First off, I’d like to thank all of the writers, editors, bloggers and publishers who took our story yesterday and “went for it”. Right now is a crucial time for us as we are in “education mode” – just getting the word out that all New York buyers and sellers NOW have a choice to save money when buying or selling in New York City.  Joey from Curbed, special “shout-out” for coining the real estate “Street Ninjas” as it has been a big hit in our office even though I had to walk home lastnight looking over my shoulder ever 3 steps.

Ok lets get to it:

While commission refunds and rebates are illegal in 9 states – THEY ARE LEGAL IN THE OTHER 41 STATES INCLUDING NEW YORK.

We understand that many people may have questions on how this works. We are very much used to the “It’s too good to be true” or “what’s the catch” comment. Bottom line is that there isn’t one. Due to a very long legal battle between the Department of Justice (our government) vs. The National Association of Realtors, which paved the way for us to enter this market, we have been able to create efficiencies using technology and leveraging MLS data to lower our costs which we have ultimately passed on to you as a competitive advantage.

Lets face it, YOU, as a consumer have access to so much information online these days, your doing much of the search and compare process now on your own reducing the amount of time spent with an agent – so why wouldn’t fee’s naturally start to discount?

After a very long and emotional day from getting our teeth kicked-in by the obvious competing real estate agents, here, here and here and here …. and here, ugh,  Brett, Jessica and I have got a chance to sit down and group some of these top questions or inaccurate statements which have been made online. Ok, here we go.

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Who Are We & Our Experience In The Market
Ok, let’s start off with the big one. Let’s take this comment from Anonymous on The Real Deal article yesterday (yes this person wrote this in all caps):

WHO IS GOING TO WANT TO USE A BROKER THAT JUST MOVED FROM BOSTON AND DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING OR ANYONE IN THE CITY? CLIENTS USE BROKERS FOR THEIR EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE, TO FIND THE PERFECT HOME FOR THEM. SOUNDS LIKE THE DISCOUNT DOESN’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE BECAUSE CLIENTS WOULD PROBABLY NOT GET GOOD REPRESENTAION OR ADVICE ON THEIR PURCHASE FROM THIS COMPANY. WHO ARE THE “2 LOCAL AGENTS” AND HOW MUCH EXPERIENCE DO THEY HAVE?

Answer: First off, I am not the broker here in NYC. Although I have moved here to help manage the operations, marketing, social media and public relations, I have hired experienced agents and partnered with top real estate consultants, legal and finance professionals who have been operating in NYC for more than 10 years. To keep it simple, I have hired who I believe will perform as good if not a better job than any of New York’s “top brokers”.

Second, I closed more than 100 deals last year as a broker. As far as real estate knowledge, I think this pretty much puts me in the expert category.

Third, lets not all kid ourselves. There are some absolute stellar real estate brokers/agents, but they are few and far between and it’s certainly not the 80/20 rule. Let’s just say, less than 1% are legitimate all-star residential real estate broker. This leaves the other 99%…where do you think they work?

Here at CondoDomain, we only hire top “PEOPLE” who know the market, know how to dig and pull up corresponding data and know how to represent a client to slam home a deal. Many of our agents have a master’s degree, some came from real estate, and some we pulled from outside industries. Bottom line is that we could careless about presidents club, how much commission they have made or how many trophies they have, we are in a new real estate business, things have changed. Our agents do not do any advertising, prospecting or marketing which leaves only ONE thing for them to do and to do it very well – just work and provide excellent customer service to our mutually educated and savvy clientele.

How We Operate With Participating Agents In The Market
Below is a question pertaining to do we show up at our client’s appointments and the answer is absolutely we do.

While I welcome the competition I wonder if sending customers around without agents representing them as a business model is sustainable in New York. Brokers sometimes send customers to an Open House or to a showing, but in this case it seems to be a business model, is this acceptable?

As a company we are not inventing a new way to transact in the real estate vertical rather we are just adjusting to what consumers are already doing and want. Consumer have access to all the data to search online now. They can (and do) go visit open houses on the weekend and some even browse for months before really committing to buy. Others know exactly what street or what building they want to live in and they simply wait for that perfect place to hit the market. These individuals are ideal for the DIY program which entitles them to a bigger piece of the commission. Finding the perfect apartment is merely the first step in a complicated process. Regardless of what point they are in the buying/selling process we are introduced, we offer the same quality of services and customer support ranging from negotiating the Purchase Price through the closing itself. The job of a real estate professional does not end once an offer is accepted.

Refunds, Commissions & Cash Back

Are they legal?

Answer: Yes they are…

A map on the Department of Justice website, shown here clearly shows New York as one of the 41 states that currently allow brokers to offer cash rebates to consumers.

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For anyone who like further information on any of the above topics, or general questions please feel free to comment here or write me direct.  Buyers, Sellers, Agents, Developers, we welcome anyone as we know this is a very new concept to the Big Apple and we want to make sure everyone understands it.  We are now a part of your brokerage community and even if you don’t like our business model, you will love us.  We are all great people, super hard working and a joy to be around.  Hope to meet you all very soon.

Sincerely,

Tony Longo
Founder & CEO
tony [at] CondoDomain.com