$1.8 billion mega-verdict against National Association of Realtors.

[Echo Lodge]

Americans are taxed $60 billion in real-estate commissions, says attorney who just won a $1.8 billion mega-verdict against National Association of Realtors

Stephen Brobeck, senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, says buyer agent's commission are effectively added in, "inflating the sale price.”

fortune.com

I don't think Vin is a Realtor but I could be wrong.

I always thought it was crazy if I sold my house using a realtor I would have to pay 3% to the buyer's agent on top of the 3% I have to pay to my listing agent. With the internet the NAR no longer has the power of the MLS. I don't mind paying for an Agent's services but having to loose $60k of my equity to sell a million dollar house is crazy. Will be interesting to see what happens when all the litigation is finalized. When I helped my daughter buy a home in Boise, I used Zillow and searched for homes for sale by owner. I originally tried using a realtor at first. The offer we put on another property was passed over by an all cash offer even though my offer was 10k more. I decided to try to find a property for sale by owner so I would have more of a chance in a hot market. I was able to purchase a home below market value without a bidding war. It was pretty easy using a title and escrow company and I have no real experience doing real estate.

 

[Cdog]

You are not paying 3% to the buyers agent. You are paying the listing broker 6% and that broker is splitting that 6% to help attract a qualified buyer.

The money comes from that buyer. Your 6% is a hypothetical based on a buyer closing a deal. Therefore you as a seller didn’t pay anything. It was a transaction cost that transacted only because that buyer was found and was qualified to close the deal.

 

[28Eliminator]

If you agree to a 6% commission on a million dollar sale, your a fool.

 

[Echo Lodge]

Here’s the deal. You are not paying 3% to the buyers agent. You are paying the listing broker 6% and that broker is splitting that 6% to help attract a qualified buyer.

The money comes from that buyer. Your 6% is a hypothetical based on a buyer closing a deal. Therefore you as a seller didn’t pay anything. It was a transaction cost that transacted only because that buyer was found and was qualified to close the deal.

Guess the jury saw it differently!

"The class-action lawsuit was filed in 2019 on behalf of 500,000 home sellers in Missouri and some border towns. The verdict stated that the defendants “conspired to require home sellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes in violation of federal antitrust law.”

 

[Cdog]

Guess the jury saw it differently!

"The class-action lawsuit was filed in 2019 on behalf of 500,000 home sellers in Missouri and some border towns. The verdict stated that the defendants “conspired to require home sellers to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes in violation of federal antitrust law.”

Here’s what’s interesting. The attorney they used is in violation of exactly what he’s accusing charging his fee.

Expect this whole thing to unwind in the courts. Who do you think wrote the real estate contracts? Attorneys

 

[Echo Lodge]

Here’s what’s interesting. The attorney they used is in violation of exactly what he’s accusing charging his fee.

Expect this whole thing to unwind in the courts. Who do you think wrote the real estate contracts? Attorneys

No doubt... In a class action the only winner are the attorneys! BTW, its 3% or lower commission in the UK.

 

[Cdog]

No doubt... In a class action the only winner is the attorneys! BTW, its 3% or lower commission in the UK.

I get it. What’s the % on class action suits? 33%?

Commissions are a market driven negotiation between the person who controls the asset and the licensee who commits to do the job. In buyer markets expect closer to the 6%. In seller markets expect less.

 

[TimeBandit]

I get it, if you make your living selling real estate at retail 6% is what you want.

In 1993 6% of my $172,000. house would have been $10,320. (I paid less, as both realtors paid closing costs)

If sold today for $850,000 6% would be $51,000. thats a big hell no.

My income did not increase 5X in 30 years.

Sticking to the "old" commissions is way out of touch imho. Legal or not.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

No doubt... In a class action the only winner are the attorneys! BTW, its 3% or lower commission in the UK.

From what I understand from friends in the UK, there are no buyer's agent. So you only deal with one agent.

 

[Echo Lodge]

From what I understand from friends in the UK, there are no buyer's agent. So you only deal with one agent.

I found my current house in 1993. Wife and I were driving neighborhoods when we saw a for sale sign. I called the agent and told her I was not represented by an agent. I told her she could represent me if the seller would come down in price as the seller would not be paying money to a buyer's agent.

 

[HALLETT BOY]

The internet is making a lot of ways of doing business archaic and superfluous, real estate seems to be devolving slowly …

 

[Cdog]

I found my current house in 1993. Wife and I were driving neighborhoods when we saw a for sale sign. I called the agent and told her I was not represented by an agent. I told her she could represent me if the seller would come down in price as the seller would not be paying money to a buyer's agent.

Sadly, you failed to comprehend what I spelled out to you before in my first reply in this thread.

You purchased the home and portion of those funds are what paid the agent.

She listened to what you said, and deducted whatever the buyer broke compensation was from the price and provided an offer for that amount. It’s clear that you feel that you got some sort of deal out of negotiating that way. And 1993 was post savings alone crisis time. So it certainly was a buyers market.. 3 years later I bought my first home at 18 yrs old with 5% credited to my closing costs.

Cheers!

 

[Bobby V]

I found my current house in 1993. Wife and I were driving neighborhoods when we saw a for sale sign. I called the agent and told her I was not represented by an agent. I told her she could represent me if the seller would come down in price as the seller would not be paying money to a buyer's agent.

Same sort of thing happened to me when I found my current home in Yorba Linda 25 years ago. The house was a FSBO. The house we sold was with an agent. Dealing with the FSBO was easier to deal with than the agent we paid.

in 2002 we decided to buy another house in Havasu. Found a house and put ours up for sale. Next day we told our friends about it and they wanted to buy it. They asked the agent if they could get a discount since it was only listed for 1 day. They didnt budge on their commission.

 

[Cdog]

Same sort of thing happened to me when I found my current home in Yorba Linda 25 years ago. The house was a FSBO. The house we sold was with an agent. Dealing with the FSBO was easier to deal with than the agent we paid.

in 2002 we decided to buy another house in Havasu. Found a house and put ours up for sale. Next day we told our friends about it and they wanted to buy it. They asked the agent if they could get a discount since it was only listed for 1 day. They didnt budge on their commission.

Did you do sprinkler jobs for less if your friend referred you??

Would you have discounted your salary because your friends with the guy who owns a company who hired your company?

 

[OCMerrill]

This house I'm in currently was bought 20 years ago on a hand shake. We went to the Escrow office of the sellers choosing and opened Escrow.
The Escrow officer did everything else. It was easy, my condo sold in a week to a cash buyer, I only paid the buyers agent 1.5%, and adjusted the cost of sale accordingly since it was the buyers mother.

I used the same escrow officer for the condo sale as the house I was buying so everything was turnkey. Closed escrow in two weeks and we lived in our motorhome in front of our current house while we scraped out all the ceilings.

 

[Englewood]

News flash - Nobody pays 6% anymore.

Ever seen a $2m+ FSBO? There is a reason for that.

 

[Wheeler]

Winter has arrived!


When do wet get to pick on firemen? Before or after the start of the pending recession?

 

[BingerFang]

Winter has arrived!


When do wet get to pick on firemen? Before or after the start of the pending recession?

 

[Bobby V]

Did you do sprinkler jobs for less if your friend referred you??

Would you have discounted your salary because your friends with the guy who owns a company who hired your company?

Well..Im retired now. But yes I did give discounts for referrals from friends.

 

[Wheeler]

Well..Im retired now. But yes I did give discounts for referrals from friends.

And there you have it folks! Bobby helping the rich get richer! Everyone loves a Bobby!

 

[Cdog]

Well..Im retired now. But yes I did give discounts for referrals from friends.

Good man. I do the same.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

No doubt... In a class action the only winner are the attorneys! BTW, its 3% or lower commission in the UK.

As of July 4, 1776 nothing they say or do in the UK actually matters here in the good ol USA…

 

[RiverDave]

I'm still waiting for my "do something really nice"
I'll never refer anyone to a realtor here again

I apologize I haven’t caught up with ya.. completely my fault! I sent ya a pm.

 

[RiverDave]

If you agree to a 6% commission on a million dollar sale, your a fool.

Kinda depends on what they are doing for the client doesn’t it?

 

[rrrr]

You should have started a thread on Pit Bulls.

I'll volunteer. If one of those goddamned dogs even starts to look at me, it's going to be a dead motherfucker.

 

[Wheeler]

Same sort of thing happened to me when I found my current home in Yorba Linda 25 years ago. The house was a FSBO. The house we sold was with an agent. Dealing with the FSBO was easier to deal with than the agent we paid.

in 2002 we decided to buy another house in Havasu. Found a house and put ours up for sale. Next day we told our friends about it and they wanted to buy it. They asked the agent if they could get a discount since it was only listed for 1 day. They didnt budge on their commission.

The true test is near where a realtor will need to work for their money. If I weren't so lazy or if I laid off posting on quasi boating sites I'd list my properties myself. I might start with a cardboard sign and work up from there.

 

[rrrr]

The true test is near where a realtor will need to work for their money. If I weren't so lazy or if I laid off posting on quasi boating sites I'd list my properties myself. I might start with a cardboard sign and work up from there.

Judging from the photos of the, uh, classic cars and healthy natural grasses on your property, the cardboard sign will attract the most interested clientele.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

I found my current house in 1993. Wife and I were driving neighborhoods when we saw a for sale sign. I called the agent and told her I was not represented by an agent. I told her she could represent me if the seller would come down in price as the seller would not be paying money to a buyer's agent.

My point being their RE system is set up around only having a single broker, here we traditionally have a buyer's and seller's broker.
Different systems, different fees.

Here in IL not only do you have 2 brokers, you are also required to have a real estate attorney for both buyer and seller.

 

[baja-chris]

Any experience selling with Redfin?

 

[mjc]

I sold my last house with them. Went OK.

Any experience selling with Redfin?

 

[WYRD]

I'm still waiting for my "do something really nice"
I'll never refer anyone to a realtor here again

I apologize I haven’t caught up with ya.. completely my fault! I sent ya a pm.

BNAG!

 

[WYRD]

A good realtor is worth hiring. Same as a good mechanic. Same as a good attorney. Same as a good doctor. Everybody has a chance to read the contract before they sign on for any fees and Everything in life is negotiable.

 

[Cdog]

Any experience selling with Redfin?

Red fin hires agents that cant make it on their own or are new. You're getting the bottom of the barrel agent wise. They pay them like $2500 a deal. Minimal help and or communication. Even on their listings, trying to get an answer on a property is like calling the DMV to ask a question. They might get back to you. Probably not.

I had an RF agent email over an offer on a 1M dollar listing I had. No Call, no introduction, no communication. When his buyer wasn't taken seriously his buyer called me to bitch and cry. Unprofessional dip shits. But hey he saved some money.....

 

[Echo Lodge]

Sadly, you failed to comprehend what I spelled out to you before in my first reply in this thread.

You purchased the home and portion of those funds are what paid the agent.

She listened to what you said, and deducted whatever the buyer broke compensation was from the price and provided an offer for that amount. It’s clear that you feel that you got some sort of deal out of negotiating that way. And 1993 was post savings alone crisis time. So it certainly was a buyers market.. 3 years later I bought my first home at 18 yrs old with 5% credited to my closing costs.

Cheers!

In both of our examples we were the buyers. The sellers in our purchases ended up with less money in their pockets. As I mentioned, someone providing a service that you agreed upon deserves to be compensated for their work. I just don't agree with the amount of compensation in most cases and it coming from the seller. Tens of thousands of dollars of the seller's equity with often little to no work in a sellers market like we had with cheap interest rates.

Few years ago we helped my MIL sell her home in SoCal so she could move to Leisure World. I asked a ski buddy if he wanted to list the property. He has his real estate license that he ususes for investment properties. As a favor he only took 1% and said he wouldn't really do any work other than listing it and handling the sale. No open houses or advertising. The house had multiple offers and sold quickly above asking price.

He did minimal work for the sale. He also represented my MIL with the purchase in Leisure World. Here he had to put in much more effort taking my MIL to multiple properties and doing several offers. His compensation for the eventual sale came from the sellers equity. Just doesn't seem fair I guess.

 

[Wheeler]

Judging from the photos of the, uh, classic cars and healthy natural grasses on your property, the cardboard sign will attract the most interested clientele.

That's Methed up!

The runway should make it appealing to a whole new segment of buyers and growers to the area.

 

[hallett21]

Kinda depends on what they are doing for the client doesn’t it?

At first I immediately thought 6% over a million is insane. But that’s because a shoebox house in LA costs that.

I just looked up the most expensive real estate (homes) in Nebraska and they’re topping out at 4 million.

Just shows you it’s all relative.

 

[hallett21]

5 Million in Iowa.

7280 Eldorado Pt, West Des Moines, IA 50266 - 5 beds/7 baths

(DMMLS) For Sale: 5 beds, 7 baths ∙ 4954 sq. ft. ∙ 7280 Eldorado Pt, West Des Moines, IA 50266 ∙ $5,800,000 ∙ MLS# 673546 ∙ 7 acres, gorgeous views, privacy. This custom estate starts w/ gated entry; drive...

www.redfin.com

 

[Flatsix66]

Agent fees should be hourly like attorney fees. The ones that add value and work for it should be compensated appropriately, the ones that get $30k that just happen to be associated with a buyer or seller and do nothing to add value should get much less.

After further thought - hourly would encourage them to just to drag out the whole transaction to run up the bill...bad for consumers.

 

[Cdog]

In both of our examples we were the buyers. The sellers in our purchases ended up with less money in their pockets. As I mentioned, someone providing a service that you agreed upon deserves to be compensated for their work. I just don't agree with the amount of compensation in most cases and it coming from the seller. Tens of thousands of dollars of the seller's equity with often little to no work in a sellers market like we had with cheap interest rates.

Few years ago we helped my MIL sell her home in SoCal so she could move to Leisure World. I asked a ski buddy if he wanted to list the property. He has his real estate license that he ususes for investment properties. As a favor he only took 1% and said he wouldn't really do any work other than listing it and handling the sale. No open houses or advertising. The house had multiple offers and sold quickly above asking price.

He did minimal work for the sale. He also represented my MIL with the purchase in Leisure World. Here he had to put in much more effort taking my MIL to multiple properties and doing several offers. His compensation for the eventual sale came from the sellers equity. Just doesn't seem fair I guess.

So you're under the assumption your sample size is that way all the time?

 

[Echo Lodge]

So you're under the assumption your sample size is that way all the time?

No Sir, and I have no skin in the game. I am not planning on ever moving and I do not have investment properties to deal with. I can only go on my very limited life experience dealing with real estate sales. At some point I will have to deal with my MIL's property and my father's property when they pass. Not sure if the current NAR litigation will be finalized or overturned. Just hope when I have to deal with their properties there will be a more equitable compensation for services rendered if I choose to go the traditional real estate agent route.

 

[fat rat]

Any experience selling with Redfin?

I sold my last house 5 years ago with Red Fin, a totaLly smooth transaction. I think I paid 3%. House sold to the first person that looked at it, $60k over appraised value, cash buyer.

 

[stephenkatsea]

Our home in Camarillo was nice and in a very desirable area. Thru the 20 years we lived there we had numerous realtors, total strangers, knock on our door and ask us to list our home with them. I would look them in their eye and say, “This is likely the most expensive thing I’ll ever own. Why in the world would I want to give any part of it to you, a total stranger?” Never received an answer to that. When it came time to sell we opted to go with a personal friend. We negotiated the fees. She sold the house in one day at our asking price. The home we bought in LHC we had found on the internet. The local realtor, suggested by friends in LHC, was showing us a number of homes. We didn’t care for any of them. We gave him the address of the home we’d found on the internet. Turns out the company he worked for had the listing and he wasn’t even aware of it. Go figure. We bought that home. Done deal. When we originally tried to buy the adjacent vacant lot, the seller wanted no realtors involved. After about a year the seller called me direct and asked if we were still interested, without any realtors. I said maybe. We settled on a price and bought the lot trouble free, with no realtors involved. We used a local major Title company for the transaction. We built a double RV garage, which matches our house, on that lot. Plenty of room to build another house etc on the RV lot if we were to desire. Total size of the 2 ‘married’ lots is just under 3/4 of an acre. Works for us.

 

[Bajastu]

I’ve bought and sold quite a few houses and I’ve always negotiated the listing agents fee when listing. Especially in a sellers market, only a chump would pay 6%. I’ve also used the same agent to sell my house and then turn around and buy a house. Lower the listing fee and guarantee them a purchase.

 

[Wheeler]

Any experience selling with Redfin?

A friend used Zillow to sell his Parker strip property. He and his wife are both Brokers in California. Zillow worked out well for them. I'm thinking of giving it a try.

 

[Echo Lodge]

A friend used Zillow to sell his Parker strip property. He and his wife are both Brokers in California. Zillow worked out well for them. I'm thinking of giving it a try.

That's how I found my daughter's home in Boise. FBO...

 

[530RL]

I’ve never met a single person who thinks they are overpaid for what they do.

 

[Thing One]

You have to wonder, why are RE agents scared to shit over sites like Redfin and Zillow?? Jk, i know why they are.

 

[Wheeler]

I’ve never met a single person who thinks they are overpaid for what they do.

I'm old and remember when a buck was still silver. I've discounted my services many times thinking that the job was too easy or I over bid the job. It's just the way it is.

 

[PlumLoco]

We sold our last house with Help U Sell. Basically you advertise it, you post up signs, you conduct the showings. Licensed RE agent is only involved to answer questions and get the documents squared away. I think commission was under 3%. The house sold to the second person who came to the open house, for full asking price. Purchased for $125K, paid it off in 18 making bi-monthly payments, and sold for $386K twenty years. Turned out she had a best friend who was a realtor. They both tried to work her friend into the equation for a little slice. Our agent backed us up when we told her that the woman had come to our open house alone. Her friend had no business interest in the deal, but if the lady wanted to slip her friend some money she was going to have to do it another time.

 

[bonesfab]

After further thought - hourly would encourage them to just to drag out the whole transaction to run up the bill...bad for consumers.

Just like attorneys do. Realtors would have to start practicing real estate to be able to charge by the hour