Broker’s Best

 

Dear Broker/Owner,

This week we share ideas from two successful agencies that are cutting back — on listing commissions and mortgage rates — in order to move forward.

Veteran broker finds success with
1.5 percent commissions

Way back in 2000, Maryland broker Don Snider knew unsettling trends were roiling the brokerage industry.

“I saw the company dollar going down, and I saw costs going up,” Snider says in a recent article in our print publication Real Estate Broker’s Insider.

His solution? Launching a discount company whose agents work from home offices.

Snider offers three tips to remaining profitable with 1.5 percent listing commissions.

• No open houses. They attract browsers, not buyers.
• No print ads for individual listings. They’re costly and don’t produce results.
• No desks for agents. Agents work from their homes and cars, which cuts overhead.

Broker sparks interest by cutting mortgage rate

The Minnesota housing market has been ice cold, so the state’s largest brokerage spent much of July touting its “Red Hot Offer.”

The deal: buy a home through an Edina Realty agent and use Edina Realty Mortgage for the loan, and Edina will knock a percentage point off the interest rate for the first year.

The deal is a way to both spark some sales in a down market and to boost agent’s comfort level with the in-house mortgage company.

“It’s been quiet this summer,” says Edina general manager Barb Jandric in Real Estate Broker’s Insider. “If they’re thinking about buying and there’s a $100-a-month savings, I think it’ll make a difference.”

I hope that these ideas have given you some food for thought and action until the next edition of Broker’s Best.

Sincerely,

Sharon F. Benigson
Editor, Broker’s Best

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