good news!

had a realtor out to look at the house last night, as we're going to put it on the market. if it sells at the price the realtor expects, we will only lose about $22,000!

that's another thing....FFS...what do realtors do that causes them to earn between five and seven percent of the deal? that's between $8 and $14 K on a $200,000 house. my fucking god! they get that much for putting it on the MLS and coming over and taking some pictures??? shit...a realtor sells three houses and that  right there is my yearly salary.

Starbright, have you seen this show on Bravo?

I'm about to do the same thing. Try and sell a house. Luckily it's paid for already and it's all profit for me. But having the realtor do all  the leg work for me is a big help. Espicially since it's a vacation home and this realtor knows the area and has lot's of experience in the area. But I can see someone who is trying to get the most they can out of a house having problems forking over a significant percentage of the sell price. But in the end I think it's worth it.

I am selling my mom's place in Florida through a realtor--5% (splitting the net with my brother)--I'm an attorney but I still could not do otherwise as I'm 1,500 miles away.  The 5% was worth it.  Quit 'yer bitchin' and pony up...time is money!!

As a Real Estate Profesional for 20+ years, I need to explain something to you. So you actually think the listing agent pockets the entie 5 or 6% of the commission? ha that would be sweet, but it breaks down like this. If the house sells for $200,000, 5% commission (and most of us work for 5) = $10,000. This amount gets divided between the listing agency and the selling agency, which would be $5,000 each agency. From there, the agency gets usually 1/2 and the agent gets the other half, less E&O insurance, franchise fees, mls fees, etc, so the listing and selling agent each end up with (average) $2250- $2300 per transaction. Since we are in a 6-9 month market, that averages out to about $250-$300 a month to close the deal. We work on it the entire time, and we pay MLS dues, National dues, local dues, and state dues which adds up to over $2000.year, plus we pay taxes on that income so it ends up being much less than $2200 after we pay uncle sam. If the market is slow, we may only sell 1 house per month, so 12 x $2300 is not much money at all, in fact it sucks. In a good year we can sell 2 or possibly 3 houses in a month, and I live and work in a good area! Some remote places may only sell 6 houses in a year, and we put all our time into it, people think nothing of calling us from 7 AM till 11 PM plus we work all weekends and holidays. The best chance we have to make big bucks is if we get lucky enough to sell a high priced home, which is rare. So we work hard for it, and some years are better than others. Also we get no benefits, no health insurance, and no paid vacations or paid holidays. Believe me when I tell you we deserve evey cent we earn, and on top of that we are dealing with assholes most of the time who treat us like shit, like we are crooks, when in fact we do everything possible in their best interests. Unappreciated, yes, for sure. If you try to sell it yourself these days you can never do it, everything is Internet based, buyers look on the RE internet websites and a good realtor has to pay to be on several sights and those all cost money too. Nothing is free in this life. nothing.  

Bitch wrote on Mar 20^th, 2010 at 11:20am:

Terrific analysis.  Always good to use a realtor.

I can see your frustration, Bucky, but it is not the fault of your real estate professional that the market value of your house has dropped. If the market were better and you were looking at a $500K profit on your house, this real estate commission wouldn't hurt so much.

We have bought and sold six homes and used a full service real estate agent every time. They have all the knowledge of both the local markets and the intricacies of real estate transactions. And most of my agents have done a great job of acting as the go-between for the seller and buyer when all those prickly issues, demands and details come up.

If you have to do your own showings, however, you should not be paying the full commission.

Good luck selling your home. I hope it goes smoothly!

SV

lotsajizz wrote on Mar 21^st, 2010 at 1:36pm:

fuckin' W. i blame this all on him.

Yes realtors are very helpful. But they're has to be a way to streamline the whole process. I just got done spending an hour doing nothing but signing page after page of disclosures. Would of been 2 hours but I finally gave up trying to read all of them....Let alone understand them.

sweetcharmedlife wrote on Mar 27^th, 2010 at 12:53pm:


Great! Probably what happened is some Realtor had a customer who was looking for what you had, and there was nothing like that on the market. So when yours popped up, the realtor recognized a 'match' and brought the customer there right away. For example, I have someone wh is looking for an old Victorian in the heart of town, to restore, but there are none right now. And another guy wants a waterfront home in a certain price range in one specific area. So if either of these pop up, I'll get them there quickly! Crappy economy or not, everyone needs a place to call home and Real Estate prices are low now so it really is a good time to buy!

another thread going political....
will anyone post and get it locked?

do you have to sell? there's a great program to help people keep homes, while loering month;y costs... the banks have the money, getting it from them is another thing. They were givien it to do this... keep your home if you want it and can.

My brother & i sold our investment house last month. Prices here are going through the roof, but slowing down a bit now. We sold just at the right time. Our agent charged us 1.5%. The real killer is the advertising. But i didnt care as i can claim is all on tax next year to off-set the capital gains tax i have to pay. A Chinese chick bought the house which is starting to cause concern here because the Chinese are buying heaps & putting prices up. Which made us happy, i must say.

We get access to some of the money next Monday, and i am going on a little spree. 1st items are a Telecaster & a new surround amp. But i have heaps to do at my own house like painting & new windows & a deck.

And my Telecaster.

P.S. Tele.