Petty Vent - taking input for this Poll - Realtor Gift

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people sound really petty. These realtors if they work for agencies take only a small part of the commission home. Buying a $1.75m house and wining about not getting some small gift makes you sound pathetic.

Every time I see someone post this I feel the need to correct it. The vast majority of realtors keep at least 85% of commission. Many keep more than that up to 100%. The places that pay 85% generally employ new agents, low producing no agents or like compass pay their agents a fee to obligate the agent to stay with them for many years. For a very high dollar even the fee could be $500,000. So when factored into the commission rate those agents generally earn 90%. Insurance typically runs agents $600/ yr. 90% of agents in the us spend less than $1K per year in marketing. 99% spend less than $10K/ yr marketing.

Indeed he amount you pay is almost entirely kept by the agent, even after expenses.

WRONG.

What do you in the real estate business? How long ago was that?

The other thing about commission is that it is BEFORE any taxes (or expenses), this is not what a realtor "keeps".

[Anonymous]

For my first condo my realtor paid for a move in cleaning which I really liked because I had no clue about stuff like that and it was great to start off fresh. Other gifts have been a le creuset casserole and gift card to fancy steak house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought a house for 1.75M.

What would you expect as a closing gift from your Realtor, if anything (we know we're not entitled to a gift, but between us, this is our 5th house and we compared notes on past gifts)?


At closing, our Realtor gave us a gift bag- I didn't want to be awkward and look. When we got home, it was yeti cups and hats branded to the Real Estate Firm.

Early last week Realtor dropped off something at the house. Yippee! It's a Christmas box of chocolates.

Poll on what you would have expected, if anything?
We are waiting on the spring market to sell our old house.

You're right, you do seem very petty.

The bolded quote is everything I need to know about you.

[Anonymous]

We've only bought one house-- a couple years ago, inside the beltway for $600k. So on the low side for this realtor. We really like her and she was wonderful. It never occurred to me that she'd give us a gift, but she did get a home warranty ($500 value) and DH was like, sure, she just made a bunch of money on us. The sellers agent gave us champagne and maybe our agent also gave us something consumable? I actually think I might have gotten HER a small gift, lol! We really appreciated her and I had no idea what the etiquette or expectation was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we got a bottle of champagne at closing... last thanksgiving a costco pie (we have a gluten free house and gave it away)- this year, a gift box of chocolates at christmas time (also gave 90% away due to celiac)

You gave away 90% of a box of chocolates?

Everything was individually wrapped a silly Christmas decorated tower of treats in many boxes with an assortment of things. Makes no difference in my likelihood of recommending the realtor ( have already to multiple people)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people sound really petty. These realtors if they work for agencies take only a small part of the commission home. Buying a $1.75m house and wining about not getting some small gift makes you sound pathetic.

Every time I see someone post this I feel the need to correct it. The vast majority of realtors keep at least 85% of commission. Many keep more than that up to 100%. The places that pay 85% generally employ new agents, low producing no agents or like compass pay their agents a fee to obligate the agent to stay with them for many years. For a very high dollar even the fee could be $500,000. So when factored into the commission rate those agents generally earn 90%. Insurance typically runs agents $600/ yr. 90% of agents in the us spend less than $1K per year in marketing. 99% spend less than $10K/ yr marketing.

Indeed he amount you pay is almost entirely kept by the agent, even after expenses.

WRONG.

What do you in the real estate business? How long ago was that?

The other thing about commission is that it is BEFORE any taxes (or expenses), this is not what a realtor "keeps".

Everyone pays taxes and they do keep the money (and make interest) until they pay it out quarterly. Most real estate agents if they are active and being an agent is their main source of income will pay for internet leads, cell phone, office/desk space, fliers, gasoline for traveling to houses and catering for open houses. High end realtors have higher and more expenses like staging a house but most realtors don't represent million to multimillion dollar properties.

[Anonymous]

OP you're being REALLY petty. I have never expected anything from any realtor after a transaction, and when we've gotten something it's always been a nice surprise.

[Anonymous]

We got something similar at closing. We bought a $2M house that we found ourselves and sold a $1M house in a multi-offer situation. No discounts.

[Anonymous]

Agent here. I give gift cards commensurate with price of house. Say someone buys a $900K house I might give a $200 gift card to Pottery Barn or similar. I don’t sell many $1.7 M houses, but if I did, I would probably at least give a $500 gift card to a nice store or for a service they want.

agents in my office run around every month dropping off tacky things for old clients tgat they often hand back to them.
I would rather give one nice gift when they move in rather than stuff they don’t want.

I assure you they remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agent here. I give gift cards commensurate with price of house. Say someone buys a $900K house I might give a $200 gift card to Pottery Barn or similar. I don’t sell many $1.7 M houses, but if I did, I would probably at least give a $500 gift card to a nice store or for a service they want.

agents in my office run around every month dropping off tacky things for old clients tgat they often hand back to them.
I would rather give one nice gift when they move in rather than stuff they don’t want.

I assure you they remember.

Yes, thank you. It may be petty but people do remember. So that's business and networking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You people sound really petty. These realtors if they work for agencies take only a small part of the commission home. Buying a $1.75m house and wining about not getting some small gift makes you sound pathetic.

What are you talking about? Most people are saying they recieved nice, thoughtful gifts for significantly less than the OP's purchase price. It sounds like they haven't negotiated less commission somewhere (either as buyer or seller) so yeah, I'd be miffed too. Seriously, what's the point of a real estate agent these days? Title company - yes; real estate lawyer/ contract- yes; mortgage company - yes; real estate agent? Questionable. DOJ has an active case on commissions and NAR as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people sound really petty. These realtors if they work for agencies take only a small part of the commission home. Buying a $1.75m house and wining about not getting some small gift makes you sound pathetic.

What are you talking about? Most people are saying they recieved nice, thoughtful gifts for significantly less than the OP's purchase price. It sounds like they haven't negotiated less commission somewhere (either as buyer or seller) so yeah, I'd be miffed too. Seriously, what's the point of a real estate agent these days? Title company - yes; real estate lawyer/ contract- yes; mortgage company - yes; real estate agent? Questionable. DOJ has an active case on commissions and NAR as well.

+1
The title company and RE lawyers are always amazing and efficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we got a bottle of champagne at closing... last thanksgiving a costco pie (we have a gluten free house and gave it away)- this year, a gift box of chocolates at christmas time (also gave 90% away due to celiac)

You gave away 90% of a box of chocolates?

The husband claimed he was going to rewrap and give to their kids' teacher. Turns out he really threw it away, including the one piece DW asked him to save.

[Anonymous]

We received a framed drawing of the home we sold as well as a bottle of champagne. We thought this was thoughtful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we got a bottle of champagne at closing... last thanksgiving a costco pie (we have a gluten free house and gave it away)- this year, a gift box of chocolates at christmas time (also gave 90% away due to celiac)

You gave away 90% of a box of chocolates?

The husband claimed he was going to rewrap and give to their kids' teacher. Turns out he really threw it away, including the one piece DW asked him to save.

haha just gave it to my sister- no regifting.