You are all correct! A 10G home offers the buying agent an oppurtunity to win a "bonus" of $10,000 if they close on that home. A Keller Williams agent and very good friend of mine won about a year ago. However, I wonder if the showing traffic on a 10G home increases as much as one would hope?

I am sure there are agents who design their client's viewings around the commission offered. I'm sure a 10G home would be one of the first homes shown whether it matches the client's needs are not. However, I suspect most agents (like myself) are just looking for the perfect match based on their client's needs and would not want to waste precious time viewing properties the client (s) isn't likely to purchase.

Is there anyone out there that has offered this incentive more than once? What was your experience?

Alicia Clark
Keller Williams Realty, Southwest

because they are marketing their home to the agents, as well as to the buyers. Often a seller will offer a selling agent (not their listing agent, but the buyer's agent) a bonus if the home is under contract by a certain date. It's essentially a plea to get the agents to bring their buyers to the home and show it. Face it, when there are 200 homes on the market that meet the buyer's criteria and needs, which ones are going to get shown, since most people choose the home after seeing 15-20 homes (though I've had clients that I swear I've shown over a thousand homes to, and I've had others where they chose one of the first 3 homes I showed them)? And if the home isn't shown, it won't get sold. The name of the game is getting people in the door. Pictures on the internet and in the flyers may look great or may look horible, but they are the product of an agent who may or may not be skilled at taking pictures (and most of us have a fairly good idea of how to take flattering pictures of our listings if we care about making money at being a realtor), once someone gets in the door, it's a whole different ball of wax and you have a much better chance of winning them over to the home, so if you can by putting $250 in a pool, entice agents to show the home in the hopes that they might be the winner of $10,000, then that $250 is a fairly minor cost (much less than a price drop)

Some agents prescreen the homes that they show their clients and only show them the ones that they think are the best matches for the client, other agents send their clients all the homes that are potential matches and let the clients choose the ones that they want to see. Some clients get overwhelmed when they are presented with more than 3 homes at a time and want the agents to select the homes that they will see. Regardless, it's easy for an agent to saw, "there's this home that I really think you ought to see today". Again, the name of the game, is getting people in the door - if they don't see it, they can't decide if they like it or not.

now, is every agent who suggests, "there's this home that I really think you ought to see today" really out to get something extra for themselves - NOPE. The majority of us are just trying to find the right home for each client. If it happens to have a bonus with it, that would be really nice, but as I noted earlier, the majority of bonuses, never get given even when they are offered in the MLS, because they become a negotiating tool (a bonus HAS to be disclosed to the buyer and the buyer typically says "why are YOU getting money, I should be getting a better deal on the house instead" and the bonus disappears in the negotiations. With a program of this type, the money is pooled and can't be taken out and negotiated away, but only 1 out of 40 agents will win it and they don't get it until after closing so again, it can't be negotiated away.

Wait... what? Why would a seller pay $250 dollars for their agent to have a chance to win $10k? I'mjust curious.

As Michelle pointed out, sellers market their homes to the buyers and to the agents bringing the buyers. One way to market to agents is to offer a bonus, but often a bonus ends up being negotiated away during the price negotiations on a home, with this program, it can't be negotiated away and the agent who actually wins gets enough money that they can really do something with it (more than one dinner on the town or a tank of gas). For most realtors though, it makes no difference in the homes that they show or that they advocate for. It's just a very lucky break if they happen to be the one in 40 agent that wins after their client happens to chose one of the homes that is in one of the programs that is offering the big bonus

It is a bonus program offered by Coldwell Banker Gundaker. The sellers pay $250 into a fund when their property sells. After there are 40 sellers that have paid the $250 into the fund ($250 x 40 houses equals the $10,000), they hold a drawing. The names of the 40 agents that represented the buyers are entered into the drawing so they have a 1 in 40 chance of winning $10,000.

Some REMAX offices have the same program with a different twist in that they draw two names. One real estate agent will win $10,000 and the other will win $5,000. So the real estate agents have a 1 in 20 chance of winning $5000 or $10,000

It's an inexpensive way for the sellers to offer a bonus incentive to the selling real estate agent.

CBG uses that as an incentive to lure realtors. IF another realtor sells their home that is 10 g you get put in a drawing to win money.
Prudential Select Properties has 5 star for homes.
Hope that helped.
Alot of homes are 10G or 5 star and are just as nice as a home that does not have that incentive.

If it's in a matter of speaking, I would say it means $10,000 (ten-thousand dollars). But if you were to write it you would write 10K.

I think it means $10,000. That's ten thousand dollars.