Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #22-05: Mark Kupsky, Mayor of Fairview Heights, IL: $5000 tip of the week: Commission vs. Value

Bryan Vogt: Welcome back to Ready Set Sold with your host Bryan Vogt. Happy Saturday everyone. Thanks so much for staying with us. I want to talk about the tip of the week and that has to do with deciding commissions versus value of the agent. Now, some sellers, good or bad, they make their decisions strictly on commissions and that’s their call and there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what they want to do. But I’m always of the ilk that you should be looking at the value versus commissions.
What I mean by that is what does that agent bring to the table that warrants the commission that they charge? Meaning is, do they have expertise in a certain field, maybe a certain market, a certain city, O’Fallon, Fairview Heights? Or maybe they have a broader experience that they can bring for the years of service that maybe that area isn’t their specialty but they have sold houses similar to that in other communities and they feel very comfortable with it.
Do they have a record of getting houses sold for top dollar and for fast sale? That could be also a situation of the value that you’re looking for, at least most sellers are looking for when they’re selling their home. Other things to keep in mind is what is their marketing structure? Are they flexible? Just so you know, there are some agents that for whatever reasons won’t do open houses. They feel no need for it.
That may be the agent you want but many times having that flexibility of a seller. I talked to a seller a while back and saying that, that’s how they found their house when they went looking for a house. They felt that open houses were an important thing. Again, using the commission rate to justify the value that they bring to you as the seller and what they have to offer.
That could be as in the form of a book, you know, giving information. Are they really able to give you information and understanding your needs and your wants? I can tell you from past experience many times that sellers that choose to go with the absolute lowest commission are very often very disappointed. Very disappointed in the level of communications, sometimes in the level of knowledge.
They find that they have the dreaded, let’s just stick a sign in the yard and hope and pray that it sells mentality, which they weren’t expecting. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have success, or you never have success but it usually doesn’t turn out and even if the house sells, negotiating skills seem to be lacking when people have the lowest commission rates.
In essence what we’re really talking about when you have nothing else, go cheap. If you have nothing else to offer many times we see agents that will just drop their commissions down to practically nothing and unfortunately the sellers get practically nothing on the other end when it comes to information and understanding.
So again, make sure that the agent’s value matches the commission rate and that’s the biggest tip I can tell you. Going in the other direction can lead into heartbreak, sorry and even if it sells, a very, very, very disappointing sale of your home. Let’s face it. We do want that one to go smooth and easy as possible and giving you a top dollar and fast sale.
With that said, I’m looking forward to next week. We’re going to be having the Mayor of O’Fallon on so I’m really excited about that. Don’t forget about the new time slot, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. every Saturday morning. With that said, I want everyone to have a fantastic week and we’ll see you next Saturday.

Bye-bye.