This weekend, my realtor friends on social media have been crying about the NAR, the settlement terms, and how their payment as a buyer’s agent is affected. There’s no need to delve into specifics because every point they made has already been covered here.
But the most infuriating sentiment is watching them complain their “livelihood” is at stake. Excuse me?
A couple of them I know really well and their livelihood consists of the following: a large home worth $2+ million; minimum 6 weeks vacation per year to Hawaii, Bahamas, Europe; the “worst” car they own is a Cadillac Escalade; Boats; RV’s, etc, etc. I know for a fact one of them had $400K take home pay a couple years ago.
Their success on the one hand is very impressive. I’m not jealous of that.
But the level of entitlement with these folks is just off the charts. How did we get to this point?
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My Bestie is a realtor in LA. She makes excellent money and spent the last 10 years building up her reputation for scratch. She is excited and hoping this will flush out the scum bags from the industry
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Realtors that are highly successful are not complaining about the new rules, they are adapting. The ones that are complaining are hopefully the ones that will die off and find a new career. Sometimes we see people with big houses that take lots of vacation really have no money, or just renting. I’m a formal realtor and like the changes for the following reasons: It will lower seller cost and will make realtors more of a profession.
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Yep. I am wishing I could find a “high end” realtor for an area I’m looking to purchase some property in. Finding spots on Zillow and having an agent setup showing times just really isn’t the level of service I’m looking for. I’d be willing to pay good money for someone who had great local knowledge, connections, and could answer the more difficult questions and truly understand what I’m looking to accomplish.
I imagine if I had such an agent I would have already purchased a place by now - so the great ones will make it up on both ends - being paid more, and having to put less low-value hours in.
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Many buyers and sellers are now capable of connecting and negotiating price and other terms on their own.
What we need now our real estate agents who, for a set fee will act as a neutral transaction processor. They represent neither party. Their job is to execute a standard sale transaction. Guide parties through the paperwork that needs to be collected.
-They provide both parties with checklist of documents that they need to collect. -They review documents and flag anything out of the ordinary (e.g. there is asbestos). -They execute the transaction and handover keys.
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I don’t know when the profession became the thing one tries after one fails at everything, but I imagine good realtors will be happy about this. The ones who treat it like a real job / business, and know how to actually add value.
Yeah, I always thought it was nuts that realtors made a combined 6% and the inspector is in an out in 2 hours, types us a report and takes home $600. A lawyer can handle title issues and after that the home inspector is the most crucial piece, IMO.
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Another ironic thing is for years on deals where money gets tight to close for the borrower the realtors always call the LO and ask them to pay for some costs to make it work but no one else will chip in. I can count on one hand in 20 years the times a realtor helped us on something like that. Their fee was never negotiable not even $100 off.
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