Real estate agents debate how to increase transaction value through service menus, negotiating tactics, and upfront fees. Ask 7% commission but expect around 5.8%, and consider waiving initial fees to get clients in the door.
I promise you this is so far from anything that you've ever been to. And now. All right, so how about key driver number four, increase your transaction value. That's a really. Who uses like a menu of services or like different commission rates and different up front. And we tried it, but we got.
Feedback that people were like, well, if you believe so much in the one that you're telling me about, why would you even offer that? And then, Andy, the answer is we.
Say we found some people don't think any of the things I just showed you in this 20 minute presentation matter. They think it doesn't matter. Just put a sign in the article itself for those people. We won't do all those extra bells and whistles. They don't believe it adds value. So we'll do it for less. But we really believe in the maximum program. We'll show you why nets you more at the end. So it's up to you. Do you think these things matter? And if they don't, because there are some people that are like, I don't care.
But then I end up taking a listing and it's like, I didn't pay for professional photos and they didn't, there.
Could be some problems with it. And if it's truly, if you're willing to take a four and a half listing because that's what's in your market, then it's different. So it's market specific. I could see the. It could be a cheap thing. It could be a little bit like, well, I'll give you what's wheel and deal here. Stacey's Peterson.
Why wouldn't you just make your lowest.
Package, like let's say 6% of everything that you do and build from there. So you don't make a package where you want to take less than it sucks and you don't want to do it anyway. Just make it better and better, like cars.
Yeah. So Stacy said, you know, your lowest is everything you presented. Potentially something like that. And then make it step up from there. Yeah, our average here, I think we're just like just under 6%.
Right.
Aren't we like 5.8, 5.9 on average? Here's the thing. We ask for 7 and we rarely get it. But when we were asking for six, we were rarely getting six. Not rarely, but you know, people are just going to want to ask for less than you're offering. And at the very least we can preserve a solid commission by asking for more to begin with. So write this down. Just deciding that you're going to charge more is a way to increase transaction value.
I think the psychology of the menu of commissions. Everybody wants the middle package is what I've. I've found we charge 7% on every listing, plus 9.95 and the lowest to address. Why would you offer a lower package? When somebody asks me that, my response is, that's for, you know, if you had a home that was a fixer, yours obviously isn't a fixer. We wouldn't necessarily need to do, you know, an HD video or the, you know, professional photography and stuff that we do on the normal listing. That's why we offer that. But it's not really a fit for your home.
So you'll go like a 6, 7, 8.
6, 7, 8.
Like, oh, I don't want to pay 8, and I'm not a fixer. Right. You got all the hours. Point to the middle.
Somebody told me once, don't work in percentages, work in dollars. So if somebody says, you know, so seven's your price, well, listen, I'll give you a $2,000 discount.
How about that?
You know, instead of. Because percentages mean so much more in thousands. So is there anybody who's tried that before?
That's interesting. Yeah. So if. So if your ask is for seven and it's a $300,000 house, you know, you could do math. Four times three is 12 grand. But how about this? So instead of dropping off three grand, which is where all your agents want to go, how about this? I can give you a $1,200 discount. That's about the max that I can get away with without lars freaking out. 1,200 bucks is like. 1,200 bucks is pretty good. But you just saved 1,800 for the company. That's a really. Who said that one? That's a good one. I really like that. Or who was telling me going down in quarter percentage. You were telling me.
Yeah.
Going down quarter percent instead of like, it's just, it's so easy to go from seven to six. Like, we could just coach them. I think if I can get with John and Sharon on that, just coach them to give away a dollar amount or go down in quarter percent or half percent or so. How about transaction fees? Up front fees? Who's doing upfront fees? When I first started asking for it, the first 10 times, I said, I'm going to go out and cross this out. The first, the first 10 times, like, normally I charge a transaction fee, but I know just given your situation, I'm going to go ahead and waive that for you today. And it just got me over the psychology of. Because we're allowed to. And there are some laws in markets and people that have gotten in trouble for transaction fees, so make sure you're lawful. But it's all mental. Think about this stuff, because it can make a big, big difference. When you scale your team and you don't have this stuff in place, it's 400 grand. Like bottom line, pre tax dollars, right? So you got to pay tax on it. But I mean, it's like $250,000 cash, 20 grand a month just in a difference in commission.
