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Guest

I'm a Realtor and I know of very few professions where you can work you ass off to try to sell a home and if the homes doesn't sell or the buyer doesn't buy, the agent gets nothing! A 6% commission winds up 1.5% to me after the 4-way split. If you list a home for less than a 2.5% co-op, it won't get shown. The broker won't go lower, so I only have 1.5% to negotiate. Don't complain until you've worn the others shoes for awhile.

Guest

Mr. Realtor, I have worn the hat and you are a fool for not working at a company where you get 100% commission!

Second, if you Google Search: Realtor Rebate you'll see 1/2 million site soffering realtor rebate!

Don't try and make that job out to be more than it is, reading off a menu called the MLS, opening doors and writing a contract.

3% and 6% commissions are absurd for what a realtor does on anything over a $100,00 sale

Guest

Right On BiBi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Realtors make me what to puke!

Guest

I just got hit with 7% by my realtor who did about a 2% job. Part of it is my fault. I didn't ask about the percent (assumed 6 :p) and he did not disclose until I got a buyer and he sent the final pricing sheet

Guest

In todays housing market, people have far more information available to themselves for house hunting than before. How difficult is it for a Realtor to open a door and say "this is the living room, this is the master bedroom, this is the bathroom. Do you like it and want to make an offer?" To become a Realtor all a person needs is a High School Diploma for goodness sakes! It's not that difficult of a job, an the pay they receive is certainly not related to performance. What can justify paying 60,000 in commissions for sale of a 1,000,000 home, and a person selling a 200,000 home pays 12,000. Does the Realtor do 5 times more work to sell the 1,000,000 home? Heck no! So can someone give a valid explanation behind the excessive commission paid? Keep in mind, the seller does not care the least how many ways the commission gets divided. That is not a seller's problem. So, Realtors, please try and explain this one to us?

Guest

A 6% commission is not a law, you can ask for a lower commission. 6% is just standard in most states, but not a law. You don't ask, you don't get has always been my motto and if they won't lower it, go elsewhere.

Larry

Guest

It cost 500 bucks to sell your home yourself on the MLS....your listing is then added to about a hundred other sites. That's about 23,500 dollars less than a realtor would charge you to sell your home. The only thing a realtor does is take your money !

Guest

On a 400 thousand dollar home that is !....I sold mine and offered any buyers realtor 3 1/2 percent to bring me a buyer and they did !

Guest

@ lal...you are right, they probably spend 2-300 dollars tops on local advertising and it's cheaper than 400 for them to put your listing on the mls..you are on the right track...lots of people don't know you can list it yourself ....... and offering a realtor to bring you a buyer for that percentage is VERY smart and a lot of incentive for an agent to bring YOU a buyer...... Very Happy

Guest

Ok, so let's say $300,000 house (above average where I'm at).

3% - $9000.
Let's call it a 65% split with the company = $5850.00

We're not even going to take into account the listings that never sell, the buyers that disappear, etc. Those people get FREE services and never pay...is that right? It's the name of the game, so we'll let it be.

Newspaper ads (not as many as before, but lets say average market time of 120 days and an ad 2x per month) - $25 per shot = $200

Facebook/Google/Yahoo ad. $25 per week 1 week per month = $100 (over 4 month market time)

I do direct mail with every listing. 200 postcards with postage = $100

Average agent probably sells about 8 homes a year (total guess and I sell more). So you have your fees and expensies:

$1200 desk fees
$750 mls fees
$600 Realtor.com advertising
$300 Misc. website
$100 to national or state association
$1200 cell phone bill (mine is much more)
$2400 gasoline (20K a year, 25 mpg, $3 a gallon...I drive more, get less mpg, but pay a little less for gas)
$200 business cards
$500 misc. farming, etc (I spend over $3000 per year farming..materials, postage, etc)
=====
$7250 divided by 8 sales = $906 per sale.

I can go on with lock boxes, brochures, signs, etc, etc, etc., but let's call it $100 per listing.

That leaves us with:

$200 newspaper
$100 Internet
$100 direct mail
$900 dues, fees, etc
$100 misc.
=====
$1400

$5850
-1400
====
$4450

Oh wait, we need to decide how many hours are spent on a listing.

Everyweek:
1 hour updating internet
1 hour towards marketing report
1 hour towards running around, dropping fliers, watering flowers while client is on vacation, getting the dog out for a showing, etc
1 hour talking with other agents about the listing
1 hour setting up ads, etc.
====
5 hrs. per week X 16 weeks = 80 hours

Monthly open house = 3 hours x 4 months = 12 hours

One time events:
4 hours =doing the market, pulling comps, presentation
4 hours = setting up inspections, appraisal, getting attorney info, etc.
2 hours = closing
5 hours = initial listing (photos, measuring, getting on the net, putting in mls, making brochures, fliers, etc.)
========
15 hours

So, that gives us about 107 hours on a listing. I know this is low I spend way more on my listings. Also, again, assuming this listing is going to close as about 30% of listings never sell.

107 hours. At least 40 of these are on weekends when normal America gets time and a half. Let's call it straight time though.

$4450 / 107 hours = $41.50 per hour before taxes (don't forget we are Independent Contractors and get double dinged for self employment tax too.

$41.50 and I work 7 days a week. Clients call me on vacation, holidays, weekends, nights.

Don't forget that the expenses for properties that don't sell or buyers that disappear, etc. need to be figured in there. I also know I left out many items that I do with every listing like professional photography at $50-$75 a pop.

I figured out last year that I worked 72.5 hours per week. If I break it down to what I earn hourly, I'd much rather be a loan officer(and I don't envy that job right now with all the new regulations, etc).

What I find interesting is that I work with about 4 different loan officers and everyone of them think I'm underpaid for what I provide my clients.

I do not ever question what a lender is charging a client. That isn't my job. If they want me to recommend a loan officer, I give them names of one or two that I know do a great job and earn their keep. I suggest my clients shop around for a loan. At the same time, if a potential client tells me they are going to shop Realtors, I encourage them to do so. It's probably their biggest asset and they should approach it with caution.

Nobody makes anybody pay a certain commission. Nobody makes anyone sign up with a Realtor. They can do it on their own if they so wish.

If a seller wants me to list at 4%, guess what? I pass. If they want me to do it at 4.5% I pass. If they want to list it for 20% more than I think it is worth, I pass. I don't carry a gun, so when people sign up with me, they aren't having their life threatened if they don't.

The op should really think before bashing a profession, especially given the profession they are in because they could be bashed just as equally.

gmakerley · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2010 2:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Jimmy, for a reasonable answer to the criticism. Now you said you would rather be a loan officer based on hourly wages - I suppose you have already taken into consideration the fickle public that will work with someone for a year or two while they get their acts together, then walk away and do business with someone else for some unknown reason, never having the rectitude or grace to follow up with a "oh by the way, I changed because..." Hourly, I don't even want to go into what my rate turned out to be. Frankly, I'd be fearful to even do the calculation. Any commissioned job is hazardous, and with the economy having been slumping for as long as it has, I'd love to see statistics on how many loan officers and how many realtors have bailed out of their respective businesses.

This is not a diatribe, but simply a recitation of the facts of life as seen by a former loan officer. Now I get to turn my expertise back to one of the reasons for the slump...I'll be working in loss mitigation trying to help folk (maybe even some of those who left me in the dirt in the last few years). It's nice that I don't hold a grudge.

Guest

Who is to say what a Realtor should earn. More than 70% of homes are sold by a cooperating agent. That means the commision is split between the listing and selling broker. The brokers split the commision again with their agent. So, in many cases a listing or selling agent is making 1.5 - 2% of the sale price. After deducting the agents expenses for being a Realtor, they are lucky to net 1%. The posters on this thread that argue that agents are "raping" home owners are ill informed. Or possibly, they are the same person who is attempting to direct customers toward their business. Poor tactic.

gmakerley · Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 3:35 pm Post subject:

Agreed...someone who has no awareness of what's needed to do business as either a realtor or a loan originator truly has no business in trying to set a wage.

Guest

I disagree with that George. As a consumer of the service, sellers have every right to try to set a wage. And as a hopeful buyer, until the market crash we're going through today, I had no hope of ever being able to buy a house because both agents were working on percentage rather than a flat fee. This means both agents have a vested interest in the price being as high as possible. Of course this had to be coupled with the stupidity of the lenders to create the disaster we're going through right now (lending far more than the buyer could afford to pay back). In the part of CA I live in, buyers' agents were advising buyers to submit offers 15-20% higher than the listing price in order to be "taken seriously". Both buyers and sellers have EVERY right to try to set a fair wage. As has been pointed out repeatedly, nobody's working any harder to sell a $1M house compared to a $100k house. Yet the commissions are insanely different.

Guest

As a first time buyer, despite all the criticism here, this thread is very informing. It is nice to see where my hard earned money is going during the home buying process.

What I would also like to see is honest feedback regarding BS (Admin/underwriting) fees incurring during the loan process.

Source:
familyresource.com/finance/home-and-mortgage/mortgage-fees-what-should -you-pay-what-shouldnt-you

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6% REALTOR COMMISSION SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW