▲ Ken and Michael in front of The DeLeon Booth in LPS Shanghai in December 2019
EIGHT THINGS THAT MAKE DELEON DIFFERENT By Michael Repka, Esq.
1) We never take money from both sides of any transaction Most brokerages, and even many individual agents, take money from both sides of the same transaction when they have the opportunity to do so. While some try to characterize these payments as “referral fees” and have another agent in their office submit the offer in the other agent’s name, the listing agent and/or the brokerage still have a financial incentive to favor one offer over others. This creates a disincentive for the agent to persuade competing offers to increase their bids. Also, these agents would have a material financial incentive not to uncover other agents who might have interested buyers and procure higher offers from these alternative buyers. I believe that some agents’ (or offices’) desire to get commission from both sides of a transaction contributes to the number of “offmarket” listings that sell without all potential buyers knowing about the opportunity. It really is surprising how many agents ask their sellers to give them an opportunity to promote the property privately (e.g., to only their buyers or only select agents’ buyers) prior to letting all interested agents and buyers know
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about the listing. It only stands to reason that more buyers and enhanced competition would result in a higher price. We believe that this financial conflict of interest, irrespective of whether disclosed or undisclosed, is untenable. Therefore, if a member of the DeLeon Team on the buyer’s side submits an offer on any DeLeon listing, we waive 100% of the commission from the buyer side. It is simply the right thing to do and keeps our focus on getting the highest possible price for our sellers. Today, our "Buy Direct" model has resulted in nearly $10 million in commission savings to clients. ®
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DELEON
LISTING AGENT
3%
CO M M I S S I O N
DELEON
BU Y ER AGENT
0%
CO M M I S S I O N
