I am taking a cue from our Toronto Real Estate Board president and decided to write this post .The question , How much commission do you charge?
Being actively marketing in print media and websites ,sometimes I get call from sellers who do not know me,and the first question they ask is How much do you charge?
Now I know that these sellers are not worried about the marketing aspect or how much they actually net in their pocket ,they just want to know the commission,thinking that all Real estate agents work equal and nothing can be done to fetch more money for their real estate investment.
Each real estate agent develops a unique marketing strategy with services that they include when selling property. Knowing this, the first question I am surprised that a consumer does not ask is “What services will be included in the commission that I will be paying?” Each successful Realtor I know, has developed their own technique that they use to accomplish a successful result.
Before the discussion begins please realize that the listing agent, who collects the commission from the Seller, usually offers half of that commission to the Buyer’s agent. That agent needs to be out in the marketplace daily, viewing listings, guiding and presenting successful offers for their clients. Please note that no commission gets paid to either until the property closes successfully. Not many business models exist where all the work has to be completed before any money changes hands.
I cannot speak for what other Realtors provide, but here are the services that I include for my half of the commission.
1. I am a big believer in staging so I offer all my clients a written consultation with a home stager at my expense.I use Style It Sell It .
2.Floor plans allow a prospective buyer to imagine their furniture in the property so I pay for the Home to be measured. There are also some Buyers who can only justify asking price in relationship to square footage ,especially in case of condominiums.
3.Property photos are hugely important in today’s marketplace so all my listings are professionally photographed at my expense, and featured with Virtual Tours.
4.Your property will be on TorontoMLS and on REALTOR.ca but they will also have virtual tours and professional photos as well as professional floor plans attached to the listing for both Realtors and the consumer to view.
5.I am known for providing Open Houses, Not just regular open houses,I also do 24 hour open houses by making walk thru video tours of the property and putting the link on YouTube.
6.Announcements of new listing and their Open Houses are broadcast on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more.
7.I long ago realized the importance of the Internet so not only are properties placed on the TorontoMLS system, they are on REALTOR.ca , shared on the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Internet Data Exchange or IDX, they also appear on my sites: www.TheTorontorealestate.com as well as Re/Max website . All these sites are optimized professionally to be on the front pages of the Search Engines in the top 30 Categories of search terms for Toronto Real Estate.
8.I am available always and have a assistant who handles extraneous appointments, database and follows up with showings and updates.
9. I provide free printed feature sheets to be placed at the home,with floor plans ,survey,utility bills etc that can help buyer to decide.
10.I also provide an independent pre-sale home inspection so that sellers can fix any deficiencies and if they are some left then the buyers can know them and make an offer in accordance.
11. I also offer free advice from our mortgage broker ,my office manager, lawyer,home inspector, home stager anytime during the listing period.
12.I happily work with other agents in facilitating offers on your property to get you the best price possible in Today’s market.
Now decide if I am worth every penny I charge .
Please let me apply for the job of selling your property.
Best of Luck and visit my website for Toronto Homes for Sale
