San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Just 3% is more than enough these days unlike past years.

I think SDR only asks 2% no?

3% including buyer's agent fees or just for the seller's commission.

Sam there are many brokerages out there who you can work with and save alot of money on commission. Help U Sell and Assist to Sell are just two of them to name a few. There are other independent guys like myself and Rustico who posts on here also who charge very low commission compared to the large traditional brokerages. The common thread to all of us is that we do not control the coop commission (aka the commission on the buyers side) for transactions. Still you can indeed save alot on commission while still insuring your transaction conforms to all DRE laws and documentations, and not have to go with one of those FSBO type of sites or agencies.

Adam, You had a "Help you Sell" office, what did the average of both commissions & selling fees to Help You Sell come out to total, about 4-4.5%?

Oh hell no. In this market you want to make the buyer's agent take 3.5 to 4%. If priced right, they will beat a path to your door.

PadreBrian it sounds like you have listed alot of homes.

Rus - Help U Sell pricing was one of my biggest beefs. Don't get me wrong, I thought most of the franchise owners were really good guys, very bright, competent, etc... In fact the Poway owner Gordon Kane is a very nice guy.

Getting back to the pricing model. When I owned my franchise in PQ, all of the franchisees had this "fixed fee" model which wasn't fixed at all. Basically it was a tiered system which on the average the price was about 1.2-1.3% on the listing side. I felt that this was a somewhat misleading way to market things but corporate pretty much shoved it down our throats. So yeah if you add another 2.5-3 for the CBB you get 3.7-4.2%. I like the I Pay One model. It is easy to understand and cannot be confusing even to an imbecile.

Personally when people ask me what the buyers coop should be my answer is that we look at the homes that this persons home is competing directly against and after evaluating those competing homes, then we decide what the CBB should be.

One of the biggest misconceptions, such as what PadreBrian has wrote, is that buyers agents tote thier buyers around by the nose. Those days are long gone. What is more apt to happen these days are that buyers either use the autosearch the agent sets up for them, or they drive thier own buyers agents by sending them thier own searches from SD Lookup or Redfin, Zillow, or wherever.

Basically buyers are now so informed by listings that are all over the internet that you are essentially throwing away money by offering an outlandish CBB. My personal thought is to be competitive and if you want then yeah err on the high side by a bit.

Make NO mistake though, pricing and the condition of your home are WAY more important then the CBB.

I second SDR as an excellent choice. I have never met this person and only know him through his posts here. I find him admirable in his ability to say what he considers to be the truth - whether it is to his financial benefit or not. That is exactly what you want helping you make the biggest financial decision of your life.

That is an advantage of the net - you can gain insight into someone without being swayed by their appearance or persona.

SDR, Can I talk to you (by email/in person/phone) I would appreciate your help.

Thanks
Sam

Hi Sam -

If you like my email is adam1800grrealty [dot] com.

I third SD R. I spoke with an agent that was recently involved in a transaction with him. The agent is a very strong, very experienced and competent agent. The agent gave Adam rave reviews for what became a very challenging transaction.