From Susan Plage:

I gulped hard today. I turned down buyers. I had buyers who interviewed several buyer brokers; selected me and asked for an agency agreement. They are dabbling in two market areas here and I made suggestions on how to make that a team effort with another referred broker. They are scouting FSBO's and I mentioned how that would be handled in an agency relationship. We scheduled a meeting to sign the paperwork and in preparation I dropped off the agreements for their review.

Bottomline: they want me to accept a one in three chance that I'll get paid. If they buy in the other market, they want to control that. If they buy a FSBO, they want to control that since "they did all the work." If they buy in my market or "if I find them the perfect house" then they think I should be paid. That's a one in three chance and a lot of time in my car...not to mention the expertise. To me the only way it was a good business decision on my part, as I told them, was to pay a retainer up front for my services (in this three ring circus). They didn't agree and I didn't agree to sign an agency agreement with them. There was exasperation on their side of the phone and a bit of shock. But I did it!

Wonders never cease! I received an email from one of my Blog (the Northern Virginia Real Estate Guide) followers asking for clarification on our business model. I set up an "on-line" appointment with him with a password protected website I built that has a link to my fee schedule. The conference occurred this morning at 8:30. I spent about an hour with him explaining the consulting approach and walking through my fee schedule (literally designing a listing program with him on-the-fly). He was impressed with how transparent it is is (full disclosure on what I will do and what it will cost.

Net: The resulting fixed fee I will charge is equivalent to a 5% listing on a $425,000 property (3% to a coop broker and the equivalent of 2% to me). I asked if he wanted to talk it over with his wife and his response was "No, I like this approach, I know what I will be paying for...when can we sign an agreement!" We will sign the listing Tuesday night.

This is about the fifth time in the last 12 months I get a call and literally take the listing over the phone. It pays to be a consultant and it pays big time to get on-line exposure. In my case, the Blog.

Hi there kids and kidettes!

Just wanted you to know that this continues to work. Like anything else, you need to "work" at it to get it to "work."

One of the folks with whom I met a few weeks ago, is very close to signing up for consulting services. He's been going it alone, unsuccessfully and is feeling the strain of trying to be a FSBO.

Secondly, I sent letters to my SOI introducing my new ACRE achievement. I used a letter based on the file already uploaded to the site. Anyway, one of my former clients called me yesterday and wants me to consult with them (at my hourly rate) to determine if an investment property they're interested in buying from a FSBO is a worthwhile investment. Woo hoo! We're meeting this morning at 9:30 at the property. Tick-tock, the clock began last night when I started my background investigation into values, sales, neighborhood, etc.

Ya gotta love it!

Deb Orth

Just wanted to let y'all know that I had my appointment Monday evening. It went very well, even though I was nervous. The Seller didn't know I was nervous or that I hadn't made a presentation like this before, so it was smooth from his perspective.

Even though I had his Seller needs Analysis, I wanted to know more about him and his motivation for selling (wife has already relocated and he's staying in an empty house-in the basement on a cot); wants to sell fast; wants to save the commission; has sold FSBO once before. I asked him what he liked most about selling FSBO and what he liked the least.

He said he liked saving $$$. The part he liked the least was the after the contract was signed. he said he could remember how much "pain" there was trying to be sure the buyer was really qualified, the landmines surrounding the home inspection and request for repairs, which
is where one of his contracts blew up. We talked a while and then I gave him an overview of what services I offered.

By the time we got through, he said that selling fast was his biggest issue and he decided that even though he had the ability to do so, he didn't have the time to do what I could do. I walked away with a listing.

He was impressed that I wasn't trying to "sell" him on a listing presentation. He thinks a lot of REALTORS® sell their souls just to get a listing and he feels much better knowing a "professional" who has confidence in herself is in the driver's seat.

Deb Orth

Hi All,

I wanted to let the group know that I had a meeting today with a lady in my neighborhood who has been working with "Buy Owner" for the past YEAR (yes, since December 05), and needless to say, this lady's about ready to list her home.

Anyway, the meeting went well, I had done some research on the neighborhood and neighboring pendings and solds as well. I also very hastily prepared a schedule of services and what the associated costs of each were and also bundled packages. But I didn't really show her any of that stuff, I just mainly went through the exercise for my benefit. I told her that I'd recently been certified as an Accredited Consultant in Real Estate, and that I work differently than 99% of the agents out there, because unlike them, I can offer her choices to fit her individual situation. I briefly explained that there are a whole litany of services that we as agents provide, and that we could sit down and talk about which ones she might feel comfortable doing, and which ones she would want me to handle. I also explained that each task had an associated cost, and that I also had bundled services into packages that we could talk about too.