Reinvention of RE wheel- Flat fee brokerage (disclosure, investment, mortgage)

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by L.A.2Orlando2Dallas

I would think that agents can't blackball fsbo/flat fee listings very easily anymore,most people look online for houses even when having an agent help them so they know those properties are available
DFW has a hot market and not enough listings so those listings will get interest and offers regardless of agents being "offended" , I also think a collapse in prices would help a company like the one mentioned,as prices drop equity evaporates and sellers might try to get more money by slashing commissions.

I think it's the other way around actually... the more a home is worth the more the flat fee saves you.

[Rakin]

Let's see how ole Alex does. He was licensed last year and per the MLS has listed and sold 1 home. He currently has no sales this year but does have 3 listings which have averaged 80 days on the market. If he closes them all he'll make $15k. Not good for 6 -8 months worth of work. He has had zero Buyers close since he was licensed.

One of his 3 listings is a $1.63M dollar home that offers the Buyers agent $5,000 commission. Good luck with that one.

Bet this Highland Park Harvard grad lives at home. He'll change his program or be working for daddy soon cause he sure ain't making any money.
His dad must be friends with someone at the newspaper to get a little free publicity. What he's offering has been tried many times, nothing new here.

[Rakin]

Talk about not checking your facts. The guy has sold 1 house (last year) and has 3 listings. He's listed 1 home in the last 2 months.

He'll be lucky to make $40k this year. Writer of the story should have asked to see his numbers and not just taken his word.

By early July, Door will have handled a dozen “sides” of transactions, bringing in $60,000 in revenue.

More important in this inventory-starved market: Doubet says he’s had twice as many new listings come on board in the past two weeks as Door sold in the past five months.

That’s giving him the confidence to project 2016 revenue of $400,000.

[lvrpl]

Originally Posted by Rakin

One of his 3 listings is a $1.63M dollar home that offers the Buyers agent $5,000 commission. Good luck with that one.

With all due respect, you're proving the point. As you imply, many (a majority?) of current buying agents are going to sandbag their clients when it comes to showing this house because they want their 3% commission (which is about $50k in this case). They're finding reasons to not show this house or subtly talking their client out of it because it's bad for their own wallet, not because it's in the best interest of their client. And not to minimize what you do for a living, but does it really make sense to command a $50k commission on this house, particularly as a buying agent, compared to the $12k you'd get helping a client buy a $400k home (and that assumes the $12k is even in line for that $400k home, which many would debate).

However, this also shows why the system is so hard to change. Most RE agents argue that because flat-fee services haven't caught on, it must follow that they're not catching on because flat fee services are obviously not as good or don't provide comparable service compared to the 6% commission model.

I would argue that premise is wrong - flat fee services haven't caught on because the current system already exists with agents as an incumbent with a lot of asymmetric leverage (particularly on the buying agent side), and not because the flat fee service is a flawed or less service-oriented model. A seller can choose to sell with a flat fee and make that agreement up front with his selling agent/service provider, but he can't really control that the buyers out there have agents expecting 3% and that subtly steer their clients to sellers offering 3%. It's sort of a self-perpetuating system that's hard to break. But it's incorrect to say that because the self-perpetuating system is hard to break, it therefore must be the superior model.

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Let's see how ole Alex does. He was licensed last year and per the MLS has listed and sold 1 home. He currently has no sales this year but does have 3 listings which have averaged 80 days on the market. If he closes them all he'll make $15k. Not good for 6 -8 months worth of work. He has had zero Buyers close since he was licensed.

One of his 3 listings is a $1.63M dollar home that offers the Buyers agent $5,000 commission. Good luck with that one.

Bet this Highland Park Harvard grad lives at home. He'll change his program or be working for daddy soon cause he sure ain't making any money.
His dad must be friends with someone at the newspaper to get a little free publicity. What he's offering has been tried many times, nothing new here.

Isn't his fee onesided unless he represents both sides? The buyer's agent would still entitled to their negotiated rate from their client

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Let's see how ole Alex does. He was licensed last year and per the MLS has listed and sold 1 home. He currently has no sales this year but does have 3 listings which have averaged 80 days on the market. If he closes them all he'll make $15k. Not good for 6 -8 months worth of work. He has had zero Buyers close since he was licensed.

One of his 3 listings is a $1.63M dollar home that offers the Buyers agent $5,000 commission. Good luck with that one.

Bet this Highland Park Harvard grad lives at home. He'll change his program or be working for daddy soon cause he sure ain't making any money.
His dad must be friends with someone at the newspaper to get a little free publicity. What he's offering has been tried many times, nothing new here.

Boy, talk about wanting to see someone fail.

You work in a contracting industry and changes are coming. You can see simply by the number of responses in this thread that the idea that agents get paid way too much commission on expensive homes is common to a lot of people. The more people learn about other options to sell their homes to keep money in their pocket, the larger the number of those types of transactions there will be.

[mSooner]

Let's see how ole Alex does. He was licensed last year and per the MLS has listed and sold 1 home. He currently has no sales this year but does have 3 listings which have averaged 80 days on the market. If he closes them all he'll make $15k. Not good for 6 -8 months worth of work. He has had zero Buyers close since he was licensed.

One of his 3 listings is a $1.63M dollar home that offers the Buyers agent $5,000 commission. Good luck with that one.

Bet this Highland Park Harvard grad lives at home. He'll change his program or be working for daddy soon cause he sure ain't making any money.
His dad must be friends with someone at the newspaper to get a little free publicity. What he's offering has been tried many times, nothing new here.

This is his third (successful, from what I can tell) business venture...and I don't think he is aiming to be the actual realtor in this business. If anything, good for him for actually getting the license and making sure he at least has the license to be in the business.

From what I know about this guy, you are severely underestimating him.

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by mSooner

From what I know about this guy, you are severely underestimating him.

More power to him. The article acts like he is "Reinventing" real estate with some novel approach. What he's trying has been tried many, many times over the last 20 years.

Maybe he wants to reinvent the cell phone and make it a pocket computer also.

[CookieBoss80]

Let's wait. Only time will tell if this is another futile effort or a real game changer.

[BoBromhal]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

I am a satisfied seller/buyer of 5 houses in different states with the standard way. I never felt I wasn't getting my $$ worth from my agents. I picked good agents, which isn't hard to do if you have a grain of sense. Disclaimer: neither I nor any family members are in the RE business.

un-possible