There are many myths about real estate agents that have been engrained in the consumer public by decades of clever marketing by the real estate industry and its huge lobbyist, the National Association of Realtors.
One of the biggest myths is that that the agent that lists your home actually sells your home.
Buyers do not care who the listing agent is. In 70% of the transactions, the listing agent is not even the agent that shows the ultimate buyer the home. The buyer typically utilizes a separate agent to show them the home and to negotiate the offer on their behalf.
One of the ways in which agents have convinced the public that the identity of the listing agent matters is to somehow convince sellers that they have a "network" of buyers just waiting for a home.
How ridiculous is this notion these days? Agents do not have some secret network of buyers just waiting for a home. Buyers no longer rely upon agents to find them homes. Buyers find their own homes on the internet.
The buying public has become extremely savvy. In fact, they are now suspicious of listing agents. They typically have a distrust for what a listing agent will say about a home. This is yet another reason why so many buyers seek representation from their own agent.
Even though a person's home typically represents their most valuable asset, selling a home is now more commoditized than ever. The proliferation of the internet and available information has made the searching for a home easier than ever before.
Today's agents are no longer expected to be salespeople. Agents today are expected to be advisers of the process of buying and selling a home. Thanks to the internet buyers and sellers can find one another without agents. They just need a little advice on how to negotiate the process.
Given that agents are now advisers and their services are more of a commodity than ever before, shouldn't their fees have gone down from their historic 6% commission model?
We believe that eventually the market will see through the clever marketing and myths created by the real estate industry and will be forced to change their pricing structure.
From the beginning Flat Fee has taken the approach that our most important role is to be an adviser and that we should charge a fair price for that service. Hence, we never adopted the ridiculous 6% pricing model and instead have charged a flat fee for our services.
To learn more about Flat Fee's pricing model, click here.
