A new class-action lawsuit takes aim at real estate agents and their 6% fee

Post by opportune » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 10:01 PM UTC

dgudkov wrote: post #166

nrclark wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed 100%. Realtors do legitimate work, and deserve to be compensated for sure. But I think the pay is grossly disproportionate to the amount of value provided, and it's propped up by Realtor-sponsored laws and kickbacks. A lot of Realtors won't even deal with non-Realtor(tm) real-estate agents, which promotes their monopoly stranglehold on the real-estate market. I'm not sure where I fall on what a real-estate age…

>But was it worth $12k for less than 40 hours of total work? That's $300/hr. Similar to what lawyers ask. Although, I suspect that a lot more education is required to become a lawyer than a real estate agent.

Post by mattmanser » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #205

chrisco255 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former real estate agent, now software engineer. Doing a FSBO (for sale by owner) is as old as time. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but you are limiting your market (and you might therefore be selling at a lower price anyways) and it's highly dependent on your: patience, financial situation, free time, marketing skills, general sales skills, local housing market, tricky property situations, ability to assi…

> Buyer's agents deserve their 3% perhaps even more than listing agents and it's unfortunate you screwed this agent out of that. 3% of the value of a house is hardly 'a tip', a common fee in Europe for selling a house is around 1.5 to 2%, a typical buyer will not use a realtor at all. Oh, and it is illegal here for a realtor to charge both the buyer and the seller because there is a clear conflict of interest there,…

Post by dustindiamond » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 10:11 PM UTC

matthewowen wrote: post #219

dustindiamond wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still need a broker to work under, you then need to pay desk fees, real estate board membership fee, MLS fee, and then actually advertise.

But the barriers to entry for these things are also small. It's money for the fees, and given that these people are 100% commission finding a broker is not a big challenge. Do you honestly disagree that the barrier to entry to being a practicing real estate agent is low? Doesn't mean it isn't hard to be a _successful_ one, but the basic barrier to entry just doesn't seem that high.

Post by tomp » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 10:12 PM UTC

dgudkov wrote: post #166

nrclark wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed 100%. Realtors do legitimate work, and deserve to be compensated for sure. But I think the pay is grossly disproportionate to the amount of value provided, and it's propped up by Realtor-sponsored laws and kickbacks. A lot of Realtors won't even deal with non-Realtor(tm) real-estate agents, which promotes their monopoly stranglehold on the real-estate market. I'm not sure where I fall on what a real-estate age…

>But was it worth $12k for less than 40 hours of total work? That's $300/hr. Similar to what lawyers ask. Although, I suspect that a lot more education is required to become a lawyer than a real estate agent.

Post by tomp » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 10:25 PM UTC

bkohlmann wrote: post #19

Where you stand really depends on where you sit. 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 y…