Home Buyers
The Old Way
When you buy a home the seller is responsible for paying your realtor. But, that fee is baked in the purchase price, which means that cost is actually passed along to you and is baked into your sales price. For example, if you buy a house for $500,000 and the buyer real estate agent fee is 3%, that agent makes $15,000.
Get 1/2 Back – The Michael Borgelt Way
After the transaction, I will give you 50% of this fee (usually shown on your closing statements with your lender will allow it) back. So in our previous example, I’d cut you a check for $7,500.
Why would I do this? Because a lot of the information real estate agents used to provide to buyers is now available on the internet. You can go to a number of websites, find homes listed for sale, and identify the properties you want to see in person.
How I Get Paid
When you find a home online that you want to see in person, you will need a realtor to show you that place. I will charge $75 per house I show you. So if you see 10 homes, you will pay me $750. If I show you 50, you owe me $3,750. It’s a different approach, and it may sound crazy, but remember: you get ½ back (for example $7,500) back at closing.
I have a network of real estate agents to show you homes when you want to see them, so you’re not dependent upon my availability. You just let me know and I get someone to meet you there to let you in.
Same Service, Lower Cost
I still help with searching for listings and will still show you homes. When you find THE ONE, I will negotiate the best price possible. If you are willing to do a little leg work, or at least sit with me to set up alerts of new homes that come online (which nearly all home buyers already do), you can save yourself a lot of money. Oh, and if you are buying a $2m house, yup…same still applies.
Home Sellers
The Old Way
When selling your house, you have to pay both the agent that is selling your house and the buyer’s agent. Yikes! On a $500,000 home, that could be $30k out of your pocket.
The Michael Borgelt Way
When I am selling your house, there’s not much I can do about the buyer side (we have to set a % we’ll pay them, which you and I will discuss). But I CAN help you save money on my fee.
Most of the time, my fee will be between $2k-$4k depending on a couple of things: how many open houses you would like me to hold, the type of marketing that we need to do, etc. So you pay a much lower fee, and still get the same services: I will list your house on the MLS and it will still show up on websites like Redfin and Zillow. And I will have amazing photographs taken of your home and be your main point of contact throughout the transaction.