I'm just as worried about the conspiracy among landlords to ratchet up rents and home sale prices.
https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...
Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
131–140 of 282 posts
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#132> by making it difficult for buyers and sellers to negotiate for lower rates.
I've negotiated lower commissions with real estate agents. They always say it's non-negotiable, and always cave.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought a few years back and we didn't really use an agent to find the house at all. Looking into it, I found that a certain percentage of the sale amount goes to pay the agent(s); 6% I think. If there are two agents, they each get half. If one person doesn't use an agent... the other person's agent gets it all. The person without an agent doesn't get to keep their half... it just all goes to the other agent. Wtf...…
It's like this throughout the real estate and real estate development industries to be honest. Building my own house I expected plenty of savings over buying (and to be fair, I still did of course), but even beyond permitting (which is also more about who you know than what you know) I encountered things like this (roughly from most mind-boggling to least): - You can't build a septic system, you have to use sewer bec…
Your list of “mind-boggling” items all seem extremely reasonable to me.
Your city and neighbors don’t want to be responsible for or have to deal with your house falling down because it was improperly constructed. And having lived in neighborhoods with septic systems most of my life, a little neglect can go a long way.
Unless you’re building in the middle of nowhere (far from anything labeled a “city”), there are obligations to those around you.
Signed, someone whose neighbors properties have dilapidated buildings in various states of disrepair.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I bought a few years back and we didn't really use an agent to find the house at all. Looking into it, I found that a certain percentage of the sale amount goes to pay the agent(s); 6% I think. If there are two agents, they each get half. If one person doesn't use an agent... the other person's agent gets it all. The person without an agent doesn't get to keep their half... it just all goes to the other agent. Wtf.…
> Some selling agents refuse to do this because it's pretty shady, but definitely not all. This is a blatant conflict of interest. My god.
It will be presented to both parties. It's not a hidden conflict.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
These US fees always seem astonishingly high to me. Here, something more like 1.5% would be typical.
Yeah, it is very high. Although, the real estate industry in the US is vastly different. - Agents do not receive salary, benefits, etc. Their only payment is when they close a deal. - Real Estate Agents are a dime a dozen since the licensing and training is pretty minimal. So lots of competition fighting over small supply, so it can be difficult to consistently get clients. - Agents can pay around $100/month to their…
This reads like the reason why one shouldn't become an agent in the US. It's honestly hard to feel sympathy for people who are basically gambling their professional careers on the real estate market.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some selling agents refuse to do this because it's pretty shady, but definitely not all. This is a blatant conflict of interest. My god.
It's only a conflict of interest if either the seller or the buyer expect their agents to negotiate price for them. Generally agents steer well clean of that, for legal and time reasons. A realtor is there to put properties in front of you / put your properties in front of others, and then close the deal when you tell them which property you're interested in. Volume pays realtors, not price-over/under-replacement.
It’s a conflict regardless of negotiating price.
Your realtor (as the seller) is now going to give preferential treatment to one buyer for their own personal gain.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#137Real Estate in the US is like a bunch of little MLS fiefdoms still angry you have access to the internet.
Eventually the Real Estate market will adopt like the music industry and others had to. Welcome to the 21st century.
Brokers and agents are mostly sales people that drive around showing places. Its the lawyers, inspectors, insurance underwriters, loan originators, and title companies that do the real and/or legal work.
It's time for broker/agents to take a more fitting role instead of charging 6% for posting cell phone pictures of your house on their regional MLS.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#138my beef with the commissioned agents is that paying them a commission does not actually influence them to work on your behalf; they still work on their own behalf. For example, keeping your house for sale on the market longer (by rejecting offers) tends to eventually bring a higher price. A study or two has shown that real estate agents keep their own houses on the market for longer than average.
But longer on the market is more work for the agent, while the small percentage increase in a higher price doesn't enhance their commission by nearly as much as it does the homeowner's, especially considering there is frequently a substantial mortgage on the house (meaning, the homeowner gets to collect the "bank's share" of any additional sale price)
but what will your realtor recommend? "list it at a low price to generate interest and start a bidding war", pretty much the opposite of what you should do.
In the grand scheme of things, a commission for making a large, complex selling process go smoothly is not a ridiculous notion, but when your agent is participating in plucking your feathers it's pretty annoying.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are flat rate realtors where I live. However they are only 50%, the still give the same 3.5% to the buyers agent, but they take for themselves a fixed rate to get you on MLS. I'm not sure if it is a good deal - they still charge high prices relative for what they do for you. (it is cheaper than a full agent, but they also do much less)
You just don't sign a contract where you give a buyers agent commission, although again this limits the pool. Frankly, buyers agents are largely a scam in my view. With MLS, Zillow, Redfin, etc, their 'experience' seems mostly worthless. It certainly is not worth 3% of the cost of a house. If anything, sellers agents are more useful since they actually offer something valuable to the real estate experience (e.g., lis…
Buyers agents know better how to search the MLS system (though only a few do this). They also line up times to see houses, and take time to drive you to each. So a good buyers agent has spent about 8 hours of time to each buyer, plus expenses. I agree they are getting far too much, but they still are valuable.
Re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired, Awards Nearly $1.8B in Damages
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't sound like you negotiated well and is a sign you could use an agent :) But seriously, imagine you and I are both bidding $1,000,000 on a house. You have an agent, so if your bid is accepted, your agent and the sellers agent each get $30,000. I don't have an agent. In my offer, I write "the sellers agent gets the usual 3%, and I am allocating the 3% that the buyer's agent would get towards the seller instea…
The commission is spelled out in the listing contract between the seller and their agent. The buyer is not a party to that contract and can’t dictate changes to it.
Correct, but I can make the offer with that language and the seller can review that w their agent. If the agent is "just as well off" or even ahead of the game they can direct the ~3% I whatever way makes sense to get the deal done.