Discounter Services

As the owner of a successful Help-U-Sell real estate office, I read with great interest David W. Myer’s (March 12) discount brokers article as well as the response from several brokers in your “Letters” column (March 26).

The response of these brokers typifies the lack of research and naivete of some so-called “full-service” competitors.

We are licensed brokers and members of the local Board of Realtors. We submit (when it is in our seller’s best interest) many of our listings to the Multiple Listing Service, put our phone number on the yard sign and in newspaper advertisements, screen the buyers, draw the real estate contract, cover all of the legal requirements and usher the transaction through escrow just as does the “full-service” brokerage. We are, in fact, a full-service brokerage.

Why don’t we charge a 6% commission? Because we don’t hire hundreds of inexperienced licensees to knock on doors, cold call on the telephone, hand out little trinkets and spend 80% of our time just looking for clients. And we do not sell a “full-service package” unless the property and situation warrant it.

TIMOTHY E. McCAULEY

Sherman Oaks