{April Fools Joke} LostListings.com New Venture! Seller Secrets Exposed!
{Update 11:30pm April 1st 2013. This was an April fools joke. See AgentGenius’ coverage of this prank.}
Announcing the launch today, Monday, for LostListings.com!
When Agents Lose, You Win!
A bold new service that goes where no other brokerage firm has gone before! Revolutionizing the industry and furthering transparency! Further showing why Frank won Inman New’s 2009 Innovator of the Year award, video).
Background:
Times are tough! Our firm, Frankly Real Estate Inc, is finding that we are losing more and more listing appointments. Whether it be sellers looking to do it themselves FSBO (see post Save $20k? Selling By Owner) or just picking cheaper, more local or more knowledgeable alternatives. We know we are great, but not everyone else is agreeing with us.
So we had to look forward to a new revenue model. At least to help us cover the loss in gas and time wasted.
The idea came from a recent real estate class. The question was:
What happens if an agent meets with a seller and finds out secret details of that home for sale?And then if that agent is not hired, but they have a buyer that wants to buy that home. Can they share the seller’s secrets? To whom is the fiduciary duty?
Turns out the Fiduciary Duty is 100% to the buyer client (assuming they are a signed client with an Exclusive Buyer Agency Agreement, don’t miss that blog post!)
So that got me thinking. That data on the seller… that is damn valuable.
An agent that loses a listing might have this data, and could sell it at auction on LostListings.com, such as:
- When a new listing is hitting in a hot neighborhood. Value= $300-$5,000
- Information about a patched up leaky roof. Value= $200-$2,000
- Almost broken furnace. Value=$5,000
- Information about a rodent, radon, oil leak problem. Value=$500-$25,000
- Foundation crack being covered up or hidden. Value= $30,000
- The Seller’s desire to sell quickly to avoid foreclosure and willingness to take $25,000 under market value! Value= $25,000
What would you pay for information on a hidden $30,000 defect?
Now on LostListings.com, unsuccessful listing agents can sell their acquired information at auction to either buyers directly, or to buyer’s agents.
This is currently only in the DC area, and soon we plan on launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise $350,000 to launch this idea nationwide. Will you join us?
I hope you will watch the video and check out LostListings.com . If you find it as revolutionary as I do, please leave a comment below on whether you think this is brilliant, won’t work, might be unethical, will work, etc. Let’s start a conversation. For comments go to: Blog.FranklyRealty.com, to also see what others have to say! And make sure to subscribe to this blog (upper right corner).
Oh and share this with friends! Tweet it, Facebook Like it, snail mail it to your relatives if you need to!
Update 11:05AM: While I am all for negative comments, please make sure you at least make a quick visit LostListings.com before completely passing judgment.
Written by: Frank LLosa Esq.
Broker FranklyRealty.com
Owner FranklyMLS.com
Owner LostListings.com
- 1
- April
- 2013
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Just some housekeeping.
ly, people have been emailing me asking what I’ve been up to and why I haven’t 
posted more frequently. Well, as some of you might know I’m in night school at Washington College of Law at American University. (I should be reading right now 