Thanks NewGuy,
I am sorry that your agent didn’t inform you about a better opportunity,for you, in new homes. I also would not expect everyone wants a new home, in fact many people I know would shy away from them because the path that neighborhood will take is less certain that that of an established neighborhood.Especially now. You might end up saying you wish that you had done the same and a Realtor might have planted the seed.
Try to trust that my response to your post is just my observations and not a slant or attack. I am sure if you read my previous RE related, that is not hard to do.(I don’t recommend readiing the other ones :).
First of all I give you credit for being somewhat exceptional in the combination of your assertiveness and acumen. That said you had a pretty pliable seller and a lot of leverage at the point in time which you approached them. You are also dealing with a business and a brand new house and not a quirky individual seller and a questionable but perhaps desirable older house. Once you decided to pay you were at a relatively extreme little risk of a unduly vexatious experience.
I agree your loan is fine. I see lennar as having little motivation for messing with you on that. The issue is to get rid of the house.
I imagine it is easy to see Realtors as way over paid. Sometimes we are. Sometimes we aren’t. Some try harder, some just want to do a deal now and then, so motivation affects compensation too. Your analysis of the time involved on average is about correct.40 -60 hours per transaction including showing or listing houses. I personally don’t waste a lot of time so I am not going to make the usual what about all the unpaid work stuff. No there are not any exceptionally high fees in this industry.There are a lot of ways to spend money on the business,some people consider them to be important. Continued training and seminars can be expensive in terms of time and money. Most of us give discounts or rebates to buyers and seller. I do it even when they are not smart enough to ask. I try to list at 4.5% ,keeping 2 for our office, I give cash back to my buyers on a rough combination of how long we worked and how much the commission was. In my opinion it is not more difficult to sell an expensive house than a cheap one, especially representing a buyer.Higher end clients expect you to do way more then is necessary sometimes and some Realtors cater. They also expect their realtor to have a similiar lifestyle frequently, so 1% isn’t going to cut it.(We will see if partial service at very low commissions will make larger inroads into the market.) Overhead expenses are mostly optional. Not everyone trys to drive the most expensive cars in town. On this topic you have to give credit to the consumer. Some realtors are smart enough to know that all this glitter is convincing to many clients. I refuse to go to extreme people pleasing tactics and I am sure it cost me.
You said,
“In general (to me), it seems like for a buyer, an agent is pretty much useless. However, as a seller, an agent can be pretty powerful with tools like MLS. But with sites like ziprealty and redfin, it’s looking harder and harder for me to seriously consider RE agents.”
I think you might be making a logic mistake I often make, use the exception(you) for the rule. You also might be displaying a little pride. You deserve that but the combination of two things are not going to change the way things are done. What most people need or look for will dictate what the real estate industry looks like..( Again, We will see if partial service at very low commissions will make larger inroads into the market.)
I don’t blame you for being “biased” against realtors . Ask Sdr And SDR. When I got to this blog I was fuming and embarassed to be one. I put myself on the sidlines a few years ago because I wouldn’t participate in the madness that led to the creation of blogs like this. I have several clients now and we are sitting on the sidelines together.I tell them all to come here but they don’t. Do you think they are going to go out and do what it takes to buy a house? No, They are waiting for honest old rustico to tell them what to do. When the time is right I will advocate for them as best as I can and make a lttle money for my family.
A lot of people won’t find a good agent and many times that has to do with their own prejudices or lack of experience. Recently, it has had a lot to do with a national frenzy bringing a lot of excessively opportunistic type into the mix. It is not always so gross.
