Steve wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which site is yours?

+1 it seems like the pp is writing from zillow's perspective?

Zillow lets buyers search for homes but
Knockity.com lets the homes search for buyers.

This looks interesting. Does the website charge sellers to search?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of anger out there towards realtors and many people seem to believe the 6 percent is ridiculous and undeserved. It's only a matter of time before a better "product" is offered. I doubt many would have predicted uber or dollar shave club. These companies are successful because a vast majority of the population was frustrated with taxi service and sick and tired of paying too much for razors. I personally would jump all over an opportunity to avoid paying 6 percent. My parents have sold multiple properties without a realtor but have always had the benefit of time.

Bottom line is the Internet has been a game changer. Real estate agents were a necessity in order for access to knowledge. Now anyone can research comps and find a home. One of my relatives is an older and very successful realtor and said it is only a matter of time. My relative also was making close to 500k a year selling real estate, which I find ridiculous.

I've found each home I've purchased on my own and simply don't believe the agent worked hard enough or brought something special to the table to earn tens of thousands of dollars from each sale. No way.

I think you're confusing the two or three people who post here incessantly with "a lot of anger out there."

There's not.

New poster here. Yes there is. People have similar feelings towards realtors that they have towards lawyers (or worse).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin? Probably never. It's been how long, they have under 1% of the market, are not profitable, and will go the way of pets.com shortly.

Doesn't mean that this market won't change drastically - maybe google has something in store. Or amazon. But housing is not a commodity market.

I'll answer a different way - real estate sales will change 10 years after car sales change, and I have no confidence that will be while I or my kids are alive.

Uh, the last two cars I bought, I negotiated with 10-15 dealers via email and it was a bidding war to get the lowest price so they'd win my business. Plus, with the internet, I could research exactly what a rational price would be.

WAY different from when I purchased cars in the past. Have you not bought a car lately? Because it really sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

This is how I purchased my last two cars too!! I reviewed all the inventory and came down to two vehicles j could live with (both used). Told each dealer about the others car and asked them both for their best offers. I only went into the dealership when the price was already negotiated. Just needed to sign docs and drive away.

You must like real shit buckets, the cars I always like are always out of stock or need to be custom ordered.

Wow, pp. just wow. This is how you go through life. That's pretty sad.

I don't think our crv or pilot would be considered "shit buckets". Certainly not with the highest trim levels, but to each their own.

Try some mindful meditation next year. It could help adjust your attitude.

Anonymous wrote:There seems to be a lot of anger out there towards realtors and many people seem to believe the 6 percent is ridiculous and undeserved. It's only a matter of time before a better "product" is offered. I doubt many would have predicted uber or dollar shave club. These companies are successful because a vast majority of the population was frustrated with taxi service and sick and tired of paying too much for razors. I personally would jump all over an opportunity to avoid paying 6 percent. My parents have sold multiple properties without a realtor but have always had the benefit of time.

Bottom line is the Internet has been a game changer. Real estate agents were a necessity in order for access to knowledge. Now anyone can research comps and find a home. One of my relatives is an older and very successful realtor and said it is only a matter of time. My relative also was making close to 500k a year selling real estate, which I find ridiculous.

I've found each home I've purchased on my own and simply don't believe the agent worked hard enough or brought something special to the table to earn tens of thousands of dollars from each sale. No way.

I think you're confusing the two or three people who post here incessantly with "a lot of anger out there."

There's not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does no one in the DC region offer flat fee brokerages? When I lived in Florida a few years ago, I used a fairly known flat fee realtor from another part of the state. The way it works is that his brokerage was totally licensed. I paid him something like $350, and there was also a clause that said that the buyer's agent had to pay another $350 to him. I offered her 2.5% I believe. I had my own photos taken for $175 and wrote the listing myself. Not hard to use Zillow for comps. For the flat fee, he posted the listing on the MLS and associated it with a brokerage - so it looks legit enough to other agents. Our house was well cared for and recently renovated, and I watch enough HGTV to know how to "stage" for selling. No surprise, we were under contract at asking on the first day. This worked well for me because I worked from home at the time, so easy to do open houses. The house sold for around $1m - so I saved a huge chunk of cash. We used an attorney for closing (very common in florida) so felt like I was covered for contract purposes.

All that said, when we were moving back to DC, we used an agent remotely to go check stuff out for us. We wouldn't have been able to buy without her help since we didn't want to come up for every house. She totally earned the 3% on that $1m house.

So do those types of flat fee brokers not exist here? They're not for everyone, but it sure worked for us.

zillow will give you the sales price so you can use it for comps...

Usually delayed and rarely do you get enough information to really make an apples-to-apples. I mean, good luck with it, but oy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which site is yours?

+1 it seems like the pp is writing from zillow's perspective?

Zillow lets buyers search for homes but
Knockity.com lets the homes search for buyers.

There seems to be a lot of anger out there towards realtors and many people seem to believe the 6 percent is ridiculous and undeserved. It's only a matter of time before a better "product" is offered. I doubt many would have predicted uber or dollar shave club. These companies are successful because a vast majority of the population was frustrated with taxi service and sick and tired of paying too much for razors. I personally would jump all over an opportunity to avoid paying 6 percent. My parents have sold multiple properties without a realtor but have always had the benefit of time.

Bottom line is the Internet has been a game changer. Real estate agents were a necessity in order for access to knowledge. Now anyone can research comps and find a home. One of my relatives is an older and very successful realtor and said it is only a matter of time. My relative also was making close to 500k a year selling real estate, which I find ridiculous.

I've found each home I've purchased on my own and simply don't believe the agent worked hard enough or brought something special to the table to earn tens of thousands of dollars from each sale. No way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does no one in the DC region offer flat fee brokerages? When I lived in Florida a few years ago, I used a fairly known flat fee realtor from another part of the state. The way it works is that his brokerage was totally licensed. I paid him something like $350, and there was also a clause that said that the buyer's agent had to pay another $350 to him. I offered her 2.5% I believe. I had my own photos taken for $175 and wrote the listing myself. Not hard to use Zillow for comps. For the flat fee, he posted the listing on the MLS and associated it with a brokerage - so it looks legit enough to other agents. Our house was well cared for and recently renovated, and I watch enough HGTV to know how to "stage" for selling. No surprise, we were under contract at asking on the first day. This worked well for me because I worked from home at the time, so easy to do open houses. The house sold for around $1m - so I saved a huge chunk of cash. We used an attorney for closing (very common in florida) so felt like I was covered for contract purposes.

All that said, when we were moving back to DC, we used an agent remotely to go check stuff out for us. We wouldn't have been able to buy without her help since we didn't want to come up for every house. She totally earned the 3% on that $1m house.

So do those types of flat fee brokers not exist here? They're not for everyone, but it sure worked for us.

zillow will give you the sales price so you can use it for comps...

Anonymous wrote:Does no one in the DC region offer flat fee brokerages? When I lived in Florida a few years ago, I used a fairly known flat fee realtor from another part of the state. The way it works is that his brokerage was totally licensed. I paid him something like $350, and there was also a clause that said that the buyer's agent had to pay another $350 to him. I offered her 2.5% I believe. I had my own photos taken for $175 and wrote the listing myself. Not hard to use Zillow for comps. For the flat fee, he posted the listing on the MLS and associated it with a brokerage - so it looks legit enough to other agents. Our house was well cared for and recently renovated, and I watch enough HGTV to know how to "stage" for selling. No surprise, we were under contract at asking on the first day. This worked well for me because I worked from home at the time, so easy to do open houses. The house sold for around $1m - so I saved a huge chunk of cash. We used an attorney for closing (very common in florida) so felt like I was covered for contract purposes.

All that said, when we were moving back to DC, we used an agent remotely to go check stuff out for us. We wouldn't have been able to buy without her help since we didn't want to come up for every house. She totally earned the 3% on that $1m house.

So do those types of flat fee brokers not exist here? They're not for everyone, but it sure worked for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin hasn't had nearly the success disrupting the real estate industry as Uber has had on the taxi industry. I mean, 10 years in it can't even get more than 3% market share in its home market of Seattle.

Besides, Redfin appears to be little more than a pyramid scheme to go public and enrich early investors. I don't see a sustainable business model. Mainly because they keep changing the model like every two weeks.

So the short answer is I don't think we'll see disintermediation of the real estate industry anytime soon.

Thanks, realtor. Change is inevitable.

Not a Realtor. Just someone in business who studies this sort of thing. But it's such a clever retort, calling people who disagree with you Realtors.

Look, digital has had disruptive effects on many industries...

1) Car buying. Auto dealers as we know it are nearly gone.
2) Taxi services. Uber.
3) Banking and capital markets have been transformed.
4) Insurance, etc.

But, no, not real estate. Redfin will launch its IPO and then slowly drift down in value as it misses earnings target after earnings target.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin? Probably never. It's been how long, they have under 1% of the market, are not profitable, and will go the way of pets.com shortly.

Doesn't mean that this market won't change drastically - maybe google has something in store. Or amazon. But housing is not a commodity market.

I'll answer a different way - real estate sales will change 10 years after car sales change, and I have no confidence that will be while I or my kids are alive.

Uh, the last two cars I bought, I negotiated with 10-15 dealers via email and it was a bidding war to get the lowest price so they'd win my business. Plus, with the internet, I could research exactly what a rational price would be.

WAY different from when I purchased cars in the past. Have you not bought a car lately? Because it really sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

This is how I purchased my last two cars too!! I reviewed all the inventory and came down to two vehicles j could live with (both used). Told each dealer about the others car and asked them both for their best offers. I only went into the dealership when the price was already negotiated. Just needed to sign docs and drive away.

You must like real shit buckets, the cars I always like are always out of stock or need to be custom ordered.

Does no one in the DC region offer flat fee brokerages? When I lived in Florida a few years ago, I used a fairly known flat fee realtor from another part of the state. The way it works is that his brokerage was totally licensed. I paid him something like $350, and there was also a clause that said that the buyer's agent had to pay another $350 to him. I offered her 2.5% I believe. I had my own photos taken for $175 and wrote the listing myself. Not hard to use Zillow for comps. For the flat fee, he posted the listing on the MLS and associated it with a brokerage - so it looks legit enough to other agents. Our house was well cared for and recently renovated, and I watch enough HGTV to know how to "stage" for selling. No surprise, we were under contract at asking on the first day. This worked well for me because I worked from home at the time, so easy to do open houses. The house sold for around $1m - so I saved a huge chunk of cash. We used an attorney for closing (very common in florida) so felt like I was covered for contract purposes.

All that said, when we were moving back to DC, we used an agent remotely to go check stuff out for us. We wouldn't have been able to buy without her help since we didn't want to come up for every house. She totally earned the 3% on that $1m house.

So do those types of flat fee brokers not exist here? They're not for everyone, but it sure worked for us.

I think Zillow could change the market quickly by offering an auction service, sort of like ebay for houses. They have the eyeballs, and an auction format will ensure the most accurate price for each house. The only piece they're missing is some mechanism to show the houses to live people. Maybe the answer is for Zillow to partner with Redfin. Redfin will get a piece of lots more listings, and they can be responsible for running the open houses and staging and such. Maybe Redfin gets paid on an hourly basis for the service of open house, and staging, and advice on how to present house for sale, while Zillow gets a small commission on the sale for providing the platform.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin? Probably never. It's been how long, they have under 1% of the market, are not profitable, and will go the way of pets.com shortly.

Doesn't mean that this market won't change drastically - maybe google has something in store. Or amazon. But housing is not a commodity market.

I'll answer a different way - real estate sales will change 10 years after car sales change, and I have no confidence that will be while I or my kids are alive.

Uh, the last two cars I bought, I negotiated with 10-15 dealers via email and it was a bidding war to get the lowest price so they'd win my business. Plus, with the internet, I could research exactly what a rational price would be.

WAY different from when I purchased cars in the past. Have you not bought a car lately? Because it really sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

This is how I purchased my last two cars too!! I reviewed all the inventory and came down to two vehicles j could live with (both used). Told each dealer about the others car and asked them both for their best offers. I only went into the dealership when the price was already negotiated. Just needed to sign docs and drive away.

Anonymous wrote:Redfin hasn't had nearly the success disrupting the real estate industry as Uber has had on the taxi industry. I mean, 10 years in it can't even get more than 3% market share in its home market of Seattle.

Besides, Redfin appears to be little more than a pyramid scheme to go public and enrich early investors. I don't see a sustainable business model. Mainly because they keep changing the model like every two weeks.

So the short answer is I don't think we'll see disintermediation of the real estate industry anytime soon.

Thanks, realtor. Change is inevitable.