192: Do You Get What You Pay For? Talking to an Ex-Discount Brokerage Agent

Hustle Humbly Podcast

Alissa Jenkins & Katy Caldwell

Entrepreneurship, Business

4.9 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you really get what you pay for in real estate?

In this episode, we sit down with Michelle, a former discount brokerage agent, to get a behind-the-scenes look at how these companies actually operate—and what that means for buyers, sellers, and agents.

From closing 113 transactions in one year to managing 20–30 deals at a time, Michelle shares what it was really like working in a high-volume, low-service environment.

We're pulling back the curtain on a business model many consumers don't fully understand.

We're covering:

-What a discount brokerage actually is (and how it's structured)
-The difference between flat-fee and "full service" options
-Why volume matters more than service in these models
-What happens when sellers don't get guidance during negotiations
-How pricing strategies are handled (hint: it's not customized)
-Why buyers can end up with little to no representation
-The confusion this creates for cooperating agents
-What Michelle learned after leaving and going traditional
-How to evaluate whether a discount brokerage is right for you

Key takeaway: Lower cost doesn't always mean better value. Understanding what services you're giving up is essential before choosing how to buy or sell your home.

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Community over competition. 💛

Transcript

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0:00.0	There was nothing in our job description that said actively work to get these people under contract.
0:07.0	Can you write offers on all of these today and let's see if one of them sticks?
0:11.0	Constant repair negotiations because you get one person through on the next.
0:16.0	Well, go ask Google. Is that what they do?
0:19.0	Yeah, probably.
0:20.0	3% every four weeks drop the price until you sell. That's it.
0:24.6	Sometimes they just need to hear a man's voice.
0:27.6	We had a local area code for each market, so that's why people would be confused.
0:34.6	Hi y'all, welcome to Hustle Humbly.
0:38.1	It's Alyssa and Katie, and we are two top-producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.
0:42.1	We work for two different companies where we should be competitors, but we have chosen
0:45.5	community over competition.
0:47.1	The goal of our podcast is to encourage you to find your own way in business.
0:50.8	So stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths.
0:54.6	Okay, hi, Alexa. Hey, Katie. It's episode 192. And we're here today with a guest, a friend who's going to
1:02.4	talk to us all about, there's so many names for this. Yeah, I was waiting to hear what you were going to say.
1:09.0	She's going to talk about what we call a discount broker or maybe a non-traditional broker or a flat fee broker, limited service broker. There really are a lot of names for this. So we're going to let Michelle introduce herself and tell us where she is and what she does and why she's a good person to talk to us about this subject.
1:30.6	Yeah, so my name is Michelle. I'm a realtor in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Texas.
1:35.2	I'm originally from C. Diego. I met my husband in 2018. He's the one who kind of talked me into
1:42.0	getting licensed and trying real estate, even though that wasn't on my radar.
1:46.8	So I went ahead and got my license at the end of 2019.
1:50.8	I had no background in real estate.
	...

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