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.