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If sitting in a class for 63 hours is making you a realtor....I guess I have way more hours and expeirence...., some might not even have sold one home when the get their license
I sure hope they haven't been selling any homes before they get their license!
In any profession, you have those that did the minimum required to perform the job at hand. You can get a medical degree in the islands and come to the US. You can get a law degree online if you pay a school enough money. By no means is that all the training the AVERAGE professional, much less a good one has. That is what they are, minimum standards.
On the one hand you want people to do far more training and get experience. On the other you want people to charge less. As far as I have learned in life, you rarely get higher quality professionals by paying them less money.
I am not going to defend agents fees as it is a free market and I think consumers should have a right to negotiate. This is not a monopoly and there should be no "set rate". However, just remember to ask what you are getting for your money... whether you pay 1% or 10% try to find out which has the most value in it for your needs.
I sure hope they haven't been selling any homes before they get their license!
In any profession, you have those that did the minimum required to perform the job at hand. You can get a medical degree in the islands and come to the US. You can get a law degree online if you pay a school enough money. By no means is that all the training the AVERAGE professional, much less a good one has. That is what they are, minimum standards.
On the one hand you want people to do far more training and get experience. On the other you want people to charge less. As far as I have learned in life, you rarely get higher quality professionals by paying them less money.
I am not going to defend agents fees as it is a free market and I think consumers should have a right to negotiate. This is not a monopoly and there should be no "set rate". However, just remember to ask what you are getting for your money... whether you pay 1% or 10% try to find out which has the most value in it for your needs.
I understand what you are saying and it can be true, but doesn't have to be true.
I recently needed a construction company do some work for me and had many estimates. I checked all licenses and 1 told me upfront he wasn't licensed. After that i checked a little bit more and the prices were very much different for the same job. In the end I went with the cheapest company since they were the only one who wanted to give me a contract with a time line when the job should be finifhed and with a fixed price...After the job was done, I'm glad that had them do the job since it worked out to be a very professional job and I had seems more work from them...although i had seen some great work from the other companies as well, so I saved and already had them do more work, this was a win win situation for both of us and again the cheapest turned out not to be the worst.
How could you know the cheapest didn't turn out to be the worst when none of the others completed work for you? Perhaps the other more expensive companies would have done better, perhaps not. You'll never know.
I understand that "good realtors" deserve their money as any one who is good in what they are doing and I never disagreed on that.
Some closing are easier than others, but isn't it true that realtors aren't giving the mortgage but mortgage brokers and banks do....the realtor can refer them but so can others. BoA, etc....many options....the realtor can make a call but isn't really in this process since that process is between the buyer and the mortgage broker, than the home inspection has to be done....well a realtor can have a rolodex or whatever it is called but many people know how to check the internet to find some home inspector or get a referral from others, same for title company and the appraisel as many realtors have stated is arranged by the mortgage broker.....so how much is really left....some phone calls to save the deal when there is trouble..."yes" that can be important, but I had to do it myself and I was alone at the time with a young kid and had to solve it myself and I managed and so can others....I understand that a realtor with a lot experience can help very well, but the way it is right now, many have jumped in in '05 and don't have the experience and many people are stuck with these so called realtors.
The post was hard to follow so I'll try and break down responses for everyone.
1-Yes, the mortgage is b/n the lender and buyer. The agents can provide value by knowing up front what programs/lenders will be best based on specific situations and that can save buyers a lot of money. These "specialty" loans are often not known about by consumers or less active agents.
Ex.-First time buyers can get a $14k forgivable grant here but I know of only 3 lenders in my whole area that offer it. When I have a first time buyer, I can point them to that lender and they just saved $14,000 and get a 30 yr. fixed rate at below market interest rates. Another example would be houses eligible for rural loans.
2-Same with inspectors/contractors. I know a few very good ones so I can make sure they get a good inspection. The inspection itself is b/n the buyer and the inspector.
3-Not everyone closes with a title company. We don't use them in SC, we have attorneys that handle the closing. How smooth it goes and how thorough they are depends on the paralegals. If you bought a home in Columbia, SC, would you know which one to go with? Value through the Realtors experiences....
4-Appraisals are ordered by the lender, but I often have to go over during the day to open up the door on my listings so they can get inside.
5-Nobody has to be "stuck" with a bad Realtor. First, the consumer is hiring someone to do a job. They should interview until they get a good one and not hire the first warm body to happen along. Secondly, sometimes the hire isn't what we hoped at which point the consumer should then fire the Realtor. Since it is the consumers job to hire someone I'm not sure where/why that fits in under agent responsibility on your list.
How could you know the cheapest didn't turn out to be the worst when none of the others completed work for you? Perhaps the other more expensive companies would have done better, perhaps not. You'll never know.
Well I'm 100% satisfied so how much better could I have wanted and I have seen more work before I decided and with the next yp priced company I had seen good work before and that was good too, but they didn't want to give me a fixed price and end date for the job that would only take 5 to 7 days....I asked them to sign that the job would be done within 24 days, just to be sure not be stuck for longer.....That was enough for me.
The RE agents are saying that what they do is very complicated and that you need to pay a lot for quality.
The mechanics at the stealership tell me the same thing.
The car dealer trying to sell me a Mercedes instead of a Honda will say the same.
The expensive medical clinic that orders $2500 in lab tests to diagnose a case of the sniffles will also tell me how much better they are than my family doctor.
The RE agents are saying that what they do is very complicated and that you need to pay a lot for quality.
The mechanics at the stealership tell me the same thing.
The car dealer trying to sell me a Mercedes instead of a Honda will say the same.
The expensive medical clinic that orders $2500 in lab tests to diagnose a case of the sniffles will also tell me how much better they are than my family doctor.
More expensive isn't always better....
You nailed it.....when people are telling me that cheaper isn't always better...I start to think what they actual want to sell me.
Oh please!!!!! Not all unrepresented or discounted brokerage buyers are sheep!!!!!
Any more than "the most expensive is ALWAYS the best"
I would say beware the wolf in sheep's clothing personally
The discount broker model has in general been found wanting in the market place. They generally (with a few noteworthy exceptions) go belly up on the hard markets. Their rub is that they can do OK in a strong market but can't pay their nut in a very slow one. In Las Vegas for instance virtually every "discount" or "cut rate" broker has gone belly up or retrenched heavily. We are now down to the point where there are only two thousand agents with more than one sale this year as opposed to the 12000 or so on the books. Sure you can get a discount from some of the 10,000...but should you?
In a slow market one may need 2.0% to break even. In a hot one it may be more like 1.2%. In the present market we could discount with relative safety...but the funny thing is you end up better paid on the easy sales than on the difficult ones. Long delay shorts take a lot of energy and then pay 2.4% or so. Easy REPOs pay 3.0%. Out of town buyers are going to have a very hard time getting a rebate. They often take a lot of work and effort to keep informed and happy. You can get writers cramp trying to explain what is happening in the written response. And I freely advance money for stuff for out of town buyers. I got into one deal where an undisclosed bankruptcy effectively prevented a close right up at the end. I funded the rent money to the seller for six months to protect the buyers. Got 6 Grand in advances back at the close. Note that a do-it-yourself buyer would have been out of luck. The deal would have collapsed with the moving truck on the way. And the buyer would not have had much recourse.
Oh please!!!!! Not all unrepresented or discounted brokerage buyers are sheep!!!!!
Any more than "the most expensive is ALWAYS the best"
I would say beware the wolf in sheep's clothing personally
That's what I meant. Most professional investors are wolf in sheep's clothing and this is not derogatory. It's their business.
They used to eat the unassisted buyer or seller for lunch but are now finding too many other opportunities arranging their own short sales and/or buying foreclosed property outright from banks to bother with most of them.
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