Have you ever been sitting at the closing table seeing checks handed to the Realtors® for their large commission and think to yourself, “It must be nice to be receiving a check rather than writing one to buy my new home and pay the Realtors®.” Well that typical scenario has changed for good. At Equity Advantage, Realtors® we offer a buyer rebate program, which means that when we receive the commission check for assisting you in buying your new home, we automatically rebate to you a portion of our commission, so that you too can leave the closing table with some of your hard-earned money back in your pocket. Being the first and only real estate company in the area to provide this benefit, we provide you with the “Equity Advantage” that other companies simply cannot match.

The advances in home marketing on the internet and MLS have enabled home buyers do a lot of research up front when looking for a new home (as of 2009, over 90% of homebuyers use the internet to search for houses). It is not unusual for a buyer to have picked out their top 5 or 10 homes that they want to look at before they even speak with a Realtor®. We have decided to reward our clients’ pre-planning by rebating a portion of our commission based upon the number of homes that we show them. Our buyer agency service includes all of the services you have come to expect from a traditional Realtor®. For instance, we walk you, the buyer, through the properties you have selected, provide comparable sales data for the neighborhoods, advise the buyer on negotiation strategies, write the offer and see the offer all the way through closing. But, unlike a traditional Realtor®, we rebate up to 50% of our commission back to the buyer after closing (see our sliding scale image below).

This is a win/win for everyone. The seller sells the house. The listing agent earns their half of the commission. The buyer saves up to 50% of the money that would otherwise go to a buyer’s agent. And we earn our commission for providing the service.


Are you still skeptical? Read on!

Buyer commission rebates are allowed in most states by law (including Wisconsin), and in fact this service makes is so practical and popular that the US Department of Justice has created a website to educate consumers about the benefits of buyer rebate programs like ours. Check out the US Department of Justice article Rebates Make Buying a Home Less Expensive

Tips for how to increase your savings:

1. Do your homework before you request a showing, and combine showings into as few trips as possible.
2. Narrow down your search. Determine which are the most important criteria: school district, location, size, style, etc. We will then provide you with auto-emails for all future listings that fit your parameters (often a full 12-24 hours before the listings show up on the public Realtor® and MLS sites).
3. When you receive an email about a newly listed property, drive past it to determine if there are any obvious reasons to exclude it from consideration. Don't waste showings on houses that you would never consider buying.
4. Ask us for relevant information before you see a house. Do you care if it has already been on the market for 18+ months? Or if it has had four owners in the last four years? Many listings also include digitized condition reports, so we can tell you if the seller has disclosed any major defects that would make the house less desirable.
5. If you have a home to sell, wait until you are close to having an accepted offer before you request showings. This will greatly decrease the amount of time you spend looking at houses.

The hours you've spent scouring real estate websites and driving around neighborhoods can now save you thousands of dollars on your next purchase. A few quick examples:

Note: our Buyer's Rebate service is subject to certain Realtor® rules

• We must be the point of contact between you and the listing agent of the property you buy. This is very important! If you have already approached another agent (including the listing agent) to inquire about the property or discuss terms of a possible sale, we are not eligible for the sales commission in the MLS and the commission rebate does not apply. This is true even if you don't sign anything with the other agent; they can earn the commission with a single phone conversation.
• Please do not attend agent Open Houses without telling us in advance. Think of them as traps set by listing agents to capture unsuspecting buyers. As soon as you talk to an agent about a property you "belong" to them and our commission rebate will not apply for that property. Strange but true.

Contact Angela Wenninger at , or call (715) 297-8155.

To sign up for auto-email, let us know what sort of property you're looking for:
• price range
• # of bedrooms
• general location (city, school district, etc.)
• when you plan to move
• any other required features
• your preferred email address

We are available 7 days a week to answer questions or help you get started.

Please note: due to time constraints our Buyer's Rebate incentive only applies to properties located in Marathon County at this time.