Realtors Suck

I don't agree that all realtors suck.....98% of them do IMHO.....but there are ones out there who are worth their weight in gold. Same goes for any occupation.

Having said that.... I will state that for the most part, they are significantly and grossly overpaid by a factor of x100 what they should get in relation to what they do.

All you really need to do a FSBO is a really good RE lawyer.....and some balls.

 

Well, we already know this. Think about it, the word Realtor is made up. Realtor = used house salesman. Oh, and don't forget the trademark...REALTOR® & Realtor™

Economist Steven J. Levitt already covered this in his book Freakonomics.

From Steve Sailer's review of the book, "For example, he (Levitt) points out that you shouldn't rely upon the real estate salesperson you hire to sell your home for the best price. Realtors make more money by churning through sales quickly, so they consistently underprice their clients' homes and badger their clients into selling too early.

Levitt studied 100,000 home sales in Chicago and found that when selling their own homes, real estate agents held out on average for ten days more than their clients did and, all else being equal in terms of the quality of the house, got over three percent more for it, or $10,000 on a $300,000 home."

 

I maintain if the selling process wasn't so tightly controlled by groups like the National Association of Realtors, the market for realtors would disappear similar to what happened to travel agents. I say let the internet level the playing field and allow people to determine themselves whether a commission is warranted. Give the average joe access to posting on the MLS for free for starters. If an agent brings a buyer then they are entitled to a commish not to exceed 3%. The reason why listing agents scramble to get listings is because they know their job is 99% done once they do. They get their % even if they do little else.

 

The Justice Dept. has sued the NAR over the MLS monopoly, but I don't know how far this case has come along. http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/press_releases/2005/211008.htm

 

LOL. Love the Realtor bashing.

So is the word LAWYER.

I know a lot of overpaid people. CEOs, fund managers, musicians, software engineers, search engine founders, car salesmen, gemologists, the list goes on.

Good real estate agents work their ass off. I know I do and I deserve every single penny. I'm #1 in my county and Top 10% in the state and this **** don't come from sitting on your butt doing nothing.

Don't paint everyone with the same brush.

RMX

 

Thank you REMIX, you hit right on the nail! I for one have seen many sellers try FSBO after they meet with me to only call me 3-6 months later because their deal fail through, or they couldnt sell. Not only that in this market that means that we lost 3-6 months of time which means their home is now worth less then if I would have listed it 6 months earlier.

As far as it been easy, i invite you to come spend a week following one of us successful real estate agent!!!!!

As far as us being overpaid? Give me a break!

 

My ex-wife is now a realtor and she really sucks!

(note: divorcees are born again c@cksuckers)

Most realtors expose themselves to unnecessary lawsuits because they don't do their homework. Most don't know squat IMHO. Good ones are hard to find.

Entry into the field is too easy. A professional has to compete with divorcees and others who just do it part time, not really serious but it detracts from the professionals incomes and reputations.

 

Well, I sell only commercial property, but the deal is the same: 10% of the people do 90% of the business. It's a grind - most residential agents do 2-3 deals a year and I think I read somewhere that the average agent makes like $4/hr if you figure it that way.

Yeah, there are a lot of rich dr's wives trying to sell property here. Luckily I'm in commercial so I don't have to deal with them.

There's crap individuals in every profession, so what else is new?

RMX

 

+1 I've seen some FSBO seriously get screwed over before

 

Started reading this thread knowing that I'd see REMIX laying it straight.+1
Don't paint all people with the same brush.
Just sent out my completion papers so I can take the state exam, have spoken with 3 commercial firms here. Can't wait to get started, and this WILL be my new career which means I WILL be earning every penny. The girlfriend just started residential, and her passion takes it to a degree that would floor the original poster.
I agree that there are plenty of bogus agents - I had enough in my classes to know that many just see the $$ and nothing else. To do ANYTHING right, you have to want to do it right, and know that nothing comes free or easy. I would always tell a skeptic to try FSBO first if they are going to be hard-headed about paying a realtor. Then, when they can't sell in 6 months, open the door for them and show them that realtors(good ones) are quite valuable.

 

We're sold every house on our own during the 35+ years we've been married. Used the same real estate attorney for all deals. We're also developing our ranch, selling it off in about 100 acre parcels. I can't imagine how much money it would have cost us, over the years, if we had had to pay 6-7% of each sale to a realtor.

We did use a realtor, a really top notch realtor, last year when our daughter accepted a job relocation and had to move on 2 weeks notice. The top realtor got 3 written overbids within 24 hours of the listing, with the closing, without a hitch, less than 5 weeks from the day the house was listed. What made this possible is that her company paid the real estate commission as part of her relocation package.

So, I agree that a top realtor is worth every penny that they earn but there are so few top realtors.

Now, having said that, it does take a lot of work to sell your own house. You can't just do some clean up and run an ad in the Sunday paper. But, my experience has been that that's what a lot of very average realtors attempt to do -- tell you (based on conjecture) how to fix it up, and set it up on their MLS service. The top realtor had a team. One woman was in charge of getting the listing right and getting the price right. Another woman was in charge of staging -- advised us on how to fix it up the in the shortest time with the least expense. Another one did the showing, and a 4th one handled the closing details. That was worth the commission, but it's also what we have done when we sold places on our own.

The advantage of selling your own home is that, if you want to, you can offer it for 6-7 % less and still come out ahead. Several realtors, over the years, have told us that we would hurt the resale value of homes in our neighborhood because we sold cheaper than they would have but, when you figured in the commission, we ALWAYS came out way ahead.

End of rant (for now!)

 

Hey! I resent that . I ain't rich!

Happily, my wife just entered into escrow on another (almost) million dollar commercial closing today . She is up to 2.2 million for the year... I am happy. For being in Wisconsin, thats quite the achievement. I think she outsold most all of the residential folks in her office (wild guess here - its been slow)...and its only her first year. I love commercial.

Interestingly, it really doesn't equate into much in the way of income. Her current deal has a 3.5% cobroke. half that goes to her broker, and half of whats left goes to the government. The rest she gets to take home in a little peanut bag . But, thats a relative thing...

As a side note, most of the realtors are struggling right now, as is to be expected. I see a lot of husband and wife teams, and I will never understand how they pay their own mortgage.

Here is the reality of it - realtors provide exposure. If you don't like thinking of it as a "commission", think of it as an advertsing fee. You might get the same amount for your home if you FSBO, but it will take longer to sell...and usually fail to do so.

Interestingly, if I were to hazard a guess, I suspect most realestate agents, working full time, would be lucky to earn $40,000-$50,000 per year. This excludes such panaceas like California, NY, and parts of Florida. If every property is a million plus, you are much more likely to make big bucks. Folks always assume that somehow this huge commission check lands in the pocket of the agent. "It ain't true." 6% is the cost of the "process." The commssion is a mere sliver of that.

Can most people sell FSBO? Probably not. Only a small percentage can, successfully. And I have done FSBO myself on tons of properties (before my wife got into the biz). Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't.

Can you sell a property yourself? Sure - in fact I recommend everyone do it. But if it fails, then get an agent.

 

I don't hear anyone whining that their lawyer gets $400/hour for filling out a couple of forms and having his staff do the rest. There is a good and a bad in EVERY industry and it's stupid to stereotype an entire industry because of a single study or a single experience or a single stupid agent.

I work 10 hours+ at my job, constantly educate myself, and generally kick the asses of other agents who are less prepared. And guess what? People want to do business with me, because I'll represent them better than anyone else.

I think we should all whine about politicians, instead! :-D

 

It's like anything else. Whether it's a lawyer, a real estate agent, a plumber, or any other service provider, it is incumbent on us to make a researched choice. That weeds out the bad ones and rewards the great ones. Me, I read reputations, not ads. That compels me to agree with you.

 

I am sooooo tempted to say something flip about that but, I am still a gentleman by act of Congress.

 

Haha I forgot about you. Congrats to your wife - sounds like she's moving right along.

Doing it right takes a lot of thought and - eventually - some delegation. I began farming out my mailings to a mail house recently. Awfully hard for me to address 2,000 postcards every two weeks by myself. Looks like (as per the self-employment thread in thew biz section), I'm going to have to farm out my tax and accounting duties as well. If I can crank out another $6m or so in volume this year, I'll hire someone part-time to deal with the small crap like ordering signs, taking pics, making copies of keys and plans, making sure closings are on-track, etc. Just gotta get there...it's tough and takes a while.

Most people pitch a sign in front of a house/building and then walk away. My company has done extensive studies showing that only 4% of RE sales comes from advertising in the newspaper. Those ads only make the seller feel good (generally). Good marketing and results cost money, and most Realtors don't want to spend the money on their own to truly dominate. Most of them do not have any money to begin with.

I lose listings all the time to guys who have big names and have been around forever, but do little to no marketing for their clients. Research the reputation as Zingara says? Not always a reliable indicator, only because the guys with the biggest reps sometimes get lazy.

RMX

 

As a full-time real estate investor, I acquire alot of distressed properties around NJ, fix them up a little and then flip them. I have used the same agent for ten years. At this point in time, he is so well connected he doesn't even have to leave his office, no showings, no open houses, no wasting time with lookie-loos, unqualified buyers, etc.

I merely call him, tell him we got another property for sale and what w'ere looking to get. He goes down his list of buyers, gives them the address, they drive by (if they want access we usually stick our own lockbox on and give them the combo).

Within a day or two the offers start coming in. At closing he is mailed his check (he doesn't even bother going to the closing LOL) With a well cultivated list of buyers and sellers developed over 20 years, he has an incredibly efficient and lucrative business model. He once referred to it as an "annuity".