all the major real estate companies offering flat fee programs at http://www.progressivehomesellers.com

It's no wonder why all the one sided discount brokers aren't gaining marketshare now you have brand name companies like century 21, coldwell banker, remax, era, competing for the lowest fees.

It won't be long 'til most of the agentsi in this business all turn into flat fee discount brokers.

We don't need assist 2 sell or help you sell when you have remax and coldwell banker agents charging and doing the same.

The only way to fix this is by reducing the number of fly by night agents in the business.

What's really interesting is that these agents are subscribing to a referral service for flat fee listings. So they make even less than what is shown on the site. The next time we look to point fingers at a discount broker, look at the guy sitting next to you first.

Do discount brokers really provide the same service as full-service brokers? I can't see how if they're not earning enough money to cover the expenses involved in getting a home sold. By the way, I visited the website for details. While the seller pays a flat listing fee, they still need to offer a commission to the buyer's agent. So the seller is only getting a deal if the property is selling for more than $134,000.

I also wonder why a seller would pay for service in advance. Do they get their money back if the home doesn't sell during the listing period? Full-service brokers don't get paid unless we get the home sold, which is why you can bet we do what we have to get it sold. That way, there's never a risk to the seller.

It looks like they're a referral company so they can't collect a fee upfront without getting licensed in every state. They are referring these leads out so I imagine the fees are collected at closing by the receiving agent.

The appraising end has seen the exact same "race to the bottom of the barrel" with fees and service. But now lenders are taking notice, actually LOOKING at the quality of work, and are filing complaints. I was happy when I got a notice that my state license fees were going up, I wish it were about a thousand dollars a year! But none the less, a lot of newbies who jumped in in 00-02 are leaving due to starving, or having been "black listed" from lenders approval list. The management companies who have tired to take a cut of my sales commissions and appraisal fees have made their lot as well. They have always gone with the lowest bidder, and have gotten exactly the work they pay for. :-)
So since the flit has hit the shan, my biz and sky rocketed! REO's are up, and lenders are calling me because they know I buy. Appraisals are up, because they know I give them the real numbers. If YOU continue to offer top shelf service, let your buyer and previous client know what is going on, and keep your finger on the pulse of your local market, you will not need to worry about the discounters and the Race to the Bottom of the Barrel!

Rock on! I've gotta go, had three deals tank this week and I need to make up for lost ground... need to buy 2 before the weeks end.

I'm in an area that had a glut of Assist to sell until the market changed. All of the Fsbos are listing now. I haven't gone after them yet, but if I find I need business I will. I am still listing at 6.5 it's all in how you present yourself to the buyer. I had one buyer call me of of Craigs list and ask me to list for 3% because Remax had offered it. I explained that my Brokerage is full servive. I got the listing yesterday after a listing appt. explaining the difference.!

It says somewhere on there that they take their fee out of the closing proceeds

Coldwell banker, ERA, Century 21, REMAX, they are all full service. But that hasn't stopped some of them from doing flat fee for a $3000. What this site has done is put all the "discount" brokers on notice that the big boys are discounting too. Another thing I noticed is ALL THESE AGENTS are a top 2% producer in the country.




I'm actually loving this because now we can move on without all the discount name calling. I'd like to see agents from every company charge as they see fit. I'm not a discount fee broker but I'll discount my fees every now and then.

Once we can get all the low quality agents out of their hiding at the big names the public will be able to judge agents on their own merit.

The irony here is these agents are top producers and they're discounting because they are on a higher commission split. They can afford to discount while the new agent on a 50-50 at the same company won't be able to compete.

There's a new war going on now and it's not between discount brokers and full service brokers but between the top producers and the new agents at the same company. Top producers are cutting their fees while newbies are screaming they're better because they charge more..

I'd really be interested in knowing if the "name brand" companies are on board with this program or if this isn't just another lead generation scheme hatched by some tech guy to sell leads to agents.
Here is a link to some problems this company had about a year or so ago
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/252172_realestate15.html?source=mypi

That problem was over two years ago looks like they fixed it by getting licensed. They were probably trying to do what housevalues.com do today which is sell leads to agents but collecting at closing.

The "brand names" have ALWAYS been in the lead hustling business but probably not this one. I personally don't see any difference between a third party or a corporate office selling leads to their agents.

What I thought was interesting about this is there are still consumers that beleive $1500 is too much to pay agents. One lady in the interview questioned what the company did to earn $1500. But she used them anyway.

The writer did a good job explaining the positives and negatives. Progressive is no longer charging 1500 so that must mean they've learned a thing or two about charging too little.
The going fee is $3900.

I'd love to see all the lead hustlers be put out of business in one way or the other. But I noticed that the first thing people ASSUMED was that these guys were discount brokers turns out they are the top 2% producers.

Is this where we're headed now? The top 2% producers are discount brokers and the bottom 98% agents who can barely make it in the business are full service providers?

I checked out Century 21 Click It's almost articulate website after seeing some of their signs near me. They charge even less of a flat fee, as low as $299. Their information says "you can charge 2% OR LESS IF YOU CHOOSE" to the agent that sells your home. Can't help but wonder why the franchise allows their name to be watered down this way.

To survive. An Assist-2-Sell recently opened in my area and already has 30+ listings which is about 5% of the market. Not bad for only being open 3 months. If you eliminate cost as an issue, its a no brainer for the client to pick a "big" agency instead of a "small" discounter.

From C21's point of view, if you can take away some of a discounters listings, you may be able to hurt them enough to force them out of business and/or maintain your market share.

The franchise is a business model that is owned and operated by competitors. Within these competitors are agents that are competitors of each other.

Competition is what is driving down commission. IT'S NOT DISCOUNT COMPANIES IT'S COMPETITION PEOPLE. COMPETITION CREATES DISCOUNTS. We will see more discounts because even the top producers are discounting.

I think the growth of assist 2 sell and help u sell companies has peaked. Everybody is going to be doing some discounting to survive.

The franchise knows that with the internet they can lose brokers in a matter of days so they'll do whatever it takes to keep collecting their 5% royalty fees.

Andrew,

Here is my 2 cents worth.

There are two main reasons that a seller will list with an agent:
1. They trust that the person they list with will get the job done
2. They like the person

Here is how one person can deal with that:

1. Develop a booklet of real testimonies from all of the people you helped over the years. This book needs to have picture testimonies of people that have their name and phone numbers and signed by the people. These are easier to get that you may think. They carry a lot of weight (Social Proof)
2. Develop a track record of homes that you sold, and put the record time also and you could call it “87 Reasons to Choose Andrew to sell your house” (use the number of homes that you sold) 1. 2334 Rose avenue SOLD in 23 days etc.
3. Build your presentation around personal communications with you personally not a paid by the hours assistant that has never done a complete transaction. Don’t say anything bad about the competition just focus on all the great things that you do.
4. Cause them to doubt that a team can get this done
5. Offer a guarantee to sell it in 29 days or you will reduce the commission by…

These are of course examples above. If you’re new to the business you can get with your broker and see if they will let you put together something similar with company stats. Just don’t say it was you, say we sold, we did etc. Always be honest!

Be strong, passionate, and show your sincerity and conviction that you are the best thing since sliced bread, and you are “All That and THREE Bags of Chips”

Smoke these people Andrew!

Tony Zito
tmzito@bellsouth.net

In my previous business, the discounting came from people who didn't have as much experience or a track record, and didn't do as good a job as people like myself who had had the training and number of years in the business. It came from people trying to break in. Once they were in, they wanted to make money too. And the ones who didn't last, well, the client generally got what they paid for. Here where I am an agent there is one company that consistently gets full commission, rarely discounts even 1%, and has a ton of well priced listings. When other agents go up against them, one of the only things they can do is cut the commission.