Would You Hire the Cheapest Service to Sell Your Largest Asset?

There is a perception around Seattle right now that the market is super hot and anything will sell, so why pony up for a full-service brokerage?

Consider this: Last year, 1,600 homeowners put their homes up for sale and failed to sell in the hottest market in the country. That's a huge inconvenience for those home sellers, who both lost money and now face an uncertain future.

Based on what we found, more of those failures were tied to discount brokers as opposed to traditional brokers. Since your home is your biggest asset, it is not the place to skimp on the professional you hire to sell it. For this reason, we decided to cover three things that you should consider when you are looking at a discount brokerage.

1. If you do not pay, they cannot market. If you are paying 1/3 of the industry norm for commission, that money is going to go to the brokerage and paying its people. It is not going toward getting attention to your home. Without this attention, your home will not get as many offers. If they do not have the money, they cannot spend it.

We spend about $100,000 a month on generating opportunities for our brokers, mostly off our listings.

2. You may end up doing your own work. There are different types of discount brokerages and some will have you do everything including filling out paperwork and negotiating your own deal, only stepping in when you are under contract. Others will offer better service, but you are still stuck figuring out the process on your own, which is something you do not want to do on your own.

3.  Most discount brokerages and brokers are not interested in the outcome of your sale. I cannot tell you how many times I have sent an email to a discount brokerage only to get an auto response from an agent saying that they're only available on certain days. Or, I send in an early offer only to find out that the home has been taken off of the market before anyone's had a chance to see it.

There are two different schools of thought here:

1. How do I list for the absolute lowest fee possible? 

2. How do I extract every last dollar I can out of my largest asset? 

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask. And, as always, if you are interested in buying or selling, please feel free to contact me by phone or email. I look forward to speaking with you soon.