BreakthroughLuxury™ Coaching & Consulting for the luxury real estate agent

The danger of misleading headlines & discount up front fee services for selling your home-

Jack’s home had been on the market for 1 year with a disount commission and prepaid service. He had followed the advice in all 4 ‘tips’ above by ABC. First he tried tip #3, to sell your home without a real estate agent. And now, following tips #1 #2 & # 4. 

After 1 and a half years of attempting to sell and 1 year of being in the market with a discount prepay service (ABC’s ‘tip 1 & 3), Jack had finally received an offer.  The offer was 25% below his list price. 

In addition to the time on the market, his situation had become worse, his daughter was fatally ill; he had moved his family out to be closer to her treatment center. His daughter, now hospitalized, money was needed from his home sale more than ever. 

The offer he had was all cash, but it expired in an hour, and it was for less than what Jack paid for the home.  He’s panicked; he doesn't know what to do. The agent appointed as his ‘contact’ for the listing process does not know who the buyers are nor anything about them; he has not spoken to the buyers. Jack’s ‘contact’ reminds Jack that the home has had already had few showings and no offers until now. Jack’s‘contact’ reiterates, with no insight nor strategy, that “this is the best you’re going to be able to do.”


After much worry and little information, Jack, anxious, thinks about it and desperately dials and asks as many people as he can reach in the hour for their advice. With little to go on, Jack goes back to his discount listing company and says, let’s take it. 

Jack gets an email back from his discount service, now adding to his worries, that they got back to the buyer too late. “The offer expired” they write and they ‘think’ the buyer bought something else. Jack, needless to say, is frustrated and devastated. 

Around the time this offer expired, so had his listing contract, and finally, the upfront fee discount service, offers a solution.  They tell him that he should extend their listing contract for a ‘low fee’ and for ‘just a few thousand dollars more’ they’ll add a few services like a few more photos and a social media post about the property. This ‘generous offer’ is, not to mention, after a year of not selling, one low offer and in addition to the upfront fees collected a year ago along with, by the way, the commission they collected on his home purchase a year ago. All of this coming via a promise of savings on the sale of his home (“tip #2 offered by ABC). 

Fortunately, the seller decides to cut ties, cut his losses, and seeks out someone who can help him. His next call was me. He says, “whatever we do, we’ve gotta sell now.”  We have a conversation, share insights and we begin.  

I find out the home won’t sell for many reasons, a few of which include: 

• It is difficult to get the appointment for a showing. 
  
  

• At showings, the experience is less than enticing, starting with empy cold, this leads buyers to believe the seller is desparate and something is very wrong with the house

• With lack of representation and expertise by the real estate agent for the property, the rumors began from day on and have expounded. The home is rumored to be in a floodplain with astronomical flood insurance and mold (none of this is true) 

• The home has been on the market for a year, this has confirmed for buyers that all rumors, that the house is a bad buy and defective, and unsafe, as true. 

We implement my process and research to get to the bottom of what’s happening and create a solution. We get to the bottom of everything that’s gone wrong and put together the strategy, the plan, the people, the action and the steps to get the job done. These included calls, reports, inspections, staging, photoshoots, video, 3D tours, PR, ads, blogs, SEO, a custom site, brochures, targeted marketing campaigns and the list goes on. 

The day we go to market, at a the same price the property has been listed for the last year, we have 3 offers, all full price. We closed in 2 weeks cash, with the 2 full price backup contracts in place. 

By hiring an agent for expertise, Jack netted 25% more on this transaction; than he had after a year and 1 low offer working with the discount service, in his case that was $400,000 more. The all too common and pitiful advice of the Media and others who are not experts in the industry of residential real estate. 

Worse, what if he had gone to a professional first? He would have netted a lot more. 

As we all know, a year on the market with no sale is money lost and often means a sale price that is far less than it would have been. I wonder if the news networks will reimburse all of their viewers for their losses on past and upcoming home purchases and sales.