Recently I came across a guy named Matt Jones who owns FavoriteAgent.com and he has a listing presentation which entails getting the listing by offering to pay a bigger commission to the buyer's agent as a bribe to generate more traffic. If you want to read the whole presentation which is sent to you via email or on their site. http://favoriteagent.com/publications/?PHPSESSID=38f51753bdb7c072d4d8abb05ebe28f2

My question is what do you all think about this approach to listing property? I also know they have a lead generation source which is basically you paying for their leads like the other lead aggregators. Has anyone tried this service or this approach to listings?

I think rather than spend your money on what Matt is hawking, you become you`re own Favorite agent and start advertsing and marketing your skills in the neighborhood you want to concentrate in! Why pay another shaman, for knowledge you already have!

I signed up for the service in September and closed a transaction this month. I forget what the costs are. From what I remember, you have leads come from Homegain that funnels into his lead management system. It's just a plain website that asks for the person's contact information. His theory was that people should log into your site before they see anything. The "moochers" can go elsewhere. Serious leads will sign up.

They key is to call each person back. Of course, a percentage will have bogus contact info. If you don't mind cold calls, it will work. Keep in mind that this is a long-term system. Some customers don't want to buy for another 6-12 months. I have a buyer's agent who calls each person back, gets their mailing address, and sends them information. She's going to keep in contact with them throughout the year.

So far, we've only had one closing, but this is also a slower time of the year. I currently have a relocation client who is coming in town on the 30th to purchase a 325k+ home, so he'll be the 2nd customer to come to fruition. He has to move to take care of his company that's located in Austin, so I'm 95% sure he'll close.

To each his own. It may not be the system for you, but it helps supplement local referrals. I'll evaluate the system in a year to see how it's paying off.

http://www.brokeragentnews.com/audio/prodserv/jones.html

Like the original poster, I would like to hear opinions on his listing presentation approach also, i.e. higher commissions = more traffic and higher listing price, so the seller comes out ahead in the end. But he never covered the problem of the appraisal coming in lower than the selling price. Also, his DOM approach is new to me. Would a seller buy into this logic or think he was just dishonestly manipulating numbers to get more commission?

I tried it for a home in a not-so-great area that wasn't getting any hits. It was for a friend, so we set the listing to 7% with 4% going to the buyers agent. We had more interest when this happened, but the home is still getting stale. Another agent also set this up with a home in a slow-moving area, again, offering 4% to the Buyer's rep. She had a few offers, but they didn't get past the financing period each time.

I think his approach can work, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to asking for 8%. I think he said if the appraisal comes in low, then you can negotiate, but at least you have a contract in the first place and it's at a higher price than where the seller would have started anyway. If the seller starts at or below market and moves down from there, it's worse than starting high and moving down to the price you wanted in the first place.

I'm bringing this thread back to live instead of starting a new one.

Here are my thoughts/ questions about the 8% listings:

Is it ethical to sway a Buyer's agent like that? What would you say?

I have taken 2 8% listings this year. It is more ethical to offer a 4% co-op than offer a buyers agent bonus that they will not write into the contract.