AgentShopping.Com

AgentShopping.Com is a service that offers potential home sellers a variety of tools to locate local full service real estate agents and brokerages that will list your home for less than the traditional industrywide rate of 6%. We are not a real estate agency. We are a marketplace where sellers and real estate agents who embrace the current trend toward discounted reduced real estate commissions can meet.  Sellers who use AgentShopping.Com regularly find full service Realtors who will list their home for 4 to 4.5% and sometimes as low as 3% depending on a variety of factors such as location and asking price.

There are at least 3 relatively quick ways as well as number of longer term options for sellers to find local full service discount real estate agents on AgentShopping.Com  We're on the way to resolving the debate and tug of war between full service and discount brokering with even more tools under development and getting ready to be launched soon. Currently prospective sellers can find full service discount real estate agents in their local market in the following way:

    Despite what traditional full commission agents say, real estate sales is undergoing many changes brought about by an internet based technological revolution and a popping housing bubble. The traditional way of doing business is under a great deal of pressure to change. Although the legal aspects of the way homes are bought and sold may change little, the way they are marketed is going through a big shift. Consumers have much more direct access to listings and other vital information such as comps at their fingertips than they ever did in the past. Although most still need professional advice, many feel they are not served well by brokers who charge 6% and employ bloated sales forces that often have little training and spread a lot of misinformation or are less than fully honest with the general public. Fortunately there a new companies testing out different real estate marketing and compensation models that are attempting to gradually revolutionize the industry.

Here are the three main reasons real estate agents insist on 6% although they are not always going to share them with a potential home seller. Critics of the discount real estate approach will argue that by selling for less than 6% an agent or brokerage cannot put in the necessary resources to market a home properly. What they are missing in the overall cost/expense structure is the amount of time and money agents and brokers actually spend trying to obtain listings. 6% doesn't all go towards selling your home, it also finances the great deal of time and effort spent seeking out other listings and butting heads with competitors who are vying for the same sale.

AgentShopping.Com gives full service real estate agents multiple ways to participate in our marketplace both discretely through discount commission wanted ads and our non-public referral system or if you are fully committed to a discount commission model by being listed in our directory.

You know many of your comrades in sales won't dare to list themselves in a discount commission directory or even offer less than 6% using more discrete methods for a lot of reasons. They are either mostly behind on the times, afraid of or brainwashed by sales managers, or not sure where the next listing will come from so they always try to max out each sale. This leaves lots of potential listings going to you and opens up whole new ways to do business.

Currently the National Association Of Realtors counts over 1.2 million members and by some estimates there are over another 1.3 million additional licensed real estate agents that are not members of NAR. For a total of over 2.5 to 2.7 million or more licensed real estate agents in the United States.  Statistics for how many agents are actually working are hard to come by, but there may be as many as 1 to 1.3 million or more practicing part time and full time agents presently cmployed in real estate sales in the United States. By practicing we mean, they have their license sponsored by a broker and are ready to take their neighbors' listing if it comes up for sale even if they are employed full time elsewhere in another profession. At the peak of the real estate market in 2006 there were approximately 6 million homes sold, in 2009 5.5 million are expected. That works out to at best 3 or 4 sales per agent. In many markets 3 or 4 sales are not enough to make a decent living when other expenses are taken into consideration, such as car, cell phone, out of pocket marketing, office fees, etc.

  A lot of traditional agents who insist on 6% commissions yet don't see the marketing revolution happening around them are in a state of denial. They don't think homes can be sold for less than 6% because their head broker is constantly telling them so or they are just stuck on the treadmill of their old fashioned daily sales routine. Sometimes too much sales training can work in reverse and cause an agent to delude themselves. Joining the community can help agents break out of their self reinforced mental boxes and see for themselves how many sellers are demanding lower commissions. Sometimes we meet good professional agents who are lukewarm to the idea of 4% commissions but years of being in an environment where 6% is constantly drummed into them causes them to go against their better business instincts. Pointing to an ever growing community of home sellers who are searching for less than 6% commissions may help a lot of sales agents break out their old mold. Joining the community also lets you connect with other professionals such as attorneys, mortgage professionals, home inspectors, appraisers, etc and get valuable advice.

   Trying to get real estate agents and brokers to list in our directory is like pulling teeth. We have met many experienced agents and brokers who are willing to take listings for 4 or 4.5%. Sometimes as even as low as 3%. Most, the overwhelmingly majority, will not commit to it fully or publicly all of the time. They like to leave room to be able to charge other sellers 6%, sometimes 7% and every once in a while 8% or more.

There are many ways for potential home sellers to reward a real estate agent who chooses to go the reduced commission route. The following are just some suggestions and we are sure after reading this, many people will come with more ideas on their own. The goal is to incentivise and reward agents who offer less than 6% commissions and help them overcome the resistance to the idea in the real estate community. Let your agent know if they offer discount commissions you'll help them in ways they weren't taught in their sales classes.

AgentShopping.Com is still a relatively new site and we are still developing and testing many features. If you reach the site and notice that it is down for a few hours it is because we are performing crucial maintenance or overhauling parts of the site. Please check again in a few hours. The site despite ongoing development and redesign is still fully functional, so you can register, post ads, use the negotiation service, blog, post in the forum, create profiles, etc. with no problems. Many changes are coming and what you see today may be significantly different a week or month from now.