No really, I'm not just saying this for fun, I genuinely mean that all Realtors are *****. I say this from personal experience, and from the experience of friends too. In the (sort of) words of Bill Hicks, if you're a realtor kill yourself now. No really, kill yourself.

Ours attempted a "high five" after we removed our conditions of sale....

We've found them all to be truly wonderful. Until they're sure that they've either got their money, or aren't going to be getting any from you. Then you pretty much vanish from the planet as far as they're concerned. There are various do it yourself methods now, I'd look there to buy, or try and sell there first too now. We've had quotes for selling that range from 4% to 8% with realtors. There must be some good ones out there, there's one on this board I hear She's just too far away from us.

I have one I distrust comfortably. For selling. "Affable rogue" might be apt. He sold my farm and my daughter's house. I wouldn't trust him, or any other one, as far as I could throw him and the proposed house when buying.

The agent's interest when you're buying a house is in opposition to yours. You want to buy a nice house at a lowish price. The agent wants you to buy:

- an expensive house

- a house with a high commission

- a house his or her broker can't get off the books

- a house where the agent gets double ended

If you're new to the country you're in a bind, the agent knows the houses and the areas of the city, you don't, the agents knows how deals are done, you don't.

To make things more fair, rent for a year, watch mls, drive around, read the local papers. Then, when you've chosen a property, you can engage an agent to make the offer for you.

Some are better than others, just dont mistake a buyers agent as being on the buyers side, they take a cut of the sale commission so have no interest in getting you the best deal, even if they dont cost you anything directly for their services.

Ive never sold here, but the right agent makes a huge difference from other peoples experiences. Sales commissions seem eye wateringly high considering most buyers do their own footwork via MLS listings.

I very very rarely see a For sale be owner, or Property Guys listing that sells without eventually taking on a conventional commision based realtor.

My general advice is if you are new to an area rent first, yo uwill get to know the good and bad places to live locally and its cheaper than your losses if you buy the wrong place and then have to sell it later on.

He will. We have just used him to sell our house in Calgary and purchase an acreage outside of the City. Once we got over the shock that, in the flesh, he is about 20 years older and larger than he appeared in his "photo", he did a very good job, although I still wince at how much he made from the deals!

They need all the commission they can get to have those Hollywood smiles plastered all over the benches .

Our friend just sold her house and the realtor walked away with $16 000

I love a good realtor thread.

I have a client, in his late 70s, who has been a realtor all his life. A good one, at least as evidenced by his investment portfolio. He has been trying to retire for over ten years (or more accurately, his wife has been trying to get him to retire for over ten years). He hasn't knocked on a door, placed an advert', had any stationary printed with his business number, or attempted in any way to solicit business for seventeen years.

He still gets referrals. Sometimes from people he worked with 40 years ago, sometimes because someone overheard a conversation at a bus stop. He has clients who have been with him all their lives and have bought and sold several houses. Now their children and all their children's friends come to him. He still earns around $150,000 a year after all his fees.

Given the commission structure common in BC is 7 + 2% or sometimes 7 + 2.5%, for every $1,000 increase in price a realtor gets an additional $10 or $15 before tax.

Being a realtor is not that difficult. You don't need to be Einstein to pass the licencing exams, the contracts are mostly pre-printed, the brokerage can handle the other paperwork, you do need some local knowledge but not much more than a normal, moderately well read and informed person. The thing that sets a good realtor apart from an unsuccessful one is their ability to generate business.

As evidenced by this thread, the single most important and lucrative way to generate business is through recommendations and referrals.

Now, I am not trying to make a case that realtors are paragons of ethics and virtue (though some are). From a purely self-interested perspective what is more valuable to any sane realtor; the few extra tens of dollars they can earn now by tricking you into overpaying for a house, or the tens of thousands of dollars they will earn in the future from people you will recommend them to?

I would like to bet they didn't. They will have to share the commission with the selling realtor, the brokerage will take its slice, and they have to pay their own business expenses out of what is left.

See, they're quite popular around here and I know several people who've had success going down this route, so it all depends on your area too. I definitely agree with renting. It costs a lot more to move here so it's worth taking your time.

Now, this is one of the biggest issues I have with realtors. You can pass the exams, but you are still not allowed to be your own realtor. It also has to be your job; which means that individuals can't pass the exams and represent themselves for a 4% discount. This is blatant protectionism.

I paid c$70k to a realtor for the sale of my last property, and given the size of that transaction we agreed I'd have an itemized invoice of all his overheads for the sale - visits to the property, time spent with clients, advertising costs, brokerage fees etc. He pocketed less than half that in the end.

You are quite entitled to buy or sell without representation - you don't need to take the exams.

When buying, I don't use realtors as I think they are useless. Don't be lazy, do it yourself, do a little research on house values, go see the house yourself, haggle the price yourself (the paperwork isn't that hard). Deal with the selling realtor to get a cut even further and negotiate based on the commission that usually gets paid to the buyers realtor (as you don't have one). It's not that hard.

Selling, well that depends. Selling a house isn't that hard either but realtors will steer their clients very far away as they don't usually get a commission as the buyers realtor, but there are ways around that too.

All you get with a realtor is a pretty smile and a ride in their BMW

Well, if you're spending that kind of coin on a realtor, you have coin to spare.

I'm too cheap.