HGerchikov

No, because this isn't Britain, and one of the few things that is actually significantly better here than in the UK is the process of buying and selling houses. The major difference here is that the buyer has an agent too, and any realtor can sell you anyone else's listings. So you don't have to call around every estate agents offices and see what each one has for sale, one call as a buyer and you can see the entire inventory. That process means that two agents are paid from each transaction and that is why it costs more.
On the listing side (ie what a british estate agent does), a lot of agents will list at 4%, giving 2.5% to the buyers agent, so actually taking a similar amount as a british estate agent for themselves, and doing a lot more work.

Tirytory

How so?

It felt more complicated to me.....the way you have to make an offer here and I found the competitiveness of agents shark like- they are all very willing to poach custom or do another realtor out of a commission and I speak from experience. I had to suggest nearly all houses I went to see and could just have easily have called an agent to arrange it- in fact I did once or twice. An estate agent sold our house back home (similar cost to here) for 1% without all the fuss.

Tirytory

Anyway, I shouldn't tar all realtors as Novo said, but we had all of the above things happen to us, and found using a realtor to look for house for us exceptionally stressful. When we eventually purchased privately that worked out fine, a bit more legwork for me with finance company but nothing that wasn't easily done.

Aviator

The binding contract as soon as an offer is accepted here, is much better for buyers and sellers. In England, the under offer and it not binding for weeks, even months until contracts are exchanged results in many disappointed and often out of pocket buyers and sellers. When there is a large chain, can be dozens of sales collapse. The system here is better, from my experience, my opinion of realtors is somewhat different.

I have heard of realtors who will not show property listed for sale by the owner, if commissions are too low, if they don't like the selling realtor and so on.

Novocastrian

I really shouldn't comment here, because I've never bought or sold a house in the UK. But Aviator is right that AFAIK Britain is the only country where a "chain" is involved. That's completely stupid and potentially very damaging.

I've bought and sold houses in Canada (of course) Germany and France, both privately and using an agent. All of these systems were superior to the English one. (I know Scotland is different).

HGerchikov

This, plus if you use a buyers agent properly, and get a good one, it is so much easier. You don't have to call each individual listing agent to book appointments, and try to coordinate it with their availability to show you the houses. Your agent can take you to see all you want on one afternoon. I think my record is 12 houses in one very long, very hot day. That would be very difficult to organise making appointments with 12 different listing agents.
But, as Aviator says, the biggest thing is that the way the contracts are arranged, once the sale is firm, the last minute collapse of a deal is rare here, it's pretty common in the UK, and can be due to someone simply changing their mind as close as a week before moving day. Yes the actual process of putting in an offer is more complicated because that is the equivalent of exchanging contracts in the UK.
It was the unbelievable service that we got from our realtor when we moved here that made me think about getting into the job myself. She was a godsend, took us to visit schools, found before and after school clubs, gave us info on kids activities, even paid my hydro deposit because they wouldn't take my british cards. It seems that you, Tirytory, have not been so lucky in your experiences, and that is a shame, bad realtors really piss me off, and unfortunately there are quite a few around, the lady you mention sounds an absolute gem!

Aviator

The two of the ones we used were not much better than useless, I did most of the leg work. In the end we fired them and did it ourselves. We have not had one agent since we've been in Canada, I have heard from friends and colleagues the same, that has earned the sort of money charged. I look forward to a more reasonable alternative.

Siouxie

When I bought my house I had an absolute gem of a real estate agent. He drove my son and I to see countless houses (together and separately); sent us updates every day of anything new on the market he thought might be suitable; drove me (and my son, later) to appointments with lawyers etc., drove to my sons workplace to get documentation signed; found us a broker who had access to a finance company who would accept my lack of credit rating - he totally went out of his way to be of help even to the point of driving to Toronto to get a report we needed to complete the sale.

On moving day, he helped us move, hired a van when we ran out of space in the pod we hired, carried endless boxes and pieces of furniture into the house and went and got us all lunch and paid for it - and never once gave us the impression that it was too much trouble.

After the move he still popped around to see how things were and has offered to help build a deck and get his sister to suggest how to landscape the back garden.

I would recommend him to anyone!

Atlantic Xpat

We had a similar experience 10 years ago when we bought our house. The Realtor took us round to places and provided some excellent advice that prevented us from spending way too much on a house because I was still at the "converting everything back to GBP @ $2.20 to the GBP and thinking everything was so cheap" stage. He also suggested that, to be assured of getting the place we're in now, we bought before we sold in UK. That probably turned out to be the right decision despite the financial angst of carrying two mortgages for the best part of a year!

However scroll forward to this year and a reasonably urgent need to move from our 2 storey to a single storey place, coupled with a desire to stay in a certain area. He has been absolutely disengaged and useless merely signing us up to an automated email service that gives me what I can find on MLS etc anyway. Plus the one time we did call him for advice and to look at a property he was in Florida on an extended working vacation. In fact the only time he's contacted me recently was when he listed a bungalow as selling agent he wants to sell to us & which is outside of our budget.

Now perhaps it's because the market 10 years ago was not as strong as it is now so he had to work harder. Perhaps it's because he was a relatively new Realtor back then and that meant he felt he had to work harder. One thing is for certain, as a more experienced consumer there's not much that a Buyers agent does that I couldn't do for myself, including and especially the negotiation.

4d32ftw

I'm open with what it costs me to open my door on a monthly basis, I realise its no different from normal business. But I don't have a product or service that you actually see instant results. My monthly office and desk fees and licences runs around $1700-$1800 a month, then I add in advertising, signage, web sites, lock boxes, insurance, gas, stationary, gifts etc.. I can easily be at $3000-$4000 a month at the cheap end and before I sell anything with an average commission of around $6000.
Often customers can take months or years to actually buy a property, or decide to list it.

Yes sometimes houses get listed and sold the next day, other times they are listed for years and never sell. I've spent countless hours showing clients 50+ houses for them to just decide not to buy. Its a gamble and I accept that, but I take into account both when it comes to what I pay and earn. I personally put everything into helping my clients 24/7 - probably more than I should. ive had families move in with me when they have had issues in moving or have moved to town. I'm always getting calls from previous customers asking for help or advice and I'm happy to help them.
and I do realise that all agents are different, good and bad and have different standards like every business.
I believe I offer a valuable service that has a lot more involved to it than most think.
Its nothing like the UK estate agent business.
But I also believe people should pick a service that works for them, so if its fsbo, 1%,3% then great. just make sure you do your research, ask lots of questions and work out the time you want to put in dealing with showings, paperwork, legal etc.... some people don't want to spend the time doing everything themselves.