11–20 of 344 posts
This is a big deal for "average" americans. Jack bogle took on the fees eating up retirement plans. Now the next biggest asset has an opportunity to be revamped. While real wages have stagnated, we can lower the costs so those wages go further.
No parasites involved, and everyone comes out the better. You can always get a real estate lawyer to bless everything.
The model's pretty broken now, when anyone can look up listings on realtor.com or Redfin, and get customized alerts based on preferences. I mean what special skills do agents even bring on the buy side? I can mediate things with the seller myself, thank you very much. On the sell side, an experienced agent can be much more of a help. Even there, we used Redfin the last time we sold, and the difference in commission w…
currently, it is illegal to pay anyone a commission for selling your house except a licensed real estate agent. If you got rid of that restriction, imagine the opportunities. you could let your friends sell your house by sharing a link on social media and they could get the commission. Also in England, real estate commission fees are about 1% vs. 6% in US. As the article states, in the US a lot of agents won't show F…
The model's pretty broken now, when anyone can look up listings on realtor.com or Redfin, and get customized alerts based on preferences. I mean what special skills do agents even bring on the buy side? I can mediate things with the seller myself, thank you very much. On the sell side, an experienced agent can be much more of a help. Even there, we used Redfin the last time we sold, and the difference in commission w…
While agent fees usually run in the thousands of USD, probably the larger source of tacked-on fees is on the mortgage side, especially when the buyer does not have the 20% down.
So not sure if transferring more of the fee load to buyers will help move real estate. After all, except for strong seller's markets or when shopping for a specific type of home, the seller usually has more incentive to sell their home than a buyer has to buy it.
Regarding selling, I'm not sure this development is the realtor kill-shot - I would argue outfits such as Opendoor (convenience) or even Redfin (eliminate realtor fees) probably will inflict more damage to a realtor's income.
Because selling a house is a 100x greater PITA than buying.
And that model will be 100% legal.
This may lead to banks and realtors colluding. Instead or the current model we'll get realtor/banks buying properties that go up for sale. Then the realtor/banks will upgrade the cost to a 50% markup. That will of course be after flippers fix the house and other things. But in general, we're see the rich buying out the poor. And that model will be 100% legal.
My wife recently became an agent, and prior to that I was all about disrupting the industry.
But I’ve come to see the 3% on each side as an almost market clearing price. It’s really hard work, with low barriers to entry, and significant upfront costs.
In a tight market, being a buyers agent can be a blessing or a curse. She’s been working with one client for nearly a year, submitting over 20 offers and going all over the metroplex with nothing to show for it. On the other hand, she’s had buyers who found something within a month. It works out to a decent standard of living, but it takes a long time to develop a pipeline. Most agents quit within a year.
I’m all for disruption, and it’s an industry with a lot of legacy, slow moving players. Buts it also a complex one with lots of challenges on the individual agent level.