Well, I’m ashamed to say it, but the proof is in the pudding. Offering more money to buyer agents really does work to get home sellers more showings for their homes. Dramatically more. Look at this.
I had a listing that was priced well in a tough neighborhood. Tough meaning we had 114 competitors, with about 15 selling per month and 15 new listings coming on each month. We knew we had our work cut out for us, so we bumped up the buyer agent commission. Our thought was that this would get the house more showings than if we offered a more average commission (Keep in mind there are no set commission rates in South Carolina. All real estate commissions are negotiable.). A month into it we’d averaged one showing per week.
My sellers really needed a contract, so after a month we dropped the price quite a bit (several thousand dollars), left the commission and incentives alone, and waited. We got another 5 or 6 showings during the next month.
Again we dropped the price (several thousand dollars). We were at the bottom line for my sellers, so we had to take the buyer agent commission down to a more average rate. This price put my sellers and their house at the top of the list for value in that neighborhood. Guess what happened: NO SHOWINGS!!
Like I said, my sellers really needed a contract, so we had to come up with a strategy to get buyers to the house. We decided to go back to price number 2 and up the buyer agent commission beyond what we were originally offering. We almost doubled it. We made the changes in the MLS late on a Sunday night. Can you guess what happened? First thing Monday morning, 9 a.m. (are there really real estate agents working at that hour?!), A SHOWING! And that afternoon, A SHOWING!
I couldn’t believe it. Frankly I was very disappointed. No wonder consumers have about as much respect for real estate professionals as they do for used car salespeople. After seeing this, we’re disgraceful.
