I’m just looking at the terms on the buyers agreement. Where I live the median house price is $700,000 and buyers’ agents are still charging 2.5%. That comes out to $17,500 dollars that you would be on the hook for if the seller doesn’t pay.
Why on earth would anyone pay that much to open doors. Realtors need to get real. Lower you prices or you will come to find that you will be out of a job real quick. Also, if I was a new agent I would just charge 1% to beat the competition.
Today, the main thing I’d look for in a real estate agent is having solid connections with affordable contractors. I can handle everything else on my own for the most part.
I don’t know about other agents but my fees pay for my experience, knowledge, negotiation skills and expertise. Every single one of my buyers save money and get to closing either on time or early. Not one of them has had to pay my commission yet. That is my goal for the future buyers as well.
You’re not hiring me to be a buyer’s agent. You’re hiring me to be a buyer’s agent around your schedule, in the area you’re looking for, with the knowledge I have that others don’t.
Read about all the crappy agents, bad comps, and agents who close deals when someone should have walked away. My pitch isn’t why you need an agent, it is how I stand out.
All you need to buy a house is a lawyer to review documents and an inspector to check the property. Both should be hired by the buyer and will cost far less than a realtor. During our first home purchase adventure we had a realtor take us through each room identifying the function of the room. By the time we visited the third house we had learned that bathrooms are the rooms with tubs and toilets but kitchens nearly always had a stove. Our second home purchase we did not require, accept, or pay a buyer’s agent. We calculated the cost and offered a price sharing the savings.
All you really need to buy a house is a lawyer to look over the papers and an inspector to check out the place. They work for you, the buyer, and are way cheaper than a real estate agent. When we bought our first house, our agent showed us around and told us what each room was for. By the time we saw the third house, we figured out that bathrooms have tubs and toilets, and kitchens almost always have stoves. When we bought our second house, we didn’t use a buyer’s agent, and we saved money by offering a lower price without the extra fees.
.I realize this is new to some but on Wisconsin where I do business I’ve had signed buyer agreements for every single client I’ve represented for the last 7 years. So to me nothing has changed.
I think Transparency is super important with everyone and so when presenting the buyer agreement today I say something along the lines of “many sellers are willing to pay the commission. This is the average, if I am made aware of it being higher or lower then I’ll inform you and we can amend this agreement. I can’t work for free but I also don’t want to stop you from getting house.”
I’m finding myself getting really salty in these threads. I’m a non-selling broker who is plenty hard on the industry in general, and I’m happy to pitch in and help people when I can. But Reddit is just a weirdly negative place. As part of a role I’m in right now I’m monitoring social media sites and only here on Reddit is there so much misinformation and…weirdness.
Also, as someone who has never done a personal or professional transaction without an attorney, I’m surprisingly fumbling writing out a coherent description of broker/agent vs. attorney roles. It’s so automatic to me that it’s hard to articulate. I’ve been snapping “If attorneys wanted to be real estate agents they wouldn’t have gone to law school” but that’s not helpful. Any good sources you can point me to?