321–330 of 360 posts
I think this very much depends on the agent. My wife is an agent and busts her ass. When she's a seller agent, if it's small jobs like painting a room, covering up spots, changing a massively outdated light fixture, she does it her self. She's spent days a time landscaping. Also when it comes to pricing, it helps to know the market. She will list a house for 8% under market value because she knows it will draw intere…
I think this very much depends on the agent. My wife is an agent and busts her ass. When she's a seller agent, if it's small jobs like painting a room, covering up spots, changing a massively outdated light fixture, she does it her self. She's spent days a time landscaping. Also when it comes to pricing, it helps to know the market. She will list a house for 8% under market value because she knows it will draw intere…
I think this very much depends on the agent. My wife is an agent and busts her ass. When she's a seller agent, if it's small jobs like painting a room, covering up spots, changing a massively outdated light fixture, she does it her self. She's spent days a time landscaping. Also when it comes to pricing, it helps to know the market. She will list a house for 8% under market value because she knows it will draw intere…
I'm an American that has bought and sold 3 houses and never once paid the 6% commission. It seems lots of folks don't realize commissions are negotiable, and that discount brokers exist who charge much less for roughly the same end product. If you think the standard full service 6% is providing you adequate value, by all means pay it, but don't feel like you have to.
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They do exist. When I sold in NYC a few years ago, I paid 2.5% all in. When I bought, I used the same broker and got a 2/3 buyer's commission rebated to me at closing. It was a decent chunk of money and helped me pay the closing costs. I recommended it to all my friends and several got the rebates as well. There are a bunch of these brokers now.
What do I type into google to find this?
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Exactly! I’m pretty sure Old Republic’s fee was a couple grand, nowhere near the mid-range luxury car price that the realtors collectively made on the transaction.
Keep in mind this has to include downside protection to cover the very real risk of someone initiating a suit in case they screw up (which I'm sure happens from time to time). I think overall, what a lot of this entire discussion misses is that 90, maybe 99% of transactions are pretty straightforward, but the 1% where things go haywire, might cost 10, even 100x as much in wasted time, money, etc. Real estate brokerag…
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I don't normally nitpick in this way, but the single line "Wrong." rubbed me up the wrong way. The claim was: > Almost No One Pays a 6% Real-Estate Commission–Except Americans (wsj.com) and you've cited an example which fits neatly into the word "almost", _right there as the first worth in the sentence_
Except it is wrong. It’s not “except Americans”, it’s “except Germans” and "except Japanese" and hundreds of millions of others. It’s not about the exact number because the whole premise is that it’s too high. "Almost No One is Poor in the United States–Except Lazy People"
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Whenever we’ve bought a house, we told the agent to not bother sending us listings or set up viewings. We simply checked open houses on Redfin and Zillow ourselves, and if we liked a house, we’d ask the agent to prepare an offer, at a price we set. It is not to figure out what a house will sell for if there are enough other sales in that neighborhood. For their reduced work, we’d ask a reduction of their commission.
In the US, this will severely limit your options. Most houses are posted to MLS first, and don't make it to public sites until later. If you want to get the best deals, you gotta have an agent send you MLS listings daily, swoop in and make an offer on the first day before anyone else sees it. When I bought my last house, my agent was able to send me dozens of listings from MLS for homes that weren't listed on public…
While caring about what the rest of the world is certainly what Americans do best (j/k), another take would be that this isn't a free market, and there is no reason for it not to be. If 6% is what the market determined to be optimal then fine, but all signs suggest a truly free market would push the rate down a few points.
-- You as a homeowner have the legal right to sell your home yourself without a lawyer, escrow officer, or real estate agent involved.
-- You as a buyer have the legal right to represent yourself in purchasing a home.
-- You, as buyer or seller, likely have multiple options either lawyers or real estate agents in the place you live who could facilitate a transaction.
-- If you choose to work with a brokerage / agent, you will likely find a range of commission price points as well as levels of service available to you. Want a "listing only" service? I've seen people in my community offer that for a nominal fixed price. Want the full monty or have a unique property? I've seen 10% commissions to both sides.
-- Think it is unfair that you can't list your property directly with an MLS? Become a licensed agent, pay your membership dues, and you too can have direct access to the MLS. Listing services are owned by (read: costs paid by) real estate brokerages, just like any other market, IE: Nasdaq, NYSE, etc.