Belt Auction

Why Would Anyone Pay 6% of Their Home's Value To Real Estate Agents?

Let's see...they work a dozen hours (tops) and take the equivalent of a year's worth of the average person's salary...hmm, that makes sense! People should list their houses for FREE on Zillow or Craigslist and if you use an escrow company, you do not need an agent to close on a house. Wake up people, you don't have to waste your hard earned money any more (unless you're too inept to take pix, clean/fix up your house, write a blurb about it, show it to some folks). I saved $42,000 on my house sold on craigslist in less than a week for more than my neighbors' houses (that's another realtor trick, to underprice so they don't have to work so hard). AND if you have to buy on MLS, you can use redfin and get 2% refunded to you, or you can just approach the owner yourself and wait until it's off their contract and buy it via another arrangement. Realtors do not own the houses, they do not own the right to sell them.so don't GIVE them your rights and your money when unecessary. I was just on zillow looking for houses, and it's so much easier to search than the real estate sites. Craigslist is a bit more hit/miss and not easy to search. It's not illegal to talk to the owner! LOL You can make any arrangement you want with the owner as long as you wait out their contract period. They can also fire an agent at any time BY LAW. It's THEIR house afterall, not the agent's. It just goes to show that holding any transaction hostage (by non-owners) by methods of illegalities such as price fixing and antitrust violations is untenable not to mention wrong. If a service is actually irreplaceable, it's valued, if it's contrived, it's replaceable. With the advent of the internet, real estate marketing days of old, is dying out. It was unethical all along, it's just now meeting its maker. "A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted" is the old axiom... But, if you're smart enough to navigate selling yourself, then by all means do so. The MLS is dying, if you're not stupid, then don't be amongst the last suckers taken by it. There's multitudes of companies cannabilizing its last gasps for breath...the MLS discounters, craigslist, Zillow, Redfin, etc. The unethical boycotting price fixing antitrust law violating scoundrels will have to find a job that isn't created by false pretenses of necessity. I'm going to Hawaii, then Europe, then buying myself a new car, on what those realtors tried to convince me (threateningly even) that I couldn't do myself. Ha ha ha ha ha Here's a list of "REALTORS" (TM) LAW VIOLATIONS: PRICE FIXING (they'll boycott anything not 3%/3%) ANTITRUST VIOLATIONS (they'll steer buyers based on THEIR commission, which ONLY realtors (tm) can see in the MLS listing) Plus they regularly THREATEN FSBOs (notice how OMINOUS sounding that "they'll never sell!") What a contrived profession...I folks WANT to pay 6% of their life estate to an agent for a few hours of work, let them...but don't manipulate the whole system (MLS MUST DIE) so that those of us with a brain are mafia-ed into having to use it by virtue of an uneven playing field and threats. MLS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO LIST COMMISSIONS--THAT'S AGAINST THE LAW!!

Public Comments

1. sounds like you are a crook . its not legal for you to make a deal on a house that is listed and wait for it to go off the market. The agency that list your house has expenses like advertising your house and he has to pay his agents usually 3% of the selling price not to mention rent on his office taxes and the poor devil has to live too. No i'm not a realestate agent just like to treat people fair and honest.
2. Some folks are just too busy to mess around with selling their own home. There is a lot to learn and many ways to screw up or get taken advantage of by a savvy or unscrupulous buyer. Maybe next time one of your kids breaks their arm you can fix them right up in the bathroom and save the $15,000 to have a professional do it. Or, maybe the next time you get sued for interfering with a legal contract you can represent yourself in court and save yourself thousands of dollars in legal fees and end up paying the real estate broker his full commission because you lost the case. Don't hate the players, hate the game.
3. Well you are one of the few that have done it with out a problem. I would say 75% of the questions on here are by fsbos. They have no idea about what they are doing, and most come here to ask our professional opinion. So it goes to show you why people use an agent, its because they dont know what they are doing, and need professional guidance. No need to come on here and knock a profession. Are you really so high and mighty? You sound like a real scum bag. Get a life. RE Agent, Remax
4. Well I will say this - we sold our home through a realtor in 2.5 weeks. I can kick myself thinking how much I have to pay him for a lousy few hours of work! I mean he took pics of my house, posted them on the net, and put three ads in the paper. Whipdedo I do more than that at work in 8 hours! I'm really kicking myself now. I should have did FSBO! I wasted tons of money.
5. They pay the 6% because it gets their house sold. Congratulations on selling your house on your own. It can be done and you did it. Great. A house down the road from me has been FSBO for a year, another has been with a limited service agency for about as long. I drove by today, signs are still up. And I don't know where you get your numbers, but it can take WAY more than a dozen hours or so to sell a house. I have more than twenty hours working a piece of vacant land. If you wanted to check some more numbers, 90% of US RE transactions are done through Realtors. Let me guess, you have a lousy attitude about other professions too. Or you are just miserable period. Or both.
6. Sorry fella, but it usually takes a lot more than a dozen hours (tops as you put it) to properly market a home. You really have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to contracts either. Before you go and "trash" a profession, maybe you should educate yourself on the subject. As for the commission, which is negotiable, is divided up to pay the listing broker, his or her agent, the buyer's agent and his or her broker. Believe me, when that many pieces of the pie get shared, one can go hungry real fast. If you catch my drift. I could go on and on to prove you wrong, but that would not satisfy you. I know your type. My suggestion to you is, if you think it's that easy and that profitable, you should give it a try. Then you can say what you will, but I know that you would have more respect for the profession. I realize that in the past many so called "realtors" were dishonest and gave agents a bad rap, but things have changed tremendously. Many rules and regulations are in effect to protect the public and keep the "scum bags" out of the business.
7. You were very fortunate to sell your home. You are absolutely right an escrow office can do it. BUT, you are paying for a professional to make sure you are legally protected against any disclosures that need to be made. In addition, a realtor that has been around awhile knows what needs to be done to get the deal closed. They have experience working with people to know when a buyer may not work out. They have connections with lenders to preview your buyers to make sure they qualify for a loan. They make sure all inspections are made and can advise you of your legal rights with respect to repairs. Look at it this way with a different profession. You could get your taxes done by a bookkeeper or do it yourself on line, but are you really getting all you could get, are you opening yourself up to an audit? Going to a CPA, you're paying for their knowledge and experience to make sure you get the best you can get. Are there some poors CPA's, Realtors. Of course, every field and profession has bad representatives. But if you're lucky to find the true professional, then you know you're being taken care. Let me tell you, lender's and realtors aren't always the best of friends, but I have seen a lot of good that realtors have done for their clients in protecting them whether buying or selling. I have also seen FSBO sellers and buyers get screwed and sued. CA Lender