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Is
$1,000 an hour too much to pay an agent? What about
$9,000 a day. Sounds a tad excessive to us. How about
you?
The Real
Estate News thinks it’s wonderful. In a recent
front-page story headlined “Home sold in just
nine hours,” the Winnipeg Real Estate Board’s
official organ explains it wasn’t just a matter
of good luck this home sold so fast.
No, explains the News, our enterprising agents have
spent the past ninety-nine years developing their
finely-tuned system that allows them to relieve members
of the public of $9,000 in one day.
It couldn’t
happen without them, right?
Wrong. Their finely-tuned system probably had a lot
less to do with this sale than they’d like you
to know. The flaw in their logic is that quick sales
are happening in this market all the time . . . with
or without their agents' listing service. It’s
happening to people who list with ComFree.
The
difference is that ComFree customers pay a mere $595
for the same results. The sold rate for listings is
the same whether with ComFree or the agents' listing service.
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The Real
Estate News story didn’t say what the “nine-hour
home” sold for, but if it was $150,000, the vendor
would have forked over $9,000 in commission, plus
$630 in GST, at 6% commission.
There’s
one undeniable reality in real estate: A home that
is priced according to what the marketplace thinks
it’s worth will sell; one that’s priced
too high will sit. This simple truth applies whether
the home is sold privately or on the agents' listing service.
An attractive,
properly-priced home in a good location selling in
nine hours is no big deal in this market. But this
particular home seller might be forgiven for thinking
that paying $9,000 to have an agent’s sign on
his lawn for nine hours is a very big deal.
Since
the advantages of ComFree private sale over the expensive,
inefficient commission system are so substantial,
we’ll continue to grow through good markets and
bad. And the public will continue to save.
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