In 2016 when I founded NestEdge Realty, the business model was simple. My goal was to blend all the services offered by old-school, traditional real estate agents and couple it by offering buyers and sellers significant benefits that technology and forward-thinking have made possible.

Forward-Thinking

I expected challenges to my business model as I knew that offering Broker Commission rebates was likely to viewed negatively by the old guard. The very mention of Redfin and Purplebricks in Westchester makes many seasoned real estate veterans cringe. But the reality is that traditional real estate agents must either find a way to incorporate these new models or go the way of the dinosaur.

The biggest step forward are websites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. These websites pull in all of the available listed properties in a certain area and then allows home buyers to select an agent and schedule a showing. It has never been easier to get the ball rolling shopping for new homes in Chappaqua or even do some number crunching of property taxes in Westchester.

But this new model has also led to something unexpected. Quite often, shoppers will frequently hunt for new listings on these websites and when they see a property they are interested in, they select an agent for a showing. If it turns out that this property is not a perfect fit, the same thing happens days, weeks or month later and that same home buyer sees another property….with another agent.

The result? While buyers can quickly and easily see a new listing shortly after it is posted, the home buyer has lost out on many of the significant benefits realized when they work with one agent exclusively.

When a home buyer uses the same agent consistently that agent learns very quickly what the buyer is ultimately seeking. Most home buyers have very unique and narrow wants…a certain size home on a certain sized piece of land…in the highest ranked Westchester school district …with range bound property taxes…and either in turn-key or improvable condition.

A top Westchester Real Estate agent can learn those facets and in addition to sending new listings that match that criteria, they can give a heads up on properties that might be listed shortly, they can search for off-market properties that are still actually for sale and they can even preview properties in an effort to save their buyer clients considerable time and effort.

In summary, picking one agent can pay spectacular dividends to the home buyer. But maybe that’s not enough. So, I can add something.

My firm, NestEdge Realty, offers broker commission rebates. Basically, our realtors can legally share our commissions with our buyers…tax free. We can write a check out of our commission and give it to our buyers, hence offsetting a chunk of closing costs. That’s right, we will pay our clients for home shopping with us.

Who else can offer that?!?!?