In the late 1980s, Mary LaMeres-Pomin and Lyle Martin left the "traditional" world of real estate in search of a better way for consumers to sell their homes. Around that same time, large franchise offices and "mega-brokers" started to emerge and increase in popularity. Consumers believed that bigger meant better. Mary and Lyle realized they needed a competitive advantage if they were going to compete successfully with the "big boys." After witnessing the success of discount companies in other industries, they came up with a premise: If you charge home sellers less, you should be able to do enough volume to make up for the lower fees. They developed a model that provides home sellers with all of the services they need from a real estate company, but for a low, discounted fee. The Assist-2-Sell® discount cost model also appeals to home buyers, who recognize the benefit of the large selection of competitively-priced homes offered through Assist-2-Sell’s exclusive home listings database. They were right! And Assist-2-Sell was born.
The response to this consumer-friendly model was immediate and significant, and business took off. Since opening the first office in Reno, Nev., Assist-2-Sell has grown to hundreds of offices in the U.S. and Canada. Over the years, Assist-2-Sell has been recognized by numerous publications as one of the fastest growing and most successful real estate franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine and The Wall Street Journal’s StartupJournal.com, a testament to the efficacy of the low fee real estate service model.
Assist-2-Sell’s popular "discount" concept attracts a high volume of business. While the low fee commission results in significant discounts for the home sellers, continuing to deliver full-service is the key to the company’s success. Consumers want and need the full services of a professional REALTOR®; they just don’t want to pay high commissions. With Assist-2-Sell’s full real estate services and discounted commission rate, those needs are fulfilled.
No one else was offering full service discount rate real estate, which meant Mary and Lyle had to write the book. They refined the "Assist-2-Sell System" based on their experiences and became experts at adaptation. The "old way," where home sellers typically depended on agents for the marketing of their home, also invited problems. Did the agent know how to effectively market their home? Did they have adequate funds for marketing their listings? Typically, marketing was limited to placing the home in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and running an occasional newspaper ad. The Assist-2-Sell model removes the burden of marketing the home from the individual agents because all marketing is handled by the office.
With the mainstreaming of the Internet, consumers have become much more sophisticated and more knowledgeable about the real estate process. This increased consumer awareness has helped "non-traditional" real estate companies gain traction in recent years, adding to the pressure on "traditional" real estate sales commissions. Assist-2-Sell is well-equipped to satisfy consumers’ increased thirst for knowledge, and is equipped to change and adapt to the needs of consumers.
Assist-2-Sell has saved home sellers over $900 million in real estate commissions, and is the leading discount cost real estate company in North America. **
** Savings based on statistics since Jan. 1, 2000, for all Assist-2-Sell offices in North America compared to paying six percent commission. Six percent used for comparison purposes only. Commissions may be negotiable and are not fixed by law.