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I took a look at the website and I personally don't find the AgentInvitation.com website very appealing in its current state to either Agent or Consumer. There was a comment on Zip and its discount model. You may want to do a bit more research on Zip. They do continue to grow even though its not that exciting a company to talk about in the current market. Check out their financials (since they are public) and even though they are seeing some revenue declines it certainly is less then the overall market, which means they are picking up marketshare. Only about 20% of consumers are fixated on price, so for those who are worried about AI, don't. They may get some traction, but their marketing is geared exclusively for the analytical home seller. Commissions is one of the funnest topics to talk about in real estate. The DOJ on their website has indicated that commissions have risen faster then wages in this country on a per transaction basis. Obviously now they are falling faster then wages. It drives the DOJ, Venture Capitalists, Internet companies nuts that they can't figure out how to truly break into the real estate market by playing with commissions. Subjects like travel and stock and bond brokerages always come up in the discussion of how agents are overpaid. What the DOJ, VC's and Internet Companies fail to recognize is that real estate is not a commodity business. We aren't talking a ubiquitous product that can easily be valued by sites like Zillow. They are no movable like airline tickets. They take local experts in the local market in order to trade as opposed to stocks and bonds. As a result commissions are not being impacted negatively on average. Certainly there is a place for reduced commissions and it seems that Larry in the comments above has found his soap box post on which to promote his company, however keep in mind that the Parent company Help-U-Sell declared bankruptcy a couple of months ago and it seems that most limited service brokers are now struggling more then ever since it takes more then a sign in the ground to get a property sold. Founder / CEO BuyerTours Realty LLC & Working The Magic, LLC Check out my Real Estate SEO blog Direct: 360-220-1470
I know this post wasn't on commission but it seems that there was some discussion in the comments. How does a client finding a property online differ from when a client found a property looking through a homes magazine? How is the value proposition different? As far as the work involved by the agent, it is still the same. Other then there is the possibility that an agent won't have to show as many homes if the client has done a ton of online research, but that is not necessarily or in my experience the case. Listings on the internet as they were in the magazines are are conduit to communication. I remember a line from a movie, "The Map is not the Territory". Just as an online listing is not the house. Founder / CEO BuyerTours Realty LLC & Working The Magic, LLC Check out my Real Estate SEO blog Direct: 360-220-1470
Running a Virtual Real Estate Company with Offices and Teams in 8 cities we are working on being a fully virtual as possible. Still dealing with a few holdouts. I think another name for Virtual Office is Home Office, because in reality agents will probably use their homes as their home bases. Virtual offices are in some respects the outward facing websites and the materials presented online along with the commentary that takes place whether via Video Conferenceing (like GMail Text and Video Chat) or online GotoMeetings or GotoWebinars. Glenn Sanford -- Founder / CEO BuyerTours Realty LLC & Working The Magic, LLC Check out my Real Estate SEO blog Direct: 360-220-1470