The "Real" State - Corona, CA

Prolegomena. My name is Tim Trainor. The goal of this blog is to be informative. I will use this space to write about my experiences, real estate in Corona, CA, finances, non-profit organizations and my life in general. My hope is that you would return to this page in an effort to learn more about my practice, as well as more about me. The initial focus is going to be on real estate, because it is such a relevant topic and because this is where my business is focused today.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Something for nothing????

One of the biggest pet peeves in my life is the famous $10 off your next purchase of $50 coupon. It is a big fat scam. All I can think of when I see this is, "I get to spend $40 in order to utilize the $10 worth of savings." Now, if I am on my way to Best Buy to buy a new iPod...this is a good deal. But, this is just not the case. Usually it comes from a store that you just bought something from (notice the past tense...YOU JUST BOUGHT SOMETHING) and it is good on your next purchase...oh, and don't forget it is only valid for 20 days...or some other artificial way of tricking us to spend money on something we don't need...so we can save 20%.

Zip Realty's rebate does not work this way at all. In fact, it only has 2 requirements...1.) you buy a house, and 2.) you buy it using a Zip Realty agent. There are 2 vital pieces of information that I want you to get out of this...1.) how the Zip Realty rebate works, and 2.) who pays real estate commissions.

Alright, the rebate is simple. Zip credits people who buy homes through Zip 20% of the commissions paid. This is different from the above situation because I happen to believe that I am a pretty decent salesman, but I have never been able to convince someone to buy a house. It is just not something that people jump into with a lot of thought. My point is, if you are not interested in buying a house then the lure of a rebate has no attraction to you. However, if you are, Zip pays you to use us. Therefore, let me illustrate how the rebate works. You want to buy a house for $300,000. The commissions that are to be paid to the selling broker are 3%.

$300,000 x 3% = $9,000 in commissions
$9,000 x 20% = $1,800 in rebate

You can either have the 20% assigned to you straight out of escrow. Or, you can have Zip mail you a check after the close of escrow. If you chose a check, it can take up to 30 days for it to be mailed.

Now for the best part. In most real estate transactions the commission is paid by the seller. So, the seller pays the commission. Zip Realty passes a portion of it along to the buyer. So unlike the above mentioned coupon you literally get something for nothing. Because remember...you were going to buy a house anyway!

Having said all of this...why would you buy a home from anyone besides Zip Realty?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Finding out its not as simple as you say and the website claims. Zip is saying that we cant use this towards closing costs and we can only get a check after close. Our lender (or HUD) is saying we cant get a check after close unless they reduce the mortgage amount which means we must have more $ for down payment. Can anyone explain this to me?? Left several messages with Zip managers but no call back yet. The purchase is happening in MA btw.; February 19, 2010 at 12:48 PM