Our company would like to wish all the Moms out there a very Happy Mother’s Day.
We enjoyed our Mother’s Day with another terrific meal at the Village Bistro on 120th Ave in Westminster. A wonderful brunch for our little family.
Best wishes to all the moms!
And Realtors wonder why we get such a bad rap? I don’t. I’ve had several calls this week from potential buyers who have made contact with the Listing agent over the past few weeks and now they want me to represent them as a buyer’s rep. Unfortunately, I can’t do it.
Why not?
Procuring Cause. It’s one of the dirty little secrets of the real estate industry. A listing agent who goes out to a property to show some potential buyers his/her listing gets an offer from these buyers a few days or weeks later submitted by a buyer’s agent whom the potential buyers never mentioned. The listing agent can now claim procuring cause, and if the transaction closed, he/she can go after the buyer’s reps commission. Basically, the listing agent can claim he/she was the primary reason that the buyers ended up purchasing the property. All because he showed them the property first.
Sounds kind of like a dog pissing on his territory doesn’t it? Trust me, it’s about as graceful and evolved as watching a mangy mutt mark his territory. Greed, plain and simple.
But the agent’s job should be to sell the house, you say. I agree. Totally. Is it so difficult to open the doors of your listing to someone who may be interested in buying it?
Sad.
We continue to go back and forth over this decision. We’re currently building a really cool “Find a Home” feature which will be based on either Google Maps or Microsoft VE mapping platforms. Both of these applications have their merits, and both have some drawbacks.
I’d love to get some input from folks out there who may use Google maps and VE maps on occasion:
It seems like every other mapping feature out there is Google. Lots of cools sites like Trulia are based on Google maps. But then some of the big dogs out there have embraced Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform. Companies like Redfin, John L. Scott, and Hotpads all utilize this technology. (Just a sidebar: I really don’t like John L. Scott’s search feature. Any mapping platform that makes you click a hundred times to see the view you want is a bit ridiculous)
I’ll pass on any comments to my programmers.
If you’ve been following along you’ve probably noticed that Real-a-Save is about more than just selling and buying houses. It’s about
From a software perspective, this is reflected in our goal to create simple tools that let our customers get things done and then “get out of the way” — and that’s just what we’re doing with “My Real-a-Save.”
My Real-a-Save is a set of online tools designed to assist our customers in purchasing and selling real estate. We keep track of documents and contracts; help save your property searches; keep you informed of important dates; and more. So not only are you saving money with Real-a-Save, you’re saving time and avoiding the typical hassles of a real estate transaction — just by signing up and using our tools.
And this is just the beginning. We can hardly wait to show you what’s next! (hint)
We purchased our first company car today: a Toyota Prius.
I’m sure the men are thinking, “Sure, I can understand that choice”. I mean that baby can fly like a Porsche on nitrous! And for a man gently approaching his 40th birthday with the grace of a portly ballerina, it doesn’t hurt that the car is such a hit with the ladies. The old ego still needs a boost now and then, and that Prius has rebel! written all over it.
You’re right, it may not be the sexiest car on the planet but our company is intentionally green from it’s inception. Ask my programmers John and Yong how much fun it’s been creating our My Real-a-Save feature for our clients so that they won’t generate or need to keep track of the volumes of paper that normally accompany a real estate transaction. We’ve spent the time and money to create a secure, paperless, digital environment to house the documents associated with every real estate transaction.
We made a green decision not lease commercial space. We’ve found a cutting-edge company called Intelligent Office which handles our office staffing, receptionists, and board room/conference room needs with fantastic efficiency and professionalism. We believe that there is simply no need to have a standing real estate office in this digital age. Computers, fax, scanners, phones, email, and Intelligent Office are all we need. We meet our clients needs in style by scheduling meetings as they arise at our beautiful shared offices in Boulder, Downtown Denver, and Denver Tech Center without the waste and resource drain that accompanies opening a dedicated commercial office space. But when the meeting is over, we’ll be leaving the office as well. Think of it as turning off the lights when you leave the room.
The Prius is our company car because we’re serious about creating an efficient, socially responsible Colorado company that leaves this beautiful state in better shape than we found it.
Take a look at Plug In America for more information on hybrids.
Because our clients are self-directed buyers who are happy to use some cool tools, and comfortable driving by their favorite properties on their own schedule, they save us the time and energy associated with driving clients from house to house. When it does come time to take a home tour with us to view their top few houses, we’ll do it in the company Prius.
As a reward for handling the majority of the driving portion of the real estate transaction, we rebate 75% of our commission directly to our clients, and we also commit to genuinely take care of the state they chose to call home.
Keep things simple. That’s the guiding thought behind what we’re doing over at Real-a-Save. Buying a house is a pretty straight forward process 99% of the time. And with more and more people choosing to do the search portion of this process on their own via the internet, and then bringing the agent in to write the offer only after they’ve narrowed down their list, well, it makes our business that much more sensible. Why shouldn’t we reward our buyers with a huge cash rebate for saving us all that time? And the funny thing is, most people prefer to handle the search on their own, at their own pace. With all the tools available on the internet for evaluating prices and searching for homes, most people are handling this portion of the purchase process themselves and are finding it an easy, convenient way to stay in control of the transaction from day one.
The goal of our website is to continue with this idea that we should keep it simple. We’ve created a user interface that is simple and elegant and offers everything a client might need over the course of a transaction.
Our site does not look like your typical agent’s website. We know that if you are buying or selling a house you probably don’t want to wade through a bunch of shameless self promotion, just get to the bottom line. How much will this cost? What do I get? How can you help me? We’re transparent from day one. Our savings calculator tells you exactly how much your rebate will be at closing. And our one-price listing program for sellers simplifies the entire process of selling your home. Look, there’s just no reason to charge one client $30,000 to sell their house, then turn around and charge another client $5,000 for the same service (depending on how much your home costs) when a single modest fee for all clients regardless of the price of their home is more logical.
The next project we’ll be taking on is building a better real estate search feature. I’ll keep you posted on our progress and will happily listen to any requests or advice regarding features.
If you can see any way we can make our site better then just shoot me an email at bobconnors@realasave.com.
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