I have been spending money to get my message out on Colorado Public Radio, and today I finally was in the car in Boulder when I heard my spot! Over the airwaves from Denver:
…support for CPR comes from “Tommy Lorden, Managing Broker of Buyers Slice Realty, educating home buyers on who really pays residential real estate commissions.”
For all my friends ands family that ask me this, their guidelines prohibit me from using the word commission rebate or buyer rebate.
People often refer to me, generically speaking, as a “realtor” because I am in the business of representing home buyers in Colorado (and particularly in the Denver-Boulder area)…but that would be incorrect. What most don’t know is that a licensed real estate professional, like myself, can only use the REALTOR® designation if they are a member of the National Association of Realtors (or “N.A.R.”).
If you have used the word REALTOR® wrongly in the past, you are forgiven…by me, anyway. After all, you have probably asked for a “coke” in the restaurant, not thinking if it was a capital or small ‘c’. Some lucky organizations and brands have just become so well known that they are commonly used in a generic sense.
But how come I am not a REALTOR®? One, my model is predicated upon keeping costs low…so I am not looking to pay any additional membership dues. Two, in my opinion, N.A.R. has not sufficiently promoted certain changes, changes that might be more supportive of alternative compensation systems like the one I use with commission rebates, sometimes called buyer rebates. (And yes, I am trying to put that as politely as possible.)
So, after a real estate agent or broker gets licensed by the State of Colorado, they decide whether to become a REALTOR® …or not.
How many times do you hear, “the seller pays the commission” when it comes to buying a home or property? I have even seen this proclaimed on the websites of prominent real estate companies that are trying to entice buyers to work with them, because after all, their services would be free then, right!?
Sure, the real estate commissions are typically deducted from the seller’s proceeds at closing, BUT all the dollars are coming from the buyer, AND every seller takes into account the commissions that are owed when they decide what price to take from the buyer. Bottom-line: Home buyers are paying the real estate commissions…so my advice is that they learn about them!
We are an exciting new company born on the information super highway. With so much information now available online, it has become clear that the traditional buy-sell model is simply not always the most efficient. In fact, more and more self-directed buyers are foregoing the services of a full service agent, and are only paying for the services they need.
Buyers’ Slice Realty is essentially “unbundling” the services offered by a buyer’s agent, allowing you to pay for only the services you need. And make no mistake about it, although real estate commissions are typically deducted from the seller’s proceeds, you are paying for them by way of a higher sales price.
Under our model, you are very active in the search process. Combine that with our low overhead and time-saving digital signature system, and we are talking real savings—real savings we pass along to you! We’ll professionally handle both the offer process and the closing transaction. Because we’ll both be working, we’re both going to share in the commission!
