Real Estate Shake Up? Startup Seeks to Show Traditional Agents the Door
For many home sellers, one of the hardest to swallow aspects of the real-estate game is forking over a huge chunk of profit to real-estate agents. Especially in North Texas where the real-estate market is sizzling hot and potential buyers are plentiful, agents often have to do little to seal the deal and finalize the transaction. For this, they are rewarded handsomely. Too handsomely, many sellers believe.
Let’s say you sell your house for $450,000 — the house that you’ve poured your blood, sweat, tears, and money into improving while it was yours. Let’s say your agent takes photos, writes a description, lists it on the MLS, and puts a lockbox on your front door. You get a full price offer within a month. Under the traditional real-estate model, you would have to shave 6% (roughly $27,000) off of your profit and transfer half to your agent and half to the buyer’s agent. In other words, each agent nets a cool $13,000 or so for minimal work.
Unless you are a Realtor, you probably agree that the current fee structure is steep, to say the least. Alex Doubet agrees. And, he’s hoping to change it. “I think agents should be ashamed of how much they’re charging people for this service,” in light of how much the Internet has simplified their job, he said.
The 29-year-old Uptown entrepreneur launched DoorHomes.com in 2015. The concept is simple. Instead of charging sellers 6%, the flat-fee broker charges $5,000. Period. Selling that $450,000 home on DoorHomes.com would have saved you around $22,000. That could go a long way toward furnishing your new home.
Like traditional agents, DoorHomes.com lists all houses on the MLS, and creates a high-tech 3D model of each house to entice buyers to schedule a showing. Apparently, there is a market for reasonably priced real estate brokers — DoorHomes.Com recently surpassed $100 million in sales.
As DoorHomes.Com’s marketing agency, we at It Crowd are thrilled and proud to be a small part of an exciting startup that’s truly disrupting the real-estate industry. The time has come to reign in real-estate commissions and we salute Alex and his team for leading the charge!
