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There are no doubt many hard working Realtors who provide tremendous service to their clients. However, the internet has greatly simplified the process and put purchasing and selling on one's own well within reach. I view properties on Craigs, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com and always market my own properties for sale. And of the 30+ realtors I know, many are willing to work for reduced commissions. It would be my opinion that this is rapidly becoming the norm. I could be wrong.
There are no doubt many hard working Realtors who provide tremendous service to their clients. However, the internet has greatly simplified the process and put purchasing and selling on one's own well within reach. I view properties on Craigs, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com and always market my own properties for sale. And of the 30+ realtors I know, many are willing to work for reduced commissions. It would be my opinion that this is rapidly becoming the norm. I could be wrong.
Probably more rebates than it used to be but there is something else to consider...overhead is higher now than it used to be. We've simplified the search but increased the cost of business. Because buyers perceive they can locate their own properties now, they also perceive Realtors have a diminished value. I can understand why that view exists but I can also tell you as someone in the business that it is incorrect. Our cost of business is higher (each of those sites except craigslist is paid ultimately by Real estate, meaning ultimately Realtors), and each year the transactions get more and more complicated. There are more legal responsibilities because society becomes more and more litigious each year. The real value of a Realtor is not locating the property but the guidance from contract to closing. It is important that clients understand this is our value because as I've said before, any fool can open a door. A true professional separates from the crowd once the property is found.
My feeling is that even a decent agent should be able to sell at least one house a week. Even accounting for 4 weeks of vacation a year, that would be 48 sales a year. At 3% per house- let's say each house is $150,000- it would be $4500 a house. That is a pretty decent living even at 65% net!
In my 100 square mile area there are substantially more agents than there are homes for sale, even in this market. The top agent in my area closed 13 transactions, last year. Of course the average transaction size is > $700K so the compensation is different.
It seems like every other topic on this board is someone asking how they can pay us less! I'm just venting my frustrations, so excuse me, but maybe some of you can help me with this.
Why is it that people think we should give back part of our commission, or lower it or rebate it or pay for things for them with it???
In what other line of work would somone say, "Congratulations, you did a great job, now... I don't feel like I should pay you."
What is up with that??
I think there is a lot of sentiment out there that, "My house is mine. Why should I have to pay 6% to anyone if I sell it?"
That's a pretty silly way to look at it and I think people, for the most part, know there is a price to pay for the service.
What I don't see happening is our realtor really hustling to sell our home. When I was in college I worked in retail sales (not for a commision mind you) and I had to hustle my arse off to sell....or I didn't have a job. My job was to make the customer buy it through whatever means were at my disposal. Folks I was just working for $6/hr. I just don't see my RE agent hustling like that....and the pay for selling a handful of homes is a heck of a lot more than working a year at $6/hr.
So if you want to know why average people have trouble letting go of your cut that's it in a nutshell. You didn't bleed for it. You were just there to passively sell it to someone who happened upon it on a website or drove by and saw the sign in front of their home. You didn't run up and down the street to get people to come look at it. You didn't persuade anyone. You were just there.
So the next time you go to a store and you see some kid trying to hussle you into buying a suit or pair of pants or and then hits you up for socks, cologne, and a wallet at the checkout counter all for a couple of clicks above minimum wage think about how much effort you put into selling your client's home. Did you work as hard as that kid did?
I realize I'm not posting to an audience that want's to hear this kind of thing so if you'd like to ignore it or write it off as bunk feel free.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drjones96
I think there is a lot of sentiment out there that, "My house is mine. Why should I have to pay 6% to anyone if I sell it?"
That's a pretty silly way to look at it and I think people, for the most part, know there is a price to pay for the service.
What I don't see happening is our realtor really hustling to sell our home. When I was in college I worked in retail sales (not for a commision mind you) and I had to hustle my arse off to sell....or I didn't have a job. My job was to make the customer buy it through whatever means were at my disposal. Folks I was just working for $6/hr. I just don't see my RE agent hustling like that....and the pay for selling a handful of homes is a heck of a lot more than working a year at $6/hr.
So if you want to know why average people have trouble letting go of your cut that's it in a nutshell. You didn't bleed for it. You were just there to passively sell it to someone who happened upon it on a website or drove by and saw the sign in front of their home. You didn't run up and down the street to get people to come look at it. You didn't persuade anyone. You were just there.
So the next time you go to a store and you see some kid trying to hussle you into buying a suit or pair of pants or and then hits you up for socks, cologne, and a wallet at the checkout counter all for a couple of clicks above minimum wage think about how much effort you put into selling your client's home. Did you work as hard as that kid did?
I realize I'm not posting to an audience that want's to hear this kind of thing so if you'd like to ignore it or write it off as bunk feel free.
Just because you did not see it does not mean it wasn't happening. I'm not a Realtor, but I work with them and I see this point coming up time and again. You must realize, however, that your analogy between a Realtor that you don't see hustling and a department store clerk that you do see hustling is this. The department store clerk does not pay any overhead. He does not come out of pocket to sell you anything. Not only that, but that approach just does not work in RE. Do you or would you like to be pressured and confronted when looking at homes? If anything this sort of approach will make it more difficult to sell the home. Of course I'm sure that if you decided to shadow a Realtor all day you would see just how much work actually does go into marketing and selling a home.
There are no doubt many hard working Realtors who provide tremendous service to their clients. However, the internet has greatly simplified the process and put purchasing and selling on one's own well within reach. I view properties on Craigs, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com and always market my own properties for sale. And of the 30+ realtors I know, many are willing to work for reduced commissions. It would be my opinion that this is rapidly becoming the norm. I could be wrong.
I guess most people are doing that, so am I. So it should only be reasonable to reduce the commisions in cases when they have to do less. If a realtor has to go to show 10+ houses I can imagine with these gas prices and the amount of searches it is fair to get paid a bit more. Other wise realtors should be fair too.
I think there is a lot of sentiment out there that, "My house is mine. Why should I have to pay 6% to anyone if I sell it?"
That's a pretty silly way to look at it and I think people, for the most part, know there is a price to pay for the service.
What I don't see happening is our realtor really hustling to sell our home. When I was in college I worked in retail sales (not for a commision mind you) and I had to hustle my arse off to sell....or I didn't have a job. My job was to make the customer buy it through whatever means were at my disposal. Folks I was just working for $6/hr. I just don't see my RE agent hustling like that....and the pay for selling a handful of homes is a heck of a lot more than working a year at $6/hr.
So if you want to know why average people have trouble letting go of your cut that's it in a nutshell. You didn't bleed for it. You were just there to passively sell it to someone who happened upon it on a website or drove by and saw the sign in front of their home. You didn't run up and down the street to get people to come look at it. You didn't persuade anyone. You were just there.
So the next time you go to a store and you see some kid trying to hussle you into buying a suit or pair of pants or and then hits you up for socks, cologne, and a wallet at the checkout counter all for a couple of clicks above minimum wage think about how much effort you put into selling your client's home. Did you work as hard as that kid did?
I realize I'm not posting to an audience that want's to hear this kind of thing so if you'd like to ignore it or write it off as bunk feel free.
I"m not a realtor and for certain don't want to ignore you because what you said is true. I worked in retail and more and when the buyer just walks in the realtors are still stating how much more work they have to do than before!!
Even in the best years when every one could sell a home they stated they had to do so much, now the market is very slow and still the same thing. So what is the deal with the realtors?
I guess most people are doing that, so am I. So it should only be reasonable to reduce the commisions in cases when they have to do less. If a realtor has to go to show 10+ houses I can imagine with these gas prices and the amount of searches it is fair to get paid a bit more. Other wise realtors should be fair too.
Probably more rebates than it used (but not most) to be but there is something else to consider...overhead is higher now than it used to be. We've simplified the search but increased the cost of business. Because buyers perceive they can locate their own properties now, they also perceive Realtors have a diminished value. I can understand why that view exists but I can also tell you as someone in the business that it is incorrect. Our cost of business is higher (each of those sites except craigslist is paid ultimately by Real estate, meaning ultimately Realtors), and each year the transactions get more and more complicated. There are more legal responsibilities because society becomes more and more litigious each year. The real value of a Realtor is not locating the property but the guidance from contract to closing. It is important that clients understand this is our value because as I've said before, any fool can open a door. A true professional separates from the crowd once the property is found.
My job is equally difficult if I show you 10 homes or 1.
I think there is a lot of sentiment out there that, "My house is mine. Why should I have to pay 6% to anyone if I sell it?"
That's a pretty silly way to look at it and I think people, for the most part, know there is a price to pay for the service.
What I don't see happening is our realtor really hustling to sell our home. When I was in college I worked in retail sales (not for a commision mind you) and I had to hustle my arse off to sell....or I didn't have a job. My job was to make the customer buy it through whatever means were at my disposal. Folks I was just working for $6/hr. I just don't see my RE agent hustling like that....and the pay for selling a handful of homes is a heck of a lot more than working a year at $6/hr.
So if you want to know why average people have trouble letting go of your cut that's it in a nutshell. You didn't bleed for it. You were just there to passively sell it to someone who happened upon it on a website or drove by and saw the sign in front of their home. You didn't run up and down the street to get people to come look at it. You didn't persuade anyone. You were just there.
So the next time you go to a store and you see some kid trying to hussle you into buying a suit or pair of pants or and then hits you up for socks, cologne, and a wallet at the checkout counter all for a couple of clicks above minimum wage think about how much effort you put into selling your client's home. Did you work as hard as that kid did?
I realize I'm not posting to an audience that want's to hear this kind of thing so if you'd like to ignore it or write it off as bunk feel free.
Well, some Realtors are more pro-active than others. I'll be the first to admit there are many agents in the business that shouldn't be. Even on very active Realtors the client doesn't see the work happening. We pro-actively market, then have to react to showings. It is impossible to sell a home like you would sell a pair of pants. People don't buy homes that way. To some degree it is passive. The reason is marketing creates showings if the price is reasonable. The home must then sell itself to the person because a person can't simply be "sold" on an investment like a home as they could on a pair of pants. The homes condition "sells" the home once the agent gets the person there.
So an agents job is to create showings and provide info on how to help the home sell itself, then guide the home from contract to closing. I typically work a 60 hour week but my clients don't see that and I try to always treat them like they are my only client.
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