Metro Vancouver – When it came time to sell his Richmond home of 17 years Rob Herscheid interviewed a few real estate agents before deciding not to use any of them Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience but now there is bigger money involved and more commission Article contentHe and his wife talked to the realtor who sold the house next door “one who sold a house the previous weekend down the street,” and others But when he asked if “their fees might be flexible it’s not’ and then they would try to justify why,” said Herscheid Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. sellers will pay most agents seven per cent on the first $100,000 and between two and three per cent on the rest of the sale price This commission is then split between their own agent and the agent acting for the buyer The question: Do sellers need to do this in a market with unprecedented prices and homes selling in a few days based on information that is mostly available online Herscheid listed his home with Surrey-based OneFlatFee which offers a straight listing on the Multiple Listing Service for $499 or a full-service package for $6,999 that includes all the regular marketing There are a handful of so-called discount realtor companies in the market such as OneFlatFee They started popping up after 2010 when the federal government’s competition bureau ruled that sellers could pay a licensed brokerage to post a listing for them on Realtor.ca only professional real estate brokers could do this Herscheid’s home sold in three days for $100,000 over the asking price of $1.298 million He paid OneFlatFee the $6,999 and then $18,000 to the buyer’s agent He estimates had he gone with a traditional selling agent “It worked out to be a savings of about $15,000 which is nothing to sneeze at,” said Herscheid who is an accountant at a property management company “You’re always wondering if you have left money on the table,” he said but when he found out prices paid recently for other homes and that his was the highest-achieved in his area “The buyer’s agent gets the (regular) commission but I take less,” said Mayur Arora of OneFlatFee “It’s important that the buyer’s agent still gets the same commission because and you have one client paying $200/hour and another $400/hour At Vancouver-based One Percent Realty Ltd. founder Ian Bailey said “the Number 1 criticism” he hears is that agents will not bring buyers to his company’s listings because they don’t want to split a lower commission The fact is that 75 to 80 per cent of our sales are sold by other realtors.” he says that considering the savings he offers to sellers “it’s kind of amazing in this market that we haven’t been able to bust it open It says something about what is maintaining the status quo.” He described the high-stakes emotions and pressures involved with real estate that make it different from other industries that have changed While traditional companies selling hotel and airline bookings or books have seen huge disruption The husband likes it too (and they don’t) want to screw it up.” saves about 50 per cent in commission costs by listing with OneFlatFee His company makes up the difference by going for a higher volume of transactions “People who come to us are generally cheap and smart,” he said explaining they feel they know a bit about the market and don’t need hand-holding Nicholas Rawcliffe is listing five residential lots in Cloverdale with OneFlatFee in his capacity as manager of realty services with the City of Surrey which on occasion has surplus land to sell “It’s really cost effective for us,” said Rawcliffe “There’s not an expectation from us for a high degree of service We are set up to do most of that work ourselves We advertise in the local paper and on our website need to pay for agents’ services in a market rife with bidding wars rapidly changing deals and offers out of left field Most traditional realtors obviously think this is the case arguing that sellers generally only make two or three such complicated transactions in their life you are sitting on gold as a homeowner,” he says “Can a good realtor get an extra three (or so) per cent in price (for a seller) “… the mystery is why you would ever pay that commission to a bad realtor.”  jleeyoung@postmedia.com transmission or republication strictly prohibited This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy You can manage saved articles in your account The last known image of Australia's first submarine, AE1 with HMAS Yarra and HMAS Australia in the background, taken on September 9, 1914. (Supplied: Sea Power Centre) Link copiedShareShare articleMore than 100 years after it disappeared off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the final resting place of Australia's first submarine, AE1, remains a mystery. But for Cairns man Fritz Herscheid, who has spent much of his working life in the South Pacific, it is a mystery he will not allow to be forgotten. For nearly 50 years he has been dedicated to finding the wreck, thought to be resting somewhere on the sea-floor near Rabaul harbour. Initially, it was not the mystery behind AE1's disappearance that intrigued Mr Herscheid. "Back in the late 1960s I was salvage diving for copper and brass, blowing propellers off shipwrecks in Rabaul harbour, and I learned that there was a submarine lost somewhere in Rabaul," Mr Herscheid said. "In those days I was purely and simply interested in the non-ferrous (metal) that submarines have — submarines have a lot of non-ferrous and can be very valuable to any sort of scavenger or wreck diver." Mr Herscheid made a lucrative career as a salvage diver, harvesting metal from shipwrecks in the South Pacific Ocean. (Supplied: Fritz Herscheid) Although no longer a salvage diver, Mr Herscheid remains an avid researcher of shipwrecks and maritime history. "The AE1 is always at the top of my list because of the mystery surrounding it, and also to an extent the glory of finding it," Mr Herscheid said. He said above all else, he wants to honour the 35 men who lost their lives when the submarine disappeared. Mr Herscheid is not alone in his search for AE1; the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has made a number of unsuccessful attempts at locating the wreck, most recently in 2014. A RAN statement provided to the ABC said it continued to work with various groups to establish the location of AE1, but searches were frequently mired by false contacts in the area. "These types of contacts are frequent in this region due to large rocky outcrops or ridging along the sea bed, as well as battle debris from the First World War," it said. The AE1 is thought to have sunk somewhere between the Duke of York island group and Rabaul harbour. (Supplied: Fritz Herscheid) "The fate of AE1 and her crew remains one of the persistent mysteries of Australian naval history. While the final resting place of these submariners is currently unknown, the sacrifice and service of these men will never be forgotten." The mystery surrounding AE1's disappearance compels Mr Herscheid; in his own words, he is fixated by it. "When you find out that the Germans actually claim to have sunk it, that there was a (German) shipwreck found nearby with cannon shells on the deck and a four-barrelled Nordenfelt (machine-gun) missing from it, it just gets more and more interesting," he said. Next year Mr Herscheid plans to return to the shallow waters around Rabaul to resume his search for AE1. With a new boat to carry him and a small team of divers, the only thing missing is the equipment capable of confirming his suspicions. Mr Herscheid has recently acquired a new vessel he hopes will entice others to join him in his search for AE1. (ABC Far North: Mark Rigby) "AE1 had a safe diving depth of 135-feet; if the AE1 had have sunk in deep water — 1,000-feet or more — it would have imploded," Mr Herscheid said. "The implosion would have brought flotsam to the surface, it would have brought diesel to the surface, so if she'd sunk in 1,000-feet of water they would have found something. He said if the submarine sunk in 400-feet of water or less there is a possibility the diesel in its tanks would have prevented it imploding. "That's where I concentrated my search, in the shallower areas. I'm almost positive I found the AE1 on my last trip, the trouble was we didn't have a camera capable of going down to film the wreck. "It could have been a Japanese shipwreck, it could have been another shipwreck, but the magnetometer picked up a shipwreck, so that'll be the first thing I do when I go back. "Given the time and given the equipment we'll find the AE1." The wreckage of Australia's first submarine, AE1, has never been found, despite many privately and government funded expeditions. (Supplied: Australian War Memorial) CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)