Has anyone used “You Save Real Estate” to purchase or sell a home?

Billy Smith: Has anyone used “You Save Real Estate” to purchase or sell a home?
www.yousavere.com

Their cash back offer sounds too good to be true. What was your experience? Would you recommend this service?

Thanks for your help.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Jose
I haven’t used them but I have been approached by several like them. You see, I’m a real estate agent in Raleigh, NC and I get calls all the time from companies like these… their pitch goes like this:

“…Mr. Realtor, how would you like a referral for a buyer/seller. You just need to agree to pay us 35% of whatever your commission is at the time of closing…”

They then take that money, get their cut, and send you the rest. Sounds ok? Except for the fact that a “good” agent [that is, one that knows what they are doing and has done it for a while like me] simply says “no-way-jose”

The agent that ends up agreeing to pay the ransom fee is the “starving-newbie” that has sold next to nothing and needs the experience and, frankly, have nothing better to do. That agent get 3% commission, gives 50% to his/her company, then 35% to yousavere.com and keeps the rest for gas money… but they get a sale under their belts.

You get 20-25% cash back, and your chance to help a real estate agent get the much needed experience. It’s a win-win situation.

Ok, so I’m being a little sarcastic… the catch is of-course, that you end up working with sub-par real estate agents… might as well do it yourself. and keep all the commission.

-jose-

Answer by satarnag
Although I do not know of this company, I offer cash back as well. This is how it works in Real Estate. A seller pays a certain percentage to their agent to sell the house. Although there is no standard and this percentage or fee is negotiable, it usually ranges from 2-6% of the listed price. For simplicity basis, let’s assume that the house is listed at 100k and the comission is 6%. The seller’s agent then offers any buyer agents out there 3% if they bring a buyer for this property. So if this place sells, the listing/seller’s agent keeps 3k and the buyer’s agent (your agent) keeps 3k. Now your agent has to give a percentage of that 3k to his/her broker (boss) based on the agreement that your agent has with his/her broker. You can then negotiate to have your agent give you a piece of the action at this point. If your agent is a broker working for themself, you can get even more money because they don’t have to give a portion of the money to their emplying broker. There’s even agents and companies out there that will keep the first 1% and give you the rest or just charge 5k of the comission split to represent you and give you the rest of the comission.

I encourage you to get some of that money back, but the thing to watch out for, is to make sure the person representing you actually is looking out for your best interest and is knowledgable and/or resourceful about determing house prices in your area.

If you’re in Southern California, I can help you out.

Regards