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?
