real estate agents

[metoo113]

-I always laugh when I see people put no value on other people's services but think their time is worth every dime they can get plus more.

-Most everyone has to work for a living and if you provide a service you should get paid for it. If you don't like the amount they are charging for the service they either do it yourself or look for someone else.

-Real Estate agents don't get all the commission. The selling agent gets half and the buying agent get half. Then their respective companies that they have their office with gets a good chunk. Then they pay for the office space, their insurance, etc.

-Having a good commission available on your house will motivate more agents to show it as they know they will make some money. In a bad market I once told the agent that I would pay 10% on the first 100g's and 4% on the remainder. I then bumped the house price up to pay for the commission and it sold in a week. It was a bad market and here was a chance for the agents to make some cash. In the week it was shown over 40 times.

 

[maverick73]

-Real Estate agents don't get all the commission. The selling agent gets half and the buying agent get half. Then their respective companies that they have their office with gets a good chunk. Then they pay for the office space, their insurance, etc.

What I personally recommend is to find the "top agent" in the area of interest... the guy with the most listings in the area... then try to get him to be on "both sides"... so he gets a "double commission"... this double commision makes it much more negotiable... so much so that if you, the other party, and realtor work "efficiently" he will usually be happy with 1 side of the commision or just a bit more... so in effect, you are paying 1/2 commissions.

 

[carefulone]

Most of the Realtors now work for companies that provide very little in the way of support. As a result, when a realtor gets a listing:

1) all the costs come out of the realtor's pocket, and
2) most of the commission going to the realtor stays with the realtor.

If you list with someone, and they spend $2,500.00 advertising, and MLS fees and other expenses, and there is no sale, they get NOTHING.

Their advertising costs can be very high.

There is a lot of turnover, because it is expensive being a realtor, and the income is really inconsistent.

The successful realtors are successful because of good stats, good skills and, most importantly, good referrals.

Find someone who has been happy with a realtor, and ask them for a recommendation. Then meet with the realtor and size them up, before you sign on the dotted line.

By the way, one of the reasons that it is hard to negotiate commissions is that the listing agreements must be submitted to MLS, and must meet their criteria. If someone is listing on MLS with a flat fee agreement, there may be problems.

I am not a realtor, and I could never be a good realtor, but I deal with them regularly, and they all tend to be different.

 

[The Bostonian]

Real Estate Agents are worst than lawyers

Yeah,I work with those cocksuckers, I won't say what I do for a living (discreet purposes). They'e always rude pushy bastards especially the female ones. At the time i was dealing with a real estate Agent to sell my home, she lied to me about the pricing/market of my house back in Toronto- long story. What a Greedy Bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought lawyers were scum of the earth, well you can add real estate agentsto that group too.

 

[LonelyGhost]

in with some informed opinion instead of just dumb ass rants.

The quote above sounds reasonable right? Maybe, maybe not.

True example. A woman wants to list her house for $690,000. The market has topped out and slowed down. The agent tells her the best price would be around $595,000. Her bf goes ballistic, they settle on $640,000. A week later an offer for $590,000. Agent "pressures" her to take it; bf again goes ballistic says that would be "robbing her of $50,000." They don't bother to counter-offer. Market goes south faster. Several offers come in, never enough. Agent after 3 months convinces seller to drop her price. Bf is a real problem but she does. Long story short. She gets another agent. Finally, 6 months after first listing she sells for $410,000, a whopping $180,000 less than she could've had if she'd listened to the first realtor. First agent worked his butt off, got diddley. She and her bf break up. Kicker to the story. She and her late husband had bought the house 10 years previously for $61,000. Money talks and bullshit walks.

and if they didn't have to pay the $50,000 commission to a couply of rip-off realtors, they would have accepted the lower offer!

every real estate transaction that involves realtors ADDS tens of thousands of dollars to the costs for no other reason than it is a rip-off of consumers! charge me for the actual costs of advertising and a flat rate for the sale and it could still be done for well under $5000 and more people would be happy.

fucking idiot realtors ... more excuses than a crooked politician.

 

[maverick73]

every real estate transaction that involves realtors ADDS tens of thousands of dollars to the costs for no other reason than it is a rip-off of consumers! charge me for the actual costs of advertising and a flat rate for the sale and it could still be done for well under $5000 and more people would be happy.

Funny you should mention that! That's actually almost the exact deal I got! I basically told him exactly what I wanted, he showed me about 4-5 houses, he put in 50 hours tops, and we made a deal... he made about $100 an hour on the deal... quick $5000 into his pocket and on to the next deal. I liked him so much I sent him referral business, which put more money into this pocket... I liked him so much I asked him for referrals on home renovations, which I got a deal on because of the association... it's win win win for everybody... just gotta find the right situation and roll with it.

Now on a side note, I cannot believe the seemingly mutual disdain for realtors on PERB.... it would be interesting for somebody that is an actual realtor to post a rebuttal .

 

[Gentleman First]

I personally have used regular realtors, and the discount ones as well.

My last 3 sales, and 2 purchases have been with discount companies ( 3 different places)
I actually find they work if anything harder to sell your home than a regular realtor.
They have learned if they work hard and sell lots of homes at $3,000 they make good money.

I recently listed one of my current houses i live in part time ( I own 2 houses and split my time living in them both ) with a discount place again.


If you have a little time to invest and do a bit of research on houses in your area, you can choose a realistic market price.
List it with them, and save yourself a pile of money, and still no hassle of doing it yourself.

I had a realtor ( a regular scumbag type one) come and appraise my home....she fucking lowballed the price horribly, i assume hoping to sell it on day 1 and just pocket her fat ass commission with no real work done.
I told her to get out.
I chose the asking price and listed with a discount place instead.

$3000 is a lot of money to just simply sell something for someone.
Think if he sells just 12 homes a month, that is $36,000....even if he has to cough up say 3/4 of it for expenses, he still makes $9,000 a month....not bad coin.

 

[LonelyGhost]

Funny you should mention that! That's actually almost the exact deal I got! .

which company allowed that to happen????

 

[Gandalf]

Realtors in a good light...

I upgraded a few years back and used the same realtor for the sale and the purchases. On the sale, I paid the realtor about $20k. The house sold in 3 weeks and I got more than my asking price due to a well designed bidding war between multiple buyers.

The purchase of my new property was happening at the same time, and we were about 20k apart after a few days of negotiating. I pretty much told my realtor to find a way to make it happen or he'll lose both deals as he would have recieved about half of the fee for the purchase as well (a total of well over $30k). He reduced his fee on the purchase and got the listing realtor to do so as well, and with some minor movement on the sellers part, a deal was made.

The moral of the story? I got MORE than I listed for and purchased for quite a bit LESS than the sellers were prepared to sell for. Overall, it was worth the 20k, as the gains made up for the comission.

If you are purchasing, you need to find a way to work the system a bit, and yes, some realtors are scum or don't have a clue, but it's up to you to find a good one.

 

[LonelyGhost]

it's up to you to find a good one.

no its not: if these scumsuckers were properly regulated (never mind this self-regulating rip-off shit) but really, truely, bloody regulated then it wouldn't matter ...

and if they were NOT playing all the listing games that they do, we wouldn't NEED to regulate the bastards ...

system should be simple: listing price is BC Assessment. You have 30 days for viewing, then 10 days to make an offer (up to you to decide actual house value). Seller is given all the offers in one go, and picks the best one. House sold.

Meanwhile, 'best offer' has five days to remove conditions (you had 10 days to make an offer, including getting financing so this should be easy). Once conditions are done, the deal is done.

Where is a realtor needed in that simple system? Not at all. Listing agent does it all for seller. Lists it, arranges showings, and that's it: all offers to through lawyers.

 

[FuZzYknUckLeS]

...
system should be simple: listing price is BC Assessment. You have 30 days for viewing, then 10 days to make an offer (up to you to decide actual house value). Seller is given all the offers in one go, and picks the best one. House sold.

Meanwhile, 'best offer' has five days to remove conditions (you had 10 days to make an offer, including getting financing so this should be easy). Once conditions are done, the deal is done.

Where is a realtor needed in that simple system? Not at all. Listing agent does it all for seller. Lists it, arranges showings, and that's it: all offers to through lawyers.

Right...
...and in YOUR world, all women are built like Barbie and born without vocal chords...

 

[CJ Tylers]

Hey.... just out of curiosity... would it be easier for all of us to take the real eastate agent courses...become accredited...in order to buy/sell our own homes?

You'd know the ins and outs...and put these greedy fuchs out of business

 

[gravitas]

would it be easier for all of us to take the real eastate agent courses

and by that logic you could go to Shoppers Drug Mart and get the DIY home vasectomy kit

You go to professionals because they're supposed to be experts in their field and thereby add value to the relationship.

 

[Gandalf]

system should be simple: listing price is BC Assessment.

You're kidding right? Relying on BC Assessment to accurately assess the value of your home? I can just see it now. Some bleeding heart protesters for hire put the pressure on and all of a sudden, the house prices are "equalized" accross the province. Wouldn't that just be peachy

Hell, why not just revert to communism? They can price and control everything

I'd definately support a more stringent certification process, with some type of charter that's enforced a 'REAL' governing body similar to CA's, CGA's, CMA's, Lawyers, etc. That would weed out some of the garbage at least.

LOL

 

[LonelyGhost]

You're kidding right? Relying on BC Assessment to accurately assess the value of your home? I can just see it now. Some bleeding heart protesters for hire put the pressure on and all of a sudden, the house prices are "equalized" accross the province. Wouldn't that just be peachy

Hell, why not just revert to communism? They can price and control everything

I'd definately support a more stringent certification process, with some type of charter that's enforced a 'REAL' governing body similar to CA's, CGA's, CMA's, Lawyers, etc. That would weed out some of the garbage at least.

LOL

how fucking stupid are you? I said LISTING price, not BIDDING price. Its what they do in places like England and Scotland -- the house is 'listed' and people put in bids to the seller's agent. It allows everyone the opportunity to make an offer after seeing the house and its not this 'first come first sale' bs.

 

[LonelyGhost]

Here's a couple:

1. Myth: Realtors are responsible for the high cost of housing -- Reality: Realtors have a negligible impact on prices.

They do 'add' to the cost of housing through their commissions ... some may think its 'negligible' on million-dollar properties, but with 7% on the first 100K, the impact is NOT negligible, especially for someone looking for 'affordable' housing.

2. Myth: Realtors are uneducated slobs who took a Mickey Mouse course and generally know nothing

and yet we still need a lawyer, a home inspector and so on ... what exactly do they 'learn' then?

3. Myth: You're better off selling your own house (or some variation of that idea).

for what it costs, why not? and many of the 'properties' you mention are junk. but it doesn't make them worth any more money getting them flogged by a realtor.

 

[maverick73]

Right...
...and in YOUR world, all women are built like Barbie and born without vocal chords...

Damn, I was beginning to have hope that world really existed (jk) . Have they come out with "spinner barbie" yet? You know, the one WITHOUT American oversize boobs?

 

[bonanzabob]

in with some informed opinion instead of just dumb ass rants.

The quote above sounds reasonable right? Maybe, maybe not.

True example. A woman wants to list her house for $690,000. The market has topped out and slowed down. The agent tells her the best price would be around $595,000. Her bf goes ballistic, they settle on $640,000. A week later an offer for $590,000. Agent "pressures" her to take it; bf again goes ballistic says that would be "robbing her of $50,000." They don't bother to counter-offer. Market goes south faster. Several offers come in, never enough. Agent after 3 months convinces seller to drop her price. Bf is a real problem but she does. Long story short. She gets another agent. Finally, 6 months after first listing she sells for $410,000, a whopping $180,000 less than she could've had if she'd listened to the first realtor. First agent worked his butt off, got diddley. She and her bf break up. Kicker to the story. She and her late husband had bought the house 10 years previously for $61,000. Money talks and bullshit walks.

Good point, I'm assuming a level or rising market. But still, it's a matter of simple math. Your realtor is not financially motivated to get you that last bit of sale price, because it doesn't pay the realtor to do so. Now when a realtor sells his/her own property, the evidence is that realtors list their own homes for longer, and sell for higher when compared to joe average.

 

[maverick73]

1. Most of the agents I worked with were hard working and did a good job for their clients to the best of their abilities. Some weren't so good--welcome to the human race. Ever heard of a bad doctor?! The nastiest people I met in

2. Myth: You're better off selling your own house (or some variation of that idea).
Reality, FSBO (for sale by owner) is the most frustrating way to go imaginable. Anyone who thinks they'll get a good deal from a FSBO is kidding themselves. Because people who set their own house prices invariably set them too high, often way too high. As for the hopeful owner, they get increasingly angry as few people look and those that do are never sufficiently impressed at what a great property it is.

1. Totally agree. I know several real estate agents, and the ones I personally know are hard working professionals that know their stuff. Like reddog said, there are good and bad people in ANY field of work. Unfortunately, I would have to say that due to the relative ease of getting a license, the field of real estate attracts more unscrupulous people on average than other fields (such as medicine or engineering).

2. LOL... Trying to sell your own house (even if you're a realtor) is one of worst decisions you can make! Hire a professional!!! Just make sure you do your research and hire the best!!! He/she will more than pay for him/herself if you hire the right person!

 

[LonelyGhost]

6. Many buyers want the protection of being represented by an agent.

what 'protection' do realtors provide? I still have to do due dillegence to not get screwed on value, have a home inspection and a lawyer do the paperwork!

and my comment on 'junk' houses referred to the fact that lots of FSBO homes are junk (and over-priced) but that doesn't mean that they are any better when listed with a realtor. there's a place for sale by a realtor nearby that should be condemned and he's got it listed at way above market for prime property in prime location!