Realtors take a hit.

[Spartan1980]

This is probably area-dependent, but I sure as shit wouldn't want the hours of my realtor here in the DC metro area. He has zero days off, and anytime he's awake he is basically "on the job". I would definitely not characterize his job as easy, lazy, lacking work, etc.

I think you might have an incorrect view on what they make, as well. The respective agent doesn't keep his 3%...a large portion of that goes to the agency that the agent works under. Let's say your house sold and the 6% fee was $40k, each agent getting $20k. They're not keeping $20k for themselves. They're also not selling a lot of houses to make a good living without the hussle & bustle that I mentioned. If they're in a competitive market, there's a chance they might directly employ an assistant out of their own salary as well in order to stay competitive.

As for browsing the listings on Redfin, Zillow, etc, they're not as up to date as MLS. The gatekeeping is still very real in that respect, and browsing public-facing sites might work in slow markets. In a competitive fast paced environment, unofficial soft offers are often tendered before the house even opens, with hard offers being dropped by 11am the day of opening, and the house being contingent by noon. The websites that you and I have access to are slow to update and in high drive markets will be listing houses that are basically already sold. So, ignoring the real estate agents and trying to do this yourself isnt a great strategy depending on where you live.

I saw this first hand with a retired cop that came from your area. We hired him as a contractor to work as a digital forensic analyst. He came to the DC area and went over a year without being able to find a home by using your strategy...I'm not sure what ever happened as my work with him on a case came to a close at that point.

Lastly, we need to distinguish between gate keeping and networking. Yeah, sure, there's gate keeping...that's true of any profession, really. However, I also bought into my realtors' professional network which has been worth every penny. I have instant access to a repository of reliable business contacts who aren't going to rip us off, unlike people who have to rely on Google searches or the yellow pages.

More directly to the whole real estate agenting aspect, my realtor also has the professional network of being able to find clients a place before it's even listed. Part of their job is liaising throughout the day with their real estate agent buddies and finding properties through their knowledge of their clients and neighborhoods. Both of these are intangibles that you can't buy into with a friend of a friend or distant family member who sells a few houses a year as a very-part time gig just for friends and families.

We use the phrase, "policing is regional" in a lot of our LE conversations here on the forum. I'll danger that same maxim applies to real estate. So, while your disdain might apply to you, with the "total dick head" you chose to represent you, in your situation, in your area...I'd be hesitant to apply your generalizations to the profession.

You make some valid points, but I'm not sure the DC metro is indicative of the country as a whole. It will probably track with several other very large metro areas, but get into smaller markets and things can change pretty drastically. I think that in the end there will be a lot of home owners getting bitten by not having as much access to agents that are knowledgeable in the field. That could run from title problems to unexpected repairs down the road.

All that said, I do think it's better to negotiate the commission up front rather than having it mandated by some "authority". The brokers and agents can make their own decision if they want to play the game.

For reference I don't work in real estate per se, but I do title research on real property for a living.

[TGS]

You make some valid points, but I'm not sure the DC metro is indicative of the country as a whole.

No doubt. The regional differences in the market is the entire point of my post, and I specifically stated that at both the beginning and end of the post you are quoting. I make no illusions that smaller markets where the real estate agents are a bunch of mid-life crisis MOMtrepreneurs gets you a much different quality agent, which is something i also covered in my posts.

[Spartan1980]

....MOMtrepreneurs....

LMAO! That's a good one! I'll probably steal that.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Two different paradigms:

When we moved here, we used a standard realtor who took our description of what we wanted and aided us in finding a place. Very useful and with the mortgage arrangements.

When we sold our house in TX, to generate the funds for our new place, we wanted to arrange an almost simultaneous sale and move to the new house being completed. We interviewed several standard realtors in TX who were all into doing renovations on our old house, new appliances, granite counters - all the HGTV crap. Move out, put your stuff in storage (we had a lot of stuff), we will take 3D images, blah, blah - and still uncertainty if the house would sell on our schedule. Renting an apartment and storage for this crap would be expensive. Thus, we used a firm that bought your house as is and then they renovate for sale. They cooperated on letting us stay in our old house until the new one was completed for a not to bad rent. Do you get less money - that's an interesting question as we skipped the storage, move out apartment, renovations, etc. Looking it do it - we probably could have made $15K on the sale price with a realtor (but then the other expenses). We could afford it and thus skipped the showing of the house horror show. Moved out the furniture into the van - gave the firm the keys and that was it. Obviously, it depends on having such firms in your area and if their pricing works for your vs. what the realtor generated pricing might be. We just didn't want that hassle and could afford the difference. Renting places and storage would have eaten up any higher price.

[mmc45414]

a bunch of mid-life crisis MOMtrepreneurs

This local area used to be proliferated with Genral Motors factories, like maybe fifteen various business units making trucks and engines and dashboards and brake systems and a bunch of stuff I lost track of, and that bubble obviously burst some time ago. I still remember the day my friend, who runs a very sucessful third generation pest control company, called and as soon as I answered the phone started ranting:
I swear every son of a bitch that got laid off from GM went out and bought a set of magnet signs for his truck and overnight became a home inspector!!!

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Addendum - I read and ask about renovations before sale and the take was that you get maybe only 60% on the money you put in for renovations. It does raise the house price and the realtor commission and that's why they push it. I dunno.

Like buying a car - Do you want the under coating?

[jh9]

Like buying a car - Do you want the under coating?

NEVER get the frickin' undercoating!

[rob_s]

In case anyone hasn't read, or listened to, Freakonomics, they have a great chapter and episode about this. Even covered in the movie version.

https://freakonomics.com/2008/02/rea...nts-revisited/

[Darth_Uno]

IME, the buyer's agent does 90% of the real.work, and the seller's agent really just needs to make sure the photos, and MLS listing, are well done. So, the 2 agents on commission model is a rip off.

Based on all the new homes I sell, I'd say it's the opposite. But I'm lucky enough to have a good agent who busts her butt with advertising, social media and open houses.

In 2024 honestly you don't need a buyer's agent*; everything that's for sale is already online so they're not going to know about anything you can't find yourself. IMO they don't do much more than show up to closing and collect a check.

Like any trade, there's some that are exceptional, some that are very bad, and the majority are somewhere in between.

*Edit to add: unless you're relocating out of state. In which case you want a relocation specialist, and not some random bimbo.

[RoyGBiv]

In 2024 honestly you don't need a buyer's agent*; everything that's for sale is already online so they're not going to know about anything you can't find yourself. IMO they don't do much more than show up to closing and collect a check.

The advantage, in my limited experience, is that a buyers agent can get me into a dozen houses in a day, instead of me having to make appointments with sellers agents... I can handle it for a local move but when you're crunched for time, in an unfamiliar location, having an agent can be worthwhile.

The idea of paying 6% to agents is just not ok.. on a $500K house, that's $30,000... insane. I like to talk about it in actual dollars when I'm writing a contract, rather than percentages... (talking like I've done it more than 4 times... lol)