As you said, we don’t have a correlated method to test the means to which the sales contacts are created. Us “limited service guys” however are the ONLY reason that consumers have freedom of choice to pay or not to pay high commissions while still receiving representation. When people ask me what other marketing tools actually sell homes, I tell them they need to gather that data from an agent who provides that and that I do not know because all of mine is done 100% on line. Some say they asked that to other agents they interviewed but they do not ever get an exact answer.

Please note, I tell them I do not know. I tell them I believe additional marketing is absolutely helpful. I also tell them they should ask anyone offering that additional marketing for statistics to see how many sales are facilitated by it. Finally th cost of that additional marketing should be priced to see if it justifies the additional commission. So I am not discounting the value of additional marketing. I am sure that mailers, union tribune ads, and caravans help alot as well as other marketing means. I am also sure you can come up with lots of stats that show these were the absolute means of providing the initial contact with the buyer of your listing. Consequently I can come up with saying that 100% of my listings were sold without them. We can debate forever if my listings would have sold for more with the additional marketing or if yours would have sold for less without the additional marketing and if those differences would have covered the cost of the higher commission. Furthermore my personal belief is that the higher commission doesn’t match the dollar for dollar level of the additional marketing. Like I said, giving people choices is never a bad thing.