question about buying house and realtors

[NsXMas]

Sorry to hear that Rob.

Greed bastard in your area. Sounds like STEVENY's gripe about realtors in his area are valid.

A realtor does more than merely find listings for a client. That's why the realtors in the area I've shown you aren't afraid to show addresses and maps.

Sorry you're stuck in such a shitty place.

That gives me an idea though - I'd be entreprenuerial and start a competitive MLS service and charge buyers and sellers a flat fee, say $20 per month to list and browse. That'll teach them greedy pigs.

 

[rk-nsx]

most likely you can find a web site with free mls in your area. just look around at local sites rather than national. second, if you do choose to use a realtor their fee is negotiable no matter what they say. third, i can not see any benefit in having an "exclusive" for you. personally, i avoid realtors whenever possible, but do have a good bit of experience buying/selling and know the paperwork.

 

[WeakestLink]

MLS access is much better than realtor.com. Realtor.com does not update in real time so you could be looking at listings that are no longer available. Realtor.com doesn't show the agent comments, only the "internet/public" comments. (wouldn't you like to know if your agent will win a trip to Hawaii if they sell a particular property?) And realtor.com doesn't show you how long a property has been listed, if any price reductions have been taken, or if it had been previously listed, taken off and relisted. Realtor.com doesn't allow you to do searches of recently sold properties, their sale prices, those under contract, etc. Pretty important information to determine comps.

I would actually recommend using a top tier agent as inexperienced agents may not know all the tricks of the trade in terms of negotiating, handling issues that come up, etc. That being said, I usually work with Remax agents or agents that own their own brokerage firm. Then it is easy to negotiate commissions as they do not have to "check with their manager". If you're in a hot market, there are usually services that let you pay $300-$500 to have your house listed in the MLS. You still have to pay the 2.5-3% to the selling agent but you can save on the listing side. If you're buying and selling a house, you should be able to negotiate 3% for the buy, nothing for the sale (to the listing side) or 1.5% for each side of the transaction. Also depends on the purchase and sale price as the higher the prices, the more leverage you have with the commissions.

Regarding the exclusive listing, I would only sign the type of agreement where they only get paid if they were the first to show you the property. (I don't remember the name of such a listing). A good realtor shouldn't be concerned about "wasting" their time if they know what they are doing.

Two cents.