fascinating!

To be fair, there are agents who do their homework and go the extra mile to ensure listings are accurate and spend the money to dress up the place, spend advertising dollars (newspaper, fliers, etc), to get the homes sold. But I hear you. When do my buttons get pushed?

-when I know more about the listing than the agent

-when I can correct them about the school district

-when I can point out what needs to be fixed and how much it costs

Why are seller giving away 6% of their money to these agents? I don't see the point.

I agree, it's an outdated model that I'm sure will change in the future.

But I'm sure some agents are shady enough to get a listing to drop their price, but only if they get double commisions.

There are really things like pocket listings. I hear Agents pitch them every week - out in the open, to other Agents.

If a realtor says they have a pocket listing, the first and best response is "Great! I'll put my Realtor in touch with you about this property and see if a deal can be hashed out". If the agent then says, "well, I'd like to show it myself" - as often will happen, you know immediately who you're dealing with. If the Agent say "fantastic, I'd like to sell the house right away, once the sellers decide to move ahead", it's a real deal, worth exploring if you have the time to spend.

Not all Real Estate Agents are trolls, but without an efficient screening process, they all sure seem like they are.

Thanks for reading,

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Pasta wrote:

Why are seller giving away 6% of their money to these agents? I don't see the point.

 

I agree, it's an outdated model that I'm sure will change in the future.

 

But I'm sure some agents are shady enough to get a listing to drop their price, but only if they get double commissions.

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It's well worth the fee, thats why I am sure it will be around for a LOOOOONG time.

And agents are free to negotiate their commissions- in fact its required BY LAW that all fees be negotiable - nothing at all shady about a broker lowering their fee. its done all the time

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Pasta wrote:

Why are seller giving away 6% of their money to these agents? I don't see the point.

 

I agree, it's an outdated model that I'm sure will change in the future.

 

But I'm sure some agents are shady enough to get a listing to drop their price, but only if they get double commissions.

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6% isn't even really the standard anymore. In fact if you're in Southern California and you're searching our site we calculate any potential refund based on 5%, or 2.5% to the buyer's agent. The model works, but it does rely on reputable agents, and we're trying to help bring some transparency to the process, but it isn't going to change overnight. Look at the blow back we got from the scouting report.

There are slimy individuals in every industry including real estate agents. The best thing anyone can do to cut down on that is bring to light the individuals giving the industry a bad name and don't feed them any business. Though, assigning a generic description to everyone in any industry is a bit ignorant and not very productive.

That's my $0.02. Have a great day,

I'm not talking about "shady indiviuals" or a few bad eggs here and there.

I'm saying all of them are unnecessary.

I think you should just find a house by searching the internet and then go see it, have it inspected, negotiate a price and buy it if you like it. It could be just like buying a TV.

Hey everyone! Post here if you've ever bought a "pocket listing" and gotten a significant discount on the price as a result. Let's hear it.

"Significant discount" is the implication that agents use in order to reel you in and get a double commission. So let's hear if it really happens...from an actual buyer please, not an agent spreading fantasies.

STARCHY, could you please explain WHY these agent fees are worth it?

And yes, let's hear about some real "pocket listing" deals! I am curious to learn more about them.

Pocket listing pitches go something like this:

"I've got a past client thinking of selling his 4br house in Santa Monica. It's probably going to sell in the $750,000 range. Once the owner finalizes his divorce, he'll be ready to sell, probably in the next 30 days."

Agents will ask what neighborhood it's in, if it's got a pool, etc, based on what their current buyer clients are looking for. Many times deals are made during Realtor office pitch meetings or at local Realtor board sponsored meetings.  At these meetings I'd say 5 to 10 upcoming properties are pitched, with one or so resulting in an eventual deal.

In the OP, a realtor is pitching their double extra special secret intel they will only share with a buyer who works with them (a paraphrase...) Those kinds of deals really aren't .

Thanks for reading,