Rhonda Duffy

What is a discount Realtor?

I hope that everyone knows what a Realtor is, but in case you are not familiar, a Realtor is an agent who pays for a member designation from a club if you will of agents and brokers who are sworn to abide by a certain code of ethics. Any real estate agent and broker can be a member and most agencies encourage such.

I chose this topic of discount Atlanta realtor based on search terms that the public uses when searching to employ an agent to sell their home. But I am curious about how this term came about.

I have found that most of the public believes that a Realtor is every agent and every agent is a Realtor. Almost as if the designation of Realtor is the title given to anyone who passes their real estate license. I know the public is confused because I have asked them and I have never been asked if I am a Realtor.

But the bigger term that I find interesting is the word "discount". What is discount? Webster's dictionary defines it as: an amount deducted from the usual list price. Here is my point. Real estate commissions are not standard. In fact, fixed listing commissions are illegal. So, if discount means deduction from usual list price, i.e. commission price, and the term usual discount is not even legally possible, then the word discount can't be applies in real estate.

So, I believe what the public is looking for is someone who is flexible in their commission or someone who is offering a commission plan that suits what the seller thinks the commission should be? And the only broker and their agents that would not fit in the category of discount broker or discount agent would be the broker and their agents that charges the highest commission ever heard of and paid by a client. What is that? 8, 10 or 12% listing commission. Once again, since there is no standard pricing, no one knows what that price would be. I have heard of some of those being quoted, so really anything less than those lofty prices is established as and should be considered a "discount". So that really makes virtually every agent a discount agent.

Now, no where in Webster's definitions of "discount" does it say that you get less service than what is provided to those who pay the highest price. Nor does it say that you get less of a product, it just says that "discount" means that you pay less than usual price.

I think that before we confuse the public anymore with words that don't mean what we mean them to say, we had better get some new words that mean what we say.

Making money on your home is key to many of you. My clients report that they simply would not consider owning a home that they did not make some profit on. The thought of taking a check to closing is repulsive. Here is what I want you to know about making money on your home.

The obvious things about home ownership that make you money...

• The whole time that you live in a home, if it is your primary residence, you are saving on your taxes. In other words, you can either use your money to pay for a place to call your own that you are buying, or you can pay more taxes.

• The home ownership experience lends itself to your higher self-esteem. Self-esteem will lead you to making more money in all aspects of your life.

• The home gives you a place to do all of your handyman experiences on your own dime with your own result of profit, or not.

• As your mortgage payments are made over the years, your equity stake in the investment in your home, in most cases, will rise and your debt will fall.

• Keep your home maintained the whole time that you live there.

• Keep your home clean and especially clean it well when you are selling it. Clean homes make 3 to 4% more money than dirty homes.

• Market your home at a high price instead of what your naive neighbors or low-balling agent of the neighborhood recommends. Go with your gut and go high. You will never get a high price if you don't ask for it.

• Sell your home with a listing company that has low listing commission fees. Most homeowner's profit is used up in selling commissions. You now have alternatives.

• Sell your home Staged and maybe throw in some furniture.

• Get every tool available to make your home look its best on the internet. Virtual tours, Staging, Videos and anything else that you can find. The first showing to potential buyers is on the internet. By the time that the buyer comes to your home in person, it is really the second showing.

• Offer a home warranty in lieu of some of the inspection items. If this is not enough for the buyer, tell them that you will give them 5 service call deductibles to cover future costs.

To make a good deal on the sale of your home, it is imperative to make a good deal when buying it. Use an experienced agent to help you buy. They are a valued resource and cost you nothing. In fact, in my company we split out our commission with our buyer clients for helping us find them the home.

When buyers come to your home it is critical to know how to talk to them. Here are some guidelines that will help you connect to them and pass along the fond memories that you have collected over the years in your home.

Start the process by telling the buyers that you are going to let them walk through first and then you will take them on a quick tour and let them know the important things about the home that brings value to the home.

Rule 1 - Don't ask personal questions like:

Where do you live now?

Have you sold your home yet?

Can you afford my home?

What do you do for a living?

Rule 2 - Don't follow them around on their heels. It is perfectly okay to know where your buyers are in your house, but they need space to see the home.

Rule 3 - Don't talk during the walk-through. Let them ask you questions. They don't need a tour guide on the first round.

Rule 4 - Make your tour for them reflective of important things that they can't see or that are not obvious that brings value to your price. You can also add cards to the areas of the home that you have added upgrades. Hang them on the wall.

Rule 5 - Get their phone number and ask them when you can follow-up to see if they have interest.

Rule 6 - Call all buyers back if you add an incentive or lower your price.

Rule 7 - Hand all buyers a letter that you have written to them as potential buyers wherein you have answered any questions or objections that they may have about the home.

Rule 8 - You might consider putting your photos and flyer on a CD and giving this to your buyer.

Rule 9 - Feed the buyer cookies or something if you can during the visit and have them sit down. Talk about your family cookie recipe, your family etc... not about their house hunt.

Rule 10 - Sitting down brings me to my last suggestion, tell the buyer to please sit in each of your rooms so that they can see the rooms from all angles.

Rule 11 - If you are having a second showing, ask your best neighbor to stop in and say hi to you so that you can introduce them to the neighbor.

The point to all of this is that you should allow buyers to connect to your home and somewhat to you. Buyers want an emotional connection that allows them to feel confident in their house purchase. Avoid your own curiosity to ask questions and put on a show instead!

If you are showing your home and an agent is there with the buyers, still follow these rules if you are home.

Real estate can be a very lucrative business. Or, it can be the death trap that many an agent experiences as is evident as this present cycle of real estate corrects itself. Learning to be profitable is not that hard, but it does take a different mindset than what other agents before us could comprehend.

For some reason, real estate is perceived to be a service business. Yet, much of the "service" is really emotional counseling. If you look at the counseling business itself, they are not paid when the patient has a "result". They are paid as the service of counseling is performed, and they are paid right then.

But if you really think about how real estate is set up, or at least how it has been set up in decades before us, real estate the way we know it is really just gambling. Now, how many people do you know make a great living from gambling? A consistent, real living? One that their family is not ready to commit them for, either to a mental institution at worst for being crazy enough to try it or at best to Gambler's Anonymous for rehab for keeping with it. So, here it is in real estate for years where we have listed sellers, who may or may not sell, and/or work with buyers who may or may not buy. Service or gambling, I think the answer is the latter!

Now, here is where profit comes in. Profit to me means that I am making revenue beyond my expenses. Revenue to me is not based on gambling. Revenue is based on me performing good work for my clients and my clients paying me for that good work at the time that good work is performed. Very few transactions in business are based on gambling. You can think of a few, but even if you got a bad haircut, you are still supposed to pay the barber after the service is performed. Attorneys take retainers but don't guarantee the result. Your accountant does your tax return, but does not guarantee that you will pay no taxes, and yet, they expect payment after they have performed the work and some expect it before they do the work.

Again, profit is when you make money beyond your expenses on a consistent basis. This means that when you do the work that you promised to perform, you are paid, no matter what. There are no ifs, ands or buts. If someone wants to pull his house off the market, after having it listed for only 3 months you are paid. If a buyer decides not to buy after you have shown them 16 houses, you are paid.

If this makes sense to you, say AMEN! We are in agreement!

Sellers all over the United States look for buyers everyday. Here are some ideas for finding them. And, know that there are plenty more ideas other than these to find buyers, you just have to think out of the box to find them. So, as you read this, if you are in need of some buyers, open your mind and let's go get them.

You Tube video posted on You Tube and everywhere else you can find to post video. Make the video with your camcorder and load to You Tube or get a Flip camera (they are very affordable and extremely easy to use) and load directly with its software.

Make Google Ad Words for your home and post your video.

Make a flyer and carry it with you everywhere you go to give out.

Hold an open house and dinner for your neighbors only so that they can tell their friends and neighbors about your home.

Make a website for your home with a photo album and advertise the site in newspapers, both big and small, that are cost efficient.

Of course make sure that you are listed in the FMLS and MLS.

A virtual tour on Realtor.com will make sure that you appear in a search query before your competition, those without a tour in your price range, does. Virtual tour companies will put you on their website too. Homescenes is an excellent choice for a virtual tour company.

Post your flyer on any bulletin board that you can find, including your work bulletin board.

If you have a neighbor that works somewhere with a bulletin board, ask them to put your flyer on their board.

Post your home on every for sale by owner site that you can find.

Put signs everywhere around your home.

Hold open houses any time of the week that you are home.

Ask other neighbors that are selling to hold open houses too at the same time and advertise that you are having a neighborhood-wide open house.

Stage your home and get your stager to put it on their website.

Advertise your home on TV.

Advertise your home in any home magazine that allows searching by location.

Consider holding an auction like the one in the book How to Sell Your Home in 5 Days.

Advertise your home to extended stay hotels, if they will allow you.

Hopefully, you are getting the idea that anywhere you want to put your home, helps you in the long run since we don't know when, where or who your buyer will be.