What does Andrew do with his home after he contracts to purchase 22 Little Glen Road in Pittsford marketed through America’s Choice and Real Estate Direct through the combo program? There were three offers on Little Glen. Andrew was in a bidding war. He got the home and he learned that the seller paid a total of 2%: that is 1% to the listing agency (Susan Payne agent) and 1% to Andrew’s agent at Re/Max. So who does Andrew list with to sell his home? You got it. He lists with Susan Payne and does the same program. The result? Andrew sells his home at 107 Witherspoon in Penfield and he pays only 1%!!!. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This week, just before the closing, Andrew’s attorney’s office called us questioning our invoice. “Only 1%”, there must be a mistake. No… just a nice gift for the holidays.

17 Julianna in East Amherst just went to contract utilizing the America’s Choice/2.5% Real Estate Direct combination program. It sold in less than three weeks for full asking price of $450,000 with a total commission of 1%. I note that this home had been listed at 6 or 7% with other real estate firms without success.

33 Julianna chose to list with America’s Choice utilizing our $495 no commission, non-realtor, program. Again, great success! This home sold in less than one month for about $400,000 at no commission.

The choice is whether, as a seller, you want agent involvement or whether you want us to market directly to buyers. Have a nice weekend.

I receive a lot of inquiries and devote a lot of time to explaining our 1% Agent based MLS program. Let’s walk through it together. First, it is important to understand that 2.5% Real Estate Direct has some of the absolute top producing agents in either Buffalo or Rochester, NY. For example, Sue Chaskes with over $15,000,000 in sales in 2010 would be, I believe, the number 5 agent of over 3000 agents! Yes, number 5. Not 5%. In Rochester, 3 of our agents received the coveted Master, Gold or Platinum sales awards obtained by only a small fraction of GRAR members. It is these very agents who offer the 1% program to America’s Choice clients. My agents perform all the functions that they (or any other good agent) provide to their higher commission clients. With our higher commission listings buyer’s agents show our listed homes to their clients. My agents show the home to buyers working without an agent.

With the 1% program, buyer’s agents continue to show our listings to their clients, The seller, not my agent, shows the home to buyers working without an agent. That is the only difference! My agent still does all the work expected of a listing agent (other than showing the home to buyers working without a buyer’s agent).

Many buyers call my agents directly through the MLS. This is because the buyers are searching sites like Realtor.com, Homesteadnet.com, 2findyourhome.com, Trulia.com, Zillow, Lycos, Yahoo, etc. These buyers would all result in a 1% commission sale. My agent would do all the work, including negotiations, drafting the contracts, and getting the signatures.

Now, there is a chance the buyers like to use a certain website of a member broker to search for MLS homes. For example, a buyer may like to use RealtyUSA.com as their search website. In this case, the buyer will find your home; however, it will look to the buyer as if it was a RealtyUSA listed home. Yes, that is how the cooperative works. This particular buyer will call RealtyUSA, who will assign a buyer’s agent to show this person your home. In this case RealtyUSA receives the amount of commission you decide to offer them through the MLS computer system. Many of our sellers offer 2%.

The buyer’s agent would schedule a showing to show your home. The buyer’s agent will draft and present an offer to our agent, who goes over it with you. If accepted, you now have a completed deal at 3%. That is 1% to Real Estate Direct and 2% to RealtyUsa.

Let’s look at example of recent sales through the program to tell the story. The seller’s of 116 Twin Oaks in Gates NY chose this program. They structured it by offering 2% to buyers agents. The buyer found the home through the Internet, either through America’s Choice, Trulia, Zillow, Homesteadnet.com, Realtor.com etc. So the buyer contacted our agent, who put the deal together, drafted the contract and distributed it to the attorneys. So our seller is paying only 1%.

The owners of 5692 Carriage Ct. in Ontario NY just sold with the 1% program. The buyers were most likely using Nothnagle.com as their source to find homes. A agent of Nothnagle contacted our agent to schedule a showing. The buyer made an offer through their agent. Our agent negotiated for the sellers resulting in an agreed sale at $244,900. Nothnagle received 2% and Real Estate Direct received 1%. This is exactly as it is supposed to work.

Let me know what you think?

In real estate, everything. Just ask Steve and Kathy of 380 Rambling in East Amherst. Just last week they signed up to sell their home with America’s Choice. Within minutes our email alerts went out to those registered buyers whose criteria for a home matched 380 Rambling. By that same evening the buyer and seller were together at the home agreeing on a sale! It is all in the name. America’s Choice is entrenched and completely branded in Buffalo and Rochester. Buyers look to us a resource. Its in our name. Our professionalism. Our dedication. Its America’s Choice.

It is imperative that homeowners keep up on the actual situation affecting their sale. I implore sellers not to jump to the conclusion that because they see one or two sales they believe are comparable to their home, that their home will bring a high price.

We just went through this issue on a sale in Buffalo. We listed a home in the mid $500,000 range. The price per square foot was very optimistic. We tried to convey this to the seller, but the seller rebuffed our attempts. By speaking with agents from competing companies, they believed their home wasn’t selling because of the commission, or that we did not bring the right buyers.

We brought an offer of $500,000, with no other agent. So the net to the seller would have been $495,000 (the America’s Choice/2.5% Real Estate Direct 1% program). The offer was rejected. A few months later I saw the home listed at 6% with another firm. The asking price was $499,000???!!!. It did sell, but at $450,000. At 6% the seller netted only $423,000. Ouch.

Please read this article I found on Yahoo Finance today:
Alex Veiga, AP Real Estate Writer, On Tuesday January 25, 2011, 9:54 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Home prices are falling across most of America’s largest cities, and average prices in eight major markets have hit their lowest point since the housing bust.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released Tuesday fell 1 percent in November from October. All but one city, San Diego, recorded monthly price declines.

Eight others sank to their lowest levels since prices peaked in 2006 and 2007: Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Las Vegas, Miami, Portland, Ore., Seattle, Tampa, Fla., and Detroit, which saw the largest drop at 2.7 percent from the previous month.

Millions of foreclosures are forcing prices down, and many people are holding off making purchases because they fear the market hasn’t hit bottom yet. Many analysts expect home prices to keep falling through the first six months of this year.

“With these numbers, more analysts will be calling for a double-dip in home prices,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s Index Committee.

Over the past year, prices have risen in four major metro areas. Prices rose 3.5 percent in Washington, the largest gain. Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco also posted gains.

Some of the worst declines have come in cities hard hit by foreclosures.

As of November, average home prices in Las Vegas have fallen 57.2 percent from their peak in August 2006 and are back to where they were in late 1999. Another foreclosure hotbed, Phoenix, is down 53.9 percent from its June 2006 peak. Average home prices there are back to where they were in 2000.Miami has fallen 48.8 percent from its peak in December 2006, and is selling at late 2002 levels.

The 20-city index has risen 3.3 percent from its April 2009 bottom. But it remains well below its July 2006 peak.

Received this letter today from the YMCA of Greater Rochester:

Mr. Jed Carrol
America’s Choice
2201 George Urban Blvd
Depew, NY 14043

November 19, 2010

Dear Jed:

Thank you for your company’s leadership gift of $1,000 to the YMCA of Greater Rochester’s 2010 Invest in Youth Campaign. With the kind support of friends like you, we are able to offer programs to people who need them most…..

Sincerely,

Mary Kay Polston George M. Romell
VP Development President and CEO

We have had one of our best years financially. Given the state of the economy, I believe this is a testament to the exemplary efforts of our employees and agents. We are profitable by getting homes sold, we never make more than 2.5% commission, and we spend more per home for advertising than others.

In only one year, from November 2009 trough October 2010, 5 people on Galante Circle in Penfield/Webster have sold their homes using the America’s Choice/2.5% Real Estate Direct program. The average sales price is about $300,000, with the highest total commission paid being 2% and the lowest being 1%. This is with extremely attentive service from our agents, and the best exposure to buyers available anywhere. Wow!

Just read some of the testimonials from these sellers. Now I see we just received a wonderful testimonial from Lisa and Brian Shearer, who just sold 3 Hawkes Trail, Penfield, in just six weeks. They loved our services and the professionalism of our agent. We have sold 19 Hawkes Trail, 26 Hawkes Trail, 27 Hawkes Trail, and 40 Hawkes Trail as well, over the years. 5 homes…. 1 street. Twice!

I read that satisfying the public is not to be the goal of an organization.  You’ve heard the claims, “95% satisfaction rating”.  The goal, rather, is to create the “Wow” factor; to exceed expectations, and to have your clients feel not only satisified, but actually to feel appreciation for your efforts.

I have been receiving letter after letter expressing just that sentiment of “Wow” and “Thank You”.  Please read the letters just received under testimonials on americaschoice.com or letters under keepequity.com.  They are really something.

I”ll post some excerpts here:

Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010
1184 Brumm Road, Newark, NY
Subject: Thank you: America’s Choice & Angie Palluconi

Dear Jed

My husband David and I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed working with America’s Choice and the 1% program. America’s Choice provided all the tools we needed and made the process of selling our home so easy. We really enjoyed working with Angie Palluconi thru the MLS as well. She is very knowledgeable and professional. To say Thank You just doesn’t seem like enough.

We will certainly be recommending your program and Angie to everyone!
Thank you again. Jodi Arogast
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010
762 Grand Avenue, Rochester, NY
Subject: Thank you: America’s Choice & Sue Payne

Dear Jed
Recently my wife Christine and I had the pleasure of selling our house using America’s Choice. Our agent, Susan Payne was remarkable utilizing her years of experience and market knowledge in the listing and selling ouf our 2 family home in the City of Rochester. OUr house was on the market only 1 day and we had an offer. While the initial offer was less than we were willing to accept Sue made a very wise suggestion to have the house appraised and to present the appraisal to the potential buyer to see if he would come up on his offer

Needless to say we took her suggestion and the buyers increased the offer and we accepted!

I was amazed at Sue’s responsiveness to our many questions. She is a true professional and we have and will continue to recommend America’s Choice and Sue to everyone we know and meet to tell the story of selling our house.

Thank you Sue and America’s Choice!
Thank you again.
John and Christine Cahill

August 23, 2010

Sue [Chaskes]:

I just wanted to take a minute to send you a THANK YOU for getting us into Autumnview. [Sue sold 135 Siegfried for the Fiore's].

We absolutely love it.  The rust carpet is history!  I’ve recommended you to a co-worker along with Mike Rakowsk, Esq. (he was great, too)

Sincerely,

Frank, Valerie, Lilly & Lucia Fiore

 As the owner of both America’s Choice and 2.5% Real Estate Direct I must say how much I appreciate knowing that my personnel are on top of their game and giving so much to the public.

 We truly strive to give more service, more exposure and more professionalism, all at a better price.

Have a great day everyone.

A pile of contracts from our Rochester office  were dropped on my desk for review. I do not typically see the contracts where our sellers at America’s Choice sell completely commission free.   The procedure for the 0% commission sales is for the attorneys to draft and review these contracts.

The contracts I am reviewing have been produced from either the 1% America’s Choice/2.5% Real Estate Direct program or the 2.5% listing program.

Let’s examine a few:  148 Rawlinson, Greece sold with a buyer’s agent from Nothnagle receiving 1%.  The seller here sold in less than 3 weeks, received a great price, had the services of Susan Payne on his side for negotiations. Susan’s charge was also 1%.  What a great result.  There were numerous showings from buyers without agents and from buyer’s with agents.  2 agents, great service by all, and a total of 2%.

762 Grand Avenue, Rochester sold in less than 2 weeks with a buyer’s agent from Nothnagle receiving 1%.  Again, the seller had the services of Susan Payne to negotiate with the buyer’s agent and obtain a great result.  Susan’s charge for her services was 1%. This seller is buying a home with Susan as well. 

224 Round Pond Lane sold with the buyer’s agent receiving 2%.  Linda Lehtonen’s charge as listing agent was 1%.  Again, another great result in a short time. Two agents.  Great Service.

Of course, there were many to review where there was no buyer’s agent, so the listing charge was either 1% or 2.5% depending on the type of listing contract.   Examples include 53 Rochelle Drive for $131,000, 3929 Ball Road in Marian for $185,000 in a matter of weeks.

All of our sellers receive great service and real marketing.  We see here that buyer’s agents commissions are falling everywhere, and do not need to be 3%.  Are you still caught up in the thought process that it is the amount of the buyer’s agent commission that affects your ability to sell or your sale price?  By focusing on this aspect, you are being deflected away from asking the important questions:  Where am I really being advertised?   Am I in print in supermarkets that draw thousands daily?  Am I on americaschoice.com, one of the most branded, respected and recognized  real estate websites in Rochester and Buffalo?  Am I syndicated to the important other real estate sites (not just a list of mainly useless sites)?

Focus on what you listing agent really does for you.  Our agents and our system does it all for you.

“I need to sell fast”. That is the thought of sellers when they rationalize choosing to list with an old fashioned real estate agent they believe sells lots of homes in their area. “I would have tried America’s Choice or 2.5% Real Estate Direct BUT …”.
The “but” is typically “we need to move fast”, “we have to sell” “we don’t have time”.
So these sellers choose the agent of the neighborhood. You know these people. The thought process is that this agent somehow has “insight” into the particular area. In Buffalo there are a few high end Clarence/East Amherst agents, a few city agents, a few southtowns agents, and a couple of Snyder agents.  In Rochester there are the east side “luxury agents”, the “large agents” the city agents, etc.
Yet all around them intelligent, sophisticated people are seeing through this emotional, fear-laden choice and choosing to sell with us. The results are outstanding for these sellers. Look at these examples: The seller of 9385 Martin Road in Clarence called us. He verbalized his belief that he needed to list with a particular 7% agent who he thought sold many high end homes. Does she really? How many of her homes have been listed and re-listed? For every one sold how many have just sat on the market? Is she better? Well, he went with America’s Choice and the 2.5% Real Estate Direct 1% program. We obtained three, yes three offers, all over $375,000 and all for 1%. You can’t do better than that. Look how we sold a home on County Road for $699,000 at 1% and a home on Nature Cove for $665,000 at 1%. These sellers are made up of extremely accomplished people…industrial engineer with his own firm, Ear Nose and Throat surgeon. They think.
Look at this great story. The seller of 72 Ivy Lea in Tonawanda used this program to sell. In a matter of weeks this seller had over 50 showings from real estate agents and 50 showings from buyers directly… all this and he was not offering 3%!?! The seller accepted a contingent offer from a buyer who put their home on Neumann Parkway for sale with the same program. This buyer/seller had the same experience and took a contingent from a buyer who put their home up for sale on Highland in Tonawanda. This home sold in no time. So now all three are sold. Jeremy Bartee, our manager, handled all three sales. Ivy Lea sold for about $190,000 at 1%, Neumann Pkwy at about $155,000 at 1% and Highland sold at about $95,000 at 3% (1% to us and 2% to a buyer’s agent).
All these homes, from the $699,000, the $665,000, the $375,000, the $190,000, the $155,000 and the $92,000 all sold fast (all in less than 6 weeks), and at the highest price per square foot. So, remember the thought, “I need to sell fast so I need to list with so and so”. What do you think of that?
p.s. we have the same stories in Rochester. The agents have been selling out their inventory. We do have a better system. I know it. Our sellers know it. Real estate agents know it.