Realtor must pay $1.8B for inflating commissions
Realtor must pay $1.8B for inflating commissions
The National Association of Realtors and other industry players conspired to boost the commissions paid to real estate agents, jury rules.
Maybe high realtor commissions will come down now. Would you really care if your U.S. realtor shows up in a Civic instead of a Cadillac?
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Realtors getting a percentage commission has always been a scam,
I just sold my house, and paid the realtor $39k for 2 weeks of work (likely only about 12 hrs of actual work). Scam is putting it lightly.
Compared to what? A flat rate?
Yeah, or a scale based on actual effort, not purely his much a home is worth.
A system which aligns incentives would be one where the commission is based on a percentage of anything above a certain sale price. This way, the realtor is incentivized to find a buyer at the very least at that price, and to find the highest possible price to get as much commission as possible.
is it a requirement to have a realtor or is just just a massive convenience factor, if it's a requirement I would be for a restriction to force flat rate but, if it's optional I would say just find one that wasn't commission based
The article is about an org that controls the industry standard house listing service, that will not list your house if you dont agree to the commission structure,whixh excludes the vast majority of buyers.
The jury found that they were applying monopolistic power. Its not literally required, but it's actually required.
The thing is, whether or not an agent is a member of NAR, commissions have always been negotiable (maybe the real problem is that sellers don't know this and don't try to haggle). Agents could always choose to take less commission if they wanted to. But would you voluntarily take lower pay for no particular reason?
This "agents can now charge less in commissions" is BS because they always could. It changes nothing.
It's not required, but it's a bit like a cartel. You can't get listed in the MLS without a realtor. Many buyers agents also avoid any for sale by owner properties.
If you still want help with the home buying process a lawyer can write up a contract for a few hundred dollars. Similarly as a seller you can have a lawyer review offers.
You can get listed without a realtor but it's not easy.
I did just that when I sold my house in 2006... Had very few potential buyers interested though and after it sat on the market for way too long I ended up eventually selling it to a friend / former employee and walking away with virtually nothing to show for over 5 years of equity.
Required in most states afaik
What is the alternative?
Fixed wages like nearly every other industry?
So you go house shopping and you better find a house you like soon, or else you'll have to pay your realtor by the hour for all the Saturdays you spend shopping?
Sadly, I don't think there's a good way to compensate realtors.
I feel like hourly with a fixed sale bonus would be fine for buyers.
$50/h at the location (maybe a travel fee for places far away from their normal location), and $5000 for a successfully closed deal. All buyer paid, that would mean that the realtor gets paid for work done, and but the closing bonus means that they don't have as much of an incentive to keep taking the customers to crappy places to keep the hourly going.
Selling Realtors should really negotiate a fixed figure and a bonus that goes down the longer it takes to sell, this could encourage them to suggest lower prices on homes I guess, but it's ultimately the owners decision to pick a price and the Realtors choice if it's worth the effort to sell at that price