Lexington, SC (Paul Kirby) – When Resource Reality Group or RRG began selling people’s homes for a flat rate, hybridized commission around 2017, people who found them thought there had to be a catch. Somewhere, hidden in all the fine print of contracts and literature, there just had to be. When other real estate brokers sold homes and made $5, $10, or even $50 thousand dollars in seller’s commission, the low, fixed price that RRG would sell a home for was just too good to be true. Somewhere, there had to be a catch!

RRG is a general real estate brokerage firm located on North Lake Drive in Lexington. Although they do buy and sell both residential and commercial properties, they mostly focus on the residential property aspect of the real estate business. They employ between 22 and 24 agents, have the Lexington office, and maintain a small presence in Greenville, SC too. Owned by husband and wife team Dustin and Tara Johns, RRG and its agents have pioneered the one-price-sells-all commission in the Midlands market and done so very successfully. 

Let’s just stop right here and establish one thing: What RRG does is not cut-rate, minimal service real estate sales. You can find companies that will just list your home with MLS (Multiple Listing Services) and nothing more. Those businesses also charge a small flat rate fee, but they do nothing other than list your property. At RRG, for their low flat rate of $2,800,they will sell any property for anyone no matter what its value, and the commission will always be the same low price! The difference with RRG is they provide exactly the same gold standard of service to every customer no matter how much the seller’s home is worth. 

Dustin Johns explained how maintaining this low price is possible by simply saying one word, “technology.” He then explained by saying, “With the advances in technology we have today, it makes it easy to do a great job on any home at any price. Whether we are entering pictures into software for a budget priced house, a fixer upper, or we are doing that because we are listing a high-end luxury home on Lake Murray, it all takes the same effort. Certainly, in all cases a camera is a camera, a sign is a sign, and a lockbox is a lockbox. Those are fixed costs and are used when we sell a home of any value. That all cost the same no matter the value of the home. In the same way for every property. The internet is the internet and that’s the big one,” he continued. “The internet and all the resources it provides has been the game changer in this business. When we press the enter key on any listing, it immediately travels to thousands of people and somewhere, the perfect buyer is just waiting to see the property we’ve just offered. The buyers get an alert on their smart device when a listing post. It’s really that simple and that fast!” 

Tara Johns, broker in charge at RRG picked up here saying, “The technology is huge. It’s what’s streamlined our job and made this $2,800 seller’s commission possible. I remember lugging around multiple large MLS books and now, we can access multiple listings and all their information right in the palm of our hands with a smart phone. Technology has saved us both time, effort and money. The expenses it’s saved us we have been able to pass right back to our customers.” She went on to say that as soon as a property is listed in the MLS software and all potential buyers’ agents are notified, the hardest work is done. “It takes no extra effort to get our seller’s property in front of that many people these days. Why should we charge a higher fee to a seller whose property is more expensive if we aren’t doing any more work? We don’t believe the worth of your home should have anything to do with what it costs you to sell it!

Why, one might ask, would RRG leave such large potential profits on the table by doing things differently, especially when everyone else seems eager to run down to the bank to cash those large commission checks? That’s simple to Dustin and Tara too. If a client only pays $2,800 to sell their property, the amount of repeat customers and referrals RRG sees grows exponentially. “Believe us when we tell you that if someone finds out you just saved them thousands in commission on the sale of their home,they’ll leave the closing with a huge smile on their face. They also can’t wait to tell someone what they just did! The next time they get ready to sell a property, or when they have a friend or family member who’s ready to sell a property, they won’t think of anyone else but us here at RRG,” Dustin said.  

Dustin again made a point of noting that RRG puts the same amount of effort into the sale of a $100,000 home as they do a $10,000,000 home! “There’s nothing different in the service that the owner of a lesser priced home gets. Whether it’s the $100,000 dollar home or the $1,000,000 dollar home, we’re there from the first phone call to the closing table and for every step in between. We make all our service VIP service. That makes everyone feel important and to us, they all are!”

Because of the money RRG saves its clients, they see customers do things only the ultra-rich could do in the past. “We have seen customers sell several homes over a five- or ten-year period. First, we sell their current home and find them their dream home on the lake,” Dustin said. “After a few years, they may realize they want to live near a golf course and since it only cost them $2,800 for us to sell their lake home, they’ll list it with us and we do that. Then we can help them find their perfect golf course home. Later, they may realize they miss the amenities of living near the water and they want to combine the best of both worlds. They can sell that second home through us for just $2,800 again and we will help them buy in someplace like Chapin’s Timberlake community. There they can enjoy both worlds, the lake and the golf course. They’re only able to afford to do this because we’ve been able to save them those hefty commissions each time,” he concluded. “If each of the homes they sold were valued at $500,000, we saved them about $30,000 just in the seller’s commissions. With us, this entire process of selling there first two homes only cost them $5,600 in commission. That’s it, and I’ll guarantee you their is no catch!”

When you think about it, the Johns’ formula really does make sense. Happy customers bring more customers and more customers bring more revenue. They don’t have to be money hungry to make a good living. Besides, they’re getting rich with new friends each and every day. It’s turned out to be hugely successful for them in a number of ways. 

Tara says that no matter how many times they explain it, some first-time sellers still are looking for the catch right up through closing. “When all the papers are signed, all the checks passed, and all the fees have been paid, there are still those few that are using us as their seller’s agent for the first time. You can see they’re waiting for that catch. When we all shake hands and began to walk out the door and they are finally assured they are only paying us $2,800, you can see their smile and we know we’ve made a friend and customer for life. That matters a lot to us!” 

Lexington is Dustin and Tara’s home. They live here, they play here, they both went to school and graduated from Lexington High School. “We love it here and plan to be here to serve our customers for years to come. Then, in the future when customer’s children are old enough to buy or sell, they’ll be our customers too.” Tara concluded by saying, “We love making new friends and we cherish the old ones we have. RRG is a part of this community and will be for years to come. With our flat rate fee and honest, full-service listings, we are making new friends every day. There really is no catch!”

You can learn more about RRG by checking out there website at www.resourcecolumbia.com. Their office is located at 200 N Lake Dr. in Lexington and you can reach them by telephone at (803) 758-4444.