You all are a bunch of f***g retards !!! RE brokers are hardly to blame for the real estate meltdown. They get paid part of the commish(if they are acting as a buyers agent) by the listing agent thats selling the home! It is not their sole reponsibility to decide the financial status of the client. The fact of the matter is that alot of(not all)the MORTGAGE brokers were the ones who were telling their clients that it was possible to buy that gorgeous, MORE EXPENSIVE, home with an adjust rate loan and helping them lie about their income or lying about being employed in the first place.. And the IRRESPONSIBLE BUYER(wanting to impress their family and friends with their new "BIG, BEYOND THEIR MEANS" home went along on the ride. Its like a credit card company that issues you a credit card with a 10K limit. Then when they cant pay the cc bill..they blame the credit card co for giving them the card in the first place. No one in this counrty wants to take responsibility for their actions anymore...its always the other ones fault! What a joke! You buy a Porsche that can go 175 mph. You take it on the highway and speed even though you know what the consequences could be. You get pulled over, pay a huge fine, points on your license, or supended, then you wanna blame the salesman that sold you the Porsche? LOL GROW UP!!!
Actually I am well aware of all the operating costs of being a realtor.I was being facetious.Do you not think then that the business model used by realtors is flawed?How can such a high commission not be enough to cover the costs when in the UK it's 1%? It's also pretty well known that realtors try and push their own listings to get maximum commissions.I've heard of them telling lies about other realtors' listings just to sell their own for the extra points.I sold up back in 2005 to move to a warmer state and did a FSBO,split the difference of the realtors fees with the buyer,he was happy and so was I.He also thought realtors were a waste of space.Most people do.
this is why the commission structure is dumb and a ripoff for buyers/sellers: 10 years ago, the full commission on a sale was 6%. in 2006, it was still 6%. but the price of a home was 70% higher. did the agent's costs go up 70% in that time? did they have to do 70% more work?
this is the realty of being a fsbo - which is what I was too. The buyers looking for fsbos are expecting a better deal from the sellers and it all but the strongest markets fsbo according to NAR net 15% less than Realtors. I always wonder where that stat come from but I think the above FSBO experience is representative. So you save 3% on commissions. So for 3% a seller puts in more time and money/ Plus the seller dramatically shrinks the potential buyer pool and with it the buyers who might be ready to pay the most. So when a seller goes FSBO is he actually saving money. Time? Security? You tell me. Those are just questions.
You make some good points.FSBO is definitely not for everyone,a lot of people need the realtor to hold their hand,negotiate on their behalf,convince them they're not getting ripped off etc. and for the seller they do provide a larger buying pool.I guess some people would rather play it safe(r) but each to their own. I found that by being able to use the realtors fees as a bargaining chip and knock half of their fees off of the price I had been prepared to accept had I used an agent I found a buyer pretty quickly because I was in essence selling the house cheaper than they would have been able to buy it through a realtor.Most people probably try to pocket the commissions for themselves but don't realise that what they lose by not having a realtor they can gain by being flexible with the price and hopefully sell the house quicker and walk away with the same amount of money.
I wonder if the failure rate is higher for new traders or new realtors? It's the same breed of folks. Greed and easy money, a good clean job that doesn't require manual labor. What other professions can you get into that can make you "rich" that don't require a college degree.
You might be rich if you stay in the RE Industry and in CA the majority do not. http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20060202_realtorsquit.htm
6% is very steep for just driving me around and helping me to sign the docs. Don't say that nobody forced me to do so. For instance, when I tried to find a property, I did all the leg work, and found what I wanted. i talked to the sales agent that I would get 3% kickback, but every single time I was refused. It is a monopoly. Realtors have their own self interest. Do not tell me I have choices. If all stock brokers charge you 6% for transaction, I hope you don't complain then.
Nice to see I got some meaningful dialog going on this rarely touched subject. My thesis is , that realtors in their greed, encouraged much of the price pumping and 'ya gotta buy now, pay more, cause tomorrow the price is HIGHER!!!!!!" bullshit. The real problem in the mortgage market is the PRICE these shacks sold for. Forget what the eggheads and econs talk about. If the value of the homes had not been jacked up by the REAL ESTATE pump machine, this problem would be much smaller than it is now. Scum.