Changes in national regulations governing how homes can be bought and sold have led to the launch of a new approach to selling real estate in the Comox Valley.
Your Way Realty is the first such business in the Valley to openly offer the complete range of options now available to people wanting to sell their home. And it claims some of those options could save people thousands of dollars in commission costs.
Two local realtors, Kelly Malo and Ross Keylock, have partnered to bring Your Way Realty to the Comox Valley.
“The face of real estate is changing,” said Malo. “With advances in technology, costly overheads and exorbitant fees have been minimized.
“Consumers can choose the level of service they need from a realtor. They no longer have to accept a full service package just to get their home listed on the national MLS or realtor.ca websites, which is where most buyers start searching for a new home.”
Keylock added: “People should have access to all the new choices opened up by changes in the regulations, and we have established Your Way Realty independent of the conventional real estate companies to offer all those options to both the buyers and sellers.”
In the Valley, Keylock said the average price paid for a single family home is about $350,000. Under the traditional full-service realtor system, the seller would usually have to pay commission costs of $14,500. That amount would be shared between two realtors — the one who listed and marketed the property, and the other who introduced the eventual buyer.
“There are companies who will list the house for a lower commission, but the problem has always been that other realtors, those acting on behalf of buyers, are often reluctant to promote such properties as there is little or nothing in it for them,” he said.
One novel approach being promoted by Keylock and Malo solves that problem — and still saves the average seller around $5,000.
Your Way Realty is offering to list a property on MLS (responsible for approximately 90 per cent of all house sales) and market it for $750 up-front, plus a further $999 when the sale is achieved. The seller would do some of the work, including making appointments for viewings and showing potential buyers around their property, or pay a little more and have Your Way Realty take care of everything.
But to encourage other realtors to promote a sale, they recommend offering even more commission to them than they would get on a traditional transaction.
“It’s entirely up to the seller, but on a $350,000 house we recommend they offer $7,750 commission to any realtor who seals a deal — that’s $500 more than they would normally expect,” said Keylock. “Adding all the commissions together comes to under $9,500, which is $5,000 less than the traditional approach. That’s a very big saving.”
Those confident about their own marketing skills could save thousands more by not offering other realtors a commission at all, Keylock added.
“But mobilizing and enthusing hundreds of other realtors, all of them with their own contacts and client lists, would be a smart move.”
For more information visit www.yourwayrealty.net.