Do you have a professional service to offer online? Or have you considered brokering professional services? It’s not for everyone, but it’s a pretty powerful business model for those who resonate with it.
Clickit Realty Case Study
This case study comes from my own experience with selling a real property quite recently.
In New York State, where the property was located, a property can only be put on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) by a state licensed real estate broker.
This is important to know because the vast majority (I’ve read 98%) of real estate sales occur as a result of MLS exposure. That’s because most buyers contact brokers to buy real estate, and the first thing most brokers do is to look at the current MLS listings to see what matches may be available.
Now, as fairly knowledgeable real estate investor, I wanted to sell the property myself, and save some money in reator commissions. A property offered for sale directly by the owner, and not by a real estate broker, it’s commonly called an FSBO (For Sale By Owner).
The problem with FSBO properties is that they cannot be listed on the local MLS.
I did some google searching and found a way to do it, though, for a minimal fee.
It’s called a flat fee broker.
A flat fee broker takes a small “fee” to list your property.
I paid Clickit Realty Inc. (clickitrealtyinc dot com) $400 for the service. After listing the property on MLS, the Clickit Realty broker had very little involvement in the sales process. That’s why they don’t take a commission, which in my case was an industry standard of 3%.
So, for $400 I had my property listed on the local MLS registry, and buyers brokers were welcome to bring prospects by to see it. Because I allowed buyers brokers, I not only was able to sell the property as a FSBO, but also via MLS. If I sold the property myself, I would save the entire commission of 6%. If I sold it through a buyer’s broker, I’d have to pay them 3%, but would still save the 3% listing broker commission.
For my part, since I had no traditional listing brokers, I had to do all the work they would typically do (including listing forms, disclosure statements, pricing the property accurately and negotiating the final deal).
To make a long story short, I listed the property through Clickit Realty for a flat fee of $400 rather than using a tradional listing broker for 3% commission. I sold it in about 10 days, and saved thousands of dollars in commissions.
What Professional Service Can You Offer or Broker Online?
Do you have a special service you can offer or broker through an online site like Clickit Realty did on theirs?
I have special knowledge, for instance, of medical malpractice litigation. I’m not an attorney, so I can’t offer the legal service of representing you. However, I can educate you, assess your injury as to its key components (in New York, this is the negligence and compensatory thresholds), and refer you to attorneys who can service your claim and/or suit.
So I could, theoretically, create a website to find clients for medical malpractice, screen them according to the threshold criteria, and set up a referral system for attorneys who would actually provide the service to qualified consumers.
That’s one type of brokering.
What sort of professional services could you offer or broker?
Clickit Realty answered this question and has formed a very sound online business that just may change the whole nature of how people sell properties in the future. I think it will.
Do you have a similar groundbreaking idea?
Remember, it doesn’t even have to be groundbreaking. It just has to offer real value to both professional servicers and their consumers. You stand to build a highly successful business as a brokering or referral service, just for putting introducing these folks to each other.
Again, I understand that this is not for everyone. You need to have some specialized service you could offer, such as the real estate brokering or legal referral examples I have given you.
I’d love to hear, in the comments below, if you have a professional service you could offer, broker or refer.
What challenges do you have in capitalizing on this idea?
Or, what do you think of the whole idea just in general?
I appreciate if it you’d post this article in your social sites, too!