Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you just had a crappy agent.

At the end of the day I wouldn’t buy a house FSBO. I think they’re disproportionately cheap and difficult to work with.

Hi desperate real estate agent. You know that many of us have had this very experience. In my life I have worked with 7 different agents. Only one was worth the money. At least 3 of them were shysters. I spent a lot of time vetting these agents. You really don't know what they're going to be like unless you actually work with them.

Anonymous wrote:Yours was just terrible.

You can't paint an entire profession because you had a bad practitioner. I've had horrible Dr's, teachers, therapists, hairdressers and nail techs, lawn care services, etc. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I've also had wonderful services from each of these professions.

I don't understand why people make such vast generalizations.......

Part of the reason was because their cartel fixed prices for generations. So there was no price competition. Makes it easier so start to see them all as the same.

Anonymous wrote:I just sold my home and between the 2 agents the commission was $54k at 4.5% and I truly don’t see that kind of value in their work. I literally saw my realtor 3 times. Once at first meeting, once when the photographer came and once at the closing table. They were not present at any showings, I hated how they virtually staged my house and made it look actually look cluttered and when a buyer accidentally shattered a window by hitting it to test its strength I was the one who had to deal with the repair people.

We had multiple offers come in because we priced low but the realtor would never call us to tell us we had an offer. They would just email then and wait for us to respond. They never came in person to present them or offered to go over them. It was us making comments about things like earnest money being too low or closing being too long etc. They provided zero guidance. They also did not offer to play the multiple offers against each other. They just wanted us to pick one offer and not negotiate.

I really can’t see the value in what they’re doing. Was mine just horrific or are they all like this now?

How much profit did you clear on your $1.2 million house?

You had a bad agent. Agents i know would have dealt with the repair. Made sure the virtual staging was good. And negotiated in this market to get you a high price.

Yours was just terrible.

You can't paint an entire profession because you had a bad practitioner. I've had horrible Dr's, teachers, therapists, hairdressers and nail techs, lawn care services, etc. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I've also had wonderful services from each of these professions.

I don't understand why people make such vast generalizations.......

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the going rate for a listing agent these days? Last time I bought it was 7% and I know it's dropped since then.

Also, a while ago I read about a court case against agents allegedly colluding to charge the same high rate rate (a cabal as pp put it). Did that ever develop into anything significant?

3.5-4% in DC area.

5 percent

Anonymous wrote:What's the going rate for a listing agent these days? Last time I bought it was 7% and I know it's dropped since then.

Also, a while ago I read about a court case against agents allegedly colluding to charge the same high rate rate (a cabal as pp put it). Did that ever develop into anything significant?

3.5-4% in DC area.

Who punches windows to test their strength??!! Did the buyer pay for it? How did that happen?

"but for experienced buyers/sellers, RE agents are useless and very much a cartel that needs destroying."

+10000

And by "experienced" pp means those who have 1 buy/sell under their belt.

Anonymous wrote:Mine got us way more for our house than we were expecting. The value in someone good is not in the physical activity they do per hour but for positioning your house well, negotiating on your behalf, getting the right people in to help, and minimizing your risk. It’s a big transaction, and for us is worth the commission vs going with some Redfin agent who wants to slap your home on the MLS and sell it at any price.

Odds are good you'd have gotten the same price with a terrible agent. They don't really negotiate but review the offers and best and final offers with escalation clauses. I'm sure she did a decent job staging if it didn't cost you money but staging is meaningless to me. A good RE transaction lawyer can minimize risk for you by reviewing the contracts.

The simple reality is that RE agents are in a precarious position because much of their old value is now replaced by the internet and the comps data is available to everyone at their fingerprints and all it takes is a few decisive changes to wipe out the profession. There's no reason why a mortgage company can't offer RE transaction services and prepare the offer for you and review the contract for you before you sign to it, all for a few hundred dollars.

There can be a place for a RE agent with a first time buyer to walk them through the process and to help them understand comps, and ditto for some sellers who can't understand why their old kitchens and worn bathrooms mean the house is worth 200k less than the one next door that sold with a fully remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, but for experienced buyers/sellers, RE agents are useless and very much a cartel that needs destroying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the going rate for a listing agent these days? Last time I bought it was 7% and I know it's dropped since then.

Also, a while ago I read about a court case against agents allegedly colluding to charge the same high rate rate (a cabal as pp put it). Did that ever develop into anything significant?

Standard is 6%, newer agents looking for business will do 5%, it’s also 5-4.5% if you have an expensive property.

You got ripped off, lady. Most people have been paying between 4-5% in the past 3-5 years.

People have been paying 5% a lot longer than that. When we bought our first condo in DC in 15 years ago we paid 5% and the realtor we chose told me no one was paying 6% these days (15 years ago!).

Mine got us way more for our house than we were expecting. The value in someone good is not in the physical activity they do per hour but for positioning your house well, negotiating on your behalf, getting the right people in to help, and minimizing your risk. It’s a big transaction, and for us is worth the commission vs going with some Redfin agent who wants to slap your home on the MLS and sell it at any price.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our agent definitely did more work to help us buy a new house than to sell our old house because in last summer's market, houses were basically selling themselves, but to help us maximize the price for value, she:
- Gave us names for her preferred vendors (although we did call other people, but most of her vendors were a good price) and someone on her team coordinated the timing and access
- Paid for staging (two out of three floors), landscaping, and cleaning
- Called the listing agent of a house that went under contract in our neighborhood to find out what price they sold it for, and then recommended that we increase our listing price based on that (we did, by $25K and our house sold for $25K over that).
- Negotiated with the people who put down offers to get rid of all contingencies and get the fastest closing possible (two weeks)
- Coordinated the closing so that we could do everything virtually

That agent seemed to be worth their commission and got you top dollar for your home. Many agents are lazy and don’t follow up for their clients.

This is why people need to interview agents and ask about homes that they have recently sold. You can find this info on Zillow, btw. For every agent that we interviewed, we searched on Zillow to see what houses in our area they had recently sold. We looked at the quality of photos, staging, the listing and sales price, days it took to close, etc. We did NOT go with "my friend's sister's best friend who is an amazing real estate agent".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like the 54K was to split between the listing and buying agent. I generally think real estate agents are pretty useless, but my agent when I last sold my house did a good bit of work that I wouldn't want to have done (or had the time to do), and he really only made 2.5% on the sale because the buyer's agent made the other 2.5%. That's really not that much money when you consider staging, marketing, making and returning calls to drum up interest, coordinating the people who do the work to fix it before the sale, etc. Not to mention the overhead of the job. I think some agents make a ton of money, but not many, with the vast majority barely making any.

OP here. Yes it was split: 27K to each agent. They virtually staged it, no furniture was brought in. Nothing was coordinated on their end. They just gave us a local recommendation for carpet cleaning who we had to let in and coordinate with. No marketing materials were published. They just put it on the MLS at the lowest price we would take. They called nobody except the offer we accepted. We had 14 showings in 3 days and accepted an offer on day 4 with closing in 20 days. We saw them 3 times total and they live 15 minutes away. I really can't see the value(practically the value of a new car) -at least for the realtor I used.

It sounds like you had a bad realtor. Was she a friend of a friend? We interviewed three agents and they came in with their marketing plans and comps and sample materials. This was on a $650K house, so it wasn't like we were high end clients that they needed to impress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the going rate for a listing agent these days? Last time I bought it was 7% and I know it's dropped since then.

Also, a while ago I read about a court case against agents allegedly colluding to charge the same high rate rate (a cabal as pp put it). Did that ever develop into anything significant?

Standard is 6%, newer agents looking for business will do 5%, it’s also 5-4.5% if you have an expensive property.

You got ripped off, lady. Most people have been paying between 4-5% in the past 3-5 years.