Agent A-Team or Solo Superhero? Finding the Right Real Estate Partner for Your Selling Journey in Wildwood Florida
When it comes to selling your home in Wildwood, Florida,…
January 29, 2024Assist-2-Sell is a full-service brokerage that uses a flat-rate fee while offering all of the services associated with real estate, leading sellers to greater savings.
Table of Contents
How much does Assist-2-Sell cost?
How much does Assist-2-Sell charge?
Assist-2-Sell is a privately held real estate company that was founded in 1987 by Mary LaMeres-Pomin and Lyle E. Martin. Both founders were real estate agents with over ten years of experience, and they sought to create a discount real estate firm that would act as a sort of middle ground between owners selling their houses directly and normal real estate agencies that assist owners. Their hopes were that with lower prices than the ones used by other real estate firms they would attract more clients to come directly to them.
How Assist-2-Sell differs from traditional real estate companies is obvious. The first one is that Assist-2-Sell does not charge the standard listing commission, which is normally 3 percent for their services. Instead, they have a low flat fee that you will be required to pay for their services. But while their service charge is different, the company still functions as a full-service discount real estate company. This means that as the property owner you will not be missing out on the services that would have been offered by normal real estate agencies if you choose Assist-2-Sell.
Their business model, is their ability to offer full-service brokerage at a lower commission rate, has helped catapult the company to success and Assist-2-Sell agents have been selling more homes when compared to normal real estate agents. In part, this is because the company utilizes a number of different initiatives for marketing which include MLS, and other advertising programs to give sellers a better chance at selling their homes. If the full real estate service is not what you are interested in, then you can also utilize the company’s “Paperwork Only” program, which can help owners with the contracts and closing paperwork at an even lower rate. This array of different programs and options makes Assist-2-Sell a great option for those who are looking to sell their home easily without paying the high commission rates that are normally associated with real estate agents.
Assist-2-Sell works through its franchises. This means that depending on your city you will need to come in contact with the franchise office. These franchises are normally independently owned and operated and as such, each Assist-2-Sell office may work in slightly different ways and may require slightly different costs. Still, the business model followed by most franchises is similar.
As a house owner if you sign on with Assist-2-Sell you will be assigned to one of their real estate agents. Assist-2-Sell agents can be highly efficient, but they are also usually working with more clients at any given moment than a regular real estate agent would be working with. This is reflected in the price of the service which is lower than the one that normal real estate agents need to pay. As the potential seller, you may find that the trade-off for the cheaper price is in the quality of service offered by the real estate agent. This is not always the case, but there are cases where this has been noted.
Assist-2-Sell works in the same way that a normal brokerage would. The first step towards selling your home with Assist-2-Sell is setting up your initial appointment. Once that has been set up your allocated real estate agent will set up the listing of your property and promote it through various platforms and means. Once offers start coming in your real estate agent will help you sort through them, reply, and eventually sort out the paperwork for the offer that you are planning on accepting. The process is that simple and selling your home should be an easy task with your agent’s assistance.
Assist-2-Sell works on a flat-rate model; however, those flat rates are not universally the same across all of the franchises that use the Assist-2-Sell brand. Depending on your location you may be asked to pay different amounts for the sale of your property. Another thing to consider is that the flat rate may be different depending on the price of the property that you are looking to sell. More expensive properties will have higher flat-rate fees. Those fees are almost always lower than the 3% that normal real estate brokerage services provide.
In most cases, the listing fee provided by Assist-2-Sell is at its lowest end around $2,995 depending on location and the type of property that you are looking to sell that amount could go as high as $10,000 or more. To determine what the rate for your property would be you will need to contact the franchise office in your city to see what the pricing for your home would be.
Another thing to consider when discussing the costs of Assist-2-Sell is that depending on the program that you end up using you may be required to pay the differing amount. For example, their ‘MLS for Less’ program, which is the program that most closely resembles the services offered by a regular real estate agent is different from their ‘Paperwork Only’ Program. Thus, these two programs are also usually going to cost the seller different amounts. Therefore, before you come in contact with Assist-2-Sell you will want to determine what type of assistance you are looking for and how much help you will require to close on the sale of your house.
As the seller of a property, another thing that you may want to consider is that regardless of the amount that you spend on Assist-2-Sell you will also be required to pay the commission rates for the buyer. While some buyers may find your property without an agent or through Assist-2-Sell, there will be others who will send you offers through their real estate agents. If that is the case then you will want to remember that the buyer’s real estate agent which is paid by the seller also charges around 2.5-3% for the sale of a property.
All of these factors will change the total cost that you will spend on the brokerage fees upon closing the deal and selling off your property. Therefore, considering the following questions, and discussing them with your real estate agent may be important.
The amount that Assist-2-Sell will charge a homeowner will vary depending on the location that they are in, the office that they are contacting, the value of their property, and the Assist-2-Sell program that they are looking to take advantage of. This means that the main determinants of the amount that you as the seller will be charged for utilizing the Assist-2-Sell service are the following.
As Assist-2-Sell works through franchise offices, each office has the option of determining their pricing for the services that they provide. This means that different offices in your area may be charging different amounts for taking on the sale of houses that are similar to yours. If there is more than one Assist-2-Sell franchise near you then it may be worth considering contacting all of them and getting the pricing information from each franchise. If there is a difference in the prices that they provide then you may be able to choose to go with the cheapest option, saving in this way more money for yourself.
The Value of the property that you are trying to sell is also very likely to alter the amount that you will be charged by Assist-2-Sell for their assistance. While the company does work with a flat rate, that flat rate is not universal regardless of the value of the property. Therefore, it will be beneficial to ask them for the listing fees for houses in the same price range.
3. Programs
As Assist-2-Sell franchises usually offer a number of different programs that cover different parts of the process of selling a house, the amount that you may be charged varies based on the program that you choose. The ‘MLS for Less’ program for example, which covers all of the real estate needs you may have regarding the sale of your property may be more expensive than the ‘Paperwork Only’ program which only covers the closing paperwork. Therefore, choosing the program you want to utilize will alter the amount that you will be called to pay.
Assist-2-Sell is one of the cheapest options for those who do not want to pay the full amount that real estate agents request. Still, this lower pricing has often been associated with a relative drop in the quality of services offered. The reason for this is relatively simple. To sustain the business model that they have created, Assist-2-Sell makes their real estate agents take on more clients than what a normal real estate office would request that they take on. In an effort to juggle all of these clients and to assist them all, real estate agents may be spread too thin and as such, you may notice a drop in the quality of the service that they are offering. Still, this is only true in some cases and as such, it is not enough reason for someone to not consider using Assist-2-Sell.
What Assist-2-Sell is definitely good for, is for acting as the middle ground for those who do not feel confident enough to complete a real estate agent with no agent, but at the same time, they want to save on the high commission fee that most real estate agents will charge. For those clients, Assist-2-Sell is the perfect option as they offer a similar service at a much lower rate. What’s more, if sellers need assistance with only one part of the sale, they will be able to choose and pay for a program that only covers their needs. This flexibility is a huge benefit of working with Assist-2-Sell and it is one of the main reasons that so many people prefer to use the service.
Advantages of Assist-2-Sell:
Disadvantages of Assist-2-Sell:
Assist-2-Sell is a great service for those who are looking for the middle ground between doing everything concerning the sale of their house on their own and using a real estate agent. The availability of multiple different programs and the flat fee charged for them can lead to significant savings for sellers. The most important thing though is that Assist-2-Sell functions as a full-service brokerage and does not cut corners and services in order to justify the lower prices that they offer. This makes them a great option for anyone looking to sell their house while minimizing their closing fees.
If you want the Richr team to help you save thousands on your home just book a call.