Anybody know about edge residential-seems cutting edge

I always have trepidation about anyone advertising a service with a lie:

"Traditional brokers are bound to charge a 6% commission."

30yrs, why, what's your experience with the listing commission %? How negotiable are the big brokers? I do like the idea of 1% buyer rebate. Kind of pays for the closing costs.

It is working well for us, everyone is happy.

http://theburkhardtgroup.com/services-and-fees-c14358.html

So, Steve, while telling everyone else now is the time to buy, you're trying to sell?

Can't say I'm surprised...

I can't believe this business has not taken off. For buyers to get back 1% is huge. It eliminates a large portion of closing costs. That mortgage tax is more than whacked in half. If I was a buyer I would use these guys. How could you not? Great IDEA. It's revolutionary. To bad these startups are not publicly traded. i would double down.

Any buyers out there use these guys?

SteveF: Please see redfin as they are leading the rebate charge. I am currently working with 6 buyers, 4 will receive 67% of my portion of the commission back at closing, 2 will receive 33% back. The buyer decides on the level of involvement which determines the rebate.

There are also a few companies that match rebate brokers with buyers around the country. I believe we are the first Manhattan based brokerage to offer rebates as well as flat rate consultation services.

Until just a few weeks ago I was primarily focused on the rental side of the business, (also rebating a portion of owner paid fees to my clients). This fall I will begin enlisting more brokers to work with us.

The Burkhardt Group was initially just me, I wanted to see if my ideas would work...they have.

When we were interviewing brokers, Corcoran and Elliman told us in no uncertain terms they would not budge from 6%. We were asking if they'd take 5%. One senior Corcoran broker told us - if other (buyers') brokers see you're only paying 5%, they won't show it to their clients.

It is absolutely ILLEGAL for brokerages in any area, MLS, etc. to agree on a FIXED commission rate (or, actually, even a sliding scale which they agree with each other they will not deviate from).

30yrs: I read the "traditional brokers are bound to charge..." sentence as "traditional brokers are inevitably going to charge..." rather than "traditional brokers are required to charge..." I think it's just a colloquialism.

While you're correct that it's illegal to agree on a fixed commission rate (under virtually all circumstances), it's not illegal to have what's known as conscious parallelism -- which is pretty much "I know damn well that my competitor is charging 6, has always charged 6, and (unless I start cutting prices) will continue to charge 6. If I cut prices, he'll match, and we'll both end up charging 1. So I'll just charge 6, too." That much isn't illegal. It's only if he calls you up and says "hey, buddy...keep charging 6, ok?" that you get into trouble.

That is 100% correct, but having stuff in writing like "Traditional brokers are bound to charge a 6% commission." is not a good thing for anyone involved because if some prosecutor decides they want to make something of a case, they will throw it on the bonfire and mixed in amongst other quotes will seem like a lot more than it is. The way i see it, it's similar to defending your brand name or copyright: if you never do it, you weaken your position. If every time anything close to it comes up you make your position clear, you certainly don't HURT any future chances you have of defending an action. So, at least as far as I'm concerned, the more times I make public statements like the one above, the better 9for the industry and myself).

But I'm not as certain as you are that the intention of the writer wasn't to try to get the reader to think aboutr it the way I warn, with an "out" of the way you say it.