Save BIG when you sell ! – EquitySafe Realty, LLC

You’ve probably heard the big news already.

You know, the news about a new industry-changing business, the one that couples exceptional customer service with great savings, the one based on Lady’s Island but serving the entire Beaufort area?

WalMart? What, are you serious? No. I guess I can see why you thought that but….

Publix? Oh, for Pete’s sake, they’re not new, they just moved across the dang street.

I’m talking about EquitySafe Realty. We’re different. I mean REALLY different. We may save you thousands, even tens of thousands, when we list and sell your home in the Beaufort area.

OK, full disclosure: Some may say that I have a bit of bias in my positive opinion of EquitySafe Realty simply because I founded the company. For the record, I think that’s a pretty cynical mindset but, in the interest of fairness, I will admit that there’s at least the potential for a little favoritism on my part.

So, anyways, here’s what happened, Beaufort Lifestyle Magazine agreed to run an advertorial on our new real estate company, but, in an admittedly unfortunate slip of their normally high standards, even let me write it. Something about “no one else wanted to..” or words to that effect but, in any event, if you have a moment, please allow me to share a bit about our new approach to real estate.

My background in the local real estate market:

I moved to Beaufort in 1993 to serve as a USMC Drill Instructor aboard Parris Island. I then left the Marine Corps in 1997, opened a martial arts school and began purchasing “fixer upper” properties with another local former USMC DI and good friend. One thing led to another and, by 2003, I’d made the switch into representing clients buying and selling real estate full time.

It’s been a great run.

Over the years, I’ve been the top producing agent at two of the area’s leading brokerages, represented the developer for the downtown Midtown Square project which earned Southern Living Magazine’s “Planned Community of the Year” award, represented the buyers in the Anchorage purchase on Bay Street and served hundreds of clients, both buyers and sellers, in a cornucopia of successful transactions.

None of the above is meant to sound like I’m bragging. I’m not.  There’s a lot of great agents in Beaufort, all of whom I respect.

I share the above only to help frame the professional experiences that led to my personal evolution over the last decade and a half into a singular honest opinion:

“I feel it’s no longer logical for clients to pay higher listing commissions.”

I know that that sounds like a gimmicky “line” and I guess it kind of is.  But it’s also genuinely how I feel. So, after much thought and preparation, EquitySafe Realty was born. To my knowledge, it is a real estate model unique not only to the Beaufort area but to the entire real estate industry as a whole. We’re convinced it’s the future and, quite frankly, a much better way of doing business.

In a nutshell, I based the  EquitySafe Realty model on three tenets:

• High quality, full service representation:  We’re not a “discount” brokerage and we don’t cut corners on marketing our client’s properties. There’s a couple very subtle logistical things we do slightly different in order to increase overall company efficiency but my goal was to meet or exceed the quality of service my past clients received when I worked at other leading companies and I strongly feel that we’ve met that goal.

• Pay the BUYER’S AGENCY more: While all real estate commissions are negotiable, it’s certainly not uncommon in the industry for a listing agency to charge a selling client something in the range of a 6% commission on a closed sale. Further, using that same 6% example, it’s then also not uncommon for half of that, or 3% of the sales price, to be offered to the Buyer’s Agent for bringing the Buyer to the sale.  I feel that it serves the Seller well for the folks who actually produce the Buyer to be better compensated as there’s then a “built in” incentive to produce a positive result.  Therefore, all EquitySafe Realty single family home listings pay out 3.5% to the Buyer Agency. That’s like a $500 “bonus,” to the Buyer Agency, for every $100,000 of sales price, when compared to the example 6% listing. Once again, not all listings are at 6% but, hopefully, you get the idea.

• Pay the LISTING AGENCY less: EquitySafe Realty delivers full service representation, pays the Buyer Agency well…and then charges a FLAT RATE of $1,999, paid only at closing, for our listing side commission REGARDLESS of sales price. Once again, industry commissions can vary but, using the same 6% example from above, we’d likely see 3% being kept by the Listing Agency. Compare that to the EquitySafe Realty model and that’s a Listing-side commission difference of approximately $4000 on a $200,000 home, $13,000 on a $500,000 home and $28,000 on a 1 million dollar home.

     So what’s the catch? 

There’s not one. Sometimes “too good” actually is “true”.

While there’s not enough room to explain all of the details here, in short, we’re able to do this because, in my opinion, the techniques utilized to market real estate have become so automated and computerized that there’s no longer that much difference in the marketing efforts required between properties across the various price ranges.

Once again, that’s my opinion and some of my competitors might disagree but I believe it to be true so, if you are thinking about selling, before you list, call us to compare both services and price…I’m pretty sure we’ll make a believer out of you as well.

I can be reached directly via email at Will@EquitySafeRealty.com or via phone at 1-843-YOU-LIST.

 Thanks for reading, have a great day!

Will McCullough

President – EquitySafe Realty, LLC