You Get What You Pay For
You Get What You Pay For
Friday, 05 February 2010 11:40
Does saving money on commission actually end up putting more money in the Seller's pocket? You have to believe in the old adage "you get what you pay for'. Last year in Red Deer, there were 2 companies offering Sellers some type of discount on their services or a number of "packages" involving the Seller doing a certain amount of work while the listing company got paid less. On the surface this looks like you would end up keeping more of your money...BUT...according to Red Deer Real Estate Board statistics NOT SO!
Neither of these two firms had more than 1 -2% market share and neither of them negotiated for their clients a percentage of list price equal to the entire City of Red Deer Board average. In simple terms, the total number of Realtors in Red Deer sold 1,701 properties through MLS. The average list price was $302,152 and the average sell price was $293,156. That is 97.02% of list price. One discount firm offering "packages" of "help" averaged 96.01% which is $3,060 below the board average...I sure hope those people saved that much....but they didn't. The other commission "squeezing" firm averaged 96.76%. This is better...only $794 below the board average.
This gets really interesting if you start comparing these 2 companies to individual larger market share companies. For instance, my company-Century 21, averaged $1,689 more than the commission squeezers and $3,955 more than the "package" helpers for our selling clients.
Even more exciting...my personal negotiating skills averaged 98.12% of list...a full $4,109 more than the commission squeezers and $6,375 more than the package helpers and I sold more homes than either of the companies.
You get what you pay for! When you hire a Realtor you are hiring a negotiator and a market savvy person who is supposed to earn their way. ASK a few questions...find out just how savvy your Realtor is...you have the right, it's your money.
If they're willing to work for less....apparently you will be getting less!
