Sdr you have done an admirable job on this thread.
So here are my thoughts….
First off, I think it was Ray Byrnes who brought up a good point about aggregate time. This is the true measure that must be used in you want to break down my hourly rate. I have had one hit wonders where a client buys a home the first time out or where a listing sells in 3 days. Conversely I have a short sale listing right now that I have logged over 150 hours of work with nothing even approved yet. I have had buyers scorch me or backdoor me after months even years worth of work with them.
This isn’t meant to get sympathy it is simply meant to illuminate those who think that on an hourly rate realtors make a killing because the reality is most of them do not.
As an engineer I have spent years on projects that went nowhere. We did not tape them out and eventually they got cancelled. We still get paid. It is valiant to think that a bsee degree and knowledge of how to write code should justify that I should get 125k a year. Honestlyv though as someone who has done both real estate and engineering full time the number of hours are about the same. To me real estate is harder because you deal with people in your profession who are not terribly bright. However you also deal with sellers and buyers who can be quite challenging.
An earlier post in the thread mentioned that you can’t buy or sell a property without paying the 6 percent commission and that is just flat out not true. There are more alternatives now then there have ever been. I go to listing appts, say my peace, give my honest opinion on homes and many times don’t get the listing because other agents tell the seller they can get a higher price or that the seller must have all the marketing bells and whistles or the home will never sell. Yes the industry is filled with swine. Boil it down and it is nothing but a sales job and in the end most people do look back and go “crap I could have saved 10s of thousands of dollars” if I did it this way or that way.
Nostra you posted that you went the fsbo route and found a great home and got a smoking deal and that is a perfectly valid route for people to go down. People have more choices now then ever. I do think that a good realtor does add value to their buyer or seller. It doesn’t matter if they are discount or non discount.
Calling their previous clients is probably the best thing a woodbee client can do.
As far as the poster that brought up the high end homes and 150k in commission. Yes that is true and it does stink. Again it is one of those things where it does not scale properly as well. Those agents who do only the high end do make a killing but again it is hard to say how much time they invested in dead ends. In general though I do agree with you.
