Real Estate Radio USA Episode 169
August 5, 2008
Today’s news involved two stories that we focused on. The first, Consumer Reports Survey: Home Sellers Can Haggle on Broker Commissions; Paying Less May Not Hurt Service or Sale Price, and the second Know your real estate consumer a story that ran recently in Inman News.
Consumer Reports Survey: Home Sellers Can Haggle on Broker Commissions; Paying Less May Not Hurt Service or Sale Price
Consumer Report’s September issue offers complete guide for buyers and sellers to get the best deal Many real-estate brokers are willing to negotiate their commission rates with sellers who try to haggle, according to an exclusive survey from Consumer Reports September issue. Forty-six percent of sellers CR surveyed attempted to negotiate a lower commission rate. Roughly 71 percent succeeded.
The survey also found that sellers who paid commission rates 3 percent or lower were just as satisfied with their brokers’ performance as those who paid 6 percent or more, suggesting that haggling can’t hurt. Respondents who paid extra, in fact, were more likely to say they had regrets about the selling process.
Paying less won’t hurt the quality of service. While some of the survey respondents who paid lower commissions got fewer services from their agents, the gap wasn’t significant. For example, 81 percent who paid 3 percent or less said the agent provided a competitive market analysis of their home, compared with 87 percent of people who paid 6 percent or more.
Results were based on responses to Consumer Reports National Research Center’s recent Annual Questionnaire of 3,753 readers who sold or tried to sell a home, 4,029 readers who bought one, and 7,368 readers who did both during the past few years.
For more survey results, helpful tips for buyers and sellers, advice on how to buy a foreclosed home and which home improvements matter most, the Consumer Reports September issue is available on newsstands August 5 or online at http://www.consumerreports.org/. Ratings were based on 9,141 responses to the Consumer Reports National Research Center’s Annual Questionnaire about selling or trying to sell homes using real-estate agents from 2004 to 2007. The total doesn’t include those who did so without a broker. Reader score represents overall satisfaction with the selling agent. A score of 100 would indicate everyone was highly satisfied; 80 would mean respondents were, on average, very satisfied; and 60, fairly well satisfied. While there were no statistically meaningful differences among rated companies in customer satisfaction, some companies were more willing to negotiate fees than others.
Know your real estate consumer ComScore study identifies 4 audience segments
According to Inman News and Yahoo Real Estate, there are 67 million people looking to buy, sell, rent or finance a home on the Internet, but real estate professionals who want to land their business should look at them as four distinct audience segments.
Inman feels that this study may be over the head of most real estate agents and described the white paper commissioned by Yahoo Real Estate, as wonkish. The report, titled, “Embracing the Online Real Estate Market,” is very detailed and has comprehensive information as to how real estate agents can market to the consumers in the various categories.
Yahoo Real Estate commissioned comScore to study “in-market real estate consumers,” people who plan to rent, buy, sell or finance a property in the next six months or who use the Internet to track the real estate market. Based on surveys of 1,507 respondents and observations of the online activity of another 744 people in the fall of 2007, comScore came up with four audience segments.
Both of these stories and more were discussed on today’s edition of Real Estate Radio. See episode summary below.
Show Summary
We opened the show today talking about a Consumer Reports survey regarding the fact that home sellers are now asking for, and getting, commission reductions. Also the survey goes on to say that even though there are reductions to the normal commission amounts, service was not sacrificed.
Our next news item was a story from Inman regarding a study commissioned by Yahoo Real Estate titled, “Embracing Your Online Real Estate Market“. The study takes the 67 million real estate consumers and breaks them down into four distinct segments. This allows the real estate professional to tailor their marketing specifically to a market segment.
Our first interview today was with Debra Duneier, a real estate agent and expert on the Manhattan real estate market. Debra joined us today to talk about the forces affecting the Manhattan market including the increase in values this year, the intricacies of that market, and how she markets these luxury units.
We closed the show today with an interview with Lisa Lauroesch from Bid4Homes.com. Lisa spoke with us about what the company does including, how easy it is to get your property listed, the costs, the buying process, how commissions are structured, and what kinds of properties are moving. If you are thinking about auctioning your property, this may be a great place to start.
Real Estate Radio USA Episode 169 [116:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Debra Duneier from Corcoran Real Estate [25:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Lisa Lauroesch from Bid4Homes.com [20:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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