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Not the Office with More Agents What About the Relocation Service and The Number of Offices or Agents?
The Relocation Service
Most agents resent Relocation Services because these companies make one phone call and agents have to pay them 25% to 40% in referral fees. I recently paid a relocation service a 35% referral fee because the customer wanted to list with my company. These were previous customers who have successfully bought and sold homes with my company but because of their Employers Relocation Package, I was forced to pay 35% of the Listing Office fee to this Relocation Service because my customer's Employer was moving him! Of course I just increased my fee to cover this added cost. My Client told me the he would never dream of using another Real Estate Broker to sell his home, even though the Relocation Company tried to pressure him to use another Brokerage! You see, and just in case you did not know, One Parent Company owns the "Brand Names" of Century 21, ERA and Coldwell Banker! But all of that still has absolutely nothing to do with the sale of your home. You still need a Buyer's Agent who is working with a buyer to look at your home.
Relocation services are For Profit organizations. There are quite a few of them throughout the world. The way they work is that they have a network of agents and brokers who send them "out-going" buyer and seller leads hoping that they'd receive reciprocal "in-coming" leads in return. Relocation Services typically reward agents who send more "out-going" leads with more "in-coming" leads." Sometimes the office managers or brokers of your local real estate offices monopolize these leads.
It all sounds very impressive but Relocation Services don't do anything to sell your home. They collect a big chunk of the commission you pay to the real estate agent by simply making a few phone calls. It's your local buyer's agents who do the work. They're the ones who spend weekend after weekend driving their buyers all over town to show them properties. If anyone deserves full commission, these are the agents that do.
The Number of Offices and Agents
You must know that every real estate agent is an "Independent Contractor" meaning they don't get paid salaries and they don't have anything to do with the other agents' business even if they're in the same office. In fact, the bigger the office the more complicated the situation may be. The fact that each transaction involves thousands of dollars commission could mean whether or not an agent makes his or her next mortgage or car payment. The real estate office can be a very "competitive" environment. Brokers and office managers spend tremendous amount of time resolving this type of competitive conflict within the office.
If your agent works in a big office, obviously there's a greater likelihood that another agent from his or her office may bring in the buyer for your property. However, this has no significance in the effectiveness of your agent's marketing of your home. It's merely a probability. No matter what company has the home listed, a good Agent will show the property to their client as long as the commission paid is not cut rate in the Multiple Listing Service.
Additionally, big brokerages may not be as flexible when it comes to commission negotiation. They have tremendous overhead!
What's important is THE AGENT whom you're going to hire, not the brokerage firm. Most of the time, the brokers don't know anything about you or your property. It's important to know if your agent is experienced? Is he or she a good negotiator? Are they knowledgeable about financing, contracts, disclosures, and the legality of transactions? Does your agent have professional Error & Omission insurance coverage?
To Sell your Home I have discovered you really only need 4 things! But you have to do these 4 things correctly!
Go BACK on your brower and click on 4 Things that Do Work to Sell Your Home to find out more.
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