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Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

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Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#81

Post by Amezarak »

jasode wrote: post #75
ssharp wrote: post #21

I don't know how much value agents added over the past few years, navigating bidding wars, pocket listing access, etc. but I've never understood the justification for spending so much money on these fees. The last time I sold a house was 2011, when the housing market was still down from the 2008/09 crash. I talked with multiple agents and never got a sense of them doing much to push the house other than listing it on…

>I said "good riddance" to the agents and did an MLS self-list for like $400. [...] So back to my original point -- where is that seller value coming from? It's a puzzle to you because you had the personality & motivation to do the work of marketing+showing+negotiating the house yourself. You have inadvertently projected your DIY savvy onto other homeowners to do the same thing. But, a lot of home sellers don't want…

Everything you're saying is true to some degree, but I don't think most people would be willing to spend 12k just to be more comfortable, if they understood that's really all they're paying for and understood clearly upfront that's how much they're paying.

It's sort of analogous to the American tax situation - many, many people I've talked to refuse to do their own taxes (even a very simple 100EZ) - or even use software to do it - because they've been convinced culturally that filing taxes is so incredibly complex and if they screw up they're going to be severely punished, so instead they pay an accountant a few hundred bucks to file a 1040EZ and get their tax refund - which they don't really feel because they just take it out of the refund.

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#82

Post by airstrike »

thiago_fm wrote: post #44

Wrong. In Germany the Maklerprovision (comission for the Real State agent) is 7%. Typically, the seller pays half of it, but there are cases where the buyer pays it all. You also need to pay a notary, government taxes, making the cost of buying a property over 12%+. Furthermore, you shouldn't sell that property for around 10 years, otherwise, you'll need to pay Capital gains taxes. The good part is that you don't pay…

Wrong.

Almost no one != no one

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#83

Post by DennisP »

underseacables wrote: post #6

I think something that is partly to blame is the expansive licensure scheme, and how those licenses have become a monopolistic edge to protect and expand. Many professions have required a license, and it is the responsibility of the organization that issue those license to protect an expand their authority, preventing competition, and pushing up prices higher. The license requirement creates a perpetuating lobby, whi…

A real estate license mostly teaches what you need to know about the laws around real estate transactions. It's pretty easy to get. Take the courses, pass the test, and you're in, there's no restricted access. You can set up your own brokerage and everything.

But if you want your brokerage to have access to the MLS system, you have to join the Realtor organization. That's where the monopolistic behavior creeps in.

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#84

Post by underseacables »

walthamstow wrote: post #62
CPLX wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Occupational licensing was originally developed to prevent black people from being employed. You’ll need to cite some evidence for this. Occupational guilds and membership associations stretch back a lot further into the Middle Ages in Europe versus the timeline you’re suggesting here. There are also some very common sense public policy issues at play like making sure people who say they can cut hair or fix your te…

Fix teeth, yes, cut hair, absolutely not. How can you conflate those two things? It is utterly bizarre for the state to license barbers and hairdressers, especially in the so-called land o' the free.

It has gotten much worse. Flower arrangement, interior decorators, every profession wants in on the licensure monopoly. There are definitely things where you want the state to make sure that someone has a minimum level of education and training. Medicine, law, engineering, but some things are not really necessary anymore, such as the dietetics license. Certainly not a license to be an interior decorator, or arrange flowers.

The license locks in professionals to continually give money to a private organization every year, and keep out everyone else.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/you-shouldnt-need-a-...

https://bostonrealestatetimes.com/advancing-commercial-inter...

https://citizens.org/dietetic-association-and-efforts-to-mon...

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#85

Post by brvsft »

ssharp wrote: post #21

I don't know how much value agents added over the past few years, navigating bidding wars, pocket listing access, etc. but I've never understood the justification for spending so much money on these fees. The last time I sold a house was 2011, when the housing market was still down from the 2008/09 crash. I talked with multiple agents and never got a sense of them doing much to push the house other than listing it on…

I had to sell my home while coordinating a cross-country move. The agent handled everything for me and did a good job on the negotiation given the fact that prices were coming down while this happened.

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#86

Post by notTooFarGone »

thiago_fm wrote: post #44

Wrong. In Germany the Maklerprovision (comission for the Real State agent) is 7%. Typically, the seller pays half of it, but there are cases where the buyer pays it all. You also need to pay a notary, government taxes, making the cost of buying a property over 12%+. Furthermore, you shouldn't sell that property for around 10 years, otherwise, you'll need to pay Capital gains taxes. The good part is that you don't pay…

the 7% is by law regulated to be 50/50 for the buyer and seller so what you say is wrong from the perspective of either.

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#87

Post by danielvaughn »

stephencanon wrote: post #59
ssharp wrote: post #21

I don't know how much value agents added over the past few years, navigating bidding wars, pocket listing access, etc. but I've never understood the justification for spending so much money on these fees. The last time I sold a house was 2011, when the housing market was still down from the 2008/09 crash. I talked with multiple agents and never got a sense of them doing much to push the house other than listing it on…

We’ve bought two houses, sold one, bought a lot to built a house for my parents. We’ve never hired a real estate agent. The seller had an agent for the first transaction, none of the other counterparties had an agent. Paying a lawyer by the hour to handle things is simpler, cheaper, and a random lawyer is dramatically more competent than a random agent (the most complex transaction ended up costing us maybe $4k in la…

^ this is good advice. There are really two things you need to rely on in real estate deals. The first is the legal aspect, which 100% absolutely should be handled by a lawyer. The second is negotiations, assuming you yourself aren't a skilled negotiator.

Neither of these things require an agent, and neither are worth $40K.

Re: Almost no one pays a 6% real-estate commission except Americans

#90

Post by drstewart »

Terretta wrote: post #58
thiago_fm wrote: post #44

Wrong. In Germany the Maklerprovision (comission for the Real State agent) is 7%. Typically, the seller pays half of it, but there are cases where the buyer pays it all. You also need to pay a notary, government taxes, making the cost of buying a property over 12%+. Furthermore, you shouldn't sell that property for around 10 years, otherwise, you'll need to pay Capital gains taxes. The good part is that you don't pay…

[flagged]

"Except Americans" - So wrong then.
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