Theredpin offers lower real estate fees

Want to save $12,500 the next time you move? Then you’ll want to know about TheRedPin’s latest offer—the “One” program. Launched about a month ago, the program enables homeowners a chance to significantly save on commissions if they sell and buy with theredpin.com. (The stipulation is that the sale and the new purchase have to be within 90 days of each other.) This isn’t the first time TheRedPin has been in the news with it’s lower service costs when it comes to real estate transactions in the Greater Toronto Area. To illustrate, let’s consider the sale of a $500,000 home and the purchase of a $600,000 home in Toronto. We’ll call our clients the Johnsons and they are making their move even as they expect their third child.

→ To sell their home with a traditional, full-service realtor the Johnson’s would have to pay 5% commission on the sale price, or $25,000. If they bought their new house with that same realtor, the Johnson’s wouldn’t have to pay their realtor anything as this transaction cost is borne by the new seller. But their realtor would pick up another $15,000 (or half of the standard 5% commission that’s charged on real estate transactions) on the new home the Johnson’s purchased. The realtor’s total commission for this process: $27,500.

→ But if the Johnson’s sold and then bought their new home with theredpin.com realtor team they’d only pay 2.5% commission—not the standard 5%—for a savings of $12,500. The Johnson’s realtor would then receive a $15,000 commission from the purchase of the new home.

“Essentially you’re selling for free,” says Tarik Gidamy, co-founder of TheRedPin. Just to be clear: This concept isn’t new. Many experienced realtors will cut their commission when representing clients who are both selling and buying. The difference with the “One” program is you no longer have to negotiate with the realtor to get these savings—it’s just assumed. In a way, it makes sense. Of the two transactions—buying or selling—the harder of the two is the buying. In Toronto, the average home buying process takes between three and eight months, says Gidamy. For a realtor representing that client that can often mean five to 12 months before they see a commission on a house purchase. At present, TheRedPin is only open to Greater Toronto Area clients, but new offices are slated to open in Vancouver in early June of this year, and in Calgary and Ottawa later this year. For more information on the this new tech-savvy brokerage and the One program go to theredpinone.com and scroll down to watch a quick video. Read more from Romana King at Home Owner on Facebook »