Posted on 03/18/2024 8:40:46 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
Realtors will certainly tell you that. I do not believe it is true.
What Real Estate Agents actually do is try to sell a property as quickly as possible with a minimum number of complications. That is what is in their best interests. It is often (but not always) in the best interests of their clients too. It does not mean the agents will get or even try to get the highest possible price. Unless they are selling their own properties, of course.
Realtors not only get them better offers, but more exposure and less hassle on the sellers' part.
A good agent can show a property to better qualified buyers with much less hassle than the average homeowner can do that. The good agent also has a network of lenders and title companies that can make a closing go quickly and without problems. That is definitely service worth paying to receive. Is it worth 6%? Maybe. That should be negotiable for the Seller.
The "buyer's broker" arrangement has only minor beneficial effects, even when there are contractual provisions for such roles. And without such a contract, both agents are always legally agents for the Seller. Either war, the selling agent is going to split the commission with the buyer agent and the incentives for both agents are almost the same. "Make the sale quickly with minimum complications".
Any outrage about lawyers getting 35-40% of civil suit awards, plus bill for expenses? Not to mention size of some suit awards.
The ONLY thing that seller agents do now are:
1. Get the property in the MLS
2. Hire a photographer to take pictures
3. Create a flyer
4. Put a lockbox on the door
5. Dig a hole in the yard and put up a sign.
Agents RARELY do open houses, or agents only open houses anymore. They basically gave up on actively marketing your house about the time the internet came out. They WANT the listing so that they will get the commission, but put in little work.
Buyers agents have the keys to the lockbox, which is usually necessary to show the home. They also have to spend endless hours driving people around to properties. However, when I bought my last house our agent showed us a handful of houses on day 1, and every house after that we found and told the agent we wanted to see it. My wife found our house online, and that started the process. Buyers agents DO seem to do more work tho, and a lot of real estate agents now claim to be seller specialists because they dont want to put in the work.
The seller agent actually tried to submarine our purchase and came out and said he wanted to buy the house himself. Since I was not “allowed” to talk to the seller, I could not warn him of the dirt his agent was doing to him.
Long way of saying, I could have gotten a better price on the house if the seller did not have to pay so much in commission, and I probably would have closed faster.
True. But we've all seen sellers who refuse one good offer after another because they want to wait and see if there's an even better offer down the road. If I were an agent, I'd fire these sellers. Many do. Especially if they bring in an offer meeting the conditions set forth in the listing contract.
In rare occasions realtors have sued and the sellers for breach of contract and have collected their hard earned commission. Even though they didn't sell the house.
If you want to sell always ask your neighbors first. See what happens. Especially with land or lots. Don't count anyone out, you may be surprised who wants and is able to buy your property. Maybe a relative or a friend wants to move closer. You just never know.
One of life's biggest lessons is that I should have politely asked a lot more often. What was the worst that could have happened to ask the prettiest girl in school for a date? Why assume the outcome?
And what did your buyer's agent do about this? If you made an offer, then it must go to the seller. Who then decides to accept or not. If the sellers agent also makes an offer then let the seller decide. And generally no one is "allowed" to talk to the seller. I don't see where you were harmed.
I did my 1st (and hopefully only foreclosure) this past June after 15 years of not receiving any payments. The owner refused contact and had abandoned the property.
The other times the owners and I sat down and we negotiated me taking the house back, they were all happy I took the house back.
So it was a voluntary foreclosure. I’m not criticizing you, I’m just piecing together the business model you have by selling one house over and over.
What’ll happen if you sell that house to someone who actually PAYS for it? Let’s hope that never happens.
I bought the house across the street from me, demolished the house and now have a garden and extra parking & play area. And was able to get the property noted as adjacent so it’s included in my homestead exemption.
This last time I sold it I had it auctioned off just to get rid of it, I had made my money.
What I did was demand 10% down and then negotiated the payment where I could set the term and interest. When I took the house back most often the owners just lost their equity and I paid the closings.
One advantage to them owning instead of renting was they were responsible for the taxes, insurance, care and maintenance.
I would have been thrilled to have any of them pay off the house, it was a hassle to fix it up for each resale.
Your plan with that house is like a buy here pay here dealer.
They sell a car on a 60 month note. But after a down payment and 10 monthly payments... they have made a profit.
If they collect all 60 payments? Bonus! If they have to report the car and resell it? Also Bonus!
Buyers should handle their own realtor’s fee. Never understood why tgecselker pays both realtors commissions.
While I technically agree, it diminishes the buying potential. To many buyers are barely qualifying as it is, and too many who shouldn’t qualify do.
Broadly, the transition will be like what stocks, investment advice, and the car business experienced over the last few decades. Services and fees will be disaggregated, with a lot more choices for sellers and buyers. On the whole, there will be more competition, better service, and reduced fees and commissions.
Or, to put it another way, the traditional commission arrangement was like only being able to eat out at buffets with fixed per person pricing, with occasional coupons and early bird special. Now, even though there will still be buffets, people will also be able to go to restaurants and order off a menu or to a cafeteria and buy items as they prefer and need.
An example of a Seller's agent being a jerk - I found a nice home and made an offer. The Seller countered. That was fine.
I wanted a couple things looked at in more detail in the home inspection.
The Seller's agent went off on my Buyer agent and refused.
I later found out that the house eventually was sold with the Seller Agent also representing the Buyer. And the house sold for LESS than what I offered (and by more than the 3% that my Buyer agent would have been entitled to).
The Seller agent cost the Seller money in that deal, as myself and the eventual buyer were both using a mortgage to buy.
I made sure that people in the area knew that the Seller agent cost the Seller money in the deal.
That goes both ways. Sellers lose equity out of their homes paying the fees which diminishes what they can use toward another house.
“What Real Estate Agents actually do is try to sell a property as quickly as possible with a minimum number of complications. That is what is in their best interests.”
The book Freakonomics covered this. Realtors are all about speed. The national average house of 400,000 (roughly) is going to give the listing agent a commission of 12,000. (for their 3% of the deal)
They want that 12k right now if it is in their grasp. If by waiting you can get another 10k and sell it for 410,000, the realtor only sees another 300 bucks in their commission.
Another 10k in the sales price matters a great deal to the homeowner. Another 300 in a 12k commission matters little to the realtor.
Realtors will start yammering as to how “your best deals come in that first week or two”, or “staying listed too long looks like something is wrong with the house”.
But Freakonomics demonstrated that realtors selling THEIR OWN homes are listed several weeks longer than the houses they list for others. They know how to squeeze every drop out of the sales price, but have little incentive to do it for you.
But until recently, it’s been a buyers market. Sellers were discounting deals from their list price just to close a deal. When interest rates went to 3% or lower, that all changed. Too much money supply chasing after deals.
“The seller agent actually tried to submarine our purchase and came out and said he wanted to buy the house himself. Since I was not “allowed” to talk to the seller, I could not warn him of the dirt his agent was doing to him.
You could sue him hard for that and report him to the licensing bureau. And if you warn the seller, I would DARE him to sue you. In FACT, you and the seller both could bend him over.
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