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After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

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Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#141

Post by SoftTalker »

eddyfromtheblok wrote: post #107
SoftTalker wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there are a lot of fear tactics used as well. Or FUD, at least. "Don't skip the inspection, what if something is wrong" sounds sensible but pre-purchase home inspections are quite surface level, will only find visible, obvious problems, and in the fine print they disclaim responsibility if they miss anything.

I've had good inspectors who point out everything wrong with a place. I cancelled offers based on their reports. Recently, however, I was on the way to the inspection and had a flat tire, so I was late, both seller and buyer agents were there with the inspector and my agent made sure to tell a different inspector what questions I had from the previous one, and completely missed on the inspection report that the outdo…

That seems to highlight the problem with agents, they are supposed to represent your interests but they actually only want the sale to close so that they make their commission. That is how they get paid; that is their incentive.

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#142

Post by mholm »

Auracle wrote: post #87
khazhoux wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll just have to find a way to do that after they've finished taking 10 photos at 320x240 resolution (of which the last four are of the same room).

I did real estate photography for a bit. It wasn’t worth it because realtors are terrible penny pinchers. I did quite a few homes directly for sellers because their realtor’s photos were absolutely terrible. It looked like they took 2 minutes to zoom around the house, only putting their arm through doorways, taking everything vertically and tilted. For what it’s worth at least at the time the MLS had a pretty low max…

I probably got a 25% discount on my condo because the realtor had terrible photos.

1. It has an outdoor rooftop patio with a gas fireplace. This was not mentioned anywhere in the listing.

2. They poorly photoshopped furniture into all of the rooms at incorrect sizes. Whoever was doing the photoshopping assumed it was 8 foot ceilings when they were 10. Made everything look cramped and tiny.

3. Misreported the monthly HOA fees by about +30%.

4. It had been on the market for 4 months with almost zero showings, I happened to be touring another unit in the building when I decided on a whim to check out 'the penthouse' with my realtor. Price hadn't dropped at all in that time, even though the market was fairly quick.

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#143

Post by publicmail »

djha-skin wrote: post #124

This article reads as if hiring a person to help broker a deal worth several hundred thousand dollars on something as intimate as a house is silly when it's not. I don't use a travel agent to buy a $250 plane ticket because I know exactly what I want and I know exactly what I'm getting and there's not a third party involved (there's no seller of the seat, just the airline.) The realtor isn't there because you don't h…

I can see it being useful for sellers, but not buyers.

I do think you should have someone help broker a deal of this magnitude, but it shouldn’t be a realtor. It should be an attorney.

You can get a real estate attorney to do the same thing for like $1500 or less where I’m located (north east). That’s a lot cheaper than what the commission would be for a realtor.

Anyone can find their own houses on Zillow now, and the inspector is separate from the realtor, so from my perspective, all the buyer’s realtor really does is call the other agent to arrange a time for a showing. That’s all they did in my case and they took 3% of the total value of the house (or their agency did - they didn’t pocket all the $ directly themselves).

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#144

Post by networkchad »

[deleted] wrote: post #137
b20000 wrote: post #121

when i came to the US the idea of a person making a commission on the sale of real estate was foreign to me. in my home country most ppl sell and buy real estate themselves. agents are used for special situations. when i tried to call an owner in the bay area to buy from them directly and offered to pay for any lawyer of their choice to have paperwork drafted and reviewed they pooped their pants. i never understood w…

[deleted]

[dead]

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#145

Post by dragonwriter »

rch wrote: post #72
pradn wrote: post #21

A good realtor can guide you through the market, inspections, and negotiation - all of which hugely affect the largest investment most people make. But that's no reason for them to demand a PERCENTAGE off the sale of the home! Closing fees plus realtor fees are a big reason why it takes so long for a home to break even for most people - something like 7 years in NYC. And one reason why there's so much pressure for ho…

I've never seen or heard of a real estate agent negotiating to transact a property below its previous sale price, even from the buy side. That says a lot.

> I've never seen or heard of a real estate agent negotiating to transact a property below its previous sale price

You've never heard of a short sale in which there was an agent involved? (Technically, a short sale is one below the outstanding mortgage, irrespective of the previous sale price, but usually the former will be less than the latter, so...)

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#146

Post by rpmisms »

pradn wrote: post #21

A good realtor can guide you through the market, inspections, and negotiation - all of which hugely affect the largest investment most people make. But that's no reason for them to demand a PERCENTAGE off the sale of the home! Closing fees plus realtor fees are a big reason why it takes so long for a home to break even for most people - something like 7 years in NYC. And one reason why there's so much pressure for ho…

The realtor I used to buy my last house does it as a hobby. She also did one of the most ethical things I have ever seen, and only took her commission at our initial offer, she wouldn't take commission on any of the escalation clause raises.

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#147

Post by quickthrower2 »

jandrese wrote: post #102
DANmode wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to scoff at entrants into the space because I thought something valuable was being disrupted. Then my agent let me get 90% through a sale before - "surprise" - such and such construction is required prior to closing due to recent statute in this town. I had to haggle DOWN to 6% to enjoy effectively no representation or understanding of the market I was selling into. If this industry is disrupted, even if by ch…

People forget just how terrible the Taxi industry was before Uber showed up too. Uber has plenty of problems, but you can be in the Taxi in 5 minutes and there are no surprise fees and you don't need to carry cash and you don't have to sit on hold for 20 minutes waiting for the dispatcher to pick up. The old taxi industry killed itself. Once there was any alternative it was dead.

Also how bad taxi customers could be. No shows for example. Not having the money. Or abuse (at least Uber has a rating).

Uber has robbed us of crazy taxi driver stories though.

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#148

Post by dragonwriter »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #82
pradn wrote: post #21

A good realtor can guide you through the market, inspections, and negotiation - all of which hugely affect the largest investment most people make. But that's no reason for them to demand a PERCENTAGE off the sale of the home! Closing fees plus realtor fees are a big reason why it takes so long for a home to break even for most people - something like 7 years in NYC. And one reason why there's so much pressure for ho…

Still doesn't explain or justify why you're paying for the realtor on the other side.

In any sale, the buyer is paying for everything on both sides, even if it is characterized as the seller paying for it.

But it benefits the buyer for it to be characterized as an add-on fee rather than part of the basic purchase price, at least in jurisdictions with property tax where an actual sale price is also presumptively the initial property tax assessed value (and even more so in places that have annual limits on tax basis value increase as well.)

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#149

Post by huitzitziltzin »

akavi wrote: post #19

I read the article, but I still don't understand how the National Association of Retailers enforce the 5-6% total commission. Does anyone know? The incidence question (is the fee "paid" by the buyer or seller) is a semantic one, but if the cartel is able to inflate the total fees, that's something else entirely.

> I still don't understand how the National Association of Retailers enforce the 5-6% total commission.

Plaintiffs submitted some recordings in either this or a related case of an agent who said she wouldn’t even bother to show a house that didn’t have a guaranteed commission. The NAR is not so stupid as to have a “you must sign here that you will only show houses with a commission” form.

>> the incidence question … is a semantic one

Definitely not semantics. This relates to the elasticity of demand and supply in the market. The incidence can be on the buyer OR the seller OR shared. Depends on the good and the demand.

Re: After a $1.8B verdict, the clock is ticking on the 6% realtor commission

#150

Post by 4death4 »

rpmisms wrote: post #146
pradn wrote: post #21

A good realtor can guide you through the market, inspections, and negotiation - all of which hugely affect the largest investment most people make. But that's no reason for them to demand a PERCENTAGE off the sale of the home! Closing fees plus realtor fees are a big reason why it takes so long for a home to break even for most people - something like 7 years in NYC. And one reason why there's so much pressure for ho…

The realtor I used to buy my last house does it as a hobby. She also did one of the most ethical things I have ever seen, and only took her commission at our initial offer, she wouldn't take commission on any of the escalation clause raises.

Why is that ethical? It seems neutral.
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