Discounts?

I give money back to my buyers and I advertise that I do. I am able to do this because my arrangement with my broker is different than most agents. Let's face it, we all give part of our commission to someone. I just choose to give mine to my clients.

Let me ask a question, the average agent gives 50% of their commission to their broker. An agent like myself pays my broker $75.00 per transaction, who has more money in coffer to market your home?? Who can afford the extras like a personal website with the address as the url, professional videos on YouTube, high density magazine ads, Harmon homes, featured listings on Realtor.com, home staging, virtual tours, I even help my clients make repairs and paint their home with my complimentary concierge service.

Just something to think about.

First of all, for Andrew Lietzow, I enjoy your responses and sense a kindred spirit there. Although you sense a reduced appreciation on GRIs and CRSs, you are getting the education, making the contacts, so you are receiving the lion's share of the benefit of those courses--- keep up the good work.

As to 'discount' vs 'traditional', I have reduced my commission on some clients, but I don't know how to reduce my concern that a transaction is completed properly, or to reduce my liability for a transaction. I can't care 75% or 85%; call it a character flaw. Can you imagine that insurance commercial with only one hand out  to hold you?

 

There a re couple of companies here that advertise full service for a discount.  When you drive past their listings the signs say for sale by owner.  I am sorry, but that is not my idea of full service.

You can charge any fee you want, they are negotiable and the market will decide whether you are worth it.  The part that irritates me is when someone false advertises their services.  To claim they offer the same service as me and then hand the seller a sign and send them on their way.

With more and more focus on service and amenities in other areas of the market, it's no wonder full-service real estate brokerages are going strong.  We actually take listings at what may be considered 'higher' than the norm and most people choose the higher levels even after asking for a 'reduced' fee!!

Although it is more important to sell our service (which I think we all know that...we give good service...well, I do  HA!) there is a difference with a high market such as ours.  The commission here will ALWAYS come up during my listing presentation (I take everything with me in one crack because our market is so competitive with MANY agents in a small area) because it is VERY high for a home that is priced high at market value.  In fact, our listing agreement has the whole shabang on commission right on the first page...

As far as discounting the service we give if the commission is negotiated to a lower price...I think we all agree our service will not be less "quality"???

And I agree with Randy on the ads that say full service and hand them open house signs to do a "for sale by owner" with the company name on the bottom....what is that?

 

Asking the sellers to choose certain levels of service as compared to a price list empowers them to be involved.  Sometimes it seems like the agent lists the property and sails away; the sellers don't see the individual tasks that are part of the commission fee and which may be left out of the 'discount'.

I promise my clients to not use jargon that will confuse them, but to give them pertinent information all along.

Tony- This will always be a hot topis especially as more low fee companies try to catch a part of the market.  I jsut receive a flyer for one of our local.. low fee companies and the misinformation/ actually lies ..as part of their  why use us feature was unbelievable.   As Sally noted in higher priced markets fee  are always a concern.. but you get what you pay for.. I just pointed out to a client what they need to do to save almost $80,000 in up front taxes ... no one else told them that.. not even their tax man..but they think my fee is too high..