Who Says there is Only One Way?

What would you think if you walked into a sporting goods store to buy a new baseball bat, and were told you really only had one option. You had to buy a wooden bat that weighed exactly 5 lbs, was exactly 3 feet long, black, with ten inches of tape around the grip. You'd probably walk out of the store and into the next one.

But what if you walked into the next one, only to find that they also only had one bat, it was the same bat as the previous store, and it was listed at the same price? By this point, you'd probably not only be frustrated, but also wondering what the point was in having two different sports stores open.

For many people, that analogy is similar to their idea of the real estate industry. Particularly for sellers, real estate has been operated the same way for decades. The seller agrees to a contract with an agent, who then supplies specific services in order to sell the house, in exchange for 6% of the sales price as a commission.

It's the way it's always been done, but that doesn't mean it's always the way it is going to be done, or that you don't have any choices.

The reality is that the real estate market has changed greatly over the last few years, and some people would say it has changed in a positive way for those looking to sell homes. The standard full service brokerage listed in the example above is no longer the only option open for people who want to sell their homes. Instead, home sellers can select from a few different brokerages who use a number of different methods to pay for the services they offer.

Examples of other ways of doing real estate include flat fees, menu programs, limited service brokerages, and real estate consultants. These all differ in various ways, and we talk about them in depth in articles on this site. The common ground between them all is that they offer sellers more flexibility than standard brokerages, and also generally cost much less.

Who said there was only one way to sell real estate? It was certainly never part of any law, and today's home seller has the chance to select from a new range of selling services.