I think many of the folks who see no value in realtors don't fully know what's actually involved. KNS I worded my original post poorly and I do see your point regarding the LOE is similar in different income brackets. My apologies for the ham-fisted first post. That said the marketing, staging, and related activities are quite different between a $350K home and a $3M home. My wife became a RE agent over 5 years ago. It is the most demanding job in her life. She is on call 24/7 for her clients and honors that commitment. Hundreds of hours, thousands of $ marketing (pro pictures, post cards, social media, staging, repairs, etc...) for many of her clients. Then after much negotiation in a competitive market all the inspections, home openings, on site meetings at any time are brutal.

Now I will admit my wife has done exceptionally well the last 4.5 years. Her first year she racked up 10K+ miles, in office and and showing homes all day netted her ZERO $. The only way that worked for us was that my career pays for the necessities giving her some room to grow. It did help that we as a couple followed home buying trends in all the communities in San Diego for many years. We took pleasure having some lunch on the weekend and visiting open houses and new constructions. We would then compare notes in the car and later at home with a glass of wine. It's a really brutal industry for those not really interested in RE and a very time consuming one for those that are.

I am an engineer working a 50 hour work weeks and yes I do check work email after hours. She lworks 24/7 searching properties and talking to clients when they want to talk. Sure there are a crap ton of loser RE agents, like many industries. But there are also some making great money and working their butts off. Have not investigated but I would guess the RE industry has one of the highest turnovers around.

Big tech has been sucking the profit out of the realtor game for a few years now. Zeke mentions it. Hustling realtors can be spending thousands upon thousands per MONTH to keep up with referral services, etc. The past few years have seen an arms race in that industry that has benefited only big tech.

I'm not generally a big fan of realtors but this is not a long term win for the general public. It is a consolidation of wealth by tech. This idea that a cost center in real estate has magically disappeared and we'll all be better off for it is a fantasy.

How is any of my post anti real estate agent? Not at all. Take away the references to Compton and Brentwood - two agents selling houses with a spread of a couple million dollars, both in nice neighborhoods, will do a similar amount of work. One will make considerably more money than the other.
I'm not in the business, I got the reference from an article on the subject.

By law in fact, at least in many states.

We sold two houses in Golden CO (our primary home and a rental) before moving to NC a couple of years ago: paid a top area Realtor 4% on the crackerbox rental (sold for just over $525K) and 3% on our primary home that sold for about three times as much as the rental.

Of course, from that, he had to pay the Buyer's Agent commission. I think he offered 2.5% and 2% respectively. Because both homes were under contract in very short order (three days on the rental, seven on our primary home), it cost him almost identical amounts of time, energy and money to sell each one. Each transaction was quick and smooth, with both being closed within a month of first hitting the market. His recognition of the time/value of money helped him get our listing over his competitors.

_

There are three kinds of agents-the casual agent who might as well consider it a hobby, the consummate professionals like Java's spouse and those mentioned by Zeke, and the unscrupulous types that give the profession a bad name (often inbred with type one or working hard like type 2 but no ethics).
My SO specialized in Ag/equestrian property and did well, but man, lots of calls at all hours of the day and night and handholding and dealing with clueless agents on the other side-essentially doing their job for them and handing them half the commission.
So yeah, the profession needs a shake up, but not elimination.
The MLS thing is really the crux of the settlement. It is the source for all the "for sale" data-including the consumer facing sites like Zillow. What needs to happen is that "anyone" can put a property on the MLS for a fee, and folks can pick a buyers agent of choice. Sellers agents are great if yo need to freshen or market a property, but if you're house shows well on its own you're paying 3% for MLS access.
Doubt this saves buyers any money, sellers will pocket any savings and buyers will likely have to pay agents and roll into mtg.

It is a hobby for some. Just did a return the other day; 3rd year for a guy with a loss. I told him 'nope, not taking the loss'. IRS will tell him it's a hobby and if that happens they can potentially go back to the last two years and make the same statement. When that happens you STILL have to pick up any income but the expenses are lost.

I have a friend whose wife is a public school teacher, but maintains her RE license. I have no idea how many sales she makes per year, but I know I'm going to hear about it if we ever let them know when we start looking again and don't go with her. And God forbid, they find out we moved. Then I won't be able to hide it. Not going to be a problem anytime soon, but it will be eventually.

The internet is blowing up the old traditional real estate model just like some other industries. My ex is a real estate agent. She mostly uses the license now for her own investment real estate. She never was super successful, but had a few good years here and there. The big time agents spend a ton and have a team of minions on their payroll. They can make a ton of money, but the business is cyclical. The next downturn will put a ton of them out of business. I have a buddy in the Bay area that learned the hard way 40 years ago to not spend all his commissions. He is in commercial real estate. He had a great 1st year or two at the beginning of his career and then nothing for a few years. Lost his first house, etc. Now he is very well off and basically has been semi retired for several years.

Having friends or relatives who "dabble" is the worst. You really don't want to use them, but they get bent out of shape when you don't. My wife has a childhood friend who is a realtor. When I bought my small apartment building in 2016 she was pissed I didn't bring her into the deal. I had no buyers agent, did it myself and negotiated accordingly.

I would be in the same situation a few times over but I plan on simply explaining that only the top producer in my neighborhood will get the job. I'll still interview 3. Top producers earn that.

An old saying in the industry: If you don't have a friend who's a real estate agent, you don't have any friends.


On a side note, I lost a friend when we sold our homes because I didn't include her in the process. I wouldn't really care except that we'd been pretty close for a few years and she died quickly of a very aggressive cancer not long after. I don't regret my decision to use the agent I did. I do regret losing my friend ... twice.

_

The problem with my friend who's the teacher/part-time realtor is that her husband is a good friend, but the kind of guy who always has an enemies list and is always having a falling out with someone. He gets into more confrontations about BS than Larry David in Curb, but not as humorous. The one reason I could see myself using her, though, is that her husband has been super successful managing their own rentals and Air BnBs. He's a total Tony Soprano type, who would take no BS at all from a tenant. So I'd kind of like to have him manage it, if we keep the current place to rent out and buy another for our primary.

What else are aging trophy (ex)wives with no skills
or abilities going to do to supplement their alimony checks?

Heck even teachers have to work part of the year.

Man I hope some of you guys never have to deal with having your entire pay scale pulled out from under you. Cold bunch here.

Get a real job hippies.

/s

You are absolutely correct. My fumble with words yesterday said the wrong thing. I will edit my post. My apologies!

If you know of a house selling for $100,000 in Compton, please let me know, I will by it today.

Both local newspapers here feature columns written by RE brokers about the ins & outs of buying/selling property. Almost every column lately has focused on rationalizing why one should use a realtor when buying/selling a home.

Doesn't seem like they're seeing a very rosy future for the RE industry...at least not in its current form.

I'll bet this shakes out pretty well in the end. Certainly is going to impact the business. But I bet the actual brokers that hire a legion of agents tighten up. There isn't going to be any room for slackers.

Comes at good time for me. I'm sure if I agree to a bit more I will get my money's worth meaning I hope to cover any extra going to the Realtor with a higher sales price.

It seems to me that FSBO's get the cold shoulder unless they advertise "broker cooperation." I would do that too. If I'm able to do my own-fix-up-to-sell, I might.