I’ve sold and bought two houses in Austin using Redfin. Saved money on closing costs, crazy commissions, and fees and only used the realtor for that contract work. I found the houses myself, booked quick tours online and worked negotiating basically myself with the realtor just relaying what I wanted. Most of this information is public knowledge if you are trying to pull comps. Did use the realtor to run MLS reports on what things actually sold for. My baby boomer parents were so shocked we went through an “internet company” to buy and sell our houses but in reality we’ve probably saved around $30-50k by doing it. But really - why do we still have realtors? Travel agents have gone extinct since companies like Expedia, Priceline, Kayak so why do we need a realtor when we have Redfin, Zillow, Opendoor? Do people not trust themselves to do the due diligence before buying a house? #realestate #opendoor #redfin
It's a cartel, you can not deal with them but they won't steer buyers to you.
Couldn’t tell you. Ours was worthless. Didn’t even show up for appraisal. Not to mention we were the ones that found the house.
Right? We found all of our own houses - never even had a realtor show up for walk throughs before closing… why am I going to pay them a huge commission for work I did?
It’s hard to see how realtors provide much value since around 2008 or so.
Large once in a lifetime style purchases with little room for error make people likelier to ignore "convenience fees"
I did all my research online when I purchased but still used a realtor. I regret that. They got paid a massive amount just for driving me around one Saturday to look at condos. I could see a realtor being useful if you're in a hurry and don't know the neighborhoods. If I buy again, I'll skip the realtor.
They’re a helpful reminder that there are sham jobs out there I could be doing to earn a crap ton of money for being completely worthless human fecal matter.
Surprised they’re still around
They have a hugely powerful lobbying organization and got a bunch of laws in place that make it hard to remove them completely
They don’t provide much value anymore if you’re willing to put in the effort to gain market knowledge. We bought our place without a buying agent. Did it this way specifically so we could give the seller an incentive to go with our offer. The selling agent would get the full commission, or could negotiate their commission down with our offer but still come out ahead.
Also - realtors are basically the same as recruiters. Low barrier to entry, dependant on the economy/commission, and most competent people could do that job instead of hiring them.
Eh but there is still a purpose of a recruiter role actually existing… no hiring manager is going to do all the legwork necessary to build a pipeline, source, interview, negotiate and close candidates themselves - it is a full time job. But do agree the type of people filling a recruiter role can be pretty incompetent, like realtors
Recruiters are there to help make you money and find you a job. Companies would have to hire folks to do this so they have to pay one way or the other. This money doesnt come from an individuals pocket but from the shareholders. A realtor costs an individual money for something they could have done themselves Comparing 🍎 and 🍊
Middle man to drive up prices so they get bigger commissions
This, if not them, who would instill FOMO?!!