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Is there anyone in this country more overpaid than realtors?


Argus

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I've been looking at houses lately, and condos. I used a realtor because, let's face it, it wouldn't cost me anything. The realtor in question came recommended.

It was a surprise to me to learn that a realtor does nothing much to try to sell a house if the other party has their own realtor. I never met any of the realtors who were supposedly 'selling' the properties I looked at. Apparently they just post the ad and then go fishing. My realtor took me around, and knew less than I did about the properties we visited. In some cases it was obvious he hadn't even read the MLS ad, because he was surprised at some of the things we found (I wasn't). He poked around them like I did, discovering what we could together. These places were always empty. Even where someone lived there the deal, apparently, is they vacate while you and your realtor visit.

In the end, my realtor made over thirteen thousand dollars for driving to a half dozen places to look around with me, and setting up her software to pull houses off MLS and send them to me. The software wasn't very sophisticated, and most of the places sent to me were not what I wanted anyway. I actually wound up finding the house I wanted on MLS myself. So he basically added nothing to the process. For that he made as much money as many people earn in six months of steady, full time labour.

The realtor who posted the ads and waited for someone to show up and look got the same. Perhaps he actually had to go to the homes and show them to those who didn't have their own realtor. A showing generally takes under half an hour. What a massive waste of funds for a group of people who contribute almost nothing, in the main, to the process.

I bought my first house on Grapevine. I think I'll sell it that way too.

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The average full time realtor earns ~50k/year. Yes, that's basically like 4 sales of the type you mentioned, per year. In the sense of the total amount they make, they aren't "overpaid". The "best" real estate agents can make six figures. That suggests that there is something that they "do" that they can be "good" at which affects their earning potential, meaning that there must be some kind of value to what they do. That being said, I tend to agree, at first glance the role of a real-estate agent seems largely useless, especially with all the information available online anyway.

Edited by Bonam
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The average full time realtor earns ~50k/year. Yes, that's basically like 4 sales of the type you mentioned, per year. In the sense of the total amount they make, they aren't "overpaid". The "best" real estate agents can make six figures. That suggests that there is something that they "do" that they can be "good" at which affects their earning potential, meaning that there must be some kind of value to what they do. That being said, I tend to agree, at first glance the role of a real-estate agent seems largely useless, especially with all the information available online anyway.

Averages here lie. Unfortunately in real estate the market drives your earnings....not you. You're selling houses in Rosedale (ie rich TO) you're laughing, you're selling houses in flin flon MB.....you're eating catfood. Location Location Location. In either case its an easy sale....all comes down to the luck of what market you get.

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I've been dealing with Real Estate agents recently.

When you consider what they "actually" do compared to what they get paid it may seem that way.

But a good Agent can really do wonders in advocating for your interests and advising you on how to get the best bang for your buck. There's a lot of things joe shmo house seller doesn't consider.

A good selling agent should be able to garner a lot of interest for a property beyond just placing a few ads.

I've also seen first hand how bad real estate agents can really hurt a person in getting a deal.

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On the TV show of real estate, the only thing that gets me is when the agent says "You better put in a bid before someone else gets it before you" or "you better give it your best, to get the house". The buyers don't know really if the agent is really telling the truth or upping the price for their commission, this is stressful for first time buyers.

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It might seem like real estate agents get paid a lot for the amount of work they put into a sale, but keep in mind that they also do a lot of work that doesn't result in sales. What percent of clients that a realtor spends time with actually result in a sale? I suspect that when you average it all out, it's not as sweet of a gig as it might sound. Always Be Closing.

-k

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On the TV show of real estate, the only thing that gets me is when the agent says "You better put in a bid before someone else gets it before you" or "you better give it your best, to get the house". The buyers don't know really if the agent is really telling the truth or upping the price for their commission, this is stressful for first time buyers.

Huh? Any informed buyer will have a good idea if the market is favouring buyers and sellers. It's not a secret

The advice you noted may well be excellent and truthful.

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How can you overlook politicians?

Because they work hard. It takes a lot of long, hard work to be a politician.

I might think they're sleazy, self-aggrandizing publicity whores, and dishonest as hell, but there's no doubt they put a lot of time and effort into it.

Edited by Argus
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Do it yourself.

Maybe then you'll appreciate it more.

.

I think I will just pay her less.... maybe she'll get the point then...

And she'll stop being on the "overpaid Canadians" list...

Edited by The_Squid
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I've been looking at houses lately, and condos. I used a realtor because, let's face it, it wouldn't cost me anything. The realtor in question came recommended.

It was a surprise to me to learn that a realtor does nothing much to try to sell a house if the other party has their own realtor. I never met any of the realtors who were supposedly 'selling' the properties I looked at. Apparently they just post the ad and then go fishing. My realtor took me around, and knew less than I did about the properties we visited. In some cases it was obvious he hadn't even read the MLS ad, because he was surprised at some of the things we found (I wasn't). He poked around them like I did, discovering what we could together. These places were always empty. Even where someone lived there the deal, apparently, is they vacate while you and your realtor visit.

In the end, my realtor made over thirteen thousand dollars for driving to a half dozen places to look around with me, and setting up her software to pull houses off MLS and send them to me. The software wasn't very sophisticated, and most of the places sent to me were not what I wanted anyway. I actually wound up finding the house I wanted on MLS myself. So he basically added nothing to the process. For that he made as much money as many people earn in six months of steady, full time labour.

The realtor who posted the ads and waited for someone to show up and look got the same. Perhaps he actually had to go to the homes and show them to those who didn't have their own realtor. A showing generally takes under half an hour. What a massive waste of funds for a group of people who contribute almost nothing, in the main, to the process.

I bought my first house on Grapevine. I think I'll sell it that way too.

Most realtors make about 40-60k. Thats barely enough for an adult to live on. Yes... it seems like a 13k commision for a single sale is high but half that commision goes to the agent that actually owns the listing. And the reality is that even though it only seemed like your agent only worked a few hours on your transaction, they do a lot of work that results in no sales or compensation at all. Its also feast or famine work, and its seasonal.

Yes... in a hot market realtors can do really well, but for most, its actually not too fantastic of a job.

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Because they work hard. It takes a lot of long, hard work to be a politician.

I might think they're sleazy, self-aggrandizing publicity whores, and dishonest as hell, but there's no doubt they put a lot of time and effort into it.

The attendance record in the Senate and House of Commons is not reflective of hard work.

Perhaps you could expand on the hard work required to be appointed to the Senate.

a 13k commission

for one side of the deal means a total commission of $26K.

That is an expensive house/condo

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