Most aren't worth it. It is certainly something you can do on your own. However, there are a few out there that are worth their hefty fees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also disagree with the straight percentage based compensation, but as others have said, a good agent should make your life a lot easier. There are a lot of moderately successful agents, the challenge is finding a really good one who brings value to the process and the actual transactions.

We interviewed a Redfin agent, and then an agent from Washington Fine Properties. The WFP agent blew Redfin away and we ended up selling for $15k more than what Redfin thought we could do (in 4 days). That's not bad on a $500k place and justified her standard commission vs. Redfin.

sure yah did

Who's to say that your place wouldn't have sold for more in a bidding war under the redfin agent?

Anonymous wrote:I also disagree with the straight percentage based compensation, but as others have said, a good agent should make your life a lot easier. There are a lot of moderately successful agents, the challenge is finding a really good one who brings value to the process and the actual transactions.

We interviewed a Redfin agent, and then an agent from Washington Fine Properties. The WFP agent blew Redfin away and we ended up selling for $15k more than what Redfin thought we could do (in 4 days). That's not bad on a $500k place and justified her standard commission vs. Redfin.

sure yah did

I also disagree with the straight percentage based compensation, but as others have said, a good agent should make your life a lot easier. There are a lot of moderately successful agents, the challenge is finding a really good one who brings value to the process and the actual transactions.

We interviewed a Redfin agent, and then an agent from Washington Fine Properties. The WFP agent blew Redfin away and we ended up selling for $15k more than what Redfin thought we could do (in 4 days). That's not bad on a $500k place and justified her standard commission vs. Redfin.

Since we're complaining, something else that irks me is how real estate agents slip tons of language into the final sale contract that absolutely shields all the real estate agents from any legal liability, and requires the buyers and sellers to reimburse the real estate agents for any legal fees if anyone does sue them. That's crap. If I'm entering into a contract to buy/sell a house, why do I have any interest in waiving my legal rights against the real estate agents? The real estate agents are not parties to the contract, just the buyers and sellers. So we should be able to strike any language that is designed to protect the real estate agents. If that bothers the real estate agents, and they want to drop us as clients, then fine -- both the buyer and seller can collectively save 6%.

We've been househunting and finding agents are really overstating how hot the market is. One advised that houses on a street were going at $900K and when we researched past sales, it was $600K. The one time we bought with a realtor, we felt she pushed us to bid higher. We had found the house ourselves. We were glad to have guidance on the paperwork but that guidance was nowhere near 3% of the 'value' of the house we bought. And I say 'value' because we really got suckered into bidding too high. Next time we are buying without a realtor.

I 100% that they aren't worth 6%. Not in this market and not on this expensive of homes. If you home is only worth 50k-300k then 6% might be worth their time. But on million dollar homes?? No way. Realtors don't work twice as hard on million dollar homes as they do on 500k homes, so it shouldn't be worth twice as much. This is pure collusion in the market.

Something I also hate is that you have to have a realtor to view homes (unless it's an open house). I would much prefer to negotiate with the actual seller instead of trying to convince an agent to schedule a showing.

They should handle all the scut work, so you don't have to. IMHO, many stink and are not worth the money. It's hard though to find the truly good ones, because so many people will say theirs was good.

Ours could spot all sorts of issues both with the houses and the financing. He was often beyond what his responsibility was, but he'd say: this would be with checking out and point us in the right direction. This is my 5th purchase and I'll do the 6th and 7th with him too. He's a former lender and has bought and refurbished multiple properties so his knowledge set doesn't come from a weekend real estate class.

Ours spent more time trying to get us to pay more than getting the sellers to lower their price. One house we were considering finally sold (after almost two years on the market) for $1.4 million less then asking. We ditched her.

Am asking the same question. Ours hasn't been much help. I wonder how much longer this business model can really stand up.

Ours was an excellent negotiator and got us multiple things - lowered price, all our home inspection Items, etc. She could also read the other side very well and knew most of the agents in the business, so got us details like "the husband is a bit reluctant to sell at all, so it's doubtful they'll accept a lower offer." Versus "they've already bought their new home and need to move on this house; they're doing very well and are probably going to be ok losing money on this house."

Only used the best, who knew and respected timing and money involved in what we were doing.

If you are looking in a very competitive market at houses that receive multiple offers and go very quickly, and some even sell "off market", it's important to have a good, in-the-know agent.

This is our circumstance right now.

With access to the internet now why would you purchase your second home using a real estate agent. I can understand for first-time homebuyers and super busy folks but I don't think the fees are justifiable anymore. For multiple home buyers, why did you use an agent?