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Question about buying a house....

Only if you're buying FSBO. If you're buying, the seller is paying the commission. And if you're a first time buyer, I'd recommend having a real estate agent(buyers agent).
 
At one time, they were worth that 6%. However, with modern technology, a lot of the services they provided are quite outdated. i.e. Before even going to a real estate agent, someone wishing to purchase a home could browse thousands of different homes from the convenience of their home computer. It's no longer difficult to bring together a seller and buyer.
 
Originally posted by: tw1164
If you're buying, why would you care about their commission?
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Because you're paying it. Don't delude yourself. The seller has a price that they want for their property, and it includes the commission. Remove the commission and they'll give you the house for up to 6% less. I don't understand why this isn't apparent to most buyers.

At one time, they were worth that 6%. However, with modern technology, a lot of the services they provided are quite outdated. i.e. Before even going to a real estate agent, someone wishing to purchase a home could browse thousands of different homes from the convenience of their home computer. It's no longer difficult to bring together a seller and buyer.
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Would like to see the industry move to a flat fee payable at closing for these services. Something like $1k, and then scaled up because jumbo mortgage priced houses are harder to sell.
 
The entire real estate market top to bottom is a racket for agents, brokers, and real estate attorneys. Agents usually dont do shit to earn their commission. They just recommend the necessary improvements which you should already know about, list the property, and let another agent stroll in there and sell it and split the comission. Very few agents actually sell the property themselves unless it's a very high priced home. Listing agent for my last house made about $5k for a few hours worth of actual work.
 
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
The entire real estate market top to bottom is a racket for agents, brokers, and real estate attorneys. Agents usually dont do shit to earn their commission. They just recommend the necessary improvements which you should already know about, list the property, and let another agent stroll in there and sell it and split the comission. Very few agents actually sell the property themselves unless it's a very high priced home. Listing agent for my last house made about $5k for a few hours worth of actual work.
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FWIW, it is the HOME real estate market that is a racket. The other markets are not.
 
Originally posted by: TheAdvocate
Originally posted by: tw1164
If you're buying, why would you care about their commission?
Click to expand...

Because you're paying it. Don't delude yourself. The seller has a price that they want for their property, and it includes the commission. Remove the commission and they'll give you the house for up to 6% less. I don't understand why this isn't apparent to most buyers.
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Winner. When we sold our first house, the couple that bought it came with their 'cousin'. We thought that they did not have a real estate agent and negotiated a lesser price based on that. After all the agreements have been made, the 'cousin' (who wasn't really a cousin) calls us and tells us that we'll have to pay him a 3.5% commission because he is actually a real estate agent. At no time previous to this did anybody inform us that he was an agent.

Long story short, we start backing out of the deal until we get the price raised and the commission cut. Then the 'cousin' who is actually a real estate agent negotiates with us without the buyer's knowledge and signs the buyer's signature on some papers without their knowledge. The agent and his agency is kicked to the curb and we deal solely with the buyer at the price we originally agreed to.

Moral of the story - Don't deal with Nigerians. They do more than just send Spam.
 
Maybe not exactly applicable to your situation, but after going through with a home sale and purchase two years ago and seeing all the ducks that have to be put into the row I can't imagine selling and purchasing without some direction of a knowledgeable person. My real estate agent was some kinda quasi-overseer making sure everyone else was doing their jobs. I mean there are so many people that can drop the ball when it comes time for the closing. You've got the people buying your house, their agent, their lender, your lender, your obligations, the people you're buying a house from, their agent, and maybe even their lender. She earned her money.

 
Of course you don't have to have an agent, as long as the seller doesn't use one.

Home builders frequently don't use agents as it eats into their profit. I bough my first home with no agent, purchased from the builder.
 
I wouldn't recommend it unless you are an experienced buyer. Any agent worth their salt can save you nearly the amount you are paying them both in negotiations and all the fees and costs of doing business.

My brother just bought a house using an agent that multiple friends recommended to him and she got the previous owner to shell out for 10k in repairs after all was signed and the deal was done... he had no legal obligation to do it, either.

 
Originally posted by: Injury
I wouldn't recommend it unless you are an experienced buyer. Any agent worth their salt can save you nearly the amount you are paying them both in negotiations and all the fees and costs of doing business.

My brother just bought a house using an agent that multiple friends recommended to him and she got the previous owner to shell out for 10k in repairs after all was signed and the deal was done... he had no legal obligation to do it, either.
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Huh? A buyer without an agent can do the same negotiations. Also, it's the Lawyers who fees go to, not the agent. I've bought 3 homes in 5 years with no agent whatsoever. Negotiated myself. The biggest advantage of an agent is that they have the direct MLS listings, so you they provide you with updated statistics on sales in your area relatively quickly if you need to compare.
 
Originally posted by: Rudee
Originally posted by: Injury
I wouldn't recommend it unless you are an experienced buyer. Any agent worth their salt can save you nearly the amount you are paying them both in negotiations and all the fees and costs of doing business.

My brother just bought a house using an agent that multiple friends recommended to him and she got the previous owner to shell out for 10k in repairs after all was signed and the deal was done... he had no legal obligation to do it, either.
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Huh? A buyer without an agent can do the same negotiations. Also, it's the Lawyers who fees go to, not the agent. I've bought 3 homes in 5 years with no agent whatsoever. Negotiated myself. The biggest advantage of an agent is that they have the direct MLS listings, so you they provide you with updated statistics on sales in your area relatively quickly if you need to compare.
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Yeah, but like I said, for first time homebuyers they just simply didn't have any idea to look for some of these things. The guy who was selling it was an investor... he never lived there, just remodelled a few things and put it right back on the market. I can't be certain, but I'd think that a guy who continually does that for a profit would cave to a realitor's requests much easier as that realitor will remember him next time someone is looking for a house.

You need to keep in mind that on AT, we are a pretty saavy group of individuals and the average Joe isn't a pro at buying houses.

So again, I return to my statement that if you aren't an experienced buyer, you're better off having some help. Obviously when you are going to be spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars you don't want to pick the first person you find the phone book, though.
 
I didn't use one, but that's because I have several years of construction experience and my father was a general contractor for 20 years (and now is an architect). Thusly, I had all the expertise in-house.

That said, real-estate agents aren't just scam artists. My friend's agent was extremely helpful in getting him a good place. A good agent will more than earn their commission.
 
The first agent we signed with actually sent out her trainee/intern person. Hot chick, but she insisted on showing us 40+ year old homes needing significant work when we had told her less than 10 years old, 5 years old or newer was highly desired.

We ended up kicking the trainee to the curb and buying from a builder's agent/seller/cleavage revealer. She just stood there while we walked around measuring things. Very easy experience. It was odd, when we decided we wanted it, she kind of sprang on us that we had to cut a check for $1900 right then. Kind of surprising...
 
I put a house on Craigslist. And had my own website with pictures. Much more than an Agent would do. Large big pictures. And directions and lot of info.

When I sold it, it was soooo easy working with the title company. All I had to do is make out a one page sales agreement. Thats it! Both of us signed it and the title company did all the work. Come closing day I signed a couple papers and we were done.

Agents need to be faded out. They really do. That or they need a low flatfee. They are raping people for what they do. You can get directions on google maps. You can research any city online, and the title company does all the work when it's sold (or bought).

You can also lose a lot of money on a house because of an agent. Because they do a pretty narrow search when looking for properties for you. Which means that the house just under your budget that is worth way more than they have it for sale gets missed. And it may be the perfect house for you. But the more money you spend the more they make.
 
Originally posted by: jinduy
how do you guys find houses sold straight from the builders?
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the easiest sign to look for are neighborhoods still under construction (where the houses are not finshed yet)...go up to the model home....profit!!!
 
Originally posted by: v1001
I put a house on Craigslist. And had my own website with pictures. Much more than an Agent would do. Large big pictures. And directions and lot of info.

When I sold it, it was soooo easy working with the title company. All I had to do is make out a one page sales agreement. Thats it! Both of us signed it and the title company did all the work. Come closing day I signed a couple papers and we were done.

Agents need to be faded out. They really do. That or they need a low flatfee. They are raping people for what they do. You can get directions on google maps. You can research any city online, and the title company does all the work when it's sold (or bought).

You can also lose a lot of money on a house because of an agent. Because they do a pretty narrow search when looking for properties for you. Which means that the house just under your budget that is worth way more than they have it for sale gets missed. And it may be the perfect house for you. But the more money you spend the more they make.
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This is VERY true. What they are selling is information/piece of mind and in my mind a real estate agent is slighlty below a used car salesmen in terms of scumbag.

People get scared - "OMG! I'm making probably the biggest purchase of my life! Please help me!". That's not to say there is a TON of money making people feel better about spending their money, that's why sales is such a great racket.....make people feel good.

It's just this simple - I want to buy what you are offering for sale. There's no magic here. Eliminate the middle-man-ripperoffer.
 
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