It goes without saying that most homeowners, regardless of market conditions, would like to make as much as they can when they sell their property. You do, I do, everyone does. Of course, when the market conditions are down it’s even more important to squeeze out every last penny you can.Like any other financial situation, though, it’s not necessarily how much you make but how much you keep and the ‘keeping’ starts with negotiating the real estate brokercommission.Most property owners know that the real estate broker commission is negotiable but the vast majority are not successful in doing so. If you have searched Google and read what’s out there, I’m not surprised. Most advice is geared toward just asking for a lower commission. Sure, that can work in a handful of cases but is that the real estate broker you want negotiating your sale?
I mean, if the real estate broker immediately reduces their commission what makes you think they can negotiate the highest price for you?
Remember, a realtor knows (or should know) how to negotiate. After all, it’s what they do in their profession. The most successful real estate brokers have spent thousands of dollars in education and training through out their careers and you can rest assured knowing they are completely expecting the request to ‘lower my commission’.
When this happens the realtor does a quick mental review of which objection handling technique they’ll use to easily counter your request. In this example we’ll look at the technique ‘We Do the Most Marketing’.
When the commission subject is brought up the realtor will respond with something like this.
“I understand you want to save money. Believe me; I’m married with four kids. However, as you know, my company ABC Realty does more marketing than any of our competitors. We have the highest amount of sales in this city and we continue to set the curve for getting the highest price year after year. Between the MLS , open houses, print advertisement, cable TV, broker tours, brochures and my massive network of home buyers, no one can offer you the exposure that I can. Are you looking to walk away with the highest price and with the most money or are you looking to hire an agent who will charge less and get you less?”
Whew! How to you reply to that when it’s delivered with such confidence and perfection?
Well, it’s not really that hard when you understand the truth behind the ‘We Do the Most Marketing’ objection handling technique.
First, we have to understand how many of the ‘proven and successful’ marketing strategies are actually proven and successful. For the sake of argument, we’ll use the real estate broker’s own organization, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), for our statistics.
According to the NAR, 75% of all homes are sold through the MLS, the Internet and a yard sign. (Do not get this statistic confused with how many people ‘start’ their home search on the Internet which is just under 90%.). Interestingly, if you take open houses, homes magazines, virtual tours, real estate hotlines (800 numbers), cable TV, broker open houses, postcards (flyers) to neighbors and combine the total, you’d find that it accounts for less than seven percent of all homes sold.