April 7, 2013
First time home buyers here who were lucky enough to work with Alan from One Percent Broker. We used their 50/50 option (will explain what this is later) and SAVED ourselves some hard-earned money while getting GREAT service at the SAME TIME. Who said there’s no free lunch to be had?
One Percent provides two types of service (and because as a first time home buyer it was confusing to me, I’m going to try to simplify this here):
– 1%: They get 1% and rebates the rest of buyer’s commission (usually 2.5%) to you. You have to source for the home yourself, and when you’ve found the place for you, contact them to help you make offers and navigate the escrow maze.
– 50/50: What we used. Essentially they split the buyer’s commission with you.
This is similar to what Redfin does, except this is MUCH MUCH MUCH better. You get a very capable and personal broker attached to you, whereas at Redfin, you get a capable agent to help you with the offer, but the most of the time, it’s some other junior agent showing you the home. You find homes you want to see on a website, and he/she will organize seeing the home with you, offering advise during the showing, etc, everything an ordinary broker will do.
This couldn’t have been an easier process for us with the proliferation of online Real Estate websites, we had no difficulty finding potential homes at all.
Very long story short(er), after seeing our new home; Alan helped us put together a strong offer, navigate a complex escrow process involving 2 appraisals. He worked with the listing agent and lending broker to dispute our first very low-ball appraisal.
PERSONAL service and LOWER costs all in one. This truly is the next evolution of real estate biz made possible by technology
