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and the problem lies in the ease with which people can get a real estate license and proclaim themselves "experts" on the internet (the first being worse and more solveable than the 2nd).
I haven't worried a car payment or mortgage payment since my 1st year in business, but then again, I was working on a team, with an abundance of clients to help, a college degree and a decade in the finance world.
There should be more agents with your background. A real estate license isn’t a big deal to get, and that’s the beginning of the problem. I have several insurance licenses and aside from a few weeks of studying, the state will issue one. They do a background check, but maybe licensed people should have an honesty and ethics check too. In a field where a dishonest or indifferent realtor can cost you money, it should be mandatory.
The experience you had coming into the field is valuable, but nothing compared to the years you spent dealing with clients, getting experience, then taking it a step further. Sales has too many fly by nighters and most realtors are average or below. As someone on this thread commented, it’s ‘astounding’ what realtors charging 6% get and many of them don’t do much to earn it.
Maybe a set fee is the way of the future, especially when a mediocre agent who did a crap job for their client, gets paid the same as a top agent who went all out for theirs. When an agent sets the wrong price, or doesn’t market the property to get it sold, or spends the clients money pushing for a new roof or air conditioner so the deal will go through, the client can lose thousands. It would be nice to see changes in the real estate field, it seems to favor realtors over clients.
Yes, I’ve hired a couple of excellent realtors, but more bad or mediocre ones. It’s the same story for buying and selling, they end up costing you money, regardless of five star ratings.
There certainly is more to things than what you described (even if it doesn't always feel that way), but I, like you, am still scratching my head trying to figure out what justifies that rate, especially considering the much lower rates that you'd pay in other developed countries (I'm still floored by the 1.5% in the UK). Are American agents doing something so different that justifies such out of whack rates? Perhaps they are, but definitely something that I'd like to know. When I finally do sell my place, absent standard rates declining significantly, I will almost certainly go with a flat fee broker.
the UK doesn't use an agent for the Seller and an agent for the Buyer; it's just 1 agent. What else is involved, I don't know. I do know purplebricks made an attempt to bring UK-style real estate transactions to the US and left within 18 months, having lost their azz.
There are several problems with most real estate agent:
1. Any idiot can become one. The bar is set so low.
2. Many just do it part time and they make full timers look bad as the part timers have little experience/knowledge.
3. As it is commission based, nothing happens until a sale is made which can really taint a deal.
4. Some like to play lawyer.
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Perhaps they are, but definitely something that I'd like to know. When I finally do sell my place, absent standard rates declining significantly, I will almost certainly go with a flat fee broker.
