What are Menu Programs in Real Estate?

If there is one thing that people today like, it is a lot of choice. We like to have many different restaurants to choose from, social circles to run in, products to buy. Choices give us a feeling of control in the everyday transactions of our lives.

With so much emphasis on choice, then, it is astounding that the real estate world has taken so long to catch up. It took a major catastrophe within the industry for traditional realtors just to acknowledge, let alone accept, some of the major innovations presented by their peers over the last decade or so.

One of those innovations is the concept of the menu program. Picture in your head the menu at your favorite sit down restaurant. Actually, if you want, go ahead and run with your favorite fast food restaurant, because the concept is the same.

Restaurants offer a variety of foods in a number of different combinations. You can choose your beverage, your main course, and your side. You can cater your meal to your own tastes, with some restaurants offering customers the ability to include some options and others which don't. No one wants to go to a restaurant and be told; this is all you can get, and you have to pay this large amount to get it.

The reason no one wants this is simple; not everyone likes the idea of a set dinner, not everyone likes everything on the plate, and no one likes to be told that they have to pay a certain price for things they don't even want.

Well then, if you know traditional real estate, you know that it runs a lot like a bad restaurant. Customers (clients) are told they have to pay a 6% commission. In return, you'll get the standard fare of the brokerage. That could be paid advertising costs, inclusion in the MLS, an open house, a lawn sign, referrals, and so on.

But, what if you don't need all of these things? What if you just want to be added to the MLS? More to the point, what if that is all you need in order to sell your home? Why do you have to pay thousands on the sale for, essentially, one service?

Well, that is the idea behind menu programs in real estate. Instead of a one shot deal which costs a certain amount, menus offer clients the ability to order specific items for certain amounts. You can cater your real estate experience to your own needs, whatever those may be.