[007 license to sell]

What olecat says about the storage is so true documents have to be stored for years. Whether you call it a documentation fee or a administration fee, it is a fee that the broker charges.

The realtor doesn't charge that, and if the fee isn't paid then the realtor will have to pay it. The administration fee is a total disclosure at the time you make your offer, it is in the contract. You should have seen it when you went over the contract with your agent.

I don't want you to feel sorry for the realtor for what I am about to tell you,maybe understand what it takes to be a realtro.
Here is some information you may not know regarding what is required for most realtors to do business.And you may or may not look at realtors differently.
In these times allot of brokerages are taking 1/2 of the commissions plus allot of brokerages charge a monthly office rental fee, plus other erroneous fees.
There are some offices that do give 100% of the commission to the realtor, in that case there is usually higer office and administration fees to the realtor.
Realtors pay for continuing education in order to keep their licenses, and there are the license fees to do business in the city and a county business license fee, a state of Nevada license fee.
There is the gas to take clients out, office products, MLS fee, electronic key fee. Car insurance, E&O ( emissions and omissions) insurance some brokers don't pay that. Manteca on the car,after all if we don't have a car then we cant' take clients out.
Realtors are strictly commission there is no guaranteed wage they pay their own health insurance if they can afford to. Sometimes referral fees are paid out which come out of the commission the agent made.
This is one way realtors find business is through referals. Referral fees should be disclosed at the time of the offer as well. Realtors have to find ways to find buyers and sellers and it is usually on their own or the pay for leads, whether it's a broker or a website or a blog. Each take time and money for the most part.
If being a realtor was easy everyone would do it, especially now with the constant change of laws,and the higher costs to do business, higher gas prices, brokers taking more of the commission in some cases,brokers are feeling the pinch in this economy so they have to do things to keep the office open
Your realtor is a professional and should be treated as one. Granted not all realtors act professional and those are the one's you hear about not so much the good ones.
Yes you should fire a realtor that you feel is not representing your best interest.But also realtors have the right to fire a client that is unreasonable and difficult to work with, it goes both ways.
There is a saying that if something bad happens to someone they will tell 20 people but if something good happens to someone they tell one person. Just because there is one bad realtor in the bunch please don't put everyone in that category.
You have to be accountable too, for your own decisions no one held a gun to your head and said buy this.
And saying you don't understand the real-estate transaction is a cop out, you should ask questions and have the realtor go over the offer line by line and make sure you understand what your looking for and if that isn't good enough hire and attorney or an accountant.
You may not have cared what I had to say, I just hope you have more understanding of the realtor

[olecapt]

007 is right on. It is not a cheap business particularly if you do it right.

I will point out one thing that 007 may not have come across...in some brokerages the agent can add a fee of his own to the doc fee..and I am not aware of any Broker who charges more than $400. So I suspect this is an agent sliding his own "admin" fee on top of the brokers. It is legal by the way...

There is a ruling in a different appeals court jurisdiction that such fees are a RESPA violaton. Search in the RE sections of CD and you can find discussion on that. But as of now they are ligal in the ninth circuit which covers NV.

[cedar_bluff_tree_farm]

Tacking on extra fees is BS.

Trying to justify it by explaining all the expenses you incur is even more BS.

No real estate agent offered to rebate my commission during the boom years when they were making bank. No reason I should pony up extra money to help them now since it's more difficult.

(Does not apply if the buyer signed a contract with the buyers agent saying he/she would pay the money.)

[rrrafael]

They gotta pay for their bad hair dye, their breast implants, and their Escalade, also.

The real documents are recorded by the County. I suppose realtors have to keep some stuff for several years to defend themselves against he said/she said lawsuits, but a whole office could store their documents for a few thousand dollars per year. Their documents will have almost no bearing on a land/legal dispute. They are generally copies of BS, that aren't signed or notarized. You've already signed away your rights on their "omissions and errors" on the listings. Doc fee is total BS.

[lmchan]

Thanks Olecapt and everyone! I also noticed a $300 PAD in our closing statement and was scratching my head as to what it was? These are definitely fees that I have not seen before.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by cedar_bluff_tree_farm

Tacking on extra fees is BS.

Trying to justify it by explaining all the expenses you incur is even more BS.

No real estate agent offered to rebate my commission during the boom years when they were making bank. No reason I should pony up extra money to help them now since it's more difficult.

(Does not apply if the buyer signed a contract with the buyers agent saying he/she would pay the money.)

Sorry...doc fees have been around in Nevada more than ten years. Nothing new. Paid in good times and bad.

And you need to read more carefully. I certainly don't justify it. And I think NV should stamp it out.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by rrrafael

They gotta pay for their bad hair dye, their breast implants, and their Escalade, also.

The real documents are recorded by the County. I suppose realtors have to keep some stuff for several years to defend themselves against he said/she said lawsuits, but a whole office could store their documents for a few thousand dollars per year. Their documents will have almost no bearing on a land/legal dispute. They are generally copies of BS, that aren't signed or notarized. You've already signed away your rights on their "omissions and errors" on the listings. Doc fee is total BS.

The average salary of the RE Agents in the US is around $40K. And it tends to be relatively the same everywhere and in good time and bad. The herd simply grows or shrinks until that number is reached.

Not many Escalades or breast implants at the 40K level.

Virtually all documents retained have signatures. Many are disclosures. And many have legal significance.

[dynimagelv]

if the dorkapotomouses don't like to pay the fees they can ALWAYS buy a house without a realtor and see what they get then

[007 license to sell]

I agree with Olecat they shouldn't charge a doc fee, it's not the realtor charging this fee it's the brokerage in most cases. I have heard of brokers trying to get more than $400.00 doc fee and it's rediculous. I have also heard of agents charging additional fees and if they get caught which I hope they do maybe we can clean out the bad eggs in real-estate.

I would like to see them make it illegal to charge those fees. And as far as what types of transpertation a realtor drives, means that you as a client may be more comfortable driving around in 100+ degree heat than if your realtor drove you around in a $4000.00 clunker with no air.

Oh by the way Olecat I had some dealings with the agent in the Time magazine article and she tried to pull some stuff on myself and my client and even her broker at the time backed her conduct on her practices.
Needless to say my client and I went on and found a better property with a reputable listing agent.

[FloridaDawn]

I've read through the posts ..our closing date is coming up Oct 2. our transaction fee is listed as payable to the agents office. Is this ever SOP? Our agent actually picked the title company and this is the first time I've had a look at fees. We got an early copy of the HUD 1 because we are paying cash. I'm inclined to refuse to pay it as its not part of any contract we have signed. Can I do that? I'm in FL