You are not signed in. (Sign In)

I received an email from a displeased reader who also happens to be in the discount brokerage business regarding an article I wrote that was published on Broker Agents News and this blog titled, "Are you worth your commission."

In case any others misunderstood my intent, I thought I'd take this time to elaborate a bit more.

Discount brokers serve a great space in our industry, and there should be as in any other business, a model to serve everyone's needs. My comment is "getting what you pay for" was directed to any company that offers real estate services and the consumer is not aware of what they are getting, are unhappy as a result of their expectations not being met, be it discount or otherwise."? This is extremely glaring in the number of consumer

grievances and complaints filed every day with state and local associations, for which I sit on several boards. As occurs in many business service models, real hard costs drive services and our studies indicate that in almost every instance of a palette of real estate services that most agents are NOT aware of what their actual costs for services are, and in many cases are not running efficient businesses, and the agent or company can't or doesn't provide what the customer expects, and ultimately their customers don't get what they are expecting or paying for....regardless of the service model of the company. In the case of companies that offer some or partial services the consumer needs to know what they are getting in ANY service, real estate or other, exactly what the agreement for services encompasses, and we'd have a lot less lawsuits and grievances filed which incidentally are on the rise from those associations that I consult with. In any case, those diligent souls who provide good services and get paid commensurate with those services will prevail."? I apologize for any lack of clarity or confusion I may have caused, and couldn't agree with you more! I am not affiliated with any real estate company models, and have no need to criticize any particular service or company, but will champion people like yourself who offer good honest services for compensation. There are hundreds of small services across our country today"? that are offering real estate services that aren't even realtors, which was the point of my article. They adhere to no Code of Ethics and no training, but the consumer doesn't understand what questions to ask to "list" their property on a website. As you know the FSBO programs are prolific at this time in many areas, and the consumers are not getting what they expect.

Print this

Delicious Digg Reddit Magnoliacom Newsvine Furl Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati Icerocket

Posted in:

Your article titled, "Are you worth your commission" was clear and to the point. I have had numerous complaints from clients and consumers who used brokers and/or agents who agreed to charge less commission to get the listing. These very clients later called me very distressed because 'they were getting what they paid for' and very displeased as well as feeling deceived. No matter what our business is we really need to give a full disclosure to the client of what they can and cannot expect for the level of services they are paying for. That would clear it up for them and put the ball in their court. Here is an example: I did a listing presentation for a client who who had a luxury home. She enjoyed the presentation and my level of services to offer her in the real estate industry. I told her I would need to charge her 6% commission for the listing. She phoned me three days later to ask if I could charge her 4% rather than 6% and I said "no" and explained why. She then told me she would have to go with a different company who had agreed to charge her 4% to list and sell her home. I graciously told her to do what was right for her and no hard feelings at all. Three months later this same woman called me highly distressed because she had phoned her 4% realtor and asked if they were advertising her home and when were they planing to do an open house? She stated the agent replied, well we don't advertise except adding your listing on the MLS, realtor.com and a sign in your yard. Along with the agreement to a 4% listing they don't do open houses either. She was unaware of this and did not know to ask these important questions before she signed on to the 4% listing agreement. She then learned that it was indeed her responsibility for having choosen that route and I told her, 'you were getting what you were willing to pay for even though you were unaware of the lack of services involved. And the agent might have been forthright in what you could expect for the 4% listing agreement'. FSBO listings have become large in the real estate market. I have asked several of these people,"what made you choose FSBO rather than a real estate agent to help you achieve the sell of your home"? The answer is pretty much the same -- I don't want to get taken and I don't want to pay for services I know I won't get. Thousands of dollars in commission is on the line and I don't trust that my best interest is put forward in an agents mind.-- To create the best interest and trust in a client realtor relationship, it is best to be honest and upfront with your services and fees even if you walk away with no listing, they will eventually learn that they can trust you in your profession. Lee

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <em> <strong> <code> <del> <blockquote> <q> <sub> <p> <br> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <a> <b> <u> <i> <sup> <img> <object> <param> <embed>

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.