We hired a high end travel agent recommended by someone at my husbands office and I found them pretty useless. I was really specific about what we wanted and the stuff they suggested was not well tailored to what we asked for, and not a great price for what it was. I got the sense that they have standard rich people suggestions they make so if you want something specific or a little different they aren’t going to be able to accommodate. The flights they suggested were not even very good times.
I would use them for areas where it’s important to have local connections but not for your standard trip to California, London, Rome etc. I was disappointed.

Anonymous wrote:I just hired a travel agency to manage professional study tours and I am ending up coaching them through every step of the process. So much easier to just book flights and hotels online directly.

This. You just get lousy recommendations from them. Even at really high budgets.

I just hired a travel agency to manage professional study tours and I am ending up coaching them through every step of the process. So much easier to just book flights and hotels online directly.

A lot of people still use travel agents.

I used a travel agent for the first time this year. It was awesome
-millennial

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel agents are still out there and thirsty AF, plenty of suckers still using them, and plenty of companies still giving kickbacks as "incentives" for them to stay in business. No need for them IMO

I will do $3.2M in business this year with $2M travelled this year with $2.2M on the books for next year. Many of us are turning away business and not “thirsty AF”.

Maybe know what you are talking about before spouting your truth.

Like the PP, I turn away business and am not even listed online to contact me.

Nope! You are a liar and Jeff confirmed it. So sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel agents are still out there and thirsty AF, plenty of suckers still using them, and plenty of companies still giving kickbacks as "incentives" for them to stay in business. No need for them IMO, but real estate involves contracts, and I think it's important to have someone knowledgeable on contracts review them. I dont think we really need any agents to walk you through a house or tell you how many bedrooms there are though. And my husband is a former realtor lol.

The thing is most realtors aren't attorneys so they aren't supposed to be providing legal advice about the contract so that's not an area where they can add value.

I do think there is a value for a door opener at an hourly rate because most people don't want the homeowners around when they see the house and sellers aren't going to want someone alone in their house. There is also some flat fee value for someone to list the house because it costs money to access the MLS system.

How do you pay if you look at a bunch of houses but decide to stay at your current location or switch agents?

You use a service that has low level realtors on standby (something like what redfin does btw) and you pay per showing. So, $50 or whatever to see House A. Or I suppose you could pay your existing agent some hourly rate to see houses but you are invoiced monthly so when the agent gets paid regardless of whether you buy with them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel agents are still out there and thirsty AF, plenty of suckers still using them, and plenty of companies still giving kickbacks as "incentives" for them to stay in business. No need for them IMO, but real estate involves contracts, and I think it's important to have someone knowledgeable on contracts review them. I dont think we really need any agents to walk you through a house or tell you how many bedrooms there are though. And my husband is a former realtor lol.

The thing is most realtors aren't attorneys so they aren't supposed to be providing legal advice about the contract so that's not an area where they can add value.

I do think there is a value for a door opener at an hourly rate because most people don't want the homeowners around when they see the house and sellers aren't going to want someone alone in their house. There is also some flat fee value for someone to list the house because it costs money to access the MLS system.

How do you pay if you look at a bunch of houses but decide to stay at your current location or switch agents?