Help-U-Sell Archives - Richard Cricchio's Hawaii Real Estate Blog

Real Estate Fees That Make Sense!

We are unique! We do real estate differently, and the difference means our sellers save thousands over what they’d likely pay an ordinary real estate company. But the Help-U-Sell Difference is more than full service for less. There are a lot of ways in which we are different!

Why Real Estate Sales Commissions Are So High

Real Estate Sales Commissions Are . . . Crazy!

Two video minutes that will make you go ‘Hmmmm.’

Why ‘Discount’ Real Estate Companies Are Growing

Let me address something right up front: Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is not a discount real estate company! We are a progressive, full-service real estate company that charges differently for our service. That difference – our Low Set Fee pricing – is much less than what most ordinary real estate companies charge, but our clients give up nothing when they take advantage of it.

The problem with ‘discount’ is that it implies that the customer must sacrifice something. At T.J.Maxx you may pay less for an item you could get at Macy’s but you give up selection, assistance, ambiance, and more. It’s a trade off.

That’s not true with us. At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, we do everything any great real estate company might do – and more – but instead of a big percentage based commission (like, say, 6%), we charge a Low Set Fee. Our home sellers save thousands over what they might pay anybody else and still receive full-service and excellent care.

There has been some research done recently about what part of the residential real estate market is being handled by ‘discount’ real estate firms. Since we charge less than ordinary companies, we get lumped in with the discounters (can you tell this burns me up!). Still, I believe there is some wisdom in the reports I’ve seen.

Today, 65% +/- of home sellers are listing with traditional, full-fare real estate companies. The remaining 35% of sellers are seeking less expensive alternatives. About a third of them sell By Owner. Two thirds sell through a discounter – like, say, Redfin, who charges less but also limits the level of service – or through a company with a different and better idea – like us!

It is true that the numbers seeking alternatives to high percentage based real estate commissions are up and growing, but what’s important is why. Why are people seeking less costly alternatives?

The obvious first reason is that regular real estate commissions are absurdly high. Here in our own neighborhood, sellers are routinely paying regular real estate companies $35,000 – $50,000 or more to sell their homes. If that doesn’t motivate you to look for alternatives, nothing will!

The second reason is they don’t think a full-service real estate agent is necessary.

Let that sink in for a moment. It’s a little startling to me. I work in this business every day and the landmines and complexities of selling a house today are plentiful and scary. I don’t recommend anyone attempt it without expert assistance. But $35,000 +?

What that second reason is telling us is that the Internet has put many of the tools REALTORS(r) used to use into the hands of consumers. That’s a good thing. Our processes are far more streamlined today because buyers and sellers can participate in the process. Buyers and sellers find themselves doing some of the work agents used to be paid to do, but there has been no corresponding reduction in what ordinary brokers charge. It’s a disconnect. It doesn’t make sense.

What makes sense is Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties where we take extraordinary care of our clients, shepherd them carefully through the transaction and then save them thousands of dollars in real estate commissions.

If you’re fed up with the magnitude of regular real estate sales commissions, let us explain what we can do for a low set fee. All it takes is a phone call.

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors. We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams. Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.

Attention Oahu Real Estate Agents!

It’s time to get serious about your career in real estate. The market is moving at a rapid pace, homes are selling and it looks like we are in for several years of marketplace normalcy.

Now is the time when great careers and great real estate businesses are made. It is your moment, your time to shine, your best shot at major success . . . IF you are positioned to take advantage of the opportunity. What does that mean?

If you are an agent working for an ordinary real estate company, be it franchised or independent, you are competing against thousands of other agents just like yourself, with the same tools, same information, same offering, and same pricing. The only edge you could possibly have in that fishbowl – the only things that might set you apart from the pack – are your personality and your work ethic. So, let’s assume you really apply yourself next year. You work harder and smarter and you polish up that smile . . . and you go from doing 12 deals to doing 16. That’s very nice, but it’s hardly the stuff of real estate greatness.

This is not the time to increase your production by 30%. It is the time to increase it by 300%. And you won’t do it by doing the same things you did last year and the year before, only doing them harder. It’s time to look for a better way to do the real estate business.

And you know what the way is: It is Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties. Here’s why:

As Help-U-Sell Brokers and Agents, we go into the marketplace with a consumer offer that is not only fundamentally different than that of our competitors, but also superior to theirs from a consumer point of view. We accomplish the same results the pack of ordinary agents and brokers do, but we save people thousands over what they’d pay anyone else! It is an offer that is so compelling that, now the word is out all over the Island, many potential sellers want to at least talk with us before making a listing decision. Can you imagine how much more you could do if people you don’t know called you out of the clear blue and asked, ‘You can save me money, right? How does this work?’

We focus on marketing and marketplace intelligence that more closely resembles what Home Depot does than what ABC Realty does. And because Help-U-Sell marketing is systematic and focused, it produces a steady stream of buyer and seller leads into the office.

Our agents love working here because we have the one thing nobody else can give them: leads. While agents at other companies flirt with burn out from the gigantic job description they try to manage, our agents have a streamlined, focused job and an opportunity to do more, make more and have more fun doing it.

It is a smaller, tightly knit office team that is outperforming companies with 10 times the agents. It is very different from an ordinary office where the broker begs people to come to work, begs people to stay, begs people to attend sales meeting, begs people to do the prospecting they promised to do and so on (and, aren’t you getting tired of all that begging?).

If you are mired in an ordinary real estate office with nothing special to offer other than your track record and personality, give me a call and let’s talk about how things might be different and better at Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties.

Saving When Selling, Hawaii Style

You know, we are Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties. You know, we save people thousands over what they’d pay an ordinary real estate agent when selling a home. You know we provide exceptional service and get rave reviews from the clients we serve. What you may not know is HOW MUCH we save our sellers. Let me give you 3 examples from the dozens of homes we’ve sold this year. kalaheo 1

First is a great house we sold in Kailua. It had 5 bedrooms, 5 baths and, as you can see, a great pool. The house sold for $1,615,000 Had the seller listed with an ordinary real estate agent, the listing portion of the commission would probably have been something like $40,000. We we listed and sold it and charged the seller just $9,750 on the listing side, a savings of about $30,000!

makanani 1

Next, we have a big 5 bedroom, 4 bath home in Kamehameha Heights with a 3 car garage. It also had an outstanding view! The home sold for $1,195,000 in about a month. An ordinary agent would have probably charged about $35,000 on the listing side. We charged just $9,750! Again, we saved this seller thousands of dollars.

univ1

Finally, just so you know we also work with less expensive properties, here is the view from a one bedroom condo we sold not too long ago. It went for $600,000 and an ordinary real estate company might have charged $15,000 or more on the listing side. We charged just $5,750 and this happy seller saved about $10,000!

I don’t mean to brag, but really: if you are thinking about selling your Oahu home, you owe it to yourself to have a quick conversation with the pros at Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties. We’ll get you top dollar in a reasonably quick time and save you a ton of money in real estate commissions!

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties in 30 Seconds

Do you ever wonder who this Help-U-Sell company you see everywhere is and what they do?

We have a quick way for you to understand how we can save you thousands of dollars when it comes time to sell your home. It’s a 30 second video.

Take a look!

Of course, that’s a very brief explanation. For the full story, call us! (808) 377-1200.

Can You Cancel Your Listing?

I don’t know. That’s a legal question and the answer will depend on the specific listing agreement you signed. The more important question is: Why do you want to cancel your listing?

The answer is usually ‘no activity’ or ‘no communication.’ Let’s take those two things in order.

If your house is not being shown, if your open house is the loneliest place in town, you have to ask why. First, look at the market. How long does it take a properly priced listing in your area to sell? Is it 30 days or 100? Right now, our Oahu days on market is healthy: less than 30 days from listing to accepted offer. But your specific neighborhood could be different. Have a conversation with your agent, get the facts, and adjust your expectations.

The next thing to consider is the product. By that, I mean your house. It is a product now, one that has to compete with similar products on the market at the same time. How does it stack up in terms of curb appeal? Does it show well? And most important, is it properly priced? It can be very difficult for home owners to see their houses through a cold buyer’s eyes. History and emotion cloud the vision and the run-down-fixer-upper that’s priced 10% over market looks like a bargain-priced-palace to the seller. Shake yourself out of that stupor! Call your agent and ask them to show you six homes any potential buyer who might look at yours would also see. Then come back to your house, take a careful look and talk with your agent about how to be more competitive.

By far, the biggest reason homes aren’t shown and don’t sell is price. Did you take your agent’s advice on pricing at the time of listing? Or did you insist that you wanted to start higher? (after all, you could always come down) Take a moment and watch this short video about pricing and see if it resonates with your situation:

Now let’s talk about Communication. Your agent should be talking to you every week whether there is anything to report or not. You should be reviewing market activity together once a month. If this isn’t happening, call your agent and communicate your expectation for staying in touch. If things don’t change, call the agent’s Broker.

My final and most important piece of advice is this: you can avoid all of these problems by choosing the right company. When you get ready to list, talk to Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties . We do it differently and better. All you have to do is look at our website to see how important happy customers are to us. Testimonials are everywhere as are pictures of homes they’ve sold and how much those sellers have saved. If being well-taken-care-of is your goal, you can’t do better than Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties!

What Help-U-Sell IS and ISN’T

I answer questions about Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties every day. People understand that we are different, but often they don’t know what the differences are. I enjoy answering the questions because it gives me a chance to educate and tell our story.

While questions can be all over the place, I hear some more than others. Here are the most often asked questions and my response to them:

Is Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties a ‘Do-It-Yourself’ Company?

Absolutely not! We are a full service real estate company. We do everything every other good real estate company does (and, actually more). We put our homes in the MLS and all over the Internet and market them heavily on the Island and the mainland as well.

Do I have to hold my own Open Houses and show my house myself?

No. Full service means full service. We hold open houses for our home sellers. On Oahu it’s great marketing! We also show your house when there is an interested party. As I said above, there is nothing ‘Do-It-Yourself’ about Help-U-Sell.

I know you charge less, but are there hidden fees or up-front fees?

No. We do charge less, but what’s more important is that we charge differently. Other real estate companies will charge a percent of the home’s sale price as commission, so the seller with the more expensive home is going to pay MORE than the seller with the less expensive home. Of course that makes not sense: it costs no more to sell a properly priced $750,000 home than it does a $600,000 home. That’s why we charge a Set Fee to sell your home; everybody pretty much pays the same thing. And no, there are never front fees and no hidden ‘surprise fees’ at closing.

If I list with you, will other real estate companies show my home?

Absolutely. We are members of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, the Hawaii Association and the National Association of Realtors. We belong to the Honolulu MLS and co-operate with all other member brokers in selling our listings. In fact, since 2009, slightly more than 90% of our listings have been sold by outside MLS real estate brokers.

I know I’m going to save thousands of dollars with you, but what am I going to have to give up?

Nothing. Really: Full Service means Full Service. We pull out all the stops to get your home sold quickly and for top dollar.

Do you have questions of your own? I’d love to answer them. Why not drop my a note in the comment section below or call me at (808) 377-1200.

Back to Basics: What is the MLS?

The MLS is the Multiple Listing Service. It is the place were all of the real estate brokers and agents share all of their listings with all of the other brokers and agents who are members. It’s like a clearing house that makes it possible for an agent in one office with a buyer prospect to find a suitable home listed with another agent in another office. It’s a great tool!

Our Oahu MLS is operated by the Honolulu Board of Realtors and almost every real estate broker on the island is a member. It is a wonderful, up-to-date MLS that is so effective at matching buyers and sellers that today, more than 80% of all residential sales on the island involve two brokers and two agents who come together with a buyer and seller through the MLS.

At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, we routinely put our listings in the MLS and make an attractive compensation offer to agents and brokers who may have a suitable buyer. We believe in the MLS and use it every day in our business.

But, there is down-side: it’s expensive. Think about it. You’re hiring an agent to list and sell your house. The agent works for a broker and both have to be compensated. But you’re also making allowance for that outside MLS agent and broker who may come in with the buyer – they have to be paid too. Ultimately that 6% commission has to be enough to compensate two brokers and two agents!

Of course, we don’t do it that way at Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties. We charge our home sellers a reasonable set fee to list and market their property and to represent them through the process. We make allowance for the possibility that an outside MLS broker and agent will come in with the buyer, but if none is involved in the transaction, you, the seller, don’t pay for one!

It’s just one of the ways we are able to save our home sellers thousands of dollars in commissions. There are other ways, too. Truth is we save every seller thousands over what the’d pay an ordinary real estate broker no matter how their home sells. Before you pay $30,000 – $50,000 or more to sell your house, call us and let us show you how we can save you a lot of money without giving up anything.

Why Pay a % of Your Home’s Value to Sell? There is a Better Way!

For the most part, the ordinary real estate business exists in a percentage based universe. Real estate brokers and agents typically charge home selling consumers a percentage of the sale price of the property to sell it.

Stop. Think about that. Selling a piece of property is not alchemy; it’s not even mysterious. It is a fairly straightforward process of proper pricing, careful preparation and effective marketing. It takes a skilled technician to orchestrate this process, especially the very complicated contract-to-closing time frame, but like most jobs, it is a series of tasks, not neurosurgery.

So what does a percentage of your home’s value have to do with what it takes to sell it?

Here is the answer: absolutely nothing.

Percentage based pricing was conceived by the real estate industry almost 100 years ago, when selling homes really was a mystery to most people. It was a pricing system ‘plucked from air,’ or made up on the fly. Consumers didn’t question it because they didn’t understand what they were paying for.

If you fast forward through the decades, there have been huge changes in the real estate industry. Brokers began to cooperate with one another on sales and the Multiple Listing Service was born. The Internet matured and suddenly consumers had most of the information real estate professionals once controlled. Consumers became smarter and more savvy about the buying and selling process. Everything changed and the real estate industry began to travel at light speed.

What didn’t change? The way real estate brokers charge consumers! It’s the same tired, old percentage based model that made no sense in 1956, and makes even less sense in 2016. Dozens of tools have appeared that make it easier to sell real estate, but ordinary agents and brokers – due to ever rising home prices – have actually gotten a raise – a big one!

Consider Honolulu. In 1985, the median sale price for a single family home was $158,600. An ordinary Realtor charging, say, 6%, would generate a commission of $9,516. In 2015, the median was $700,000 and that same 6% commission would be $42,000! That’s a 341% raise in 30 years! By comparison, median household income in Hawaii in 1985 was $28,961. It is projected to be about $71,000 for 2015 (the exact figure will be released in September) – which is a 145% increase over 30 years. In other words, real estate commission have risen more than 2.3 times as much as median household income. That’s quite a raise!

I made the decision more than 20 years ago to become Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties because it made sense. It made sense from an operational standpoint (we run our office very differently than the ordinary real estate brokers down the street.) It made sense from a service standpoint (we deliver the same full service other brokers offer – and actually , more – but we also save our home sellers significant money in real estate commissions). And it made sense from a pricing standpoint.

We charge consumers a Low Set Fee to sell their homes. The fee is based on what it costs us on average to sell a properly priced listing plus a reasonable profit. We charge the family in the $600,000 the same thing we charge the family in the $900,000 home. Everybody pretty much pays the same thing!

Our goal is always to sell the property, make enough money for it to be worthwhile (it is), and Save Consumers Thousands over what they’d pay an ordinary real estate broker. In fact, we get just as excited about the money our clients save as we do about the fees we earn!