Real Estate Agents................................

[MMDad (Premo)]

Originally Posted by somdrenter

Seriously Dad. If you don’t understand the difference between a commissioned based and a salaried position, some words of advice for ya: Never step foot on a used car lot.

So, what makes you think the fence builder is a salaried position? Or are you hiding your obvious error by trying to change the subject?

For someone who thinks he's an expert, your knowledge is seriously lacking.

[somdrenter]

Originally Posted by MMDad

So, what makes you think the fence builder is a salaried position? Or are you hiding your obvious error by trying to change the subject?

For someone who thinks he's an expert, your knowledge is seriously lacking.

So, what make’s you think the fence builder is commissioned? (as far as the consumer is concerned)

[vraiblonde]

Originally Posted by somdrenter

There’s plenty of blame to go around, real estate agents deserve a portion of that blame.

Why? What part of the financial aspect of buying a home are the responsible for?

[MMDad (Premo)]

Originally Posted by somdrenter

So, what make’s you think the fence builder is commissioned? (as far as the consumer is concerned)

I never said he was. But it is very similar since the builder is usually a small businessman. The only way he makes a profit is by keeping costs low and charging as much as he can get away with. And just like a real estate agent, no sale = no paycheck.

The grunts actually doing the work may be salaried, but that's not what we're talking about.

Are you going to expect me to keep teaching you the basics?

[designer300z]

I think there's a couple of fundamentally flawed points in this argument. (Bear in mind that I am a Realtor, so I do have a natural bias). First, you would be correct to say that an agent is not NECESSARY to sell a home. However, to say that an agent does so little is inaccurate as well.

Not all agents are equal and there are some that do the bare minimum, but there are also some that put in considerable time/money to get a listing sold. If it doesn't sell, they don't get paid, and they're out the cash in marketing, not the homeowner.

Also, an investment planner is not NECESSARY to determine how to diversify your finances, and not everyone uses them. Why? Well, the simple answer is that what they do is possible for any individual to do at it's core. The same holds true for real estatae You're paying not only for what agents do, but also their experience, i.e. what they KNOW as well as what they DO.

Can an owner pay a few hundred bucks to get a listing on the MLS? Yes, but when it hits realtor.com, it would return higher on searches if I had listed it, plain and simple. Why? because I spent the extra $1,500 to ensure priority visibility, and I understand how various websites rank their homes. In many cases is comes down to how much was spent on the listings (much like ebay does), how many photos were included, virtual tour inclusion, etc.

People aren't just contracting me to post it on the MLS and stick a sign in the yard. They're hiring me to get it on craigslist, trulia, zillow, hotpads, kajiji, century21.com, localism.com, teambenya.com, yahoo, google, wall street journal, homes.com, excite, house.com, justlisted.com, juno, and a few dozen others. Can an individual do it themselves? Sure, but I'm the one who's done it time after time and has the experience working quickly and efficently with each interface. I don't need to experiment to find what works best on those sites, and individual owner would.

I'm also the one sending out that information directly to other realtors, brokerages, military bases, etc. I'm mailing information to neighbors, clients, on any given listing it's usally about 200-300 postcards in the first week to get the buzz out there on the property.

I'm stitching photos together to build virtual tours, making sure that those are loaded onto every website possible, maximizing photo counts, optimizing web search results, making recommendations of how to optimize showing quality, following up with feedback for each showing, and pushing other realtors to get their clients in the door.

All of the is happening without a sales contract. Once a contract is negotiated/accepted, a realtor is babysitting lenders, appraisers, underwriters, inspectors, repairmen, the other realtor involved, etc. To ensure that the deal gets to closing for their clients.

All that being said, the process can be done without me involved, and that's completely fine. I'm not making my money just for what I do, but also for what I know, who I have connections with, and my experience with the local area and market.

I'm not the type of person to say that it can't be done without an agent, but there is a reason and a value for my services, and I believe that some agent's services are more valuable than others. I've seen first hand listings that have sat on the market for months without a bite. In many cases, if it's priced right, the fact it was not marketed/promoted well was prohibitive to it ability to attract a buyer.

[Sonsie]

Originally Posted by vraiblonde

Practically every point in that article is an exercise in ignorance.

Selling your home: Go ahead and pay for your own advertising, website, print your own flyers and stick signs in your yard. See how much you spend vs. how many people come see your house. You can also enjoy having strangers traipse through your home just because they "wanted to see it", yet have no intention of buying.

RE agents spend a fortune on advertising, and your prospects come pre-qualified and ready to buy.

Buying a home: Go ahead and spend countless hours tracking down suitable homes and scheduling a time to see them. Have fun lining up the home inspection, then fighting with the owner about repairs. Oh, and you can also enjoy the negotiating process, where price reductions and who pays points can become rather heated. And you better bring a friend around when looking because one pair of eyes can't see everything.

Buyers agents negotiate on your behalf to get you the best deal. If you as an inexperienced layman want to go toe-to-toe with a listing agent or even the homeowner themselves, have at it. You can also spend your life sitting in front of the computer running down every detail of the transaction process and the legalities involved.

Obviously I am not a real estate agent, but I am very familiar with what they do for a living. When I bought my house, all I did was look at houses from the list provided by my agent, and put my financing together. She did everything else, INCLUDING walking me through the closing process and fighting it out with the listing agent.

We got a great agent down here in TX, all by word of mouth reccomendations. She hauled us all over 2 counties for over a week, dealing with hubby, me and 2 kids in diapers. She found me my dream house and hobby farm all in one. I don't begrudge her the fee, she was an angel and full of info. She knew up and coming areas, good vs. bad school districts, and all kinds of stuff about agricultural set asides/tax bases in TX that will save us good money. She was a 25 year vet in realty and was really good to us. We had her undivided attention for over 5 work days, she set up everything and dealt with every hurtle in our path. She was worth it.

[somdrenter]

Originally Posted by MMDad

I never said he was. But it is very similar since the builder is usually a small businessman. The only way he makes a profit is by keeping costs low and charging as much as he can get away with. And just like a real estate agent, no sale = no paycheck.

The grunts actually doing the work may be salaried, but that's not what we're talking about.
Are you going to expect me to keep teaching you the basics?

Please, do teach Dad. Along with my previous recommendation of staying away from car salesmen, I would further recommend that you stay away from any fence builders. Most folks get an estimate from several builders, chooses a builder based in part of that estimate, and barring major unforeseen circumstances, pays the agreed upon price. Realtors however, speaking of buyers agents specifically, have a direct financial incentive to negate any buying power the purchaser may have. This could range anywhere from divulging pertinent information to the selling agent, from withholding information from the potential buyer. I’ll be the first to say that yes, it’s a business; realtors want and deserved to be paid. However, when they advertise their service as working on behalf of a buyer, their financial motivations indicate otherwise. Unless of course, they operate on a fixed fee basis, something I have yet to see, locally anyway.

[somdrenter]

Originally Posted by vraiblonde

Why? What part of the financial aspect of buying a home are the responsible for?

They are the face of the REI. Usually the first contact someone has in dealing with purchasing a home. They have the responsibility (financially anyway) to prop up prices regardless of conditions and by any means necessary.

[somdrenter]

Originally Posted by designer300z

I'm not the type of person to say that it can't be done without an agent, but there is a reason and a value for my services, and I believe that some agent's services are more valuable than others. I've seen first hand listings that have sat on the market for months without a bite. In many cases, if it's priced right, the fact it was not marketed/promoted well was prohibitive to it ability to attract a buyer.

You describe perfectly the benefits of a sellers agent. And I think your commission is commensurate with the sellers desires. However, given the proliferation of online services, information, and advertising, I could see the realtor profession going the way of the travel agent.

“People aren't just contracting me to post it on the MLS and stick a sign in the yard. They're hiring me to get it on craigslist, trulia, zillow, hotpads, kajiji, century21.com, localism.com, teambenya.com, yahoo, google, wall street journal, homes.com, excite, house.com, justlisted.com, juno, and a few dozen others.

Quite a few of those advertising mediums are already accessible to the seller. The others could possibly be opened up by fixed prices services.

[designer300z]

Originally Posted by somdrenter

You describe perfectly the benefits of a sellers agent. And I think your commission is commensurate with the sellers desires. However, given the proliferation of online services, information, and advertising, I could see the realtor profession going the way of the travel agent.

Quite a few of those advertising mediums are already accessible to the seller. The others could possibly be opened up by fixed prices services.

I think we have to agree to disagree here. Yes, the commission is commensurate, and people have sold successfully without agents and even with limited service agents, and will continue to do so. Real estate is about more than just listing, it's also about people, marketing, management, and consumer protection, and it's the combination of all these things that make a realtor valuable to so many people.

As far as the mediums being accesible, some are, but not all, naturally. The problem I've seen generally with fixed price services is two-fold.

1) They do not seem to put together as effective a "plan" for marketing. "Yes, it'll be on the MLS and Realtor.com with a photo" is not a plan, IMHO. They are able to fulfill the bare minimum, but I personally do not feel that is conducive to maximizng sales potential. It's all the little things combined that make the difference, such as Virtual Tours, Good Photos, Enticing Descriptions, Distribution of Materials, Promoting Homes to Likely Buyer Demographics, and so forth. I have yet to see a flat fee (or even discount broker) MLS listing that had the exposure I provide.

Yes they may be able to add your listing to zillow, but how will it stack up to other zillow listings? Will it have multiple photos there? Will the Virtual Tour Be There? Will the description be expanded since there is more room to write promotional blurbs? I'm not saying they won't, but we all know what online attention spans are like, and that's why these types of details are important.

2) Who are these people that provide flat fee services, and what is their motivation? If you're paying $500 to put the home on the MLS, what is their motivation to get the home sold? If it doesn't sell you're out the money regardless. The problem is that any listing is going to run me a couple grand in marketing costs, not to mention time spent working on it, and if it fails to sell, I'm out of luck. Not every agent spends that kind of money, but I notice higher volume agents do, and it's because they are confident of their ability to get the home sold. If they couldn't sell homes, they'd be out of business, right? The problem is that it can be hard to understand what you are getting from an individual agent, because it's an agent's job to say "Pick Me, I'm Great At Selling Homes!", and not all Realtors are cut from the same cloth.