Amazing Real Estate Valuation Site

Nope.

 

the site values properties on tax assessment. that is often inaccurate, especially on properties bot over a year ago, with some property values having risen >20% in that period. there is no current real bid/offer situation to see, that is usually exclusive to brokers, realtors.

 

some areas are more accurate than simply the last assessment.....

 

Repost for those who didnt read the whole thread:

 

I can just imagine a guy like you electric or any of the agent haters walking into to an agents office and saying here is a retainer I will pay you by the hour help me find a home.

You seem to forget that these fees are contingent fees.

If the buying public desired to pay R E agents for their time there would be and entirely different structure. Many agents would happily work by the hour or on other flat fee basis. In fact many agents do offer ala carte services. And you know what almost every time the public lets the agent take the risk when it comes to buying. Some models are gaining traction on the fee for service side for sellers. And generally but not always those agents are doing much better than the average agent. But overall they still have a very small market share.

Real Estate is actually a risk reward game.

In my area a very entrepreneurial agent attempted to separate himself by marketing to the high end.

He spent 10s or 200s of thousands on marketing. He was the title sponsor of polo events. He bought 5000 dollar back page image ads in Sarasota magazine. He sponsored Lakewood Ranch moms events He sent out large beautiful marketing pieces to thousands of homes on in the high end areas on very frequent basis advertising new listings as well as promoting his brand. He took out double page ads in Homes and Lands magazine featuring his listings. His ads and branding were on par with fortune 500 hundred campagains. He expenditures completely prevented me from attempting to go after the high end even though I had many factors in my favor. I did not like the risk of spending 10s of thousands up front.

At one point and in a fairly short period of time, this agent garnered half of the top multimillion dollar listings in the country club area. It was a genius campaign.

And you know what I bet he is very concerned right now. The 2-4 million houses are not selling. I cant imagine he is too happy having to market such properties and I have seen he has pulled way back on his marketing.

It takes a ton of money to brand and position yourself to get a lot of listings. It is a very competitive game. In my opinion the public was not being duped. People with 2 -20 million dollar properties rarely got that kind of money by being dumb and gullible.

Now who do you think was the winner was in the last year. The public who gave him 5-6% limited time contingent listings or the agent who spent a ton on marketing. Who took that enormous risk? The home owners would have spent a fortune position their homes in the same manner to the same potential buyers.

This scenario plays out in every segment.

Do you know how many times agents drive people around who end up using another agent, buying a fsbo, buying somewhere else or not buying at all.

1-7% is a contingent fee. And the risks are large.

If the public wishes to pay agents by the hour they would take the agents up on the ala cart offers.

If you think it is unfair of an agent not to show the homes of fsbos. Well I tell you, let the the buyer sign a contract that says that if the agent shows a fsbo home the buyer will pay the agent a 1% fee out of their pocket if the seller does not agree to compensate the agent for a sale.

How many buyers will do that. Virtually zero. The buying public expects the agents to bare the risks. That is the the marketplace in action.

If you think agents make to much well perhaps you should skip your autosurfing and develop a better Real Estate model. You might achieve success beyond your dreams. But I doubt it. just about every model has been tried.

 

Forget it! You come with childish arguments because there aren't valid ones. As somebody summarized it nicely in a one word post: CARTEL, so there's no free market, or risk reward game. I doubt that you support the OPEC cartel too.

 

With all due repsect to your profession ..... anyone with half a brain and time can do what an agent does .... and without a 100K advertising campaign.

You competitor was building their brand. If you have property to buy or sell you dont need to go to all the trouble to build a brand: just make connections (like any marketer would) with the individuals that hold the properties you want.

Now realtors can try all types of games to prevent this but at the end of the day you can easily compete with their marketing tactics - haven't met one I could not beat or push to the side in a deal that I wanted.

So from my perspective - an individual investor doing their own deals - realtors are a very annoying (to the point that I often need to put them at bay with attorneys or the law) distraction interferring with my businees but not preventing it. I might add that some are my allies, but most don't have enough sense to cooperate with me and thus get steamrolled ....

 

The vast majority of residential real-estate agents are not like the example you posted and put very little of their own money on the line.

 

Realtors do not have a monopoly except for the MLS and Loopnet. But these are the networking tools for the Realtor boards that you must pay to be a member and be licensed for good reason.

I don’t know if you know this but 80% of Realtors don’t make it! They go broke after a year because they don’t know how to market or keep a deal together. As a Real Estate broker that also worked for a real estate hedge fund, I only use Realtors to find and sell properties I am not familiar with. Better deals with fewer headaches for me.

Another aspect everyone forgets is 90% of for sale by owners end up listing after 6 months or so. Once they list there property it usually gets sold quickly and for a higher NET PROFIT. It comes down to motivation! Going the for sale by owner route attracts bargain hunters and lookers (including discount brokers that charge a flat fee and don’t use the MLS). If you don’t mind giving it away, that is your choice. I know this for a fact, because I used to try to sell my own properties, (including rehabbed homes and spec homes) and now I will never sell or rent anything unless I am using the MLS. When someone really wants to buy or rent they go to a Realtor and that means they should be pre screened. Unfortunately new agents don’t always do there job properly. But when a good agent comes to me with a buyer I am assured the deal is solid. The other problem the individual does not have a clue to real estate law and not being protected by the state regulation. So when something goes wrong and the state is not involved it goes into litigation instead of arbitration and cost both parties legal fees. Meaning the seller has a house tied up and the buyer’s money is frozen in a escrow account until everything is settled in court.

So personally I can go the byowner route and save a commission but I have learned it costs me more time and money in the end. That’s coming from someone who grew up in the real estate business as a builder.

 

My professsion is no longer Realtor. It was actually investor both equities and real estate the last few years. I am a Realtor but did not make much money last year doing it. The year before I did alright. Where I live there is the highest concentration of Realtors in the country.

I have none of my emotional self worth tied up in being a Realtor. I could care less emotional if you rip them.

I just noticed the critics seem to be either emotional or clueless about how the market works.

There is no cartel. All the listings are on realtor.com. You can list on the mls for 200 bucks with discounters in just about every mls area.

I just gave you a key factor about it being a contingent payment and it seem to have gone over your heads.

If you can do better do it.

By the way in competive areas, most realtors and brokers have lots of their own money on the line. That is how they establish market share and get the phones to ring.