fatbrit

I didn't invent the system, I just play it! And the fact is that you can squeeze your realtor if you want to. I think it's called a free market...

The individual work involved has nothing to do with the commission, anyway. As a realtor you must have had easy deals where your part of the 3% was basically free money for virtually nothing, and on the other side I'm sure you've had pain-in-the-backside deals where you fought tooth and nail all the way through to get the deal done and the remuneration felt like minimum wage or less.

Also, there is little guarantee that the amount of the commission has anything whatsoever to do with the quality of the service.

dunroving

Rip off, rip off, rip off.

Yes, it often helps if you have a realtor, but no, in many cases what they do is not worth 6% of the house price.

Realtors have a reputation in some towns that is worse than lawyers. Too many people getting their realtor's license as a hobby, not serious professionals. Bloody useless, bloody untrustworthy, bloody rip-off merchants.

Patrick, I know there are good realtors around (and I bet you take your job seriously), but in my experience the business is too unregulated allowing scheisters like the ones I've had to deal with to put up a shingle. Some of them should be ashamed to take money from the seller as they do sweet Fanny Adams to try to sell the house, and when they do something they either screw it up or act so disinterested they'd be the last person I'd buy a house through.

In some neighborhoods if the market is good, you can advertise your house in the local paper, with a photo, set up your own Web site, hold an Open House, and hire a real estate attorney to advise you on contracts, etc. I did that in TN, sold my house within a couple of weeks. I sold it completely FSBO, meaning that the buyer and I could gain from not having to incorporate realtor's fees into the price.

And ultimately, as buyer you do end up paying at least some of the realtor's fees - not directly, but rolled into your mortgage (because many buyers hike up the asking price to try to cover the extra 6%).

BritGuyTN

All the people bitching about Realtor fees are I'm afraid ignorant of the house buying process - lack of knowledge is excusable. Stupid uninformed conjecture is not.

Comparing fees to the UK is as retarded as comparing the weather in Florida to the weather in Manchester

People - the USA is DIFFFERENT

Here is an educational breakdown of that 6% you may give to your realtor (or licensee) when you sell your house

6%
3% goes to listing BROKER (not Realtor)
3% goes to selling BROKER (not Realtor)
Of that 3%, maybe 75% goies to the actual realtor

So - quick calculation

$200,000 house
6% $12,000
3% to the Broker $6000
75% of $6000 goes to the Realtor $ 4500

So each Realtor can exprect to GROSS $4500

This is before

Income tax
Office and MLS fees
Realtor association dues
Licensing dues
Advertising fees
Petrol to drive muppet buyers to 40 houses before they make a decision
Continuing education costs

The above, even before also taking into account the large amount of competition for house listings, does not in my book add up to a very profitable career

Good Realtors are smart and work VERY LONG hours, open houses at weekends etc and writing contracts up in the evenings.

The average realtor in the USA makes $30,000 a year - hardly a fortune by any stretch of the imagination

Hopefully the above helps to alleviate some of the speculation and 'outrage at fees'

I personally will only be maintaining my license for a couple of years more - its useful as a way to get early access to certain properties for my personal investment, but relatively hopeless as a way to make money other than as a enjoyable and interesting part-time job on the side

Cliffclimber

Hi Elvira, We're quite fortunate because we're hoping to crack it without a mortgage after lucking out over the last few years with timely buys in the UK, so I hope we'll avoid fees and credit score nonsense that way. Florida because that's where my folks moved back to retire - my mum's from there. They're getting on a bit and I'd like to be somewhere a bit closer. My wife and kids are also happy to move....so they say!

I'm definately more Brit than American (having lived to 5 in the States, the rest in UK), hence my baulking at these wild realtor fees, but it sounds like it's just on the sellers end. I hope the wife and kids do like it, because we won't be moving!

Thanks everyone for the advice,

BritGuyTN

True, or even if not deliberately trying to fleece you, they are incompetent fools

BritGuyTN

Also, as FB and Dunroving say

1. ITS AN OPEN MARKET - PLEASE FEEL FREE TO NEGOTIATE

2. In some markets you can get away without using a Realtor.

I would probably FSBO my own house but offer agents bringing people to me 2%

Without that incentive, all the people using buyers agents may not even get to know about your property - why should a Realtor bring someone round when they won't get renumeration?

Angry White Pyjamas

Jax is a 'Cane free zone.


As for fees: Buyowner.

aznewsh

Don't see the point - bought my house within a couple of weeks from an ad in the newspaper using only a title company and intend to sell the same way

TruBrit

Alright there mate, keep yer hair on.....we know the USA is different I'll agree with you on that one....Merry Christmas

fatbrit

Know of realtors who get 100% and just pay a fee of $300 to their broker plus E&O on top. Broker expects no hassle whatsover, though, and people who don't get their paperwork back to "the girls" on time are fined heavily. On the other side, I know set-ups as low as 55% but the broker is hands-on and everything in the office is provided for no extra charge.

Angry White Pyjamas

Im wondering why then there are more realtors than food shops and garages around these parts. Cant be all so bad in a flying market like FLA is.

Chorlton

I'll be doing the same when the time comes.

scrubbedexpat099

A guy I know who lives in Vail told me that there are more realtors in Vail than properties on the market.

The average realtor in CO does a couple of transactions a year, the ones that do have a good business are obviously coining it.

Ray

There are 144,000 Realtors in Florida .. 20,000 would be too many ...

BritGuyTN

Marketing and the media

All you see on cnn and infomercials is about how people are making a fortune in real estate

then you get a sales pitch like 'real estate is the only business where you can have your own business without the costs'

also, people think oooohh - I get 6% of what the house sells for, only to be half way through initial education to find out they don't

with reference to fatbrits comments, yes, different brokers have different splits, but the larger brokers tend to have around the commision split I mentioned and justify it to licensees as a cost due to value add of brand/office services

As always, the two words which come up time and time again - Caveat Emptor (or in English) - DO YOUR RESEARCH!