6% Can Be Well Worth It

I know, I know, I’m a broker so of course I say that. But this is not the same old argument you have always heard. I have put my money where my mouth is. Please, hear me out.
As many of you know, I just sold my own investment property. It was one of several on the block for sale. However, it was the only one that has sold in the last several months. Why did it sell? Because I hired an agent who did her homework and figured out the right price. I trusted her, she did her job, priced it aggressively, and found a buyer who saw the value in the home. For that quick and stellar performance, in a soft market, I am more than happy to pay her 6% commission.
It’s no secret that the 6% pricing structure is under fire. It has even been called a war. Brokers are doing their homework, girding for the fight.
My thought is that when real estate professionals do their jobs well, like my agent did for me, they will always be worth a lot. People who can make big deals happen are valuable in any industry.
Take a look at my current listings: every client who has let me do my job–and has taken my advice about pricing–is under contract.
Of the 20 times I have represented sellers in the last eight weeks, 16 have already gone into contract. The common characteristic of these 16 sellers is that they hired me because they trust my guidance.
The other four have had questions. They have second guessed my analysis of the market, and have insisted on high prices. As the weeks now pass without ready buyers, I believe we have watched the value of their property decline.
My job is to convince them of the reality: this market is nothing like six months ago, and the sooner we all accept that, the sooner we’ll find buyers ready to jump back in.
The moral here is that in a flat to down market, sellers need to make sure they are hiring an agent whom they trust implicitly to guide them through the process of selling. Interview multiple agents and make sure that you believe what it is they are presenting to you. Get specific data from them to support their analysis of the market and your home. Scroll through these posts for more tips including the all-important signed marketing plan.
There is nothing worse in a cooling market than being the seller who drops the price too slowly. That results in an extended process of chasing the market down, scaring off serious early would-be purchasers, and selling at a significantly lower price than if it had been priced accurately early in the process. A broker who can get you the right buyer early in the process is delivering real value.