In life you tend to get what you pay for. If you’re a redfin kind of person that wants to works with someone that really doesn’t do anything for you - go for it.

There will always be a place for professional real estate agents - like it or not.

Redfin is to real estate, like do-it-yourself online legal hotlines are to Attorneys or black market Viagra vendors are to pharmacies. They are like locusts on earth.

House Prices Web Sites Plus News Headlines and More
House Prices Web Sites Plus News Headlines and MoreNew entrants in the real estate investment business make the common mistake of paying too much for a property they invest in.How Much Work Is Too Muc…

I don’t know how good they are selling houses, but they must be awesome at presentations to their investors.

“Sure, we are not making any money, and our business model is completely reliant on the fact that the industry we are saying we will change does not, actually, change (because then we would have no commission to refund). But hey, at least we’re big on TechCrunch!”

They have made no profit and are only in a few areas. In fact they sold less than 1000 homes last year, even with all their PR and TechCrunch’s constant bowing. Many individual agents sell 100 homes/year by themselves.

We all get it- You like Redfin, but do we all need to know ever little thing they do, no matter how small or insignificant?

In the purchase and sale of 8 residences over the years, I have dealt with one (and only one agent) that has been worth their salt.

A good example is with my recent retirement (early) and a decision to move to a warmer climate, a home was purchased and the home to be sold was veiwed by more than one RE Agent. After the listing the Agent showed the home 1 time in six months, at the end of the 6 month contract, he wanted to re-list at a lower price. I made one phone call and sold the home within the same week. Sure I sold for a little less than it was listed for, BUT still came out with more for myself after all was said and done.

Let’s see… copyright lawyers, used car salesmen, real estate agents, they are all pretty much tied for the lowest ranking in my book.

They are disingenuous. Their business models depends on the status quo NOT changing. Kill the host and the parasite dies.

If the National Association of Realtors and the MLS’s were stocks, they would tank in 2008 as innovation finally catches up with an old industry. Now if we could only buy our cars online w/o the sleazy salesman too.

#39 The commission is not paid by the seller. It’s actually paid my the buyer. The realtors always want consumers to believe that real estate service is free to buyers!! Stop that. The money comes out of the buyer’s pocket!! And I don’t care how much tax you pay and commissions to pay to the company Windermere or whatever. If I can save $30,000, I’ll handle all the work(which really isn’t much) with the help of my lawyer.

Agents don’t even play nice with their “friends”. A couple people I know hired an agent who is a “friend” from church or whatever. I asked my friend how much their “friend” is charging them and he or she said 3%(or free if he’s buying). Full commission for a friend!! Stop preying on the innocence. Too bad first time buyers/sellers are not very educated. They have all been brain-washed with scary lawsuits, troubles, etc.

Is there such a thing as a “buyer’s agent”. They’re call SELLER’s agents. The agents that work for sellers are called LISTING agents. You see, is there anyone who really works for the buyers? Have you seen a for-sale sign that says “SOLD BY XXX”. That XXX is the agent who is supposedly working for the buyer but he or she SOLD the house to the buyer.

#32: “So let’s say I buy a $500,000 house. The commission would be 6% or $30,000. That’s just crazy. I don’t make $30,000 a month myself from my day job.”

That’s 3%, paid by the seller, to each side. Each agent will take a percentage of that amount, depending on their brokerage fees. This money has also not been taxed, so it’s not all in the pocket. It’s likely that the property has at least been on the market for 60 days total (optimistic!), and that the buyer’s agent worked with the client 30 days before opening escrow on the subject property. If the agents are making 75% (generous) of their commissions, that means that they made $5625 PRE tax per month. A more realistic 90 day amortization and that figure becomes $3750; and if you own a $500k home, I would certainly hope that you make more than that in 30 days.

#34 “you indicate that you don’t have a lot of financial incentive to oversell a buyer you are representing….why should you have any incentive *at all* to oversell him/her?”
I apologize, but I believe that you misunderstood. I was being wry in suggesting that there is no “financial incentive” to overselling a client. I’m not sure how my remark was taken so purely our of context, as I did end the paragraph with “Also, in a referral based business, I can see how it would also be incredibly beneficial to take advantage of and alienate clients.” Also wry, and, dare I say, arch? Certainly in no way suggesting that there would be any reason to work counter to a client’s best interest.

#33 Um yeah. It’s a tech site. I’m a techy kinda guy, so that’s maybe why I’m here, and you can hold off on the “internet empowerment” DIY nonsense. Just because you can look up instructions on the internet for, say, building a deck, and then do it yourself doesn’t mean that you’ve built a *good* deck. It’s likely that you’ve made a handful of mistakes, and that a contractor could have done a better job in less time, and maybe, after all is said and done, for less money. But hey, you saved some scratch anyway, right? Even if it took twice as long and wasn’t quite right, you did it yourself. Pat on the back for you.

Long story short, and then I’m done: Real Estate agents offer a service. They have a fee that they charge for that service. Sometimes (and unlike your attorney, I presume) that fee is negotiable. Some agents work very hard, and some do not. You may choose whether to engage an agent for their services, or you may choose not to. Some (and by some, I mean the majority of people that I have encountered) find great value in that service, and what agents are compensated for is doing something that people don’t want to do or cannot do for themselves. All in all, a job not at all unlike that of anyone else working in the service sector.

If you really have time to take out of your full time job to engage in what is, yes, a full time job (be it searching for a home to buy or selling a home), well, more power to you.

**Also, there seems to be a misperception that buyers have to pay an agent for their services. Not true — all brokerage fees are negotiated by the seller and paid through the seller’s proceeds. **

The truth is that real estate deals are not hard and the paperwork and rules involved in it are simple, which is exactly why such a bunch of losers work in the field instead of a real job.

Sites like Redfin and Zillow dilute the only real value from agents, which is the price information on recently sold homes.

These startup companies and flat fee brokerages will definitely have an effect on the market, but it will only make the good realtors even better. If those of you who think that you can sell your home with just a few hours of internet work, you are really dumber than you sound. If you are that smart you should get your license and make $10,000 an hour. 3 hours of research=$30,000 commision, right? If you were selling your home FSBO and I was bringing a buyer client, I would eat your lunch for you. I could have you cutting your price and sued 95% of the time. Maybe when you get sued for screwing up the transaction you could represent yourself as your own lawyer. I’m sure on legal blogs you preach that a home study course and a few episodes of Law & Order and your ready for court. Sounds like some of you are experts at everything. Give me your property addresses, I’ll send my investor clients to buy your house after you get forclosed on. Good Luck

Also, as far as arguing the value of your work (which I believe is considerable), you devalue it yourself by adding in the cost of printing flyers and buying yard signs. Your clients (I hope) are smart enough to know that they are not paying you $10k for the $100 of flyers and the $50 sign in their yard. Figure out why they still pay you the money, and expand on that. Here’s a hint: it’s not that you print flyers or drive them around, it’s what’s in your head.

Susan — no, you are totally free to charge different rates for different jobs. Doesn’t your hairdresser do this, or do you pay the same for a quick trim as a whole new ‘do? I know that my attorneys charge different hourly rates for different types of work (i.e. intellectual property vs. routine real estate work). Pricing different services differently is legal, and in fact it’s how the rest of the world does business.

Also — realize that a different fee model would be a plus for good agents. For starters, you’d get paid regardless of whether a transaction occurred. And with the meter running, buyers and sellers would be more attentive to quality. So good agents would command very high rates, possibly more than they get now.

Even Wall Street largely abandoned transaction fees. Real estate will too. The only question is whether you as individuals will evolve with the market.

The “marketing expense” that is repeatedly mentioned is overblown. The agent sticks the home on the MLS and waits for a buyer. As far as the papwerwork goes, if people only knew that they could take standard forms to a real estate attorney and pay $500 for the hand-holding that a realtor will charge $20,000+ for, then all of you agents would be in trouble. As I said before, distribution platforms like Craigslist, ChoiceA, backpage and owner-created sites and cyberhomes et al. will certainly (in collective) begin to erode the value that realtors bring.