send this out to agents?

There are also many "services" that claim to do this for you, such as Scriptblaster, for example. Are they worthwhile?

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

Our buyer's agent is selling a house we like. What to do?

Sun, 03 May 2009 17:32:19 -0800

We've been working with a real estate agent to buy a house. This agent has just listed a house we like. What do we do if we want to make an offer on the house? We have been looking at houses with a real estate agent for about a year now, here in Portland, Oregon. This past week, the agent listed a house that we really like and we are considering putting an offer on it.
We have never signed a contract with her as our official buyer's agent and we know that her loyalties (by contract) will lie with the seller.
If we want to put an offer on this house, what should we do?

Would you take this deal?

aquafortis — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:49:29 -0800

P/T rookie real estate agent in NYC: is 25% of 3% fair? I'm a freelance research analyst who's about to get my real estate salesperson's license in the state of New York to take advantage of an interesting opportunity. Someone who's involved as a partner in two unrelated corporate finance deals I'm working on offered to be my sponsoring broker and pay me 25% of his share of the standard 6% commission he's splitting with another broker for every condominium unit I help sell. Is this fair compensation for someone who's just getting started? The deal is I'd commit to two hours of on-site work per day, showing units and answering questions about the property by phone while there. Since the units average a cost of 1.4 million dollars, I'd stand to make around 21 thousand dollars on each one, give or take. Even if nothing sold for awhile, I have plenty of other sources of income, so that isn't a consideration.

I know NYC real estate law states that if you're working for commission, you can't be required to put in a fixed number of hours each week. However, I really don't have a problem with it, since left to my own devices, it's almost guaranteed I'd work far more. In effect, it puts a nice cap on the "part time" commitment, which is a lot of the reason I'd be making 25% and not more.

I'm inclined to think this sounds reasonable, especially given that the broker said it could be re-negotiated as take on more responsibilities and gain more experience. Other positives: the site is a few blocks from where I live and work, and two hours a day leaves me more than enough time for all my other projects.

I'm going to insist that everything be spelled out precisely in a work agreement --"good contracts make for good relationships"-- but I'd like some second opinions on whether or not this is a fair deal, and would be interested to hear your thoughts and experiences. If you can think of any books or websites I should be reading to get up to speed, I'd be glad to hear that too. Thanks!

Need help booking travel for two people - different return dates.

Towelie — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:06:32 -0800

Two people traveling, want to travel together, one needs to return on a different day. How to do so? Online? Phone? My GF + I are traveling from Philly to Vegas next month - we need to book our tickets (and soon!) Problem: Online doesn't get you seats next together...nor books both people easily.

We want to travel together on the leg out to Vegas (and sit together!) - she needs to return earlier (several days earlier) for work.

I'm familiar with most of the travel sites (like Kayak) - but I couldn't find a way to book both of our tickets (and get seats next to each other) at the same time (instead of book the first person then the second.)

What's the best way to go about this?

I think I want to use United - they seem to be cheapest - when I called their phone # - it was $25/ticket extra to talk to a human.

Bonus: We're using an Amex to pay for it - should we call Amex's travel services for the best deal? United? Book online?

Looking for an Independent Insurance Agent

Pocahontas — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:44:32 -0800

How do I find an independent insurance agent? How do I find out who is a good independent insurance agent? No, I didn't get any recs from friends, and I want to do this today.

Searching through the mefi archives, I see that it is very important to get an independent insurance agent before purchasing any type of insurance (looking for a lower premium on my home policy).

In the East Bay of SF Bay.

Realtors, who needs 'em?

Bardolph — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:18:15 -0800

We're considering purchasing a home by ourselves, without using a buyer's agent. General pros/cons? And if it's possible to save on commissions by doing this, how should we introduce that idea into the process? From what we've read, buyers' real estate agents are useful for:

finding houses to consider, booking appointments
providing advice during the price negotiations
overseeing the paperwork at the end.

all three of which (in this buyer's market) seem completely do-able by ourselves, with the aid of zillow/realtor.com, lots of reading, our shark-like negotiation skillz and a competent lawyer and inspector. Partly, we've been unimpressed by realtors we've seen in the past; but mostly, it doesn't seem worthwhile to pay 3% of the home price (=~$6-9K!) for services we've got pretty much covered already. (I know both commissions are technically paid by the seller... but if nobody needed to pay that 3%, then the home price could be 3% lower, right?)

Some great general advice here and here, but if anyone has firsthand experiences of going buyer's-agent-less, or suggestions on how to navigate the process, let's hear them! More specifically, though, I was wondering-- if we'd like to try to get the unused 2-3% buyer's commission taken off the home price (or refunded us by the seller's agent?), how and at what point in the negotiation process should we bring that up? Are seller's agents likely to be resistant, even though it theoretically doesn't represent any real difference to them, since otherwise we'll just bail or get a buyer's agent anyway? Any suggestions on working this maneuver out to everyone's satisfaction?

What are your favorite ABM resources?

proj — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:49:27 -0800

Looking for the best resources for learning about agent-based modeling and social science simulation. What are your favorite resources (online or offline, though online would be a nice start) for agent-based modeling and social science simulation? I have a small amount of experience with C++ (and Pascal way back in high school), though it was over 10 years ago when I took the classes, but I'm comfortable with the idea of programming. I'm comfortable with learning a new programming language but want to maximize my efforts.

Googling has produced a number of results but I'm curious if anyone feels there are especially good resources out there. Syllabi would even be nice if they include readings as well as "labs" that I could use as practice.

There's no great urgency for learning this; I'm merely trying to acquire it as a skill before I finish graduate school.

How does a kid from a South American slum become a FBI Agent?

Sully — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:54:17 -0800

I am writing a fictional story about someone who lives in the slums of some small South American country. When he was ten, during a fever, an angel appeared to him and told him that he would become an FBI Agent. He may have seen a movie with FBI agents, so he has some sense of what that means. Step by step, what does he have to do to fulfill that prophecy in a real way? I recognize that there are many challenges my character faces - reaching the age of majority, immigration, citizenship, money and resources, background checks, that sort of thing. But I am a little unsure as to the exact steps to follow for someone to completely transform their life in this way. Can anyone help? Any sort of feedback regarding any step in this process would be appreciated.

What's a fair rate to charge for booking events for Yoga/Meditation training?

Mr. Gunn — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:43:28 -0800

What's a fair rate to charge for booking events for Yoga/Meditation training? My friend has begun booking events for several nationally known meditation teachers and Kirtan performers. She does this mostly because she knows them and has great contacts nationwide, but she isn't certain whether she's pricing herself appropriately. Based on a typical literary agent fee of 12%, she's in the ballpark, but is that really relevant for this work?

See the world! I'll tell you how!

thelloydshow — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:28:29 -0800

Starting a small Travel Agency Business At the moment I'm currently studying Travel and Tourism in the hopes of getting a job as a Travel Agent and also in the distant future starting my own small agency from home.

What tips/help can I get from you guys for achieving this dream?

How would one get a travel guide published?

arniec — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:11:27 -0800

My wife and I are looking at writing a US based (lower 48) travel guide and would like any tips possible regarding getting one published, and how to make it actually happen. Having recently taken a road trip we looked at all the travel guides on Barnes and Noble's shelves, Border's shelves, and on Amazon and none covered what we wanted. So we thought "If we want it and it's not available, why not write one ourselves!

However this has brought up some issues. We both have full time day jobs, and we don't think by any means this will bring in "quit your day job" money. But to do a full 48 state travel guide we have really only two options: 1) Do it all from research, and hope the info we research is correct. 2) Travel. A LOT. Incurring a lot of expenses.

Our hope would be that we might be able to do some areas local to us (we live in IL so all of IL would work, and perhaps IN, MO, IA, and KY without too much expense or missed time from work with careful planning).

After that, is it at all reasonable to hope that first-time authors could take sample pages to an agent, have the agent get an advance against the book, and then use those funds to actually pay for some of the expenses of writing the book?

If that is entirely unrealistic, what other options do we have?

To add--we have considered writing perhaps an IL specific version of the overall book we hope to write. While far narrower in scope, we hope the material to support a book would still be there. Would that be a better way to go and then hope that based on that book we could get an agent and publisher to go for the full 48 states?

We are loathe to self-publish, even in this day and age, but does someone think that might be the way to do it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Australian Migration Agent Needed - good with Creative Industries

divabat — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 01:28:22 -0800

Where can I find an Australian migration agent who's good with the creative industries, or otherwise unusual career paths? I'm finishing my Creative Industries degree (one month then it's over yay!) and am considering getting permanent residency. My main obstacle right now is declaring a Skilled Occupation for the General Skilled Migration visa.

My degree is an Interdisciplinary one, which essentially means it's a hodgepodge of stuff that doesn't necessarily fit neatly into one job title. My submajors are CI (Arts) Management and Creative Writing. My current work placements and past work experience were usually with non-profits and/or young people, so I'd love to claim Youth Worker as my "skilled occupation" - however, the accessing body only looks at your degree, nothing else, and I don't have a Social Work degree.

Most of the skilled occupations on that list don't even apply to my degree; the ones that do don't carry any points. Considering I need 120 points, and the job carries at least 40, this will be an issue. Even if I do opt for the temporary bridging visa (to make up for lack of points), I still need to declare an occupation to work in exclusively for a year.

What I need now is a good migration agent or lawyer that is experienced with dealing with unusual occupational/degree cases like mine. They would be able to look through my course transcript and figure out which high-value skilled occupation I best fit, or find some other way for me to fit in. My dad has a friend who's a migration agent but he proved to be useless. I'm not sure if my uni's Career Service would know much about visas and migration, but it's worth a try. I don't know of too many others that could help. The one person I can think of in a similar situation to mine (originally a German student, now the Marketing officer for the youth arts org I'm interning at) has a sponsored work visa - that's also an option, but that depends on a company willing to sponsor me for a while.

Where can I find such an agent? I'm Brisbane-based but anywhere in Australia is fine. Do you know of any good agents, or resources for agents? Would any artsworker websites be good with this aspect too?

Find out a listing agent after the sale?

lemonade — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:33:27 -0800

Is there a way to find out the real estate agent who sold a property? The house down the street from me sold in 3 days, for way more than I would have thought was reasonable in this market. And now, 3 months later, I realize I should have grabbed her info while it was still posted outside the house! Is there a way I can get that information now, without asking the new owners? (If I have to ask them, I will...)

Once the script is done, what's next?

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:12:58 -0800

Let's pretend I am not too far away from completing a feature-length screenplay on spec. I live far from LA with no connections to Hollywood, and I've got very little money squared away. Once the script itself is done, how would I most effectively pimp out my product to a studio? Let me vent my frustration: every time I read a book or an article about breaking into this-or-that part of the movie business, the author has an opinion that manages to completely contradict some other author I've read. Hire an agent immediately or you'll crash and burn! Wait, don't hire an agent, send your script directly to a bunch of indie producers' assistants! And so on. Everyone seems certain that their advice is the only correct advice, which implies that either most of these Hollywood Insiders are talking out of their asses, or that selling your average script is essentially a crapshoot, or both of the above. Is the crapshoot theory correct, or can you recommend some effective steps I can take (other than the obvious: proper formatting, copyrighting, etc) to sell this script? If I had more money I would be awfully tempted to move to LA and shop around for agents, but -- at least for now -- that doesn't look entirely feasible. Send an e-mail to scriptquery@gmail.com if you like.