Programs and Compensation Scenarios

The lesson

Guaranteed Sale: mechanics, track record, and fit

• Guaranteed Sale runs at 5.5%. Agent and seller agree on a price together from the market data before signing; that agreed price is what gets guaranteed, not the seller's total net proceeds.
• The guarantee covers price only, and the minimum 30-day term is NOT an automatic price-drop clock. It means give the program at least 30 days before revisiting anything. After that, the choice is: hold the price and the guarantee, drop the price and keep the guarantee, or drop the price and convert to Hassle Free at the lower rate.
• Requires the seller to offer buyer-side compensation. Choice Homes cannot guarantee a price while also limiting the pool of buyers who can afford to make an offer.
• Track record to use in the pitch: Choice Homes has never sold a Guaranteed Sale listing for free, has closed very few at the full 5.5%, and more often than not the home sells at or above the agreed price.
• Best fit: a seller who needs a certain guaranteed number (often because another purchase depends on it), a seller already priced close to the market who wants certainty layered on top, or a motivated seller who wants a built-in hit-my-number-or-you-don't-get-paid structure. Converts to Hassle Free at any time.

Hassle Free at 4 percent: most excitement, most net

• Hassle Free runs at 4% across the board. Teach 4 percent as the current, ratified rate regardless of what an older training cycle says.
• Lead with the label before the number: this is the program that gets sellers the most excited, and the one that most often nets them the most money.
• Includes Zillow Showcase, the Flexible Compensation ladder, Love It or Leave It for the buyer, and Cancel Anytime.

Traditional at 3 percent: presenting it without losing the room

• Traditional runs at 3%. It keeps every Choice Homes exclusive (the marketing, the ISA follow-up, the signage, Cancel Anytime); it just leaves out Zillow Showcase, Flexible Compensation, and Love It or Leave It.
• Label it by what the seller is optimizing for, not by what's missing: some sellers care less about getting the most money and more about paying the least, and this program is for that. Say plainly what's not included without apologizing for the program.
• Best fit: the seller who wants the house sold immediately at the lowest possible rate, full stop. Use that seller to your advantage instead of talking them out of the program.

Pitch order: all three together, never lead with 5.5

• Always present all three programs together, back to back. Never explain just one in isolation.
• Order matters: Guaranteed Sale first as the high anchor, Hassle Free second where it lands as the smart middle choice, Traditional last for the seller who only cares about the rate.
• Introduce each program with who it's for before what it costs and before any number. It is never the agent's job to decide which program a seller will like or to hold one back; present all three and let the seller choose.
• When 'what's your commission?' lands before all three programs are on the table, don't answer with a single number. Redirect to walking through all three programs first, then answer with the full picture. Leading with 5.5% in isolation creates sticker shock and anchors the conversation in the wrong place.

Showcase, Love It or Leave It, Cancel Anytime, the comp ladder, and post-NAR language

• Zillow Showcase rule: included automatically whenever the listing side is charging 3% or more, so it rides on Traditional at its standard rate, Hassle Free, and Guaranteed Sale. A listing discounted under 3% doesn't carry it unless paid for separately.
• Showcase's real value isn't the interactive photos and floor plan, it's exclusivity: Zillow caps it to roughly 10% of listings in a market, and leads generated on a showcased listing come back to the team.
• Love It or Leave It: if a buyer's primary residence purchase (never investment, land, or commercial) needs to be resold within 365 days of closing, Choice Homes lists it again at no listing-side commission. It extends to anyone who buys one of Choice Homes' listings, not only the team's own buyer clients, which makes it a differentiator in a multiple-offer situation.
• Cancel Anytime rides on all three programs: the seller can exit with zero penalty and no interrogation. Frame it as earning the business every day, not as fine print.
• Flexible Compensation ladder sets what the listing side keeps by buyer scenario: 4% when an outside agent represents the buyer, 3% when a Choice Homes team member procures the buyer, 3% when the seller finds their own buyer but still wants full representation and handling.
• Ladder continued: 1% for paperwork-only, when the seller found the buyer and doesn't want full representation but Choice Homes still handles the contract-to-close paperwork. 0% for no-representation, off-market handling, when the seller runs the whole transaction themselves; the listing goes into temporary off-market status and flips back to active if that private deal falls through.
• Post-NAR compensation language: Choice Homes only quotes and negotiates its own listing-side compensation. Buyer-side compensation is never pre-negotiated or advertised through the MLS; it's a separate conversation with the seller about whether and how much to offer, factored into pricing rather than promised upfront.