Comments on: Bay Area: Will New Ways of Selling and Buying Take Over the Real Estate Market?

By: julie

julie — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:01:32 +0000

Realtor/realtor- who cares? What matters to me is that the person is a true advocate, does the work, listens to me, and tells me the truth. I don’t think any “ethics class” or whatever makes that happen. Such qualities are intrinsic,, and unless you Realtors are deaf, you might have heard it’s not what you are famous for. I am not saying all Realtors are graft, of course, but rather that being a Realtor or an agent (lower case/upper case/whatever) is no gaurantee of quality; this is why sites like Redfin’s have become popular alternatives– along with the $$ savings.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:40:00 +0000

I have to agree with Red; the future is here and Realtors and agents will need to rethink their services to be of real use to sellers. They can help buyers who don’t have a lot of time to comb listings, but that means they better be willing to do that work

By: Craig Davidenko

Craig Davidenko — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:30:19 +0000

I own and have been designing a real estate marketing website “FlatRateRealEstate” I have been trying to post on several blogs about the face of present and future real estate. One paragraph that I have wrote is the following…

Denial, some people think that certain things last forever.however those people eventually learn the plain and simple truth.many many years ago the dinosaurs romed the earth alongside real estate brokers and agents who held the “holy grail”..”the mls book” but then came along came the world wide web.dinosaurs extinct and brokers and agents wondering when people would notice that they in fact did not hold the “mls” anymore. the big listing fee is done and gone..to earn the big commission you’ll have to bring the buyer to the table!

THE FUTURE OF REAL ESTATE IS HERE AND COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU!

Please let me know of any joint ventures or expansions…

Craig Davidenko
flatraterealestate.com
912.398.7245

By: Red

Red — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:52:58 +0000

I think it no wonder that the alternatives are booming, for many a seller that will make the difference between breaking even on the sale and having to bring $thousands to the closing to pay off the mortgage and HELOC and Realtor%.
For the buyer, there would appear to be less incentive, unless you count the ability to determine your own timing rather than be exhorted with the “NOW is the time to BUY!!!” rhetoric.
The ability of a Realtor to open those lock boxes and get you into a lot of homes in an afternoon can be worth a lot, particularly if you are not sure when or what you want to buy; the buyers agent puts out a lot on spec…

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:03:08 +0000

Thanks, Allison. I for one know now, and won’t soon forget.

By: Allison the Realtor

Allison the Realtor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:41:01 +0000

To whom it may concern;
When a person who is in the Real Estate business uses the word “Realtor” with a capital “R” in a sentence when pertaining to a particular person in a particular career, the word “Realtor” with a cap “R” should only be used if that person has taken the Code of Ethics through the National Association of Realtors. Anyone else that happens to be a licensed Real Estate Agent is not necessarily a “Realtor.” This does seem confusing, however the National Association of Realtors tries to get the point across by magazine ads and television commercials. Apparently they need to spend more money because no one seems to be listening.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:24:59 +0000

Hilarious: the REALTOR more concerned about whteher you’ve capitalized the first letter of his vocation, rather than that you might have a point that his vocation is challenged by the advance of technology.

Classic Realtor logic, that.

By: anna

anna — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:27:53 +0000

Frolic: this is exactly the kind of insight I was hoping for. Your story might connect with why travel agents are still in business despite internet travel sites: you can’t beat the personal touch. Maybe the internet’s influence just keeps buyers’ agents more honest and on the ball, since buyers can know the comps, the neighborhood crime rates, school information, demographics, and state of the economy as well as a realtor can these days.

By: Frolic

Frolic — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:19:19 +0000

While I think the discount online services are pretty interesting and fill a needed market niche, our agent earned every penny of his commission when we bought last year. Our search took seven months, we viewed maybe 60 homes and our agent previewed about 100.

I don’t know about the others, but Redfin charges its clients an hourly rate to view listings outside of Open House hours. My husband and I both work, and with two kids, we couldn’t always make it to the Open House.

We closed at $500K, so our agent made $15K. That doesn’t seem like a whole lot of money for the time and effort he put in.

I agree with David that if you’re selling, it doesn’t seem worthwhile to pay someone to sell your house for you. Particularly in a hot market, where the listing agent can earn a commission by placing an ad and hanging out for two hours on consecutive Sundays. But for buyers, especially like us, it’s a pretty valuable service.

By: anna.hibble

anna.hibble — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:45:03 +0000

Billybob:
The part about the typo seems a bit superfluous. I am an English teacher so assure you, I know how to spell; however, I am also human and have been grading papers all weekend, so my eyes and fingers are not at 100%.But the error is fixed (thanks for the defense, md!) so you can now address the argument itself.

Agreed- I state pretty clearly I am not a realtor, so I’m definitely not a Realtor. What though do you think about the possibility that real estate is changing, so (R)ealtors might also have to change? David’s commment seems to indicate that possibility is real. I’m assuming you are a realtor, so your opinion would be an educated one.