That sucks

Some people suck. Especially in this case artists don't charge by the hour.... and his commission also isn't hourly.

Fortunately it was a relatively cheap lesson and has probably saved you exponentially more since.

Learn those lessons young so I don't ever do it to someone else. I also learn at a young age that good service must be compensated. You build custom homes and I hear this daily from many people complaining doing thing right and on time is a thing of the past in our country. I say no, no, no, they are just too cheap to pay for it. They want to pay the price of a straw hut but expect a castle. same as in real estate, the knowledge, advice to avoid law suits in the long run is worth its weight in gold.

That sounds like a great attorney.

Reminds me of this james sexton interview.

https://youtu.be/fUEjCXpOjPY?si=lDAXfl-Mm1wOVkW1

Like it or not if the buyer is too cheap to pay his agent what theyre worth the agent he ‘uses’ will be paid by the seller using the buyers money.

Tell me the seller isnt motivated if buyer lets them keep that buyers commission.

I don''t understand all the talk about terrific agents that will say you more money than they cost you. How? The location and house are going to be the driving factor in whether it sells or not. If you are unrealistic in your asking price it will not sell no matter what agent you have.
Absolutely no way I am paying someone 200K to sell my house now that I have options

I'll try. When I sold my SC house my agent told me *not* to replace my ancient AC.. instead, we got a written estimate on what it would cost to replace it. Then, every time the unit came up in negotiations, the answer was, "this is what it would cost, and it's been factored into the selling price.' He also brought a lot of expertise on the market. He priced the house for $60,000 more than every other agent I consulted, and we got it.

Real Estate agents are like lawyers. It's not that you don't need a really good one. It's that so many suck. I mean, just because you can argue before the Supreme Court doesn't mean you have any business doing so.

How did you or we come up with 200k? 6% of a mil is? Even at 2 mil, its "only" 120k. I get it, most of our homes, normal 1500' are worth 1.5 to 2 mil today in a decent area of socal. If you bought 10 years ago, you are sitting pretty when you sell so off set that and give a chink to your agent instead of paying the gov to house the homeless or whatever the F they do with it. I know, I know, there's the 1031 exchange and so on and so forth. Still There are good and bad one like every business.

I even use an agent for some of my higher price rentals. If you ask me, she doesn't do much but host an open house for a couple hours and pick the ones she think its a good fit. Check them out once back in her office or home and hands them over to me for a meeting. Doesn't the rental agreement from us, and done. She picks up 5k for just that. Better her then me because I am tired of driving out in traffic to meet them and no show happens often. service I am more then happy to pay for.

You are in charge of every aspect of the transaction. You say one agent said ask more and you got more. You made the choice of what to ask for the house. So one says ask 60K more and that was worth it? One said don't replace the AC and that came up. Not sure where you are going with this but giving up 6% of an asset for advice. Go right ahead if you want but they are only provide advice and a service. It is still not worth 200K worth of advice or service to me, especially when I hold the asset they want assist in selling.
If I'm sitting on a house for ten years I am still paying mortgage, interest, property tax, insurance and maintenance. If you want to give your money away because you always have done it that way please feel free to but I am glad I have more options now.
I think flat fees will end up eventually being the way houses are bought and sold

Flat fee. Maybe? Who would wants to drive the final offer price up? Just sell the house fast, made the deal stick and off to the next one or price below market and sell it.

No one mentioned the 6% (many are at 5%) fees that comes from the seller has already been factored into the formula and it should be understood that it must be paid upon close of escrow. There's no surprise there. Factor that into the selling price and if it goes over asking, be it. The agent helps drive or negotiate that at with the seller's agent so they should be compensated accordingly sticking to the percentage.

Commercial building's sales percentage fees are much lower due to its high transaction number.

There are lots of flat/low fee brokers near me, and probably you too. The trick is, can they get your house on the MLS? The MLS is what gets houses sold.

I've bought exactly one house.... and was very glad to have a good RE agent walk me through the process

Think 6% was fair, but that was on a $110k price.... When I have to sell mom's place (many years from now I hope) I don't think anyone will be doing $60k of work to do the job, especially when I know that I have several "make a phone call and wait for the check" buyers who have expressed interest and continue to do so....

I kind of feel that way about my folks' house. But then I live 2500 miles away and it'd be worth some money to me to not have to spend weeks or months away from my home and work to get that house sold.

I have no problem paying for services or for things I don't want or can't do. When I was buying houses I never cared about the commission or fees but now that I am potentially selling them I am paying a lot more attention.
I have found real estate agents to be competent but I have yet to be in a situation were I have said thank God I had that real estate agent!
The last home I bought we paid full asking, all cash with no contingencies subject to home inspection. The seller originally wanted a two week Escro and ended up staying for two months. We agreed at the end of that that we would close and he could rent the place back from me. All of this was accomplished with a few E-mails. The house sold before it went on the MLS. I know what he paid in fees and I do not think he got good value for his money.

If they are legit. lic agents, even part timers, they can get it on the MLS. There has been many agents approach me over the years when our houses were under construction. Somehow they know and was able to dig through some info. Many offer to sell our place at 4% and I always turn them down each and every time. Our houses sells by themselves along with staging which help new owners visualize what they can do with furniture and decorations. Instead, I always go back to my agent even through she's at 6%. There's a certain amount of trust I place on large sums of money transactions.

I may have told this story before? I am loyal to my agent and she is to us. About 8 years ago, we sold a house in Echo Park, oh yeah, I know what those hipsters want and like. We added sq' and pitched the roof from a little flat roof Spanish and wrapped a deck around the house. Before we had a chance to finish the landscape and in the process of finishing the deck, she wanted to put the word out for other sales folks in her office so they can notify their clients. Within 10 min, she calls me asking if it was Ok for one of the agent in her office to bring by a potential client. I played dumb and was screwing handrails on the steps. That buyer wanted the house really badly and was asking for to write the offer without the yard work to be completed. It was higher then my expected payout. Within 10 min, I was on the phone with my agent getting paper work done. We talked about if it was listed on the MLS and how much more would it be driven up beyond my expected amount. She think another 30-35k. Once the close of escrow, I wrote a check for the 6% of the 30k to my gent. I didn't want her to lose out on the money because it could have sold it for a bit more. I know, dumb but it was the right thing to do. She has brought me a bunch of homes over the years. We stopped doing this for about 12-14 years now.

That sounds great for her. Glad everything works and both of you are happy.

The indy p-car fixer is about 1.5x shop labor rate compared to the really good indy asian import fixer ...

We can go on and on about tips, labor, hourly rate, salary, commission and bonuses. Neither you pay it or do it yourself or try and get it wholesale. yet, we like to play with expensive cars.

Here’s one to ponder: if you set the asking price too high, you generally end up netting less than if it was correctly priced at the start.

When I retired and we moved to SC, we sold our northern VA house (a small rambler on a large lot with location, location, location) to a builder who paid our asking price. No realtor fee, no guarantees, no open house, settle when you want, etc, take anything out that you want (appliances, etc). If the neighbors want to dig up the azaleas, have at it. He tore it down, built a McMansion which he had sold before completion. This was in 2012. It was perfect for us.