Las Vegas Discount Realtor?
Is there still a need for Las Vegas Discount Realtors in this real estate market? The premise for discount Realtors was to discount their “commissions” to make it more affordable for those sellers that only wanted to pay for certain services. So instead of providing a full service, discount Realtors only provided the services the seller was willing to pay.
Back in 2004 and 2005 when homes were flying off the market as soon as they were placed for sale, sellers were looking for discount Realtors as they knew their home would sell as soon as they entered it into the Multiple Listing Service. Even full service real estate brokerages were lowering their commissions in order to satisfy their sellers as they knew the real estate market wasn’t bearing a 6% or 7% commission. But that is just not the case in this real estate market. There is way too much inventory and in order to sell a home, it is imperative that a home gets as much exposure as possible to get potential buyers to walk through the door. Which means, Las Vegas Real Estate Agents need to market their listings, which costs money!
Many Las Vegas Discount Realtors, not all of them, just place their listings in Multiple Listing Service and wait for another Las Vegas Real Estate Agent to bring them a buyer. Unfortunately, that is not going to sell a home in this market! There are way too many homes for sale and now that homeowners have to compete with bank owned and short sale properties, it is imperative that they price their home accordingly and their real estate agent needs to get as much exposure as possible! So I just don’t see where a discount Realtor can compete with a full service Realtor and provide the same marketing and exposure the home needs to sale.
May 26th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
“Many Las Vegas Discount Realtors, not all of them, just place their listings in Multiple Listing Service and wait for another Las Vegas Real Estate Agent to bring them a buyer.”
Let the games begin!
Most agents, period, place their listings in the MLS and wait. Why? Inherent laziness. Lack of experience. THIS IS NOT THEIR FULL TIME JOB! And given time, I could come up with a few more reasons.
There is a Hybrid.
When I became a Realtor 3 years ago I wanted to offer homeowners an alternative. I wanted to separate myself from the pack. I was so proud to become a Realtor. I started off with discount realty services because it allowed me to work in volume. This gave me massive experience as I learned to work one transaction after another. Referrals would fly in. As good as I consider myself on the phone, I still prefer a referral to a cold call. Who wouldn’t?
Because of my conscience, I could never give my clients discounted service. It was my choice, not my clients, that I became a discount Realtor. They deserved no less than the best I could offer. With this thinking, combined with Internet marketing, I listed 125 homes my first full year in business and sold 50 of those.
64 of the former were a direct result of Internet marketing. 17 of the latter…Internet marketing.
What can be said about MOST discount Realtors can be said about MOST full service Realtors. I have heard countless times from prospective clients, “My last (full service) Realtor said they were marketing my home but when I asked them to show me where and how I was told, ‘Oh, in different places.’ or ‘Well we market all over but we really can’t share that information because of competition.’ (Bull$*it)
I tell my clients to Google me before they ever hire me. I want them to be overwhelmed with the amount of marketing they can expect to get when they hire me. They Google: “Richard Brain” las vegas
Make sure the quotations are around my name only as shown. I appear on the first page of major search engines multiple time (3-7) for multiple keyword phrases.
OK, enough of my shameless plug.
I not only offer full service at a discounted price, I stay in communication with my clients weekly. I ask for referrals every chance I get. I follow up on showings and provide that information to my clients in the back office of the individual property Website that I build for my clients. Staying in communication with my clients is more than a lot of full service Realtors do. What? Am I lying? Am I just making this up? My clients feel like winners because they know they made the right choice in hiring me to preserve their equity.
What’s in it for me?
My clients have no problem using me to purchase their next home. I helped them to make a bigger down payment. More of my clients are able to qualify. Even if they move out of state they trust me to refer them to an agent at their destination.
It’s all about buyer leads!
We all know this to be true, or should. I’ve had as many as 64 active listings at one time. How many buyer leads do you think that generates? In one weekend I received over 100 calls. I even taught, for a fee, I’m no idiot and I’m not leaving money on the table, a well known full service real estate company from San Diego to do what I’m doing. 16 days after our meeting I received a voice message telling me they had locked up 50 to 70 thousand dollars in buyer contracts based on the information I provided them.
Oh, and I don’t care if anyone believes it or not. I got paid $1,500 for 6 hours of my knowledge and I can prove it.
In conclusion.
I agree with your article whole heartedly for the most part. It is this general consensus of discount Realtors that I look to exploit. Everyone who survives in this industry has a niche or business model. I have mine and it works for my clients. When every other agent in town is promoting how good they are and why they are the best I take a back seat. I promote my clients property. I get their property sold. Guess what happens next? My clients promote me. So I got what everyone else was after to begin with but mine is stronger because it’s a third party referral. I don’t self promote.
Thank you for your article and thank you to all that take their time to read this. I hope this was helpful. I hope someone out there got a new perspective. There’s enough business out there for all of us. Just try to do it the right way.
To all our continued success! God bless.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Let’s not even get into the time requirements if the listing is a short sale. You’ll end up working for less then minimum wage. And as it has been implied, the whole business model is set up just to collect buyer leads… tough to properly market listings if you are running around with buyers all day.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
That is a great point Paul. Fortunately, I disclose to my clients up front that I do not do short sales for a flat fee. I explain to them that virtually no agent would go through the brain damage for less than the full monty. My prospective clients know that they will not being paying our fees. They know the banks will pay us. They hire me for my marketing expertise. I then turn them over to an agent that handles short sales. This is where key alliances are crucial.
Can I announce that it’s you, Tony?
Thank you for your comment Paul. I wish you much success!