varying levels of real estate agents.
 

i've been shopping homes.

it's crazy the different agents i meet and the different levels of selling styles i've come across. i've seen homes that are filthy and truly lived in. you think the agent even tells the seller to hire a cleaner? the spectrum is between fully staged and shiney and clean, to..i can smell what they are cooking for dinner. one open house had the entire family out in the back yard eating lunch on the patio furniture.

makes my head spin.

i think a GREAT agent with a "to-do" list is worth their weight in gold.

how much would you do to sell your home?

I've found that some listing agents don't care. As soon as they get the listing, their work is done. Just sit back and wait for someone else to sell it for you. The exception is if they need the home to sell so that the couple can buy their new home from them. Other times, the agent gives the advice the seller doesn't want to follow it.

Might be renters occupying the house. What a nightmare that would be.

some realtors in Vancouver cannot even be bothered to post pictures of houses. 25 competing offers quite often. no subjects to be removed from contracts.
some of the offers are made sight unseen. heck, some potential buyers haven't even been to the city before, let alone the neighbourhood or house.
buddy's neighbour in the hipster 'hood - Mount Pleasant - just sold for 700,000.00 over asking price. he was flabbergasted. in a good way.

The agent we used to buy our home here in WI was awesome, the one in CA I would have hired the girl with the dragon tattoo for but we had to settle for arbitration and the Realtors board sanction him.

It's not like it is on HGTV. We have sellers who are sick, in financial trouble, going through divorces, or have tenants.

I have some homes that I wait weeks/months waiting for them to get it PERFECT because that's the best strategy. I have other homes where if the lawn can get mowed and the kitty litter scooped out, we're ready for an open house.

If I was only willing to deal with clients who took all my advice, I'd be out of business pretty quick.

used house salespeople = used car dealers
both are useless and will cost you money

Bug the LO about "the status of docs".

rjp

^^^ This was my assumption. Many clients don't perceive realtors as a value-added service, just a necessary evil. If the real estate license requirements were tougher, and all real estate brokers would (if it's legal) demand a $5K or $10K retainer and compete on a track record for their services in a value proposition, clients would take their advice more seriously. The seller has nothing invested in the relationship. How could "seller performance" be anything but bad.

It's the same in investment banking and M&A representation. My firm wins contracts with a high retainer when others presenting are charging just half, or even nothing, upfront. The seller perceives a higher quality service and with an investment in the game perform better throughout the transaction.

Unfortunately, the barrier to entry into being a real estate agent is too low and they're walking all over each other in vast numbers, bringing down the quality and price of their service. This hurts the good ones, like notfarnow.

My wife loves the TV shows about looking for real estate. I would prefer to go to the dentist than watch those shows. She will drive by a house and have to look it up to see what it is listed for and how it looks inside.

She showed me one listing that was laughable at how bad it was. They had to try to make the photos look that bad. There was crap on counters, and on the floor. The lawn need mowing and the spelling errors and grammar errors were stunning. It should have won an award for the worst listing ever.

When I sold in CA back in '08, the homes were either "staged" and empty or, like mine, empty except for a couple of living room pieces and a bedroom set.
Everything was either painted or brand new.
My agent would phone me to vacate for an hour or so...bringing over a client.
Of course, that was back when Bay Area homes were often getting $100k over asking price.
.
On another note -
I auditioned well over a dozen agents until I found one who was truthful.
Example: I would intentionally say something that was made up just to see how they would respond.
I told one agent about what another agent told me -
Agent: "Who told you that?"
Me: "Elliot Mendell from Best Homes agency. Ever heard of him?"
Agent: "Oh, yes I have."
.
I made up the name. Lots of sharks in real estate.
Blah!!!! :mad:

Real estate agents are similar to doctors and lawyers in one narrow regard: The difference between average and excellent is VAST, while the difference between poor and average is small.

The difference is that in real estate sales, I'd say probably 5% of the agents do 80% of the sales. And everyone else lives off of crumbs.

And why do all real estate agents claim to be brokers? They are not. If you have a problem with the way an agent is conducting himself, then write a letter to his or her broker. That agent will be straightened out right quick.

I saw the same thing when I was looking for houses in Georgia. I'd say about 30% of the time, it seemed like the owners put zero effort into the listing. It was weird walking around houses with stained carpet and trashed interiors, with the owners following us around.

I've never sold a house that wasn't immaculately staged. When we sold our first house, which was pretty small, we moved about half of our stuff into a storage space just to make the rooms feel bigger. The house I sold in Georgia, I probably put $500 into cosmetic upgrades (painting, fixing torn window screens, etc.) BEFORE I got advice from the realtor--and we were only in that house for 13 months!

We're selling a brick ranch rental. A realtor went through it and told us all the things we needed to fix to get top dollar. I don't want to sell it for top dollar, what I want is maximum profit. He's not happy that we're not doing some things, but I don't want to invest $10k to increase the selling price by $5k.

This illustrates one of the problems with the compensation system for RE agents. They have a vested interest in getting the highest sale price. Usually this works in the client's favor, but the client is interested in ROI, not top dollar. It bugs me when an agent suggests improvements that don't positively affect ROI and only serve to make the house easier to sell and at a higher price and commission to boot.

Name another occupation where a person with very little training or education can make so much money.



DISCLAIMER: I got my RE license back in 1980, right before Jiminy carter got the interest rates up to near 20%.
No one was buying anything, especially houses.
I did nearly nothing in those three months in the RE biddness but still made almost 4 grand.

Touche'!

^^
Family sold a house in auburn with a real estate agent that has never sold a house in their life. Ironically the house sold over asking within the first week. The agent had little to do with it, it was the property that sold itself.
Personification, but it's true.

We're gonna be looking to sell in a year or three. While I'd like to be moved out and have everything perfect, that ain't gonna happen....

Not even close. You get what you paid for. I pay the full 6% for her service and her and her team is on the ball. Everything is done through telephone, text, or have a record with email. Not to mention she a good looking 30 something blond girl next door. If any problem arises, she would advice me or she would have a chit chat with their lawyer and make sure nothing comes back and bite me in the ass later. No greasy hair used car dealers here. Use a real pro.

Vash, you get all kinds of people out there especially if they know its a seller market. They will do even less. Its like selling a used car, some people wouldn't even wash it and on Craigslist it goes. Just look at those old screwed up early cars, someone will buy it. When I sell something (I don't sell too many things. Last use car I sole was over 15 years ago) I want to make sure it really polished up so people would see it for the first time and say," euuuuuu". That's just me.

How's it going so far?

If you think US realtors are lazy, they are in my experience quite active compared to the good-for-nothings in the UK(but who only take 1.25-1.5% here, but our property prices are much much higher in the UK). Tell them you are looking for a 3 bedroom bungalow with a budget of say £250000 and they will send you details of 2 storey 5 bedroom houses costing £1000000. Want to view a house, you do that seemingly at the realtor's convenience, not yours. They leave signboards up in your front yard for weeks after you have moved in with SOLD plastered all over it. I had to threaten to put the signboard through their storefront to get one multi-branch realtor firm to remove the sign 4 weeks after I moved in.

I've had a great experience using Redfin for my realtor when I bought my SoCal home. I did the research on places and drove around to look at them from the outside and see the neighborhoods. If I felt it warranted a further look, I had no trouble lining up one of their realtors to meet me at the property. They were inexpensive to use, and I had no problems at all.

I had a real good realtor from a small independent brokerage to sell our DC condo. He worked hard and got it sold in a reasonable time for pretty close to asking price. We are good sellers, which I'm sure helped. We completely freshened up the place and moved out before it went on the market. It looked almost brand new.

You can't make a lot of money selling real estate unless you sell a lot of homes. When I meet with potential clients, they never ask me about my education or training, but they almost always ask me how many homes I sell per week/month/year. No one seems to care how much education I have, and they don't mind paying me... as long they feel they can trust me and that I can sell their house.

People who complain about how useless or lazy real estate agents are... usually the most likely to hire a lazy or useless one.

That happens here too. I had one (when I was much younger) that wouldn't even look up houses to view until I was physically in the office! We spent the first 30-45 minutes of every appointment waiting for her to find houses to view. I'd like to say that I dumped her after one appointment, but I was young and didn't know better.

Yes and no... keep in mind that an agent is only going to get a 250-300 "bump" in their gross commission for every extra 10k in sale price. Factor in their split with the brokerage and expenses, and it's likely closer to 160-200 per 10k. They're likely to be more focused on what will help sell quickly.

I also find that a lot of agents watch too much TV, and are much more likely to recommend expensive alternatives for staging and upgrading. It's a lack of experience and know-how. My dad just sold his house in Montreal... his agent told him it needed a new kitchen and new bathrooms. It would have been 30-50k, depending on how fancy he went. He painted the kitchen to freshen it up, adjusted his list price by 25k instead and sold it in a month.

why use their lawyer at 6% of the home price
who's primary loyalty is to the corporate NOT YOU
I simply hire my own lawyer to review the paperwork
1/2 hour on the sale/offer 1/2 hour at the closing costs 500 total
while to use the reality agent costs 12,000 on a 200k sale
and my lawyer is loyal only to me and my interest

the other problem with agents is
they will not deal with by owner sales
at the claimed 3% buyers agent rate
I must have had 20 agents claim they had a eager buyer
but none ever brought one single offer or a buyer to even look
all agents wanted only the LISTING
none will deal with a by owner sale at 3%
so if you use an buyer's agent you will never see by owner homes

I recently sold my parents house. It was their house for over 30 years. The first realtor insisted I gut the kitchen and bathroom and modernize then. She just happened to know a contractor that could do it for 70 or 80K. I told her flat out the house is being sold as is, and fired her before I hired her.

The second realtor insisted the kitchen had to me updated. He was fired.

I stuck a for sale by owner in the front yard. Within two weeks a 20 something kid called. He loved the neighborhood and his grandparents lived a block away. He toured the house and loved the pink and green tile in the bathroom and the kitchen was perfect. I paid a realtor friend of mine a flat $1K to take care of all the contracts and the closing. We closed at a local office and the estate got the check.

Back in the 1980s when I was looking for my first house the one absolute, non-negotiable must have item the house had to have was a garage. The very first house they took me to had the garage converted to living space. I did not even get out of their car. The realtor looked shocked I was so rude as to not look. I told her that unless that house has a garage I will not buy it at any price. They understood then.

because it's a pain in the ass. I am showing 6 homes this evening to an out of town client. I fire off text messages to the listing agents, get confirmations back quickly and easily.

If I throw a FSBO in there, I have to call them and find out if they are willing to work with an agent... they usually aren't. If they will, I have to go meet with them and get a 24hr listing for a 3% commission, which I promise you will be a 1hr apt MINIMUM. Then when I take the buyer through, the seller will want to hang around and tell me how in THIS house, the baseboard trim is glued AND screwed, and their grandfather is a bricklayer and he said it was the best fireplace he'd ever seen YADDA YADDA. So in the middle of 6 other showings @ 20 mins each, my buyer is subjected to a 60min hardcore FSBO pitch on a home they may have walked into for 10 mins and eliminated. When we finally get the FK out of there, you look to your wife and say "That lazy Realtor didn't even say a word the whole time... no way am I paying him 3%"

I didn't need to say anything, because I know my buyer and after 2 mins in the house, I could tell she didn't like it.

Setting up the showing on your FSBO has cost me 2+ hrs, and I work 70hrs a week. But I'm lazy and useless, apparently. I just get real lucky and sell 60 homes a year.

thanks for confirming the agents conspiracy against by owner sales

I see greed as the reason
and to lock out by owner sales

but the fact remains
if you use a buyers agent
you will NOT see non-agent listings

lol, conspiracy? I get paid to sell homes. You've specifically stated that you don't want to pay an agents to sell a home, so you sell it privately. Yet somehow, it's an agent's responsibility to seek YOU out and ask you to pay them otherwise there's a conspiracy.

I'll sell a FSBO, and have sold several. Generally speaking, it's when they call me and ask me to sell it for them. Otherwise it's not really worth my time. All kinds of agents spend their days calling FSBOs, so it's not like the is a hard line drawn.

Interesting. We've just had a couple of open houses this last weekend in our neighborhood, a very pretty place where there has not been much sales activity. Both of the homes, each of which dates from the 1920s, were buffed and staged to the point where the looked like new-construction models. The agents involved told us that doing this is almost a requirement these days, at least for our area, where the price is running for an astonishing $490 per square foot. We've been in our house here for nearly 32 years. Believe me, this number gets our attention.

Equally interesting to us was that the plans of these agents agreed: List the house, then close the offer period after two weeks, let the sellers sort through the offers to find the one they liked the best. The agents both said that offers for well above the listing price were common. Clearly, the market is hotter here that we could have imagined.

I freely admit to conspiring against people who don't see the value I bring to a transaction yet still need my service but don't want to pay. Shame on me and notfarnow for expecting to be paid for our efforts.

Disclaimer: I am not a realtor but have used many in my professional life.

^+1 I'm not a realtor either but live with a good one and help actively. 70-80 hr wks are the norm. Client calls during meals, at 9 pm or 8am all days of the week. So yeah, its a ton of work for a middle class income. Ss far as staging and rehab goes, its about selling quickly. Time on market seriously impacts sellers bottom line not hers.


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I am not an agent, but I rather not deal with for sale by owner and my agent knows that. Most are a pain in the ass, bu t I have bought homes without my agent from home owners before but they are people I know from my street.

Most agents want to deal only with professionals, just like themselves and if they sense any chance of not getting the property, why spend the time doing it? Owners get too attached to their place and sometimes aren't willing deal and get after repairs on time, whereas agents will try and negotiated to get the deal closed. Seller's agent will light a candle under their ass to get the work done or papers signed so they don't lose the deal. To me, its about getting the home, and not mess around. Its a service, and you paid for that.

You don't want to pay for service, that's fine. Buyer's agent must get pay for doing their paper work and their service to their clients. I am sure you have all the knowledge and know how but the buyer do not. That's why they seek professional help. You don't want to pay your 3%, then no one's is going to buy your house. We all need to eat. People always complain about the price on just doing paper work to me. Well, you can't put a price on that.

My wife is a retired realtor and we just sold our Florida winter home. The agent we are using offered us a 5% listing and a further reduction to 4 % if he double ended (sold it himself). We interviewed only 2 agents and set the price 1/2 way between their suggested values. It only has had 3 showings and a full ask offer all cash came in 2 days ago. our agent is doing it for 3% now. Home inspection this Fri.
There is a FSBO down the street who hasn,t had a showing yet, as far as I can tell. We know what we are doing re staging and pricing and still wanted an agent to access the MLS

I don't know where in socal are you. Now,, many agents aren't taking offers on their first open house and they sent all kinds of emails to other agents about a house that's about to come up on the market two to three before it lists on the MLS. Offers are only taken after the second open house but buyers age given a 24 hour dead line after to submit offers. I would hate to be a first time buyer. Homes are listed at 50k lower then market value just to drive the traffic. This happens in some of the hottest areas around here.

I hate this game. Last year, I sold a house to a young man (early 30s) from the the mid west who came out here for the entertainment industry. He was the first to walk through the property before we had a chance to finished with the yard with his agent. This was because my agent put the feeler out in her office. The very same morning they came and made her a verbal offer within 20 minutes of walking the property. I decided to sell it to him. I felt bad because he's not going to get the house if it goes on the MLS due to the bidding war. I might have gotten more for the house, but hey, I did a good deed there.

MLS is the thing they willNOT list a sale by owner on
even if you pay the fee you do NOT get on the real list

as I said before 20+ agents all lied about have willing buyers
all wanted a long exclusive listing ONLY
none was willing to bring by a offer for the 3% I was willing to pay

that is the real reason turf protection
so they steer buyers only to MLS home by other brokers
that not only cheats the sale by owner's
even if they pay to be on the MLS [but are ignored]
but also
the very buyers the agent claims to represent
who are seldom even shown a listing let alone the actual house