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3.75 Realty Group in NJ Revolutionizes Real Estate Commissions

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with 3.75 Realty Group

3.75 Realty Group in NJ Revolutionizes Real Estate Commissions

 

Typically a real estate firm charges a 6% commission to list, market and sell a home.  3.75 Realty Group, headquartered in Cresskill NJ is providing full service to their homeowners and charging a 3.75% commission.  Most transactions are a result of the listing broker and a participating MLS broker, 3.75 Realty Group strongly believes their philosophy works as a long term solution and grants 2% of the commissions on their listings to the participating brokers.  They pay the participating firm more than what they keep for themselves.

They perform all the marketing traditional brokers do - they actually exceed most: They have open houses, printed brochures, do direct mail, traditional print advertising, place the home beautifully on the local MLS and syndicate their listings on over 36 web sites - they actually do more than most traditional brokerages and they're doing it for less.  Their Bergen County and New Jersey listings are represented extraordinarily well.

"We know there's been a correction in real estate and also in most industries," obsrerved Renee Milliaressis, one of the investors in 3.75 Realty Group, who is also an advertising executive, "everyone is working harder for less, shouldn't Realtors do their part?"

Once you understand how technology has drastically reduced the expenses related to running a real estate firm the 3.75% model makes even more sense.  The internet has saved Realtors an immeasurable amount of time.  Once Realtors drove their clients to perspective properties, now they can be simply previewed online and easily eliminated or included for closer more personal inspection. Print advertising, once a huge portion of the marketing budget for Realtors is now much smaller and the internet allows for a far greater reach and a more targeted one - all at a fraction of the cost.  The internet has also drastically cut the cost of mailing and general printing.  "We've always had Realtors in our industry who aren't full time professionals.  They could sell a home once a year, often a friend's home - and if it was a $2 million dollar property walk away with a tremendous commission.  No one else can work so little and earn so much...why should we?  We want to earn plenty of money, we just believe in working for it.  This is why Realtors have a poor reputation, the public perception is they don't earn their salaries.  We simply have a model that's more in line with how the rest of the world works," concluded Milliaressis.

Another advantage of the 3.75% commission comes at the negotiating table.  The homeowner, when paying 3.75%, essentially is keeping more of their equity - as opposed to it going to a broker, so they have a bit more room to close the deal if necessary at the negotiating table.  If the deal requires $5 or $10 thousand dollars it's not nearly as big a concession for the homeowner.

3.75 Realty Group in New Jersey will be leveraging technology and a carefully assembled team of proven Realtors who are dedicated to providing as much value as possible to each of their clients.  Their goal is to to develop long term relationships.

Almost all real estate transactions and the Multiple Listing Service are based in cooperation between competitors.  When one office lists a property for sale, more often than not, another firm brings the buyers that make a transaction.  The two firms and thier agents divide the commission3.75 Realty Group will list their homes for much less than the traditional commission, then, in turn, pay the cooperating brokers a greater share of the commssion than they themselves take.  "Our belief," explains Milliaressis, "is that incentivizing, motivating and treating our industry partners well is a major benefit to our homeonwers and will be a boon to our long term viability."

For more information on 3.75 Realty Group, located in Bergen County NJ, contact them at 201-266-8200 or visit their web site at www.375realtygroup.com.

 

Scott Godzyk
Godzyk Real Estate Services - Manchester, NH
One of the Manchester NH's area Leading Agents

All properties are not creted equal, some call for more marketing , advertising and time than others, the concept sounds good in planning, but i can forsee a loss on some listings. The biggest problem is how many buyer agents will overlook a listing offering 1.875 commission to the buyer agent?

I know that with some listings that are taking longer to sell even when priced right 1.875 wont cover the office expense and paying the agent the listing/sales commission.

Mar 27, 2011 12:53 AM
J. Philip Faranda
Howard Hanna Rand Realty - Yorktown Heights, NY
Associate Broker / Office Manager

Good luck to you and your firm, I hope you can make it work. I am across the river in New York and operate a different model but I think there is room for everyone's new ideas and creativity. 

Mar 27, 2011 01:48 AM
Anonymous
Brad

Way to de-value our profession.  I hope all the other agents boycott you.  Idiots!

Mar 27, 2011 07:34 AM
#3
3.75 Realty Group
3.75 Realty Group - Cresskill, NJ

Thanks Philip for your supportive comments. 

Scott - interesting point. We actually pay participating brokers 2% - more than half the 3.75% commission and more than we accept.

Brad - You're proving our point.  The backbone of our philosophy is to serve the public and NOT ourselves.  You're suggesting agents boycott us; that's illegal and unethical but even more importantly it doesn't serve the public.  If we're not serving the public, who are we serving?  Aren't we supposed to show all relevant listings to our interested buyers and therefore serve our homeowners.  Realtors don't have the best reputation (see the latest Harris Poll) and perhaps, if we'd keep our eyes on the goal, serving our clients and customers instead of serving Realtors, (ourselves) that would improve.  The NY Times, on January 28th wrote an article about 6% commissions and how negotiable they've become - one of the quotes from the article;

“At a certain price point, 6 percent just feels vulgar,” said Kathy Braddock, a founder of Rutenberg Realty.

We don't live, work and exist in a vacuum Brad.  If we offer value to the consumer don't you think were raising the image of all Realtors?  Of course your comments bring up another point; civility.  How we speak and conduct ourselves is not only a reflection on us personally but also professionally.   It can affect how the public sees you and also how the public views Realtors, but that's a separate post.

Mar 28, 2011 03:51 AM
Anonymous
Tenafly homeowner

Kathy Braddock was talking about 6% being vulgar on multi million dollar properties and her point was that yes they are not charging 6%. You are twisting her words. I know Kathy and have sent her this blog entry.  She will not be happy that you are quoting her and leaving out part of her quote. That is unethical.

Also, most full service Brokerage houses charge 4% to 5% commission.  When you write that they usually charge 6% you are talking about several year ago.If you don't even know what is happening in your own industry, you should not be writing about it.  Plus, all the Brokerages now put the listings on mutiple internet sites. 

Mar 29, 2011 02:13 PM
#5
3.75 Realty Group
3.75 Realty Group - Cresskill, NJ

We obviously feel all people deserve a good value.  We work in a higher income area of the country so many of our clients have multi-millioin dollar homes but many have smaller, modest condominiums - both deserve our best service at our best price.  Many of the big firms hold their salespeople to the traditional 6% - we've managed many of those offices so we speak from experience.  Why is it so hard for the real estate community to put the consumer first?  That's our core philosophy - put the consumer first. 

Apr 01, 2011 12:44 AM