What type of service should a REALTOR provide to be worth their commission?

[trishinca]

Ouch, that hurts. It's true, I did get in 'too late' for the huge rewards. I experienced one good year, and if it was the norm, I might finally have been able to buy my first home. Aside from all that, I did think of selling cars, but the interviews were like stepping into a time-warp of thirty years ago.(Working out of my element, perhaps). When I got my license, my life changed. I finally had 'the fire in the belly' of being excited to tackle a challenging, potentially financially rewarding work, and I hope I can make it in the new market. And, yes, I think of alternatives when it gets slow. I don't know what you do for a living, but there is something about quitting because it gets tough that just isn't my way of dealing with the problem. I may work part-time these next few years to make ends meet (that's how I started, by the way, and it isn't the best option, but it does help pay the bills, and I sold every home I listed at the time around the other job, at almost full price.) If you are younger than me, you might switch careers more than once also, out of needing to do something different. Anyway, no offense taken, it was a good observation....but I love what I am doing, and it's actually my 'retirement career', too young to quit working, too old to keep making changes. I hate sitting at a desk, and had our own business for years so find it difficult to put all my energy into someone else's business. I may move to a more affordable area, however. Thanks again for the bitter pill of reality.

[KenDavid]

Hello:
One undergrad lesson in economics - your house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I am a real estate broker and I often have to educate my clients about this very point. So often, someone will say to me "I just put 50k into my kitchen so my house should be worth 50k more". Unfortunately there is not an exact return ratio. I wish it were, it would make things easier! The reality is, a buyer doesn't care what you've spent on the house. A buyer measures the value of your home by comparing it to what other similar homes have sold for. The market has been down for the last six months here in Denver. It is not correct to take the price you paid for your home, add the cost of the improvements you made and then perhaps add in a 3 or 4 percent more per year for appreciation. Again, I wish it were this easy. A buyer (and a buyer's real estate agent) will assign a value to your home that is comparable to what a similar homes sold for nearby within the last 6 months. Don't forget, once a purchase price is agreed upon, the home has to be "sold" again to the appraiser who will base is his price on comps and price per square foot of similar homes. He will make allownaces for improvements, but generally not dollar for dollar (again 50k in kitchen remodel doesn't equal 50k increase in sales price).
I h ope this helps. I know it sounds kind of negative, but it is reality.

[sunsprit]

coming into this thread late ... but I have first-hand knowledge re the cost of products comments.

I rep'ed Hunter for years. The first quality line products are made here in the USA, with the big diameter and heavily copper wound on iron core motors.

The mid and 3rd line products are made in China, with smaller diameter motors, less iron core, and smaller bearings and lighter duty components. The same plant makes all of the variants to Hunter's engineering specs, winding cores with whatever wire is spec'ed, layering the iron cores with as many as Hunter spec's, etc.

Originally, when Hunter entered the box store marketplace, they did supply some of the USA production items through that outlet. But, to protect the lighting/fan retail specialty shops and WD's (who sell directly to in the trade contractors, not home retail sales), they've almost exclusively changed over to the 2nd and 3rd level product in the box stores. Also, this allows Hunter to compete with the cheap stuff brought in for low price points in the box stores.

Unless Hunter is dumping slow moving fashion stock to clear it out, the SKU's you'll find at a box store are different than the first quality merchandise. And the quality of the cheaper stuff is just that ... cheaper.

[darlene1960]

I am trying to understand what a listing agent can do for me that is worth 3% of the price of my home.

In my case the home is worth $800+. What is a listing agent going to do for me that is worth $25,000... I am not being nasty, I really want to know what service I get for that much $$.

Please advise.

I would ask the same about the agent that brings the buyer, but that appears to be non-negotiable...

[ShenandoahValley]

Darlene,

Good luck in whatever you decide. Discount brokerage companies usually put you in the MLS -- If you don't sell on your own or with them, you may eventually seek advice of a full service brokerage company. There are books you can buy if you want to go FSBO. I didn't show FSBOs to my clients. (One of my client siutations: buyers found their own house -- it was a FSBO before coming to me, but they asked me to sell their home. Their existing home sold in about 20 days and they probably would have lost the FSBO b/c they agreed to a tight time frame of closing and contingency; and without my expertise their home may not have sold in that time frame, not to mention that pushed the closing of their existing home also up a few weeks, which meant everything from mortgages to inspections had to occur STAT and that took my experience, mine and my brokerage company's resources; and the brokerage company's resources for the buying agent for the buyers of their existing home; and both deals had to close on the same day. Also, on that day the seller's of the FSBO were closing on their new home and luckily the seller's of that new home hired a Realtor, so every t was crossed and every i dotted and the day was smooth (we Realtors made certain everyone else was on top of what they were supposed to do and bring to closing) and no bumps were in the road for the stacked deals that day. We were lucky.)

[dncngrl1964]

Originally Posted by momix5

Just a suggestion if houses are not selling why don't some of the realtors cut their commision and sell volume rather than just sell one house for that possible big commision. As far as the sellers yes a lot of them do inflate prices, for really horrible homes that are for sale, my home is on the market and is listed below the comp price and is totally done inside and out, We put a lot into the house and just want to recoup the money put into the house, not rip someone off. I think some of the buyers need to be realistic that sometimes there expectations are out of line, one real estate told me that if the buyers do not like the color of a wall they will not buy the house yet, the gut work is done, cesspools, siding, kitchens bathrooms etc. She said most of the buyers want want want and do not want to pay.

If houses are selling it isnt the realtors fault sometimes its the sellers fault (defered maintenance outdated appliances overpricing) if there are too many homes on the market like where we live alot of new construction --there isnt enough buyers for them
so my question is why should a realtor devalue him/herself because a property isnt moving when it is a buyers market and there are 3 houses near each other and 1 is priced lower with alot of work needed one is in the middle with a little needed and 1 is high end move in ready most will choose the middle of the road thinking the can save the difference by doing it themselves