re: Realtor Payment -- Why is it a percentage of the home?

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Currently the majority of agents and brokers are engaging in blatant price fixing, and it is long past time that the FTC break it up.

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sounds like this could be ripe for a long term, undercover investigation by a media outlet

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A home is exponentially harder to sell with an increased price.

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This is a myth. While your logic seems accurate, the reality is that it is in fact easier to sell a more expensive home.
Not saying faster, just easier.
Just look at your clientele looking for a 100 home vs. A million dollar home.
Much more likely the 100k group won't qualify for a loan, have no idea what they want, and are generally clueless.

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When you have no valid argument you pull out exceptions to the rule. No shite, every realtor shouldn't be paid the same. We are talking about the inside of the bell curve where most transactions are very similar. You knew that, but you have no argument so you are trying to pull straws out of a hat.

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There is no set fee for commissions. I've bought 4 properties in the past 2 years and they've all been different. How hard is it for you to understand? Everyone is saying the commissions are bs at 6% but I usually pay 5%, err wait I paid 5.5%, or this guy paid 4%.

So what is it? Are they set, or not?

Go out there and offer $2,000 to sell your $300k house and see who you get to answer your door. That's not worth the best realtors times to work for $1,000.

Furthermore, people forget about all the middle men in deals like the brokers, the marketing people, the receptionist, etc.

There are wealthy realtors out there, but it's not from one sale a year. It's from selling a bunch of high end homes. Those high end homes are all risky individually because they may spend $10k on marketing to put it in a magazine and then it never sells. But when you have 30 listed and sell 15 a year you make damn good money.

I really don't understand the gripe. Go sell a place FSBO with a 2.5% sellers realtor fee. That's done all day long without issues. You have no idea how much work the sellers realtor put in and it's none of your business. Or don't offer anything, and your buyer will offer under what they would of paid to cover their realtors cost.

Or, go offer a realtor 10%. Not a single one is going to turn down more money. So again, where is this price fixing?

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There is a realtor in Atlanta who is now doing $500 up front and then 1/3 OF 1% at closing and is now I believe the #1 retail sales agent in the country.

That seems much more appropriate on the sales side.

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basically to make this work, you have to accumulate so much volume that the other agents are forced to work with you

if you try this on a smaller scale, they'll just shut you out until you conform to their %

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There is a realtor in Atlanta who is now doing $500 up front and then 1/3 OF 1% at closing and is now I believe the #1 retail sales agent in the country.

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That's why a lot of realtors will list for 1% if they were your buyers agent.

Again, it all depends on your market and your realtors efforts. I don't disagree, but that's also where realtors make their money. The guy in Atlanta does it by quantity, but he probably has a team of $10/ hour people that help him and that works because again it's Atlanta. Will it work in Valdosta? I don't know. Somewhere like Atlanta will have a lot of educated sellers. When you don't have educated sellers, that's what takes up the realtors time.

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would not have the same realtor percentage.

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They don't... y'all are misinformed. The seller can negotiate the commission %. He doesn't have to do 6%. If he thinks it'll be an easy sale, he can offer 4 or 5%

Why is a tip different if you serve me a cheap hamburger or an expensive steak .... same amount of work involved

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The very fact that there is a standard price among competitors (6% or 4%) with little deviation is evidence of price fixing

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It's not price fixing. It's a realtor refusing to work for a lower amount.

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It's not price fixing. It's a realtor refusing to work for a lower amount.

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this is true, until there is collusion not to work with agents who would work for lower

then it's a cartel and price fixing

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this is true, until there is collusion not to work with agents who would work for lower

then it's a cartel and price fixing

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So when capitalism doesn't go your way it's a cartel, collusion, etc.? It's capitalism because realtors prefer to work for more money?

The only reason people are upset about a 6-8% transaction fee is because it's their home and homes are expensive. 6-8% in many industries is nothing. Used cars for example is 15-20%+. Trade a car in for $10,000 and the dealership is going to sell it for $12,000. That's an atrocity! 20% is BS! We need to lobby for dealers to start making 1%! That $10k trade in should be sold for $10,100 for a $100 profit!