What started our journey: The seeds were planted for 1 Percent Lists when two newlyweds had to sell a home. Grant had purchased the home about a year earlier and after being married the new couple decided to move. Grant had purchased the home but had never sold one and they decided to interview two agents.
The first agent had their neighbors home under contract and charged them a total of 5%. She seemed nice enough and the neighbors were satisfied.
The second agent was suggested to them by their family and she was a huge producer in their market. Her required fee was 6% which led Grant and Kelly to ask why she was more expensive than the other agent? The answer they received was a threat, “if you pay me less I will do less marketing.”
Grant and Kelly caved to family pressure and hired the more expensive agent. A short time later that very same more expensive agent begrudgingly agreed to show the home to a client that she didn't think would like it. That client wound up purchasing that home and an assistant who is a total stranger to Grant had him sign paperwork securing both ends of a 6% transaction for their agent doubling that agent's payday.
Leaving the closing Grant realized the threats of less marketing were hollow because he was the only reason the house was sold. The newly wed couple felt unappreciated and had a very bad taste in their mouth from their first real home selling experience.
That bad experience with a top producing agent prompted basketball coach Grant Clayton and his new wife Military veteran Kelly Clayton to become real estate agents.
Their very first transaction was a relocation listing in which they convinced the seller to pay them 7% but after paying the relocation company 40% for the referral and their broker 50% of the remainder they made less than 1% on the sale of that home. They didn’t like the way they felt encouraging their seller to pay ever higher fees and also didn’t appreciate the middle men who soaked up so much of the commission.
As they interacted with more and more “top producers” they began to realize that being a top producer doesn’t mean you are a good person or a good agent. They began to feel like they were being encouraged to become similar to their agent that left such a horrible impression on them.
Despite all the negatives, Grant and Kelly did learn one very important thing and that is the path to being more successful in real estate is to list more homes. No matter what positive thing you are trying to accomplish in real estate, listing homes will help you achieve it.
Grant and Kelly realized that having more listings even at a lower fee would over time generate more revenue and a more stable stream of income than less business at higher fees. These lower fee listings acted as billboards to generate more listings but also most importantly ready, willing and able buyers.
They quickly morphed their business model to reflect that reality. Grant and Kelly were on the verge of failing out of the industry but after switching to this newfound higher volume mindset they quickly became top producers themselves and were happier and more profitable than they ever thought possible. There was one problem though, their peers were not fans of what they were doing and they were labeled as “bad for the industry” despite it being great for their clients and better for Grant and Kelly as well.
So in late 2015 and 2016 they launched 1 percent lists to be as vocal as possible giving the public what it wants, real value from their agent. The public desperately wants experienced, reasonably priced agents and they were able to offer that locally. The home office, or HUB, quickly expanded and recruited over 50 agents to their brokerage, growing home office revenue by 1,114% over the next 3 years.
In 2020 brokers around the country wanted to learn more and open a franchise and so they repeated their high quality low cost mindset offering life changing opportunities to open turnkey franchises for only 15,000 and a low 5% royalty with no added fees to their franchisees.
Fast forward to 2023 and 1 Percent Lists continues to spread nationwide with agents joining daily and continues to win over the public and provide their franchise owners with a proven path forward towards financial freedom and career happiness.