{"id":2269,"date":"2021-05-28T19:29:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T19:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/28\/how-to-compete-against-discount-brokerage-firms\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T02:37:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:37:46","slug":"how-to-compete-against-discount-brokerage-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preprod.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/28\/how-to-compete-against-discount-brokerage-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"How to compete against discount brokerage firms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Some 24% of brokers surveyed in RealTrends Q2 2021 Broker Sentiment Report<\/a> said that discount brokerages were a top competitive threat. We’re here to tell you, they’re not as big a threat as you might think. Let’s break it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1977, there have been organized discount brokerage firms or flat-fee firms offering services to consumers. In some cases, these lower-cost or discount brokerage offerings also had a reduced service offering. From that time onward, this segment of the industry has never garnered more than 2% to 3% of the home sales market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RealTrends has employed a professional consumer surveying organization, Harris Insights, numerous times in the past 20 years to study the issue of consumer preferences, habits, and thoughts about the use of realty services.\u00a0These studies included groundbreaking work such as Room For Improvement (2001), How Homes will be Bought and Sold (2005) and The Consumer\u00a0Tsunami (2006).\u00a0Since then, we have also run such consumer studies in 2011, 2014 and 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What consumers want from real estate agents<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In each case, consumers indicate that they want to work with someone they trust to help them negotiate the price and terms of a sale or purchase and navigate the entire process of buying or selling. They also want to work with someone who communicates well throughout the process.\u00a0In research studies, we sometimes inquired about the cost of the services or their use of \u2018do-it-yourself\u201d approaches.\u00a0In no cases did consumers think the cost, or the system was unfair to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With today’s tight market, it’s more tempting than ever for consumers to consider not using a real estate agent since homes fly off the shelf at prices above what even experienced agents can imagine.\u00a0And the airwaves are full of offers from discount brokerages and flat-fee realty offerings that say the same thing.The best defense against this has always been to differentiate what you do for a seller or buyer that is not available from typical discount offerings, such as <\/p>\n\n\n\n