You worked hard to leverage your home as an investment and you deserve to reap the maximum benefits when selling! We see sellers being wooed by promises of a low listing feel 1%, 1.5% but like most things in life... you get what you pay for.
Here are some very common & misleading tactics that these brokerages use.
Super reduced advertised commissions like a 1% listing fee
Here is what they are not telling you: the fee they are advertising doesnt include the buyers co-op fee which the sellers are generally responsible for. This generally raises the overall listing fee to 3-4.5% for sellers.
Many of these listing fees do not include all necessary marketing.If you are interviewing a discount brokerage make sure their fee covers all necessary marketing required to sell your home: professional photography, signage, open houses and advertising on third party websites.
Often times these discounts are only available if your home is worth a certain value.
Some of these companies hire salary based agents. Ask yourself, do you want the person representing your largest investment to get paid regardless if your home sells or not?
We will buy your house if we cant sell it
Yes! They will in fact buy your house if they cant sell it, however it will be at a pre-negotiated below market value sales price generally around 70% of the value.
First, why start off a relationship with a professional who is hedging their ability to sell your home?
Second, if they are going to buy it below market value and resell it in the future, it begs the question why would they be motivated to sell your home in the first place?
Commissions that dont cover all marketing
So you agree to pay a commission for a concierge service which you think everything is included.Come to find out at closing you get a bill for staging, lawn maintenance and photography.
What we stand for
100% transparency.
Our commission is only paid at closing, upon successfully completing the job you hired us to do.
We give our sellers an all-inclusive experience with no hidden charges or surprises. We believe that by doing all of the right things to properly ready a home for sale and then market and advertise it, we sell more homes faster for top dollar... a philosophy that has earned us over 350 5 star reviews on Zillow and the honor of being Baltimore Countys top residential team.
Before you sell your home, interview several agents. Find out what commission they charge, what this includes and have them identify a very clearlosing m marketing process on how they are going to get you top dollar. Make sure you are comfortable with the suggested list price and the comparables they use to arrive at that number. Finally, make sure they suggest useful, cost effective tips to make your home ready to go on market!
Again, we say it all the time, it matters who you work with.If you are local in Maryland, we would love to help you with your home sale. If you are out of state we have a network of agents we would gladly refer you to!
-James Weiskerger
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