Biden admin going after realtors!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. Last night I received seven offers on a moderately priced house in Virginia. Of the seven buyer agents, each was contributing from 1 to 1.5% to the buyer's for closing costs. The buyer who got the house was not giving the buyer any part of his commission. His clients did everything right to get the house from pre-inspection to solid financials and good local lender.

The buyer paid less than the maximum escalated price on two other offers. They both had home inspections, and the seller did not think it was worth the trouble for about a little more money.

Another reason why I won't use agents. The bar to admittance is too low. Too many bored housewives. Too many agents who can't spell (actually had that happen!) and can't express themselves clearly in writing. I find what I want to buy, do comps myself, hire a real estate lawyer from the locale to review the contract (contracts are accessible online) and make my offer. There is no need to have agents involved anymore. I recently saved over $100K on a sale and buy and did not use agents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. Last night I received seven offers on a moderately priced house in Virginia. Of the seven buyer agents, each was contributing from 1 to 1.5% to the buyer's for closing costs. The buyer who got the house was not giving the buyer any part of his commission. His clients did everything right to get the house from pre-inspection to solid financials and good local lender.

The buyer paid less than the maximum escalated price on two other offers. They both had home inspections, and the seller did not think it was worth the trouble for about a little more money.

Another reason why I won't use agents. The bar to admittance is too low. Too many bored housewives. Too many agents who can't spell (actually had that happen!) and can't express themselves clearly in writing. I find what I want to buy, do comps myself, hire a real estate lawyer from the locale to review the contract (contracts are accessible online) and make my offer. There is no need to have agents involved anymore. I recently saved over $100K on a sale and buy and did not use agents.

Spot on, with technology, all this information is available to the buyer. Buyers find their owns homes, can easily find comps, see estimated values from different sources, hire a real estate lawyer, hire an inspector, and etc. No real reason to have a real estate agent.

On the spelling point, omg spot on, there are so many listing I have seen that have poor spelling, are grammatically incorrect and etc. One wonders about the quality of the realtor (vast majority of them) of they don't even take the effort to put the effort into having a proper listing statement/intro with proper spelling and grammar....

[Anonymous]

For the buyer, what concessions do you get for not using a Realtor? Lower price, “agent” fee credited to you? How does that work. Do you present an offer with an online contract?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the buyer, what concessions do you get for not using a Realtor? Lower price, “agent” fee credited to you? How does that work. Do you present an offer with an online contract?

We bought without an agent. It gives the buyer leverage if the seller's realtor agreement stipulates that they only pay the seller's agent fee. Even if their contract stipulates that they pay the whole commission to the seller's realtor, they can negotiate with their realtor to take just the 2% or whatever they would have received if the buyers had an agent. It's less money the seller has to pay in commissions so they could take a lower sales price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody is stopping people from selling on Facebook marketplace, FSBO etc…

Agents steer buyers away from these listings.

Sources were provided earlier in this thread. This Canadian investigation is noteworthy; the practice is a product of the buyer broker commissions at issue:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-real-estate-agents-1.6209706

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kind of posts annoy me. If the realtors lobby still think that they can protect 5-6% commission slashing to 1-2% then good luck with that. Most overpriced and under educated profession.

Agreed, literally need to have no qualifications to get a realtors license, do negligeable amount of work, and yet expect to get paid 2.5-3 percent of the sale price of a home. The idea that someone without a college degree (or at least a degree from a decent ie top 100 college) who does a few hours of work in aggregate for a deal expects that they deserve or can expect to get paid as much as they do is irritating, to say the least. With the advent of technology, people find their own homes, so that part is now done, so I really fail to see the value of a realtor nowadays.

All this being said, I do wonder whether this ruling may have unintended consequences for people (specifically on the buying side).

It will have unintended consequences for people who likely need the most help. Agents who work with poorer people or immigrants who do not understand US laws and language need genuine help from agents. As many have pointed out, the more educated can do it themselves. People say have the buyer roll the buyer agent commission into the mortgage, but Fannie and Freddie do not permit that and the bulk of the mortgages/trust in the US use Fannie and Freddie guidelines. I think the ultimate result will be a listing agent who is paid 1 to 2% to show buyers houses and write offers for them so that they don't have to pay a buyer's agent. The buyers will have no representation and the seller's will have minimal representation. This is a model that works well already in other businesses so there is no reason not to apply it to buying or selling a home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. Last night I received seven offers on a moderately priced house in Virginia. Of the seven buyer agents, each was contributing from 1 to 1.5% to the buyer's for closing costs. The buyer who got the house was not giving the buyer any part of his commission. His clients did everything right to get the house from pre-inspection to solid financials and good local lender.

The buyer paid less than the maximum escalated price on two other offers. They both had home inspections, and the seller did not think it was worth the trouble for about a little more money.

Another reason why I won't use agents. The bar to admittance is too low. Too many bored housewives. Too many agents who can't spell (actually had that happen!) and can't express themselves clearly in writing. I find what I want to buy, do comps myself, hire a real estate lawyer from the locale to review the contract (contracts are accessible online) and make my offer. There is no need to have agents involved anymore. I recently saved over $100K on a sale and buy and did not use agents.

Spot on, with technology, all this information is available to the buyer. Buyers find their owns homes, can easily find comps, see estimated values from different sources, hire a real estate lawyer, hire an inspector, and etc. No real reason to have a real estate agent.

On the spelling point, omg spot on, there are so many listing I have seen that have poor spelling, are grammatically incorrect and etc. One wonders about the quality of the realtor (vast majority of them) of they don't even take the effort to put the effort into having a proper listing statement/intro with proper spelling and grammar....

Agree with you abuot agents, but you are not the person to teach them spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody is stopping people from selling on Facebook marketplace, FSBO etc…

Agent here, I get houses all the time for people whose owners are selling on ListServs or Military by Owner. The latter is really good because most of the owners are out of the area and trying to sell houses with tenants in them. They are willing to take deep discounts to deal with the tenants. If you are looking for houses, Military by Owners is a very good resource for discounted housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. Last night I received seven offers on a moderately priced house in Virginia. Of the seven buyer agents, each was contributing from 1 to 1.5% to the buyer's for closing costs. The buyer who got the house was not giving the buyer any part of his commission. His clients did everything right to get the house from pre-inspection to solid financials and good local lender.

The buyer paid less than the maximum escalated price on two other offers. They both had home inspections, and the seller did not think it was worth the trouble for about a little more money.

Fun!

I just closed on a moderately priced home in Virginia for below the listing price. Didn’t use a buyer’s agent, and negotiated a seller’s credit for the 2.5%. Had an inspection contingency, and used Rocket Mortgage. Still got the house I wanted, so I guess I did something right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody is stopping people from selling on Facebook marketplace, FSBO etc…

Agent here, I get houses all the time for people whose owners are selling on ListServs or Military by Owner. The latter is really good because most of the owners are out of the area and trying to sell houses with tenants in them. They are willing to take deep discounts to deal with the tenants. If you are looking for houses, Military by Owners is a very good resource for discounted housing.

Gouging active duty and vets to close a speedy deal. Stay classy, realtors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. Last night I received seven offers on a moderately priced house in Virginia. Of the seven buyer agents, each was contributing from 1 to 1.5% to the buyer's for closing costs. The buyer who got the house was not giving the buyer any part of his commission. His clients did everything right to get the house from pre-inspection to solid financials and good local lender.

The buyer paid less than the maximum escalated price on two other offers. They both had home inspections, and the seller did not think it was worth the trouble for about a little more money.

Fun!

I just closed on a moderately priced home in Virginia for below the listing price. Didn’t use a buyer’s agent, and negotiated a seller’s credit for the 2.5%. Had an inspection contingency, and used Rocket Mortgage. Still got the house I wanted, so I guess I did something right.

Proving the point. Finding the right motivated seller you can get a better deal. Rocket Mortgage was a good choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody is stopping people from selling on Facebook marketplace, FSBO etc…

Agent here, I get houses all the time for people whose owners are selling on ListServs or Military by Owner. The latter is really good because most of the owners are out of the area and trying to sell houses with tenants in them. They are willing to take deep discounts to deal with the tenants. If you are looking for houses, Military by Owners is a very good resource for discounted housing.

Gouging active duty and vets to close a speedy deal. Stay classy, realtors.

Read again, sweetie. Military By Owner is a FSBO website for the military. As I wrote they are trying to sell houses with tenants living in them and it is difficult to do so because of showing requirements and generally uncooperative tenants with poor housekeeping. They are advertising because they want to sell the house at a discount because it is cheaper than getting rid of the tenants, fixing up the house, going at least two months without rental income. This way, the tenant moves on a Tuesday, and the settlement is on a Thursday. No muss, no fuss. No gouging involved. It's not the gouging you do when you try to sell your MLM crap to housewives in your hood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. Last night I received seven offers on a moderately priced house in Virginia. Of the seven buyer agents, each was contributing from 1 to 1.5% to the buyer's for closing costs. The buyer who got the house was not giving the buyer any part of his commission. His clients did everything right to get the house from pre-inspection to solid financials and good local lender.

The buyer paid less than the maximum escalated price on two other offers. They both had home inspections, and the seller did not think it was worth the trouble for about a little more money.

Another reason why I won't use agents. The bar to admittance is too low. Too many bored housewives. Too many agents who can't spell (actually had that happen!) and can't express themselves clearly in writing. I find what I want to buy, do comps myself, hire a real estate lawyer from the locale to review the contract (contracts are accessible online) and make my offer. There is no need to have agents involved anymore. I recently saved over $100K on a sale and buy and did not use agents.

That's what I do. I am usually more knowledgable on what I am looking for and the things I need to get the deal/s done. I usually don't hire them or just pay them 1% commission and they share the rest with me. It is happening more often than we realize.