Posted by admin on February 21st, 2007
Holding an Open House is a great way to market your home - so is the MLS
Combining the power of the MLS marketing system with a dedicated and motivated seller is a sure fire way of getting your home sold.
Real estate agents either love or hate open houses, not least as the most popular day for them from a buyers point of view is Sunday - how many realtors work Sunday ?
If you are in control of your home sale, you can list your home, and open house dates on the MLS and combine the MLS marketing advantage with the personal touch of an open house.
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Posted by admin on January 25th, 2006
Consumers Reacting to Realtor Commission Rates
Residential real estate is an industry in which consolidation and time-saving technology have not only not saved consumers any money, but also coincided with steep price increases. It is an industry that has used its political muscle in a number of states to ward off competition from discounters. And at a time when the Internet has wiped out legions of other middlemen in other industries while squeezing the incomes of those who are left, the number of real estate agents has continued to climb along with their income.
Looming large in all this is the Internet, which threatens to break the exclusive hold that local Realtor groups have had on information and information channels vital to buyers and sellers. The Internet has made it easier for buyers and sellers to go through the process without agents. And it has provided an opening for lower-cost brokers offering limited services.
Companies such as Insight Realty, serving the entire Mid-Atlantic region has averaged over 200% growth in the last 2 years with their flat fee MLS Listing services. While their marketing efforts initially focused on FSBOs (For Sale By Owners), their rapid growth indicates that all homesellers are gaining interest in these services.
Recent forums also indicate growing consumer resentment toward the current rate of real estate commissions. Of course the term current is relative in this industry as the commission rate has largely remained unchanged over the past 80 years.
An online exchange on the Washington Post website include the following exchanges:
"Thanks for finally saying what’s needed to be said for a long time. Many in the real estate industry refuse to change, continue to overcharge for services rendered and real alternatives are needed. I don’t blame them though. If I could bag a $20k+ commission on a listing that sold in less than a week with minimal effort in this active market, I’d try to stave off competition too."
"You’d think, in markets with tight inventory, full service agents would be willing to bargain on commissions. Again, a few are, particularly involving expensive properties, and in those cases you should be able to find a good one willing to go down to 5 percent. But remember, selling agents for one customers are also buying agents for another, so they may not be as desperate as you think. They have a lot at stake in maintaining the traditional price levels and disabusing consumers about the wisdom of bargaining on price. These are conversations they DON’T WANT TO HAVE."
"The real estate industry, at least here in MD, is a self regulated industry that gets huge sums of money for little work. All you need to do is understand that the settlement lawyer, who can be sued if there is a problem in the contract the agent prepared, gets about $400 for his work while the agent on a sale of a $400K home can receive 6% or $24,000. Something is wrong. If I can sell a car myself I should be able to sell a home without paying such huge fees to people who do not even require a college degree to be the experts they claim to be."
As you can see, it appears the traditional real estate industry is in for change. Let’s hope that the interests of the consumer drive the process and not the protection of an outdated industry.
Posted by admin on January 24th, 2006
Number of flat fee brokers increases along with market share.
Flat fee MLS listing has become one of the fastest growing segments of the real estate industry. Offering consumers an unbundled real estate brokerage service, flat fee MLS listing firms now provide competition to traditional Realtors in over 85% of the major metropolitan markets in the country.
As this industry segment becomes more mature, key players are coming to dominate the market. InSight Realty, a flat fee listing company serving the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast United States area from Philadelphia, PA down through Atlanta, GA has recently been named one of the "up and comers" among all brokerage firms nationwide, flat fee, discount and traditional.
With a single corporate office in Richmond, VA, InSight was paid on more real estate transaction during 2005 than the majority of real estate firms in the country - competing with traditional companies boasting multiple office locations and hundreds of agents.
Companies like InSight have one thing in common. Providing a variety of unblundled real estate services to consumers at a price commensurate with the value received.
Posted by admin on October 5th, 2005
Realtors sued over Internet MLS data exchange policy
The Department of Justice (DOJ) amended its complaint in its Anti-Trust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR), proposed policy for the display of MLS listing data on Internet websites. The DOJ’s complaint is that NAR’s proposed MLS data exchange policy would stifle competition by limiting access to information about properties for sale.
What’s at stake is the traditional "brick and mortar" brokerages control of the information within the Realtor owned and operated Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) around the country. The NAR policy would allow these brokers to "opt-out" of providing their properties listed in the MLS from appearing on the websites of their Internet competitors. It also would deny membership to MLSs for company’s with alternative Internet based business models.
Apparently a last minute modification of the proposed policy by NAR was too little, too late to avert the lawsuit. After three years of talks between the U.S. Justice department and and the NAR, the nations largest trade group with over 1.2 million members, the DOJ was forced to initiate a lawsuit to protect consumers against anti-competitive measures. The new MLS data exchange policies would have protected traditional brokerages right to a full commission by disallowing alternative competitors the right to display the data of all of the broker members of the MLS on their websites.
According to the DOJ complaint, "NAR’s modified policy, like its original policy, denies brokers using new technologies and business models the same benefits of MLS membership available to their competitor brokers, suppresses innovation, discourages competition on price and quality, and prevents new, efficient competitors from entering the marketplace - all to the detriment of consumers."
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