WHY STREAMLINE REALTY

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It's time for the real estate industry to catch up with today's tech savvy customers who are capable of doing most of the work needed to sell or buy real estate. One example is finding a home. With so much content on the internet you no longer need a broker to find a home on the MLS. But brokers are still charging their clients the same. Why is that? We understand this and that is why we streamline our clients experience with technology so they can save thousands of dollars without compromising a high level service and expertise they deserve.

Keep reading if you want to know about the old ways and the old fees. You will find out how the industry has changed, making things easier, with technology but the fees have stayed the same.

It wasn't that long ago where if a person wanted to find a home to purchase they need to go see a realtor who had the local "Multiple Listing Service" or the MLS for short. There they would walk into an office at during their prescheduled appointment and talk about what type of home they are looking for. Then the agent would pull out a huge binder. This huge binder was the their MLS. It was full of paper  describing the every property and their disclosures. The pictures? Well they were polaroid's mostly or prints with double sided tape. The agent and the clients would then make a list of the homes that looked promising and make a plan to go and have a weekend of showings where the agent would pick them up in their family / luxury sedan and use a tank of gas going from house to house. Selling and buying a home took time and it was laborious. 

When they found a house to make an offer on they would actually hand write the contract and physically sign it with ink. Once the terms were settled they faxed the offer over and rewriting the offer until there was an agreement. Then the buyer would have to not only visit the home but also the county office to search through actual paper files regarding the home. Then there was the financing. More physical paperwork and more time spent.

During these times the average listing fee was....wait for it.....6% with 3% offer to the cooperating buyers broker (3%+3%). The average fee is about the same today 3% to list and 3% to sell.

Now let's fast forward to today. What is it like today? I mean right now. Here is a recent example. A buyer contacts an agent regarding a home they found on a website like relator.com or streamlinerealtyrva.com. They have been looking for sometime on the interest and have been narrowing down the possibilities. They are also fairly confident it checks all the boxes looking on all the online information and virtual tours. Then the agent and buyer make a list of the top properties and schedule the showings. The agent and buyer will drive separate cars for convenience and safety sake. After the showing the meet a couple of times via online conferencing and decide to write an offer. The offer is filled in electronically and sent via email for electronic signatures. The finished offer is then sent to the seller in which they respond quickly with an emailed counter. Everyone agrees and the final copy is automatically sent to all principles electronically.
Wow, what a difference! I know not every transaction is like the ones described above but you can see the difference technology has made in making the process easier, faster, and efficient. However, the agents today are charging the same fees that they did when just about everything was slower, costlier and laborious. You might say that technology is expensive. True, but the technology that is available for us agents today is either free or comes with being a Realtor (c). 

The amount of voluntary participation the typical buyer and seller of real estate puts in a transaction has greatly increased. They also have been empowered because of it. One the agent side, there is a tremendous amount of free or low cost technology out there that increases the speed and efficiency of our transactions. But, the typical agent does not change their fees. But, we do. We have taken advantage of these two phenomenon and have change the way we do realty. The issue of it all makes the whole process better and cost-less than days prior. The most important benefit to our clients is that you don't have to compromise service to save money.

There is more to say but that is why we do what we do in a nut shell (with a little history). Check out our Special Offers page to see how you can get an agent with 30 years of experience while saving on transaction fees. That is what happens when you Streamline the process and bring real estate into the 21st century.

 I think real estate is a great industry. It's a place of art, science and philanthropy. I love looking at architecture of both old and new buildings, analyzing the financial markets of a global economy, and most importantly helping people realize their dreams with real estate. My start in real estate started when I was ten years old helping my father maintain the family's apartment complex. In those years I did everything from plumbing to roofing and everything in between. Later on in college, I spent a year roofing homes for extra money. It was amazing watching something beautiful come up from nothing. What impresses me about real estate was that it enables people like my father who had nothing acquire something of the American dream. 

In 2001 I received my degree from California State University Fullerton in Real Estate and became a real estate broker in 2002. Since then I have run my own brokerage business handling both investment, residential transactions and mortgage loans. I have enjoyed the last 20 years immensely meeting so many people with different situations and performing a wide variety of transactions. As a small yet experienced firm we are able to quickly change how we do business to not only serve but help our communities in difficult markets. We were a tremendous benefit to those who were affected by the great recession and the housing collapse of 2008. We gave hope to people who were upside down or have little equity in their homes. Home owners felt trapped in their homes because they could not afford the selling costs. That is why two of our favorite programs were free listings and buyers rebate. These two programs have helped many people get out from their homes they have out grown and into homes with the promise of greater stability and growth. We also offer full-service listing services for both residential and multifamily property owners. 

Today, we still offer amazing incentives to our clients by using easy and accessible technology to the benefit of our clients. We are not afraid of change but embrace it. How can we do all this while others don't? We have streamlined the process, making buying and selling homes easier, efficient, elegant and even fun! As the market changes we keep changing with it to give our clients the benefit of a streamlined process. This is real estate reimagined, welcome to Streamline Realty.