New Commission -3%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who would want to be a realtor anymore?

1% of $1,000,000 is still $10,000! After a split with the broker (assume 75%), you do 1-2 a month and you can make $100,000 a year with a job that only requires a high school diploma. Being an agent is about networking and who you know, not what you know.

- former agent

This. As much as real estate agents and their fees annoy me, I recognize that our society still needs to find ways to employ the less educated. Otherwise we'll get a collection of underemployed morons storming the capitol again.

Nope, they can go fill the positions in retail, food service and hospitality that have a shortage of workers.

[Anonymous]

Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not necessarily relevant to lowering home prices, but good in lowering the transaction costs from people’s most expensive purchase of their lives, through injecting more competition into the industry

It’s a huge win for consumers. The ridiculous commissions take a huge chunk from sellers and buyers. Those funds could be used toward retirement or college.

It will probably also cause a bump in supply. The high realtor commissions really keep people who might downsize or upsize in their existing home.

We’re a perfect example. Our youngest is a senior. We are in a desirable house in a great school district. Families wait years renting to get a house here. Even during market slow downs there are bidding wars. We saw a house that we loved that was conservatively about 400K less than our existing home. It was in a cool area but crappy schools which would have been fine for us WTH grown kids. However, 6% of our existing home would be 180K. We decided to stay put rather than fork over close to 200K to realtors who do nothing. If Redfin comes out with 2% and the selling cost was 60 K then we probably would have done it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who would want to be a realtor anymore?

1% of $1,000,000 is still $10,000! After a split with the broker (assume 75%), you do 1-2 a month and you can make $100,000 a year with a job that only requires a high school diploma. Being an agent is about networking and who you know, not what you know.

- former agent

This. As much as real estate agents and their fees annoy me, I recognize that our society still needs to find ways to employ the less educated. Otherwise we'll get a collection of underemployed morons storming the capitol again.

Nope, they can go fill the positions in retail, food service and hospitality that have a shortage of workers.

Exactly. The idea that adding unnecessary costs to transactions is the best way to employ people is very bad economics. It's a version of the economics "broken window fallacy" (not to be confused with the 90s policing concept of "broken window theory")

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking to sell my house in Fairfax. It is $1M+ and spoke with a few agents. I have been quoted 3% total commission for buyer and seller agent by 4 different relators. I mean it's great but is this the trend anyone else is seeing as well?

In gaithersburg and not seeing it. I’ve interviewed some agents and they have been 4.5-5%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers. [/quote]

Oh no who will I pay my extra 6% to, on a home I found online through a simple search, and toured myself, and filled in the ten simple blanks on the sales contract myself?

Get over yourself. If you add so much value, prove it and people who need the extra service will pay for it. Thank God the cartel was broken so we aren't all forced to pay for "service" we neither desire nor need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers.

Oh bull. Let’s say his price point is 2 M which would give you 60k commission. 60K for one weekends work is still insane. Bullshit on your prescreening. Inventory is not that high. You looked on ML.s, printed out some sheets and stuck them in a folder. This is about all there is to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers.

well maybe that means there will be less buyers, not a problem for me actually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers.

Thanks for your concern, but I think we will be ok.

[Anonymous]

Here are interesting paragraphs from WSJ on change in R/E commissions:

If the settlement is approved by a federal court, listings of homes for sale in most parts of the country would no longer include upfront offers to buyers’ agents starting in mid-July, and buyers would be able to negotiate compensation upfront with their agents. The settlement money will be distributed to recent home sellers nationwide.

Buyers are likely to be more price conscious when selecting an agent and might opt to save money by not using an agent at all, or by paying their agent a smaller fee in exchange for limited services. For example, a buyer could pay an agent to put together an offer and review an inspection report, but not to accompany the buyer on home tours.

The changes also require many real-estate agents that work with buyers to sign agreements with their clients about what services they will provide and how much they will be paid.

If fewer buyers use their own agents, that could push some agents out of the industry and lead to a decline in NAR’s membership. NAR has 1.5 million members, known as Realtors. Ryan Tomasello, a real-estate industry analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, has predicted that the lawsuits could eventually lead to a 30% reduction in the $100 billion that Americans pay annually in real-estate commissions and reduce Realtor head count by more than half.

The new commission structure could pose challenges for first-time buyers and others who are struggling to save for a down payment. Because the buyer’s agent’s commission has long been baked into the sale price, the buyer was able to finance that cost over the length of the mortgage instead of having to pay it upfront at the closing table.

Going forward, sellers can still offer to compensate buyers’ agents, but in most markets they won’t be able to put those offers in the home listing. If buyers don’t want to pay for their agents out of pocket, they could ask for the seller to cover the cost of the buyer’s agent. Sellers are less likely to agree to that in a hot housing market, however.

It is possible that little changes for consumers in the near term because many sellers are used to including the cost of a buyer’s agent in their sale price. But over time, new brokerage business models could emerge that make it easier for buyers to choose low-cost options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers.

Oh bull. Let’s say his price point is 2 M which would give you 60k commission. 60K for one weekends work is still insane. Bullshit on your prescreening. Inventory is not that high. You looked on ML.s, printed out some sheets and stuck them in a folder. This is about all there is to do.

Yes, loving the idea that it takes incredible skill to seach mls. It is an unskilled job that has been paying way to much for too long. I will pay $35 an hour for your time, and if you don’t want to do it, there are plenty others willing and able to take your place.

[Anonymous]

i just did a little math. my daughter recently sold and bought a house.

her house sold in 3 days with no staging or other make ready help from the realtor, and they found the one they wanted to buy on their own. realtor opened 2 houses for them.

realtor made about 24K for that. ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

I'd be fine with being billed hourly, like a lawyer or interior designer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i just did a little math. my daughter recently sold and bought a house.

her house sold in 3 days with no staging or other make ready help from the realtor, and they found the one they wanted to buy on their own. realtor opened 2 houses for them.

realtor made about 24K for that. ridiculous!

Yup- when we bought our house we went to a few open houses the first weekend, without hiring a buyers agent yet. One of them checked all our boxes, so we decided to just make an offer without hiring an agent. I contacted the sellers agent, had them send the contract form, filled in the blanks and signed via Docusign, and sent it back. I already had a preapproval letter so just got our mortgage banker going on the mortgage side. I found a good inspector from a friend, got him scheduled, and got all that done in the next 2 weeks. We closed 2 weeks later, and I stupidly realized that the sellers agent was taking the entire 5% commission, and I could have asked for probably $10k of it to be credited to me, and they would have said yes because they would still come out ahead versus having to split with a buyers agent.

But I still didn't need any assistance from a buyers agent, and it was 2 open houses on a Sat and Sun by the sellers agent. Could have all been handled for $5k instead of 5%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big benefit for sellers. Huge downside for buyers. Example- I have a west coast client looking “in Arlington and DC”. He was in town last weekend and I showed him 16 properties over two days- from Brentwood to Shaw to Congress Heights. I spent a ton of time assembling and pre screening the properties. Am I going to work with another client like him anymore? Nope. Now he can arrange showings with 16 separate listing agents, and the listing agents can figure out who is going to write his offer and represent his interests.

Or he can hire an agent willing to work hourly. And this will be newer agents who have no clue what they are doing. Trust me I am trying to make a purchase in another state and the agent I was referred to is so useless. So he can pay hourly for his nouveau agent or not have an agent at all.

It’s already hard enough for buyers these days. This is a massive blow to homebuyers.

This is strange. Shouldn’t someone like that be attending open houses?