It continues to astound me just how many people use negativity and ignorance to prove a point instead of facts and common sense. Hi Ron! Thanks for the vote. haha
I think there is enough business to go around and if you’re this sweet and honest in person…you have nothing to worry about. Any crooks in any profession should be worried by competition, but all RA are not crooks. My agent took less than 3% by the way. Just an fyi. I know people usually react with a very “gut instinct” and thats most always because of an experience they had, but really….no one group of people can be categorized this way and put inside a neat little box and labeled “bad”. If you’re a jerk…you’re a jerk regardless of what profession you enter into.

what about the mentality of both buyers and sellers? often enough the seller is asking a price way beyond what it should be and learned later on they would need to lower the price in order to get buyers in the door. I’m a full time agent in NY and sadly to say there are many agents not exactly working on the best interests for their clients as they should. The fact is the RE market does justify the price itself. There are more and more houses on the market these days which means buyers have more choses and result a longer time to get any home sold. For a honest real estate agent who promised to do what he/she suppose to do, their expenses are increasing as well. I give all my respect to those agents who are honest to their clients and shame on those agents who embarrassed themselves and the RE profession leaving those negative impression to the public.

Consumer has choices. If they want full service they should go with a traditional agent, if they want to do everything themselves go with discounted brokers.

I really don’t see the point of putting down traditional agents. Like most traditional agents, we get repeat business because we make their experience a good one. Majority people are complaining about 6% commission is not even home owners and most likely they will never own a home. So if you are one of those people, please stop complaining.

For the rest, I can come and criticize whatever profession you are into and tell you that you don’t deserve what you make. So basically, everyone makes money that they don’t deserve?

Matter of fact, next time you go to a doctor or lawyer or any other services…..make sure to tell them they don’t deserve what they make and I am sure they will let you know where the door is.

Shame on CBS. The Redfin business plan is on line, and it is hilarious! But CBS never looked it up. The plan for sellers is: pay us $3000 up front. Price the house yourself, using Zillow and other on line services. We will not refund a penny if your house doesn’t sell - because it’s due to bad market conditions, not anything we did(n’t) do. Oh, and we will NEVER see your house. No, not ever. You price it, show it, negotiate it and process it!

And where did CBS get the idea that all agents get 6%?????? If they asked they would know 2 things: 1. The fees are always negotiable, in every state I know of; 2. the agent does not get the money directly. The agency gets the money and splits it with the agent. So if an agent lists a house for 6%, another agent sells it, that 6% is split 4 ways; the 2 companies and the 2 agents. Oh, yeah - the agents don’t get a penny till the sale is closed! RISKY BUSINESS

CBS made money and that’s all they care about. CBS did do their home work. CBS only interviewed one traditional agent. Producer of 60 minutes did not want to interview an agent that would show true meaning of traditional agent instead they picked an agent that hardly knew what she was talking about, atleast that’s what they showed after interviewing her for over 2 hours and only showed minute of it. This show was all for Redfin and to promote them only and CBS banked on it.

CBS said real estate is screwed up industry? Media is screwed up industry, whatever will make them money and why should they make all these money on everyone else’s expense?

Get real Lesley. Real Estate agents are professionals and give excellent service for their commission. Just for the record the sales agent usually splits half of the 6% commission with the buyers agent/broker and half of the remaining 3% with their own broker. So on a $500,000 sale, that would be only about $7,500 gross income to the individual sales agent. In a slowing market, after paying for all of the necessary ads, costs of holding open houses, flyers, post cards, time spent obtaining the listing in the first place, negotiating a final price, writing up a contract and monitoring conditions of escrow, it is not a lot. The broker also has a lot of costs including liability insurance, office rent, company advertising and making sure that his or her agents are following state real estate law. This is not an industry for amateurs.

Joe Smith # 29 you make me sick :
To become an Affiliate Broker (Sales Person), many of the state real estate commissions require that you must complete and pass sixty classroom hours of approved classes in “Basic Principles of Real Estate.” You may then take the state exam. After passing the state exam, many require that you return to school and complete a 30 hours New Affiliate Broker Course prior to becoming licensed. That’s just the beginning. Topics covered in the Basic Principles course include:
Brokerage ,Deeds, Property Law, Listings, Agency/Disclosure,
Real Estate Math, Sales Contracts, Financing, State Law, Leases, Appraisal, Fair Housing, NAR Code of Ethics
Next, Affiliate broker candidates must complete the thirty (30) hour Real Estate Commission’s approved “New Affiliate Broker” courses in many states. This course is in addition to completion of the 60 hour Basic Principles of Real Estate course and passing both parts of the examination with a satisfactory score before applying for licensure.
Then, before becoming a broker, one has to serve a minimum of three years as an affiliate in many states. This includes:
1. 3 Years of an active real estate license.
2. 120 hours of commission approved courses-
30 hours of which must be a broker office management course
3. Send broker application form to the commission requesting permission to take an exam.
4. In most states take and pass the broker exam with a minimum passing score of 75%.
5. File for the license within six months of passing an exam
6. Then, within three years, complete an additional 120 hours of post educational study.
Joe, sounds like the single biggest purchase of your financial career must have been the haircut your drunken barber gave you.

I have been a top producing Realtor since 1988. Two years ago I segued from selling real estate to coaching. My biggest gripe is not in what the discounters are doing, but what the so called full service companies are doing by taking discounted listings and not disclosing them. One of my coaching clients recently told me she lost a listing because the seller told her she got a 3 1/2% deal from one of the largest real estate companies in the Country. It was not disclosed on the MLS and the listing agent did not have to explain she took a discounted listing to her colleagues so my client had no choice but to move on. How many discounted listings are held at companies pretending to be full service? How many companies give back rebates in order to compete with discounters? At least the discounters advertise what they are…so maybe its time we ALL offer a menu of services to clients and let them choose which programs best suit them.

As a seasoned full service agent with intimate working knowledge of my local market, discount brokers are far from a threat to me. There are several Discounters in this area and sure, they had their day during the boom years, when a monkey in a clown suit could sell a house, when a buyer didn’t dream of writing a contingent offer for fear of loosing the house, and negotiations where nonexistent. That’s when discounting became the new fad and a bunch of new yahoo agents jumped in to the field because lets face it, houses did sell themselves back then, sometimes within hours of listing, with very little effort. Those Days Are Over, YAY!!!! These days it takes knowledge, experience, sales and negotiating skills, marketing dollars, technology and time. I have nothing against discounters as long as they follow the code of ethics. I am a firm believer that people should have a choice and discount brokerage should remain a choice for those with the time, patience, knowledge and know-how to make it work for them. More power to them. A lot of people actually need to go that route first to get the fsbo bug out of their system. Many of those people who go that route find out the whole discounter thing isn’t quite what they thought it was (or use to be) and ultimately end up going with a traditional company anyway. Those are actually some of the best clients to have because they already know how valuable my services are because they have experienced what very little/no service gets them.

Carry on….

Brian,
“If the public could access the MLS for free, the buyer’s agent wouldn’t exist…” Who do you think pays for the MLS? Buyer agents are also seller agents and pay monthly for access in addition to listing fees as part of their business expenses to offset expenses to run, maintain and update the systems. Where do you think the info comes from that is on all the other “free” sites? If agents weren’t around to pay this expense are you willing to pay for it? Doesn’t sound like it, your types want a free ride for everything. And, why would buyer agents waste their time to find you a property when they know your “MO” is to go the listing agent to cut a deal anyway? But you are smart, because as you stated, smart people find their own property and make their own deals and do much better. Sounds to me like you are on the WIIFM channel and it is so loud and clear no one wants to waste their time helping your self-serving agenda. A multi-state investor? I am surprized you don’t have a good agent in each state bringing deals to you and that you don’t see any value in your own time saved running state to state to “make your deals” with the listings agents. A serious investor friend of mine has an agent that brings him deals BEFORE they hit MLS on a regular basis. He found a good agent that he uses and as they say “one hand washes the other.” To each their own.

Also, just an FYI to you and Joe #29, realtors and NAR have nothing to do with the educational requirements for real estate licensees. NAR is a trade group of licensed agents. The real estate commissions in each state set the “standards.” They are the ones to “blame” and point your fingers at; but they probably won’t do much to change it as long as they are collecting record numbers of application fees, annual/biannual renewal fees, office license transfer fees, etc. Your negative energy might be better spent complaining to your politicians in your state regarding this issue. I think EVERYONE in or dealing with this industry would be better off with a “higher bar.” Higher standards would “weed out” the riff-raff that give the good agents a bad name and hopefully give a bigger slice of the pie to the better agents and that in theory should enable agents to work for lower fees.

Just wondering - would you pay 6% or more if an agent had a degree in real estate? Would you pay 7% or more if they had a masters degree in real estate, how much for a Ph.D? What would your arguement be then?

Seems to be the “discounters” are the “masters of the trade” with their model. Pay them $3000/$1% for 5.5 hrs. of paperwork, the consumer does all the running around and they have no accountability and still make over $600/hr.

Ok, I have to throw in my 2 cents on this one. I also am a seasoned full service agent who knows there local market well. I am not going to bash or praise Redfin for what or how they run there business. While I may not agree with or like it we live in a society which enables them to do what they do as long as they stay within the required guidlines.

What I do not like is the negative comments and perception of the Real Estate Professionals. I am not going to go on trying to justify what others already have. At the end of the day it is up to the consumer or client to do there due dilegence in hiring a qualified agent.

For those of you who have had negative experiences with agents then shame on you for working with them. You can fire your agent at any time and find one who will work for you. So if you allowed them to do a bad job that was entirely up to you and no one else.

Don’t just go with the first agent you find. Sellers should interview at least the 3 agents to list your home before you make a choice. There are countless resources on line to help you chose a qualified agent to represent you. Buyers, you should do the same. Go to Open Homes and meet the agents or in otherwards, interview them. In both cases ask for references from past clients, they should not be offended.

In my experience as I am sure other agents have as well. I have had to fire cliients because I did not feel that the match with them was a good one and that I could not represent them in the way that they were looking.

The basic numbers are really quite simple, get off the big dollars. On a $500,000 home at 5% the total split is $25,000, that is shared between the each agent at $12,500 each. Assuming that the agent has a 70% split with there broker they will get paid $8750. You have to pay taxes on the money you earn at the end of the year so we will say 25%. You are now at $6563. take out advertising money for a listing of an average of $1500 for virtual tours, print ads, internet marketing(keep in mind this money is spent up front and out of the agents pocket)etc., you are now at $5063. Assuming the home take 3 months to sell and close that averages out to $1675 a month. If that were a regular 9-5 job that would equal roughly a $15 an hour job.

AND PEOPLE THINK THAT THAT IS TOO MUCH. GET REAL

I have just found this discussion forum and I think it is so interesting. I am a real estate broker in Manhattan. A few years ago I was looking for an apartment in a differen area of the city and so I had to use services of other real estate brokers. I was so disappointed. I found all of them so sloppy and unprofessional. I always thought people exaggerate when they say that real estate agents do not deserve commissions or that they were simply unlucky to come across a bad agent.. But I met quite a few of them and all were so bad.. They made no effort at all, I made appointments in advance, I had to take time off work and go there and they would show me just one place, one agent didn’t even show up and then called me 2 hours later and insisted that I come right away.. Another funny thing, I was under impression they didn’t like me because I was…. a real estate broker. One agent showed me an apartment and tried to convince me that I .. cannot do any better… That was so unpleasant.. For all of you wanting to save on commissions, you can always try to sell/rent on your own and good luck with that, this is what I always say to my clients. Lots of sellers are lucky (especially in the current market) and they can accomplish a lot on their own. If it sells fast-good for them. But it takes a lot of perseverance to handle showing, marketing, ad cost and dealing with all peole coming to look at your home for months. So often there are times when one feels there is a need to have a real estate broker to represent them. It’s the same with hair cutting - there are people who can save money by cutting ther own hair-why not - it’s not a big deal. But then one day you’ll decide it will be much easier to go to a professional hairdresser. Sometimes you get a good one, sometimes you get a bad haircut, but you continue using the hairdresser because it makes more sense and it’s easier and you are too busy to do everything by yourself. It is true, there are too many of us, some are better educated, some not so. Some are stupid, some are smart, some are rude, some are nice. So if you need a broker, by all means, shop around. An educated seller would interview a few brokers and will realize quickly who is bragging too much and who is acting professional and making sense. I have been in real estate for over a decade. I work very hard, weekdays and weekends and I am not making millions of dollars. I am diligentl and honest and I always make an effort to make my clients happy. This is not an easy work. Many deals do not materialize, income is not steady and sometimes it looks like you work for months for nothing. But I like when my clients sometimes come back to me to thank me for the work I have done, that has to compensate for any bad times. You have to be knowledgable about the market and , it takes a lot of skill to patiently and professionally handle all the people and situations involved and to carry every deal to through to closing. There is lot of emotion involved and believe me, all kinds of things happen, and many deals would fell through if it were not fo the efforts of some hard-working real estate brokers. In every profession, there are people who are not professional and there are people why make an effort to do their best. All real estate brokers are not bad - we can be good, honest and wonderful people, too. So these are my 2 cents.

We offer a flat fee on both sides of the transaction for our service. We still offer the buyer’s agent up to 3% for our listings because I believe until the commission structure is changed we still do not know how long that agent has been working with the buyer. If they are working with the buyer for 6 months driving them around and searching for properties every other weekend $10g’s isn’t that much. If the buyer is doing most of the work for the search then that is when a company like U.S. Real Estate Depot is a much better choice than Redfin or any other company on the percentage structure. We believe that money is the buyer’s or the seller’s, but not ours.
We are completing a transaction; there is no more work in doing a $500,000 home than there is doing the transaction for a $5,000,000 home. If you are in Southern California, check us out, no venture capital money forcing us to pimp out every way possible to make money. We take no referral fees from any vendor, use the highest technology to save time and then return the savings back to the buyer or seller depending on which side we are representing.

Every department store, every attorney, every doctor, every car dealership…everyone charges a different fee. Stop worrying about what other people are making. The same jerk who is pissed with the real estate agent for quote “make too much money” is too fickle to realize that this is life. How about those individuals making $11 an hour but the boss or the owner of the company is making ten times that amount. Stop counting other peoples money!! If you think real estate commission is too much it shows that you don’t even have a business mindset. Real estate agents must run what they do like a real business which of course has expenses. Do you work for free? If you don’t like what you are being charged then sell your house yourself. I am quite sure that no intelligent agent would want to deal with you anyway!! I am sick and tired of people who have no %$#&^%#@ clue about real estate and will probably only purchase and or sell one freaking house in their whole lifetime all of a sudden become the authority about real estate. Shut up!