Let's pretend that you have a $500,000.00 home and your friend has a $250,000.00 home. You both hire the same real estate agent to sell your homes and you both offer him a 6% commission. Your agent lists both homes on the MLS, places both homes in all of his print and online advertising, places a sign in each yard and a lockbox on each door, holds Open Houses once a month, and schedules an average of 10 showings a month per house. Within about 45 days, he receives offers on both homes, he negotiates acceptable contracts, helps schedule appraisals, inspections, and walk-throughs and troubleshoots each sale to a successful closing, both within about 90 days of the original listing date (working roughly the same number of hours on each transaction). At the closing of your friend's home, your agent collects a check in the amount of $15,000.00. At the closing of your home, your agent collects a check in the amount of $30,000.00. What exactly did your agent do for you that made his services twice as expensive as the services he provided your friend? Answer...absolutely nothing! At The Agency, The Menu offers a variety of fee-based services to each of our clients. You pay us for only the services we provide at the amount that those services are worth, regardless of the price of your home. You will no longer be penalized for having a valuable home. Please stay tuned to The Blog for more information on how the current real estate model is broken.