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That's why this industry is a racket, and I can't stand it. Those of us with a formal education and a technical degree really have a problem with people that complete an online course, obtain a license, and make the kind of money they do; especially when they can monopolize the industry and steer clients away. It's shady. I am in the wrong line of work, but I could never be a salesperson. I had one job that had sales as part of it, and I always felt like I was screwing people over to make a living. This should be an hourly fee job. A set percentage on a house does not reflect the actual work put into it. I've told this directly to realtors also. It's like being a car salesperson. Sure, sign here; by the way, there's a $799 documentation fee added to your purchase. This industry needs an overhaul.
So, you don't have the integrity to be successful in sales, and, ergo, you don't like salespeople. We get it.
And, now you cannot sell your house, and it isn't your fault. We get that, too.
It's an old act. O.L.D.
There is nothing i am more critical about than real estate agents, but the good ones (just a couple percent of the enormous crowd of them out there) are well worth the money and investment.
First of all it raises red flags about what else you have been "cheap" about. Sorry if that insults people, but the connection is fairly obvious.
Then, as someone in the first posts raised, you must go through the listing, marketing, contract, and closing, among whatever else pops up. You are critical about many realtors taking an online course and then wanting to get paid. Well, what education do you have in these areas? That's right, None.
As to the OP, how do you expect to sell your house if it is not listed? Drive byes? Friends of friends? Good luck with that.
Here's a wonderful example, and i am SO tempted to put a link to the listing.
Guy lists his house three or four years ago at $450 ish. You can see the pricing history right in the Zillow listing. It doesn't sell. Now he decides he really needs to sell, so he lists it at $730 ! That goes from roughly $200 a square foot to $300 a square foot. Homes in the area are selling briskly around $200 per square foot.
Now, being as how the guy is a real estate marketing genius and knows how to manage his FSBO listing, he drops the price $10,000 after ten days! Another ten days go by and he drops another $10,000. And so on such that a month in we are below $700.
So tell me, pricing history of a $250,000 bump in four years after the house originally didn't sell, and price cuts every ten days in a HOT market. What does that SCREAM to a potential buyer? Red Flags left and right. And on top of that, they are dealing with a a$$ and any attempt to buy this house is just going to lead to headaches. Who wants that?
Sure, there are examples of houses being sold FSBO. But i would guess that just like realtors, the vast majority of them have no idea what they are doing.
Do yourself a favor folks. Find a competent realtor and let them do their job. Yes, they are highly paid, but as in the example i just showed, IF that house had sold anywhere near its original offering price of $450 or even $500 in today's market, the commission would have been less than the price cuts (and NO sale in a hot market after a month). Now the sellers are stuck with a red flag situation, and how do you overcome that?
So, you don't have the integrity to be successful in sales, and, ergo, you don't like salespeople. We get it.
And, now you cannot sell your house, and it isn't your fault. We get that, too.
It's an old act. O.L.D.
More like I don’t have the patience to deal with pushy salespeople who think very highly of themselves in an industry that’s long due for an overhaul. Commissions do not commensurate with the level of value received. I received maybe $500-1000 value out of my realtor last time. Realtors have no business charging doctor and lawyer type rates to market a product that sells itself.
Maybe I’ll just buy a flat-fee MLS or just pay a discount broker. The house has only been on the market 3 weeks, 1 of that was time wasted by a buyer that lied (who was a broker himself, and even used a buyer’s agent! Imagine that!) I guess he figured he could waste my money since he was not paying for it. Why would a broker not contact me directly? Yet another bad experience with a realtor. Sorry, based on my experience. I don’t respect the profession.
More like I don’t have the patience to deal with pushy salespeople who think very highly of themselves in an industry that’s long due for an overhaul. Commissions do not commensurate with the level of value received. I received maybe $500-1000 value out of my realtor last time. Realtors have no business charging doctor and lawyer type rates to market a product that sells itself.
Maybe I’ll just buy a flat-fee MLS or just pay a discount broker. The house has only been on the market 3 weeks, 1 of that was time wasted by a buyer that lied (who was a broker himself, and even used a buyer’s agent! Imagine that!) I guess he figured he could waste my money since he was not paying for it. Why would a broker not contact me directly? Yet another bad experience with a realtor. Sorry, based on my experience. I don’t respect the profession.
Who picked and vetted your last REALTOR?
And... There's no such thing as a "discount broker."
Anyone qualified to sell houses knows that.
While I have bought and sold numerous ways over the years, I respect the value and need for a qualified and professional realtor, and have engaged them when I feel necessary. Right now I'm buying a property over 2,000 miles away in a market I've watched closely for about 4-5 months, far too short a time for me to feel comfortable getting involved in a transaction on my own or with an attorney.
Granted, since I'm on the buyer's side I don't have any skin in the game as far as the fees, but I went to great lengths to fully vet and identify a good agent, who's advice I trust as a qualified professional in their discipline. Research identified them as one of the top agents in the area, and their work on this transaction has more than confirmed my research. If I ever have to sell in that market you can rest assured I'll be going back to them without question.
I can handle the slam-dunks like the recent house I sold after owning it for roughly six months when the market is hot. That was an easy one with a flat fee agency. Yes, I had to give up some of the profit to cover the buyer's agent commission, but it was a small price to pay to assure that the transaction went smoothly and without issue. Again, in this case the property was over 1,000 miles away but in a market I've known for over 40 years. It was money well spent.
I guess my point is that I could say that realtors have no value or are overpaid for their services, but I know all too well that's not the case. Sure, I can do a lot of what they do in a transaction, and I have, but I'll never have the collective knowledge any of them have when it comes to a particular market or area. That, as well as their time and training, has value. To discount that or dismiss it is pure ignorance.
One of my children is a plumber. He went through an apprenticeship that took a number of years. When someone calls him to do a plumbing repair and gripes about the cost, they have no concept of the time and energy he expended to achieve what he does now. Sure, go to Lowe's or Home Despot, buy the stuff and do it yourself. And hope you do it right so that you don't wake up in the middle of the night to 2-3 inches of water in your house.
Anything else I can do to avoid an agent? We have already moved, so the house is empty, and showing it after work has worked out well for my schedule, as well as prospective buyers so far. Is the flat-fee MLS worth it for the $150-300 and does it drive in that much more traffic?
The agents are effing with you. If flat fee MLS is that cheap, I would do it.
But, in your advertising offer to pay 3% to an agent with a qualified buyer, provided that the commission gets added to your asking price. Like if you want $300,000 for the house the sale price becomes $309,000 or so and you get what you want out of it. The agents will jump all over that if they already have a buyer in hand that wants your kind of house. Just make sure they bring a buyer to the house. None of this "preview" the house and waste your time while they try to convince you to "let me help you sell it."
That's how I sold my old house last year. Had it sold in a week.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlwaysBeachin
More like I don’t have the patience to deal with pushy salespeople who think very highly of themselves in an industry that’s long due for an overhaul. Commissions do not commensurate with the level of value received. I received maybe $500-1000 value out of my realtor last time. Realtors have no business charging doctor and lawyer type rates to market a product that sells itself.
Ya got that right.
When I bought my current house the ad came out on Zillow on a Friday morning. I called the realtor to arrange to see the place. Got told that the seller gets home at 5:30PM and he would make sure I was expected. I went at 5:30. No realtor. The seller showed me around. I emailed my offer to the realtor. That same evening it was accepted and he emailed me the contract which I docu-signed. The next day I was contacted by the title/escrow company and from then on everything was taken care of by them. After closing escrow I went to the realtor's office to pick up the keys. He wasn't there. His flunky gave me the keys.
And for this wonderful service that he provided to the seller, his commission was $14,280 on a $238,000 sale price. The full 6% for doing pretty close to nothing. Run an ad. Take a few phone calls. Not even show up at a showing.
I've dealt with realtors on and off since the 1970s. I have a couple of pleasant memories but, for the most part, I find that realtors are on a par with car dealers. Which is why I avoid them as much as I can.
Last edited by adjusterjack; 06-28-2021 at 06:58 PM..
Due to the hot market, combined with the thought of paying at least $15k in realtor fees, I have my house FSBO. I have it on Zillow and about 10 Facebook Marketplace real estate groups. I had a couple agents show it, 1 low offer, but they backed out (long story--wasn't worried about major items on the home inspection but still backed out over the minor ones as their offer was contingent upon it), a 2nd low offer we flat out refused, and I've shown it twice myself. I have a survey, current home inspection, multiple photos, 3D tour on Zillow, etc. I've also done most of the work, even having a lockbox on the house for agents to show it, if they desire. I've fixed some of the items on the inspection, but it's an old house, and we are selling as-is. The location is very desirable. A comparable house sat on the market 2.5 months, but finally is under contract for a respectable amount.
It's been on the market 3 weeks. I dropped the price 2.9% after 2 weeks. I haven't yet purchased a flat-fee MLS. I'm wondering if I'm just going to have to throw in the towel and pay the ungodly commission. I've shopped around realtors, and I'm told my price is right on target by one broker who I might use. If I go with an agent, I'm going to have to accept an offer at or very near asking price to pass along those fees to the buyer.
We just purchased our current house FSBO. (Some relatives knew the people). It was a piece of cake. I know there's been multiple threads with this huge debate on how realtors don't earn their fee with huge backlash from agents on here. I get it. They're defending their livelihood. I personally don't think it's anywhere worth what I'll pay. It wasn't when I sold my last house---it was quite disgusting what I received in turn for what I paid. I just look at it like this: $15k invested in my kid's college account in an aggressive growth fund at 7% is over $50k in 18 years. The thought of spending that for fees is nauseating; especially when I prepare contracts as part of my job. I guess I went into the wrong line of work. Anyway, I suppose I could just sit on it longer. My ad states that I'm willing to work with a buyer's agent--commission negotiable. I'd rather just pay someone a flat fee of $1k-3k to handle it; that's about all it's worth workwise. The house will sell itself when the correct buyer comes along, and I've done all the other due diligence.
Anything else I can do to avoid an agent? We have already moved, so the house is empty, and showing it after work has worked out well for my schedule, as well as prospective buyers so far. Is the flat-fee MLS worth it for the $150-300 and does it drive in that much more traffic?
First of all, I’m not sure I’d define yours as a “hot market” if a comparable home took 2.5 months to go under contract. And I presume you don’t know what amount they actually accepted.
If it truly was a hot market, Zillow would probably be enough exposure. “Blackball” is probably an exaggeration, but I know a lot of agents (not all) do “discourage” them, but I’d bet that’s mostly based on past experience where FSBO’s are unresponsive, hard to work with, etc. But in many of today’s markets many buyer’s agents will probably take whatever houses they can find.
But, since I’m guessing it’s really not a “hot market,” you should probably at least try a flat-fee listing. That will get many more eyeballs on the listing.
I have two places — a condo and a house — that I’ve had for sale this year. The first, a condo, I had on Zillow and paid a buyers’ agent 2% commission on the sale. It got relatively little activity and took about 6 months to sell; we closed on June 1st. The second, a house, I listed with a flat fee broker and I offered 2% commission to buyer agents. It had 27 showings and 5 offers in the first 5 days. Its under contract and hopefully we will close without hiccups in July. The power of the MLS…
I don’t place great value in listing agents; even though the service I am using is really great. But I would rather deal with a buyer’s agent than a buyer any time. Also, I find buyer’s agents add value to working on buyers’ financing issues and smoothing over buyer hysteria over inspection issues. 2% is a lot of money, but I am willing to pay it.
The agents are effing with you. If flat fee MLS is that cheap, I would do it.
But, in your advertising offer to pay 3% to an agent with a qualified buyer, provided that the commission gets added to your asking price. Like if you want $300,000 for the house the sale price becomes $309,000 or so and you get what you want out of it. The agents will jump all over that if they already have a buyer in hand that wants your kind of house. Just make sure they bring a buyer to the house. None of this "preview" the house and waste your time while they try to convince you to "let me help you sell it."
That's how I sold my old house last year. Had it sold in a week.
Ya got that right.
When I bought my current house the ad came out on Zillow on a Friday morning. I called the realtor to arrange to see the place. Got told that the seller gets home at 5:30PM and he would make sure I was expected. I went at 5:30. No realtor. The seller showed me around. I emailed my offer to the realtor. That same evening it was accepted and he emailed me the contract which I docu-signed. The next day I was contacted by the title/escrow company and from then on everything was taken care of by them. After closing escrow I went to the realtor's office to pick up the keys. He wasn't there. His flunky gave me the keys.
And for this wonderful service that he provided to the seller, his commission was $14,280 on a $238,000 sale price. The full 6% for doing pretty close to nothing. Run an ad. Take a few phone calls. Not even show up at a showing.
I've dealt with realtors on and off since the 1970s. I have a couple of pleasant memories but, for the most part, I find that realtors are on a par with car dealers. Which is why I avoid them as much as I can.
LOLOLOL!!!!
You signed a 6% listing agreement?
Who does THAT anymore?
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