http://thefront...rowning-in-red/

Right now, I’m under contract with a listing agent who has brought a total of one buyer through, as opposed to other agents who have been showing the home. Other than an ad in the paper, a listing on the internet, and some flyers, I’m trying to figure out where his cut of 30k is going to pay off for me. I’m seriously considering the services of Redfin, or something like that if our contract expires without a sale. I’m growing tired of the drama of a traditional agent who tells me one day that I shouldn’t “chase the market” and lower my price, then the next week calls in a panic suggesting a major price cut because others are cutting prices. I can do better myself.

I honestly don’t understand why the Realtors are getting their Dockers in a bunch over Redfin… why aren’t they chopping down FSBO signs? I do believe it’s a case of the Wizard of Oz, and the curtain is being pulled back for closer examination of what exactly that 6% is doing for you. There are wonderful traditional agents out there, and in a complicated transaction make it all worthwhile. But.. honestly? When I sold a house for half of what this will sell for I paid half of what I’ll pay this time, and the work is exactly the same. Percentage commisions are dead… long live the flat-fees!!

Tech Crunch recently wrote an article on Redfin which sparked some personal angst against the current (and broken) way in which real estate transactions occur. My wife and I had recently attempted to purchase a house and even had an accepted offer. On…

About the “backlash”, its legit, – understand the other end, the seller’s agent, if experienced and “good”, will know what a nightmare the whole transaction period can be when working with transparent or low-end agents. Time, mistakes, and headaches are money.

Your percentages of 10% positive experiences with agents, though a little high, is not far from the actual number of agents that are “good”. Which is also about the same as those who actually make a good living at it.

Now, what is a “good” agent? Well, you know they’re good by reputation and referrals. Agents that are not so good, or new, have to get most of their business by other means (hhmmm, like offering discounts maybe?)

Most importantly, a “good” agent” for the seller is bad for you, if you don’t have good representation. Its a savvy relationship business, you either lost big on the negotiating end somewhere, or the seller’s did. You don’t know what you don’t know, if you are happy -stay that way.

But isn’t it silly to talk about an upfront 10K savings on a complex $500k, 30-60 day transaction, for an old used building where worth is based on a bunch of emotions.

If you don’t know what I am talking about I am sure you lost out, if you do, then I wonder if next time (when redfin has to actually make money) you won’t just go and take the 2-bit exam and do it all your self (or find a flat fee broker and save more).

HelpUSell, same pitch but closer to the telling the truth (we help YOU sell), but they don’t have the same VC baggage to answer to.

Yes, commissions are negotiable, yes, to drum up business broker/agents discount all the time, and yes, some do the flat fee model. Nothing is new here. Not even the bashing of brokers upon other brokers.

The cheering here reminds me of a bunch of startup engineers (like me when I was young) whining about what the VP of Sales makes (you know the guy that parties all the time and eventually becomes the CEO). Well, people skills are more valuable.

Real Estate is about relationships, more than any other business, it is as emotional of a deal as anything in life. Its about value, not about dollars and cents in one step of a deal.

Yes, the Internet brings about a lot of efficiencies, and yes, smart and good agents pass it on to their customers (and I agree with previous posters “good & smart” ones are hard to find).

The traditional realtor is a dying breed…thats very true, and whats more true: there are a lot more newbie ones that die every day.

I was completely satisfied with the experience. Sure, it took me a couple of months to study the market to understand what the good neighborhoods were, what reasonable comps were, etc., but, truthfully, I can’t imagine _not_ doing that. Houses are expensive. I’m not really inclined to spend that much money without understanding the market on a reasonably detailed level.

I’m not sure I share the same vitriol that others do for real estate agents, but I will make a few observations.

First, I felt like my interactions with traditional real estate agents were 10% positive / 30% neutral / 60% negative. A few folks (10%?) seemed generally knowledgeable and comfortable in their skin. Many agents (30%?) were polite but not terribly useful. Most agents (60%?) were some combination of rude, pushy, condescending, duplicitous, manipulative, or just clueless. As with all things, there’s always a mix of talent. But the number of used car salespersons just astonished me.

Second, the backlash against Redfin is very real. =/ After a couple of bad experiences with listing agents after mentioning Redfin, I quickly learned to simply say that I was working by myself. I’d truthfully suggest the same to prospective Redfin clients.

Third (and related to the first two points), I was amazed by how many times the following happened — I would call a listing agent to see a home. They would have another agent call me back and say that the listing agent asked him/her to show me the home. He/she would show me the home. He/she would then call me about the home and try to help me negotiate away my concerns. At this point, I would ask why the listing agent was offering to negotiate for me. The agent would then act shocked and explain that they had been acting as my agent. Without, you know, so much as asking me if I’d like to use their services. He or she would usually sound upset when I politely explained to him or her that I wasn’t interested in his or her services. (I mean, come on …)

Anyway, I ended up being completely happy with Redfin. It’s more work, but if you’re willing to do the work, I think it easily pays for itself.

Previously, agents have kept buyers in the dark, so their services were more valuable. Now that anyone can find the same information a realtor can about a home, why would they need to pay such a high commission?

I’ve bought and sold FSBO property, and in the end, it was no problem, as there’s a standard California contract, AND all the agents who may get involved will look out for you.

For one property I sold FSBO, the buyer came with an agent, and all I needed to do was to make sure the “real” offer was net the buyer’s agent commission. So if we listed our property at $399k, as we wanted $399K net. The buyer made an offer for us to net $400K, with 2% to the agent, or $408K. It can work out. The buyer got to use their agent and the agent got his commission, albeit slightly reduced.

I used it to look at houses that are selling and have sold recently to get additional data on houses sent to me by my Realtor, but they didn’t get a penny from me.

It is a good housing map site with a bad business model made worse by the CEO’s adversarial attitude towards the industry he needs to succeed. Nobody needs to hire a real PR pro more than redfin.

For many others though, Redfin makes perfect sense. In my own realty transactions, a lot of money was given away and unearned. I suppose realtors depend on these easy transactions to balance out the hard ones . . .

Overall, though, traditional real estate sales will be a shrinking business because too much of it can/should be automated.