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WHAT YOUR LISTING AGENT DOES FOR THE 3% YOU PAY
Sellers paying a 5%, 6% or 7% commission to have their home merchandised by a listing agent have been sold a bill of goods. Advertising is a fig or gimmie used to secure your signature on the listing contract. Only 1 out of 9 homes are sold as a result of advertising.
The listing agent has little chance of producing a buyer as she competes with 700 - 1000 other local agents.
Advertising does not sell houses - Real Estate Professionals do!
At best, the listing agent serves as a sort of property manager while the home is listed in MLS.Sellers Want to Believe The Hype: Sellers, who have bought into the listing agent's rap about promotion, conclude more advertising means more buyers. The seller interviews many firms searching for an aggressive agent (With All the Marketing Power of Number 1!) to magically deliver a buyer willing to pay more than market value for the home. The home owner expects the listing agent to sell the home, i.e., trick the buyer and buyer's agent the property has more value than actually exists. In the real world this rarely happens. I don't know why I bought this house?! Must have been that fast talking Realtor salesperson! Agents and Buyers - Who is selling who?Buyers flock to brokers because brokers have thousands of homes for sale conveniently packaged in one multiple listing book (MLS). In addition, inspecting these properties via the comfort of the agent's car is free! It is easy for a buyer to call a broker on any day of the week to set an appointment to inspect available properties. Once contact is made, it is not uncommon for agents to show 50 - 100 homes before the buyer finally selects a home. Real estate salespeople do not sell homes with the same approach salesman clad in plaid sell cars, appliances or long distance service. Instead, realty agents perform a service of gathering and disseminating information. Buying a home is not an impulsive decision. Buyers with common sense never spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase a home as a result of the sales tactics of a real estate agent - with the exception of fraud. Buyers tell the agent where they want to look and what they want to buy. Real estate agents are merely facilitators providing the information and moving the transaction forward. When the buyer finds a home he likes the buyer's agent works in cahoots with the listing agent to negotiate the sale and share the 6% commission paid by the seller.What Sells A HomeInformation is the Key. In the early 1960's, realizing the difficulty in selling their own listings, brokers created the multiple listing service (MLS). Today brokers still pool the information and split the 6% commission paid by the homeowner with any other broker that produces a buyer. Since the MLS is not accessible to the public, advertising the home is the only way to share this information with buyers. This marketing expense on behalf of the seller, apparently justifies the listing. Promoting the home would not be necessary if the buyers could freely obtain the information themselves. The Internet is breaking down the information monopoly of MLS. The growing popularity of posting homes on real estate web sites diminishes the revenue of real estate agents. The January 15, 1999 edition of The Wall Street Journal reports most of the large, low profit brokers are now increasing their commission rate from 6% to 7% or adding transaction or global marketing fees.Buyers Come and GoBuyers have little loyalty to agents. Unlike sellers, they are not bound by a listing contract. In real estate circles the adage buyers are liars is learned the hard way by agents wasting weekends showing homes to buyers who seemingly never buy. Experienced agents call these buyers Looky Lous and prefer to work with personal referrals rather than customers who call on newspaper ads. Should an agent fail to show a house that meets the buyer's needs, the buyer will always find some other agent to show it to him. Buyers may look at homes with one agent in the morning and yet another in the afternoon and later, while driving home for the evening, they stop and buy a FSBO. Nevertheless, the buyer's agent is looking to make a commission. Time is money so the agent takes the path of least resistance, showing the buyers what they want, and moving on to the next customer. The average buyer spends 3 - 6 months looking for a home. If an agent finds a home in the Realtor database she believes meets her buyer's needs, she will show it and hope to pocket 3% of the sales price. Should an agent believe your home is overpriced, and deem it too difficult to sell, the agent will move on to an easier sale.Source: HomeExpress.com Back to the Home PageLearn More About Vallure Realty | HUD Home Listings | Helpful Real Estate Tools | Austin Sellers | Austin Area Resources Austin TX Real Estate Agent | Austin Real Estate | Austin Mortgage & Loans | Link Exchange Site Map | Bookmark My Web Page
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