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There are a couple of Dirty Little Secrets in Real Estate.  I wrote about one of them a few years ago this week.  Those people that want you to sell your home “FSBO” through them for a flat fee have one of those secrets.  They don’t care if your home sells.  They get paid whether your home sells or not…  In fact, I’ve been to presentations where some of these companies were talking about their business model.  It was mentioned that if the house DOESN’T sell, they have a chance to double down on the revenue.

But that isn’t the only secret.

Another one is that your real estate agent is only guessing at the “market value” of your home.  And the same holds true for appraisers, adjusters and anyone else that is pegging a “value” to a home.  There is only one way to determine an accurate type of value for a home, and that is replacement value.  But that isn’t market value.  See, the problem is that market value is determined by a buyer and a seller agreeing on the price of a house.  And it is valid at the closing table… for THAT buyer and THAT seller.  The second that title changes hands, that value starts becoming vaporous again.  Some of us are pretty good at guessing what the market value MIGHT be, but it is a guess.

I don’t want that to sound self-serving.  If you really want, I’ll sell your house for a flat fee.  We can agree on everything right up front… what is going to be done, when it will be done, what is or isn’t included…  You’ll even get a healthy discount for going that way.

I don’t mind being open about this industry.  Dirty laundry HAS to be aired in order to get clean.  This isn’t GIANT dirty laundry, but I think it is something that needs to be disclosed.