Reply to Why do we need a real estate agent?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agents are exceptionally useless and poorly regulated, and you can certainly get the selling agent to return some of the fee if the alternative is not making the sale. (If you had an agent, the seller's agent would get only 3%, so it is massively in the selling agent's interest to give you 2% back then to sell to a buyer with an agent).

With that being said, you're a first time homebuyer buying at a high price point. I would consider at least using redrin, or using a normal realtor and squeezing him or her on the commission. [/quote]

This is idiotic advice. As a buyer you have no say in the seller's commission, although it would be fun to see the seller's agent laugh at the suggestion.

That said, using redfine or asking a buyers agent to rebate some of their commission is fine. But with all things, you get what you pay for, so you may end up paying more for a home in order to "save" $1,000 or less on a commission.[/quote]

+1.  especially in this market. in a buyer's market, when a house can sit a long time with no offers, I can see a seller's agent  accept to lower the commission to make a sale happen (but I wonder if this would be convenient for a buyer, maybe the house is sitting on the market because it is overpriced or has other problems, so is the buyer going to benefit? - we got our home for 50K less than the original asking price, after it had been on the market ofr a month an a half in a desirable neighborhood in 2010 - getting 1% or 2% from the seller's agent would not have helped us as much as our agent's advice in getting the price down so much)

in a seller's market like the one in DC today, even in OP's price point, this is laughable. homes sell with multiple offers within days of listing. try call an agent busy reviewing offers with the seller and tell her you are ready to pay $1.3M but need her to get up and open teh door of the home because you do not have an agent, and you will see the answer. there was a thread a while ago by an OP who was an attorney about this exact scenario. he kept saying that he had money and was a serious buyer but that seller's agents would not even return his calls to set up an apt to see homes. some sellers responded to him and told him plainly that the market was in their favor and that would not want their agents to waste time with random buyers. when you have 5 serious offers, some with no contingencies (a friend lost a $900K home to a cash offer with no contingencies last spring), you do not waste time with a random guy who does not even bother getting an agent.

if the market cools down, maybe it will be easier going solo. but at OP's price point, and given her lack of experience, I would not go solo, she is risking to make expensive mistake in exchange of no gains (or minimal gains)[/quote]

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