UNBELIEVABLE!

Paying $500 Upfront PLUS $100 per month until the home sells, THEN pay another 3% at closing. That's exactly what some sellers are doing by listing with this local limited service turned into a full service company. A client of ours at S108 W39570 Oregon Trail in Eagle paid $500 upfront in April of 2010. At the end of April 2011 she was on the hook for another $1,200 and no sale (a total of $1,700 with no results)! That's when she had enough and quit the service.

Unfortunately for this seller and many others she was hoping for a quick sale and she figured that maybe the $500 upfront and another $200 to $300 accumulated by the time of a sale would be enough. What sellers do not take into account is the fact that this company is running about 70% expiration rate. In other words 7 out of 10 properties expire unsold. All the hundreds or thousands of dollars each and every seller pays upfront is lost. Gambling at a casino has much better odds.

Even the lucky sellers that sell via this method they still have to pay 3% additional at closing. Assuming 6 months of selling time ($1,200) plus 3% (for an average priced home of $200,000) the total is around 3.6%. Since the company makes money regardless, there is little incentive to try to move the properties expeditiously. One though MUST factor in the 70% that do NOT sell and the money invested by those sellers.

There is a great amount of ignorance on the part of the sellers that sign up for this outrageous selling plan. One can see paying hundreds or thousands of dollars upfront and maybe pay a few hundreds more at closing provided one had the same chance of selling as competing methods. But to pay all this money upfront without any guarantee of a sale whatsoever and get hit with a 3% additional at closing makes absolutely no sense.

You know someone who's a Realtor but do not want to list w/them.

We recently had a seller that was absolutely getting the value and savings of our program but was in a quandary on how to deal with a sister in law who is also in real estate and wanted his business but of course was charging more and offering less than Homeowners Concept.

As we have written in the past, it is quite common for sellers to know someone in real estate (there are way too many agents for the amount of sales). This could be a relative, a friend, or even the agent that sold them the home. However, the more sellers (or buyers, for that matter) investigate Homeowners Concept, the more they want to work with us. The savings in commissions is certainly a consideration but the fact that we bring to the table many more years of expertise and a high volume of sales than the average agent trumps the competition.

In this case, the sister in law has only been in business for 4 years and last year only closed 4 homes - a little less than average - and much, much less than an average Homeowners Concept agent. With our suggestion, the seller offered his sister in law an incentive that if she rounds up a buyer for him he will pay her a bonus commission (which in effect will be double the commission cut she was going to receive from her broker). This works like a charm and sellers get to keep the relationship/friendship intact and enjoy listing commission savings plus higher expertise! Of tens of the times this has been offered by sellers in the past it has never come to pass. Nevertheless, true friends/relatives understand business and the fact that you need the profit for themselves and family.