The Big 0%

Hurry up it is today only!!!

So you listed your home privately. Congratulations, it was probably a big step for you.

If you are like most of the people we see you have not ventured into the arena of Private Sale before. You had looked around the internet, checked out a few different sites, weighed the merits of private vs. MLS, then measured the merits of a few different companies and then finally decided on the one that offered you the biggest bang for your buck. Maybe it was the one with the most experience or the most listings locally. Either way you made your choice based on VALUE.

Your home was then listed on the internet with professional photos, virtual tours, plenty of details. It makes MLS pale in comparison (trust me I've seen some bad photos and virtual tours on MLS).

You are getting some phone calls, doing some showings, hosting some open houses. All things you were expecting to do. But then the craziest call comes in. Some agent calls you and says he wants to list your home for free. Yeah right, free. Anything you had ever heard about agents was all about money, money, money. Why the heck would an agent list your home for free?

If an agent is going to list your home for free there is going to be something in it for him. Here are some of the common situations our clients have run into.

It all comes clear when she states that in order to do this you have to do your new mortgage with them. They are also mortgage brokers. That they are going to get paid from a lender (bank) and that you will only be required to pay the 2.5% commission for the buyer's agent. Hmm, so who exactly is this agent working for?

Another instance we have seen is where an agent comes in and says he will list your home on MLS for a flat fee of $695 (+ or - $100). You can continue to do sell privately. Issue is that the agent's contact info is what goes on MLS so any interested buyers are going to call him, not you. He then shows up with an interested buyer and says he needs 2.5% to facilitate the deal. Hmm, so he gets paid up front and then still collects a commission.

What about this one. "I will list your house on MLS I just want to do Open Houses so I can get some new clients". OK so his whole objective of YOUR open house it not to sell your house but to get some listings that he can get paid on. Seems to me that if an agent is this desperate to get in your door they may not be too good at what they do. There are plenty of successful agents that have built a reputation of service over the years. Do you think they did it by spending every Saturday and Sunday in a non-paying client's home trying to get other people locked into contracts?

Don't be fooled by smoke and mirrors. Best case scenario for you is that you still end up spending 2.5% of your $300,000 house or $7,500 for something you can easily do yourself. I am not saying that you won't have to work a little for your $7,500. We all expect to work for our money, don't we?

Let's figure it out by the hour. At $100 and hour this works out to 75 hours of work. While you are slaving away for the man at your job for just under 2 weeks (hopefully you are making $100 an hour) you could have been selling your home. At a more reasonable $20 an hour you can afford to put 375 hours into the sale of your home. Based on a 40 hour work week that works out to just over 9 full work weeks. Would you expect that an agent is worth $20 an hour (just over $40,000 a year)? Would you think that you will get 9 - 40 hour work weeks for the sale of your home? And that is only if you get one of these "deals". Double it if they are your traditional 5% listings.

Here is a broker in NYC that is looking at a different value model for his agency


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