Real Estate Agents

[Boges]

The Canadian real-estate market is expected to get much more competitive with a new discount agency partnership that would offer cheaper real-estate fees to consumers and present the most serious threat yet to traditional bricks-and-mortar realtors.

The deal between Moncton, N.B.-based PropertyGuys.com and Toronto-based Realtysellers Real Estate Inc. is expected to be announced Thursday, the Star has learned.

The agreement will result in a powerhouse for discount real estate. PropertyGuys bills itself as the largest and fastest-growing private-sale franchise network in Canada, where sellers can list and sell their own properties without an agent. Realtysellers, which has had a history of litigious tangling with organized real estate, is considered the bad boy of real estate due to its aggressive low commissions and flat fees.

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I've never sold a house, I've only purchased a house. I used a Royal Lepage Real Estate Agent who was fantastic! But I didn't have to pay her, the seller did.

5% of $300,000 is $15,000. That's a lot of money for maybe just having to post a house on MLS. I don't plan on selling my place anytime soon, I don't have nearly enough equity in the place yet but I'm not sure if I can justify giving someone 5% for selling a house that probably will be in demand when I want to sell it.

Are Real Estate Agents from Remax or Royal Lepage etc really worth it?

[BubberMiley]

Five percent is after you haggle. Noobs who don't know better pay seven.

[Bonam]

Five percent is after you haggle. Noobs who don't know better pay seven.

It doesn't seem at all worth it to me. I can find better uses for 150 grand.

[Wild Bill]

My link

I've never sold a house, I've only purchased a house. I used a Royal Lepage Real Estate Agent who was fantastic! But I didn't have to pay her, the seller did.

5% of $300,000 is $15,000. That's a lot of money for maybe just having to post a house on MLS. I don't plan on selling my place anytime soon, I don't have nearly enough equity in the place yet but I'm not sure if I can justify giving someone 5% for selling a house that probably will be in demand when I want to sell it.

Are Real Estate Agents from Remax or Royal Lepage etc really worth it?

You've got blinders on! You can't see what's involved from where you stand.

First off, that 5% gets negotiated down all the time. When bargaining reaches the final level it's quite common for the agents involved to cut their commission rate a bit to get the deal to close. The seller gets the same, the buyer doesn't pay as much - only the agents get less.

Also, your agent is trying to sell your house in competition with all the others that are MLS listed. Why should any buyer think YOUR house is special? It's your agent's job to make them think so. Meanwhile, while he's trying to sell your house to a prospective client, he may be showing them 15 other houses. That means 14 houses have been a waste of his time. He or she gets paid nothing for those!

Agents are bound by rules and laws to disclose things to you if you want to buy a particular house. Perhaps it was a grow op! Perhaps the wiring is old and substandard. Maybe someone is going to build a tannery next door. I'm not an expert on just what must be disclosed but one thing I do know, a private seller doesn't have to tell you ANYTHING!

For that reason alone I would NEVER buy without an agent! You might be selling your house and want to save an agent's commission but what the hell do I get out of it as a buyer? I would have no protection at all and nothing but your word as to any problems I might end up taking on.

All you''re seeing is your house, one agent and one eventual buyer. There's a lot more involved and someone has to be paid for that or no one will do it!

Edited July 8, 2011 by Wild Bill

[Boges]

Well the buyer doesn't have to pay the commission, so yeah you're an idiot of you don't use an agent for that. Now I don't know how the commission works if the seller is using Property Guys or doing a private sale.

I bet a Realtor won't even show a client a house if it's a private sale.

My agent was fantastic in helping my wife and I find the right house. But do I want to pay her 5% when someone else might do it for 1%? It's something I'll have to wrestle with when it comes time to sell.

1% of any property in the GTA is still a really nice chunk of change.

Again I'm asking a question. I'm admitting my opinion isn't informed here.

BTW regarding the disclosure thing. By law a home inspection has to be done at the cost of the buyer, so it's not like the agent covers that.

[guyser]

BTW regarding the disclosure thing. By law a home inspection has to be done at the cost of the buyer, so it's not like the agent covers that.

Huh?

Home inspections by and large are an incredible waste of money. I do not need someone to tell me the house will be standing once I close on it. That is ALL a H I does.

I have seen more useless HI 's than I care too and on the next one I do, I will prepare my own report to compare against his. If he misses 2 things I catch he will not get paid.

The most serious flaw in HI's is lack of any liability , and that is just plain wrong.

[Boges]

Huh?

Home inspections by and large are an incredible waste of money. I do not need someone to tell me the house will be standing once I close on it. That is ALL a H I does.

I have seen more useless HI 's than I care too and on the next one I do, I will prepare my own report to compare against his. If he misses 2 things I catch he will not get paid.

The most serious flaw in HI's is lack of any liability , and that is just plain wrong.

I know. There's no guarantee the house you're buying is totally sound. In fact many new houses are built totally on the cheap so there isn't even a guarantee you're not moving into a lemon if you buy new.

I was just responding the Wild Bill's claim that a Real Estate Agent will legally tell you if the house you're moving in has problems.

[guyser]

I was just responding the Wild Bill's claim that a Real Estate Agent will legally tell you if the house you're moving in has problems.

And that restriction , or rather legal requirement, is worth the commission

[Oleg Bach]

My sister was a big roller at one time - corporate and industrial property..started off selling small renovated shacks in nice locations - all I know about her and her associates from that period is that I would trust a lawyer or carnival worker first.

[August1991]

Are Real Estate Agents from Remax or Royal Lepage etc really worth it?

It's an interesting question.

Every deal involves transaction costs. Some of those costs are fixed, and some are associated with the size of the deal. At present, real estate commission seems solely based on the size of the deal although with large deals, I suspect that commissions are negotiated downward. IOW, in effect, the fee has two components: a fixed amount and a %.

So, returning to the question, is it the fixed amount that's too high or the % associated with the deal? IOW, are agents gouging at the high end of the market or the low end?

----

1. The Internet has completely altered classified ads for used items/cars, the job market, stock market reporting, singles meeting - to name only a few. I don't see why it won't have an effect on real estate.

2. Even the Competition Bureau recognizes that the CREA is a cartel.

3. Most people don't buy many houses in their lifetime. Perhaps 2 or 3. (The average may be higher because of the few churners.) And most people don't buy a house, they're buying a home. Real estate agents are family advisors as much as house sellers.

[Bonam]

It's an interesting question.

Every deal involves transaction costs. Some of those costs are fixed, and some are associated with the size of the deal. At present, real estate commission seems solely based on the size of the deal although with large deals, I suspect that commissions are negotiated downward. IOW, in effect, the fee has two components: a fixed amount and a %.

So, returning to the question, is it the fixed amount that's too high or the % associated with the deal? IOW, are agents gouging at the high end of the market or the low end?

A real estate agent is gonna put AT MOST a hundred hours of work or so into one client's search for a house or for a buyer. Even granting a very high rate of say $100/hour, they're doing at most $10k of work. Any fee beyond that is just not worthwhile for whoever has to pay it. If it's really 5%, that puts the high end of a house for which the fee is reasonable at around $200k. There's no houses for that price at all in the markets I've looked at, NONE at all.

Really, realtors need to charge by the hour for their work, rather than by a % of the deal. Until then I'll maintain my opinion that they are generally a ripoff.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Bonam

[Boges]

Really, realtors need to charge by the hour for their work, rather than by a % of the deal. Until then I'll maintain my opinion that they are generally a ripoff.

If they did that then they'd just drag their feet on a lot of the stuff they do.

I think that's the appeal of these new companies that charge flat rates and use onDemand services.

[Oleg Bach]

Every real estate agent is cut from the same cloth - They come from a lower middle class back ground and have a get rich quick mentality.

[Boges]

Every real estate agent is cut from the same cloth - They come from a lower middle class back ground and have a get rich quick mentality.

Dood that's a sweeping statement. Do you have blanket opinions like that about everything?

[Oleg Bach]

Dood that's a sweeping statement. Do you have blanket opinions like that about everything?

Pretty much. Don't call me dude...at least if you do spell it right. The real esate industry has always attracted those who seek to get rich quick - Those that I have met and I used to attend parties with these people..were hard nose hustlers who would do anything - and say anything for a profit. When my first child was born I needed a place to live - an associate of my real estate sister approached me and suggested that if I renovate one of his properties - I could live in it rent free for six months.

I turned a dump into a viable bit of real estate - when I was about to move in the agent took me out for a beer..He looked me in the eye and said..."No no - I meant that if you renovated the other property that I have you could have six months free rent. In other words this user and con man...really thought that I would spend four months working for nothing just to make him a little richer...................so as we sipped the beer I looked him in the eye and said "Paul you little weasil - I should give you a shot in the face for that corrupt action" In a second suddenly his attitude changed and he said - "I was only kidding of course the original deal holds"

This guy was not out of the norm - he was typical - If they think you can be manipulated and robbed they will rob - There is little honour in this profession.

[Molly]

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Are Real Estate Agents from Remax or Royal Lepage etc really worth it?

Until you question the net, you don't know.

If your discount agency offers to get you $X, but the 7% agency hustles enough to find you $X+15%, then that 7% is well worth it, but if they coast, waiting for someone to walk into the office and make an offer, they aren't worth the powder to blow 'em up.

Beyond that, they provide a service-- advice, legs, listings, chasing folks around, keeping the ducks in a row... How badly do you need that service? Some folks don't need it at all/some would be clueless and screwed without it. You have to look at your own situation to know the answer to that, too.

We've never used a realtor to sell- flat out didn't need 'em- but we certainly will use one next time, 'cause it's more complex and we'll need the benefit of connections and salesmanship. We watched our neighbour with twin property fairly obviously leave (a large, unknown amount of) money on the table. We don't want to do the same.