Robert Huzzy’s flashy Volkswagen Beetle, plastered with Assist-2-Sell logos, had virtually no miles on it when he started the franchise in 2002.
Now with hundreds of thousands of miles, the Bug takes the Frederick real estate broker to a steady influx of listing appointments throughout the county as more homeowners have been inquiring about the flat-fee sales model.
‘‘We have sellers calling every day wanting to know how we can save them money,” Huzzy said. ‘‘Most Realtors really have to search for a particular seller. They come to us.”
Huzzy, a former ReMax Realtor, said companies like his that charge flat fees instead of the conventional broker’s rate of usually between 5 percent and 6 percent, can earn just as much by processing more sales. They can also save money on marketing to buyers, who are drawn to Web sites and are curious about the flat fee policy.
Companies such as Assist-2-Sell and Help-U-Sell charge a fee of roughly $4,000, which is typically lower than the conventional broker’s fee and is collected only when the homes are sold. Unlike a traditional broker performing all services for a percentage of the home sale, the businesses break down services such as listing the homes on a broker’s MLS database and offer flat rates.
With 20 offices in Maryland, including two locations in Frederick, Help-U-Sell has also seen an influx of interest since the housing downturn, said Don Gill, who founded Help-U-Sell Western Maryland on Rock Creek Drive in 1991.
With a cell phone and a laptop, Gill, a licensed Realtor, offers various services for set fees and said most of his business is for listings, for which he charges $3,950.
Many homeowners, he said, are asking him how to save on the seller side, but he has been turning down more homeowners because their homes are unlikely to move at the price they need to recoup their investment.
‘‘We’re not miracle workers,” Gill said. ‘‘The interest is there — we’re getting a steady stream of calls — but I can’t list their house if they can’t sell it. Unfortunately, a lot of folks don’t have the ability to sell their home and there’s nothing I, or any other broker, can do.”
The median commission paid by home sellers in 2006 was $11,672, according an October report by the U.S. Justice Department’s anti-trust division. Consumers opting for fee-for-service models can save as much as $5,336 in commissions on the sale of a median-price home.
For example, a homeowner with a $225,330 home may pay $500 for listing with a broker such as Help-U-Sell, whereas a conventional seller’s broker fee of 5.18 percent would be $5,836. Under both models, a $5,836 buyer’s commission would also apply.
More homeowners facing foreclosures are turning to flat-fee companies to avoid filing for bankruptcy and damaging their credit, both Gill and Huzzy said. ‘‘Oftentimes, it’s too late,” Gill said.
Frederick financial consultant Alton Drew said the flat-fee brokers ‘‘provide the current market with a well-needed service, filling a niche.”
‘‘I have bankruptcy clients who have refinanced to the point where they have no equity,” Drew said in an e-mail. ‘‘For consumers like them ... an Assist-2-Sell-type offers them the option of getting rid of the home at a low cost, even if it means walking away with little or nothing.”
Assist-2-Sell’s office on Industry Lane in Frederick has five employees. Without providing specific sales and revenue figures, Huzzy said Assist-2-Sell saw consistent growth until last year, when the franchise noted a roughly 30 percent drop in revenues. His franchise had 35 active listings last week and receives between 20 and 40 inquiries about the process per month, Huzzy said.
‘‘We’ve been affected just like everybody else,” Huzzy said of the downturn. ‘‘But people are coming to us more and more.”
Gill, with about 15 active listings this week, said he has also noticed a revenue decline at Help-U-Sell, but is braced to weather the poor housing market. He said the low overhead of paying virtually only his personal digital assistant service fee will help him stay in business until the market rebounds.
A conventional Realtor, Stephen Fox, president of Fox Realty Group in Frederick, said Assist-2-Sell’s and Help-U-Sell’s business models offer an alternative to percentage-based brokering, but there is still demand for full-service, commission-based brokering.
‘‘It’s just two different levels of service,” Fox said. ‘‘People have different options, and it’s the homeowner’s preference what they’re looking for.”
