Never List For 6%
Educated sellers who understand the process of listing and selling a home would never
list with a typical 6% Realtor. The typical Realtor who charges 6% is referred as a "6% Realtor".
They prefer to call themselves "Full Service Realtors" to make it sound like they are providing more than
what they are.)
There are very few things that a 6% Realtors can provide compared to us. Many services we can provide
at a fraction of the cost.
In fact, the chances of selling your home faster or for a better price are reduced by a 6% Realtor.
The main reasons are:
- The single most important factor that generates showings and
offers is the price. If you are paying a 6% commission, you have to price
the property high to cover the cost. By listing with us, not only can the listing
price be lower, but when a buyer contacts us about your home, we refer that buyer
directly to you. This allows you to save another 3% when no buyer agents are invloved. You would not be
able to do this with a 6% Realtor. Even if you sold your home to your sister, you still must pay 6%
- When a buyer contacts a typical 6% real estate office
after seeing a yard sign or on the internet, Typically, the email or call is treated as a
lead, not as a buyer to direct to your home. The agent answering the phone makes
the same commission if he sells any listing. the focus is not your home, the
focus is on turning the caller into a buyer-client. The agent may answer a few basic
questions about your property, and then move on to questions such as, "How soon are you needing to find something?";
"What is your price range?"; ; "Do you also have a home to sell?"; etc.
This is why many people have their home listed with a 6% Realtor without any
activity. When they finally decided to drop the price and list with us to get more for their home,
they get showings and offers right away. Sellers never try calling the phone number on their agent's yard sign
pretending to be a buyer as a test to see how the call is handled. We suggest that you should try it to see how it's handled.
Our yard sign direct the calls directly to you, so you will never miss a buyer's call
Completely One-Sided Listing Agreements
Most people probably do not know that the standard listing agreement that all 6% Realtors
use states that if the house sells while they have it listed, you pay 6%. If they
do nothing more than put their sign in the yard and enter the listing in MLS, it's
still 6%. Even if you sell the house to your neighbor, your sister, your friend and the Realtor
had absolutely nothing to do with making that happen, you pay 6%. It's unbelievable that many sellers
sign the standard 6% Realtor listing agreement, most probably never read it. It's completely one-sided
in favor of the Realtor. Worst of all, once your signed the listing contract, even withdraw it from the
market will not let you off the hook. You will not be able to list it with anyone else
before it expires. If you sold it within the original expiry date, you
still must pay the original listing agent the 6% commission. If you ever need to
do a 6% listing, do it only for 30 days, and extend it for 30 day at a time if
you see the agent is actively marketing the home for you. Or you demand to
always build in a un-conditional withdraw into any listing agreement.
The 6% Realtors' dilemma - Sellers are more educated today
The sellers are getting more educated and savvy today. Experienced and educated sellers realized that the
6% Realtors can't really provide much more than we do. Some 6% realtors get very creative with their Sales Myths
to convince sellers to list with them. Here are the some of the most common Sales Myths that 6% Realtors make
to convince a seller they should list with them instead of someone like us:
Sales Myth: Our company has a well-respected name in the business,
so buyers feel more comfortable with us.
Truth: Buyers don't care about the company who has the listing;
they care about the property. The buyer is not buying a car, which a BMW 740
is better than a Toyota Corolla. Branding of a real estate firm has nothing to do
with your property.
Sales Myth: If I have your listing, I'll "market" your home.
Truth: Most 6% realtors seem to like vague and non-committal words like "market".
If you ever hear this, do ask, "What specifically would you do?" Don't let them off the hook when
they give you more vague answers. Probe further and insist on quantifiable specifics! such as Open Houses, Professional Photograpy,
Realtor.com showcase, Listing syndication, Performance Reporting, Flyers, Videos, Virtual Tours, Texting Service and etc. The more specific
the better for you. Most of these services we included in our flat fee, or at very low cost. Many 6% realtors only take a few poor
quality pictures with their own digital camara, put it on the MLS and call themselves a full service realtor. If you ever going to do a 6% listing,
insist on 30 days listing with weekly open houses, extend only when the agent hosts open houses every week.
Sales Myth: If you list with one of those discount outfits,
you are going to get "blackballed" and no agent is going to show your house.
Truth: First of all, if you follow our advice and use our
real estate company sign and follow the standard showing
procedure for your area, Realtors would not know that your listing is different from any other listing.
Second,even if they could somehow tell the difference, it really wouldn't matter anyway. Buyer's agents are indipendent contractors.
They do not have any obligation to their broker or other big monopoly listing agents. All buyers' agents care about is getting
their commission, and they WILL show your house since they are getting exactly the same commission with our listing as any other listing.
The only agents complaining and making up "blackballing" stories are the local monopoly listing agents who can't get 6% listings so easily any more,
and they don't normally work with buyers at all. They go to funeral homes, local churches, sports events to get listings only. They reply on buyer's agent
to sell the homes almost 99% of the time. They quickly put a "SOLD" sign up as if the listing was sold by them.
Sales Myth: We have a tons of buyers referred to us from our company relocation
business. It seems like that the odds of finding a buyer are better if they list your house.
Truth: Any buyer agent gets the same commission no matter where the buyers come from. Sometimes a relocation
referrals cost buyer agent 25% to 35% of their share of the commission. It actually hurts the agents if the buyer are referred
by their company referrals. Even if they list your home, there is still no incentive for their office agents to sell the
your house over any other house on MLS. A good question to ask an agent who gives you this mthy is, "Bring your buyer over, you will get paid"
Sales Myth: We'll enter your listing in a sales book which is distributed
to hundreds of supermarkets all over the area.
Truth: This is a favorite Sales Myth of some bigger agencies. If
you've ever seen one of their books, you'd know it contains little useful information
and is designed to promote their office and their agents. There is no address or detail.
Typically there's a small property photo, and a one line description like "Big yard
– bring the kids & pets". Even if it had some useful information about your home, the time
lag between printing and distribution (greater than 6 weeks) makes it useless. Many of the books come out quarterly,
the information may already be 4 1/2 months old when it's picked up. Do you notice that each page always has a big
beautiful photo of the agent. The goal is to promote the agents and office, it's not for promoting your home.
Sales Myth: I'll send an email to every realor in the MLS so
they are aware of your house.
Truth: Active agents subscribe to the MLS and send buyer new home alerts automatically.
Email new listings to all agents simply annoy other realtors, and make them dislike the
spamming agent. No legitimate agent reads this spam. If agents have buyers looking
for a particular type of property, they search MLS, not their spam emails.
Sales Myth: I network with other realotrs, therefore I'll get the word
out there about your house.
Truth: Absolutely ridiculous. Agents who are busy working with
buyers don't have time for tea parties or bowling tournaments or other functions
to rub elbows with other agents. Realtors who have time for tea parties are typically
new and inexperienced and don't have anything better to do than "networking" with
other agents. Agents working with live buyers use the MLS to search
for homes, not trying to find homes from some neophyte agent at a bowling alley.
Sales Myth: We'll hold an open house and send mailers out to
the whole neighborhood.
Truth: Although open houses are important to get buyers into the door to see your home,
it's also realtor's chance to meet prospective buyers. Most of the time realtors are doing the open house to give you
the impression that they are actively marketing the home when they are actually
just promoting their own business. We believe that as sellers you can hold open houses just as effective as any realtor, and
if you get a buyer yourself, you can save the full 6% commission
Have you heard any interesting Sales Mythes lately? If so, please Email
info@realmartrealty.com
to us so we can add them here!
Be aware of any long term listing agreement that you can not withdraw unconditionally
Many 6% agents play tricks to get your listing, and then "hold
it hostage". First they say whatever is necessary to get your
listing, even tell you your house is worth more than it really is.
They usually do a 6 month or more listing term, ao they can convince you to lower
your price later on. Perhaps you don't want to reduce your price, or maybe you think
the agent doesn't know what he's doing and you want to list with somebody else.
If you want to cancel your listing for any reason, they demand a "fee" to compensate
them for all their "hard work" and expenses before they cancel your listing. This
is often thousands of dollars. The reason this often works is that no other agent
can enter your property in MLS when there is another listing active in the system.
If you want to get rid of the agent, you need to "pay them off". Please ask for unconditionally
withdraw clause in your listing agreement