You do my nails; I’ll sell your house
ARDELL on 07 28, 2007
[photopress:nails.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’m wondering why people don’t barter for services more? I went to a couple of websites that could promote bartering for real estate services, and found little to nothing there.
You would think that with all the talk about consumers wanting more options with regard to lower real estate commissions, someone would have a barter site geared toward things agents use and need. Why not offer those things in exchange for lower real estate commissions, and where’s the tech oriented person who can set up this site?
I did the math on offering a free manicure and pedicure for a year, and it looks like someone could reduce their commission by $2,500 or so by offering this service. Likely the agent wouldn’t come every week, so there’s opportunity for more gain there. A coupon good for $2,500 that permits once a week manicures and pedicures. Seems the taxable portion would be the amount actually used, and not the full coupon value…I’m not sure how the tax aspects work. Still…seems an idea worth pursuing.
Most female agents need a manicure and pedicure. Some male agents as well.
Bartering for staging items is a big one for me. When someone is buying a smaller place and has “excess furniture”, that provides a great opportunity for bartering. Why are sellers putting price tags on the “stuff” in the house, making their home for sale look like a garage sale/home sale combo effort? Why not offer those things to the agent and barter against the commission with it?
Oil changes, tune ups, website services, photography services, staging services, manicures and pedicures, haircuts, food for Broker’s Opens, flyers, cleaning services, blogging support services 
There’s almost no end to the things a consumer could offer as barter against the real estate commission.
Why don’t we see more offers to barter?
About the Author: Ardell DellaLoggia
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13 Responses to “You do my nails; I’ll sell your house”
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I have this terrible back hair problem. I’d offer to barter for reduced commission in exchange for weekly waxing and… well… there is squeezing and usually band aids involved too.
I’m just worried I might reduce my listing presentation effectiveness.
LOL Athol!
If you’re ever in the Orlando area, look up my friend Reidi Lott. She owns the Lana Gray Electrolosis business there. Or go for lazer hair removal. But skip the waxing. It’s not permanent enough and it’s painful.
Someone would have to have a pretty expensive house and a heft commission to save to deal with “squeezing”.
There are some business exchange organizations around that will barter services/products. I remember the last place I worked in Bellevue was a member of one. I didn’t have much to do with it, so can’t give you the exact name, but we always called it “bizex (sp??).” Can prove to be very beneficial, since you can exchange products/services via multiple parties. For example, say you sell software and want to have a Christmas party at a restaurant in town, and that restaurant buys wine from a local winery that needs your software. The buisness exchange organization sets it up so that the restaurant provices a free catered Christmas party for your company. The restaurant in return will get some free bottles of wine from the winery, and you provide your software to that winery.
I couldn’t agree more…and in addition to a direct trade(s) as mentioned, one can join a local trade exchange and find hundreds of members to trade with. Realtors in So. Ca. are members and trade their commissions (or take trade dollars as payment, which they then spend for printing, fine dining, dental work, printing, etc.)
Haha I love your title! It’s true, I would love to barter, especially spa treatments
You “stage” my face, I stage your house!
Cheers,
Cindy
Cindy,
Clearly stagers could barter with agents. You certainly have something we can use!
Marie,
If you can locate that “Bizex” let me know. I’d be interested in joining anything local.
I’m surprised there’s not more activity on Craigslist for bartering.
Bob,
I like the idea of bartering. Kind of like the old fashioned Country Doctor who gets eggs and chickens for fixing up the kids.
ARDELL
I can see a CB agent walking in after a closing with a commission check, half of what it should be. I’d love to be a fly on the wall.
“We’ll Mr. Corporate manager, I bartered away half the commish for one year of back waxes”.
Actuall Kev, I did barter when I worked for Coldwell Banker. Wasn’t a problem. Here’s how I did it. I was on a split of 65/35 with 35% to Coldwell Banker. I’m remembering a real life example from back in 1994 or so.
Divorce. Sold house and woman purchased a townhome. Downsized. Furniture in current home did not fit into new townhome. Client was short on closing costs for new home. Sale price was $200,000 or so. Total commission $6,000 for list side. 35% to Coldwell Banker is $2,100. Take that off the top. Now you can barter with the difference. I “bought” everything she wasn’t bringing to the new place or trashing. This helped her move out without needing to have a garage sale. Simplified her move, and gave her the money she needed for closing costs on the purchase side.
Simple, easy, everyone happy. Did the same thing with a snow blower on another house which I gave to my sister and brother-in-law as a Christmas present. He’s still using it today in PA.
What I give them as a barter price is more than someone will pay them at a garage sale. So everyone’s happy, even Coldwell Banker. I am not bartering with their dollars…only mine.
As to the owner of the Coldwell Banker Franchise at the time, I learned it from him. I saw him buy a boat from someone to give them the cash they needed to purchase. LOL We were very creative in the early to mid 90s before 1998. We have to get creative again, I think.
Back to win-win, after being in the win-lose of hot market times. We can’t barter the whole commission any more than the Country Doctor could always get paid in eggs. But it’s a piece of the puzzle, and can be implemented quite easily.
Ardell-
Great post! I agree with you about bartering. My hubby and I provide Web/graphic design services to small businesses in Seattle and are always willing to barter. Unfortunately, when we try to barter for services from another business, we usually get the cold shoulder. Maybe I should look into starting up a site for this…
Great idea about bartering! Many times when I am showing homes in Central Kentucky I love some of the furniture inside. I don’t always ask if they would like to sell. I’ve bartered for many things I have wanted. I grew up in a pawn shop so buying things new were not something I did. The poorest people always bought the nicest things then pawned them because the couldn’t afford to keep them. I’d like to barter for services if it is something I really want.
I’ve heard of people trading a boat to sell a house. Its was a high end home. I would do it, I think.