Our Tennessean newspaper did a story last weekend on home sellers who say they have saved thousands of dollars by using a flat rate listing fee broker.
I am not against saving money. In fact, I try home remedies before I go to the doctor, unless it is a serious situation. I will sometimes try to do minor home repairs before I call in a professional.
One question I had, however, while reading the article, was how much more could the sellers have gotten for their property if the home had been competing on the open market. Could they have netted more?
But to defend my full service business model is not the purpose of this blog.
If you are a flat rate listing broker, I just wonder about the business model. One reason I have never gone to that model (although I am flexible on commissions depending on the situation), is that I can't imagine taking the listing and just dropping out of the picture. I can't imagine the sellers, and buyer's agents, letting me do that. Do the sellers really do it all on their own? If you get calls wanting additional information and help, do you just refer to the seller? Do you EVER help with negotiations if things get sticky between seller and buyer?
Checking today, one flat rate listing broker here has 44 active listings. If they service all these, I wonder how they do it. If they don't service them, and truly let the seller and buyer's agent do most of the work, then how do they train them NOT to call?
Sarah Rummage
www.NashvilleRTeam.com
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