Discount Real Estate Brokers Who Offer Full Service
Discount real estate brokers who offer full service at a lowered commission rate may work better for you than limited-service brokers. But for some customers, flat-fee brokers may be the better option. Both of these types of brokers however enable you to cut your buying or your selling costs.
So you can decide best which type of broker to choose, the differences between these two types of brokers are described here.
A full-service discount real estate broker offers sellers and buyers the full range of realty services at a commission rate lower than the predominating commission rate in the area. In a market where six or seven percent is the predominating commission rate, the full-service discount broker may charge only three or four percent.
Additionally, in states that have no laws on brokerage incentives, the full-service discount broker may provide rebates, gift certificates, vouchers, coupons or discounts to the home seller or buyer. Rebates are often equal to one-percent of the home purchase price. All these incentives are provided to encourage the use of the services of the discount broker.
According to real estate experts, rebates are often used to go around the rules of commission agreements, particularly for the home buyer and the buyer’s broker. Giving rebates to home buyers will enable discount real estate brokers to compete in attracting clients. However, this is only possible in states where there are no laws about real estate incentives.
For clients planning to hire flat-fee brokers, they should know the brokerage services that will not be offered.
A flat-fee broker, or sometimes called fee-for-service or limited-service broker, allows house sellers to choose which among the typical services provided by full-service brokers to pay for. Some flat-fee brokers have arranged different arrays of brokerage services into packages with corresponding rates, ready to be shown to prospective home sellers. Some list basic services into packages and then offer other services as options.
Many flat-fee brokers offer a Multiple Listing Service-only package. This enables home sellers who cannot access MLS to list their houses in these listings.
On the whole, flat-fee brokers fit home sellers who know how to carry out some aspects of the home selling or buying process, but who are not knowledgeable or who need assistance in other aspects while full-service discount real estate brokers fit home sellers or buyers who need all brokerage services but at a discounted cost.
