Startup Pits Real Estate Agents Against Each Other
By Shera Dalin
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
RISMEDIA, Feb. 24 – (KRT) – An Internet startup hopes to pit real estate agents against each other in bidding wars for the lowest commission they will accept to sell a house.
HungryAgents.com launched last week and is targeting homeowners in Missouri, Ohio and Indiana. Homeowners can register their home's zip code, size and expected sale price with HungryAgents.com and seek commission bids from agents.
Homeowners pay nothing for the service, but agents pay $795 once the home sells, said Jim Tullman, chief marketing officer for HungryAgents' parent company, Best Listing Bid LLC of Webster Groves. Homeowners are not obligated to accept a bid.
"The service we are providing is competitive. The (people) that participate with it will love it," Tullman said.
But Coldwell Banker Gundaker agent Georgia Palmer said she won't bid.
"There's a lot of cut-rate commission stuff going on. They are all trying to do us out of our money, frankly," said Palmer, who isn't permitted to cut her commission below 6 percent on houses selling for less than $900,000.
Palmer concedes that the service will appeal to some homeowners and agents for small, independent brokers.
"If you want (an agent) to throw it on (the Multiple Listing Service) and hope it sticks like mud on a wall, you can try it. But people need to screen their agents," she said.
Given that a house is the largest investment for most people, sellers typically rely on reputation and personal referrals when selecting an agent, said Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.
"To a great extent, you get what you pay for," Molony said.
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