Dangers of Using a Discount or Online Real Estate Brokerages
With the advent of the internet has come a range of discount brokerages and “virtual agents” created to help homeowners save some commission from the final sale of their home. These discount brokerages are often nothing more than guide to how to sell your home by owner. As discussed in our “For Sale By Owner” section, this decision often is not very safe and it does not make sense financially. We have compiled our knowledge and experience with common discount brokerages in an attempt to educate Marin homeowners.As with many service discounts, “discount realtors” most often do less work for the money. Less money is spent on marketing, less time is spent on networking and less resources are used to sell your home. As stated by world renowned economist and bestselling author of Freakonomics:
“One of the legitimate fears a client should have when using a discount broker is that lower fees translate into even weaker incentives to do well for the client.” - Steven D. Levitt
Discounted brokerages often bombard homeowners with statistics and facts based on previous client’s experiences with the home to sway future clients. As with most statistics, they should be taken with a grain of salt. Statistics can always be skewed in favor of the publisher. For more information about our experience with specific discount brokerages, please contact us.