[quote=sushilover]does it make sense to hire a discount realtor? Are they giving advise on the properties?[/quote]
Sushilover,
Before you make the biggest purchase of your life, please understand something. Unfortunately, the way realtors are paid causes lots of conflicts of interest, and lots of bad incentives to the realtors to mislead you. So, it really falls on you to learn about the neighborhood you are interested in, the current state of the market, and a host of other issues. Any advice anyone gives you, whether it is a seller, a realtor, a neighbor or even a friend, you need to question and I mean really question. The people who blindly trust their realtor to represent their interest are the ones most likely to be “taken”.
That’s not to say there aren’t some very good and ethical realtors out there. But the system is very corrupt, and there are lots of rather shader realtors who are very good at giving the impression they are extremely ethical, when in fact they are not. Sad but true.
More to the point of your question, ethical agents are just as likely to be discount realtors as full price realtors. Likewise a discount realtor is just as likely to give honest advice as a full price realtor. So, if getting advice from your realtor is something you want, (which I think you should be very cautious about) then I don’t see any disadvantage to a discount broker.
If you’re looking for a discount realtor, I believe that SD Realtor (who posts here regularly) does give discounts, but you’d need to check with him for specifics.
