re: Jury Finds Realtors Conspired to Keep Commissions High, Awards Nearly $1.8 Billion Damages

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Good realtors are worth it. Most aren't good. You may be the exception, so I'm not potentially bashing you, but echoing what you say.

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Im used to it. There are so many bad ones it’s far safer to assume they all are until proven differently.

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What's more, agents always act as if market conditions are irrelevant.

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No they don’t. We get it, can you show us on the doll where the realtor touched you.

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selling agent: barely any houses to look at and buyers are hot to trot. What's the value-add again?

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Well let’s see.

Being ahead of other buyers on the actual good properties? When time is a premium you don’t want to waste it going to see a house that looks good in photos but I know has foundation issues.

Lender contacts, inspectors, service providers, repair and/or renovation contractors. Yes you can spend a month looking those up, reading reviews, etc. I know you won’t do it, you know you won’t. I’ve developed a list over years of good ones.

Most buyers have zero, and I mean literally no clue what to look for in a house. I average showing 500 properties a year, and before we leave they know approximately where the property lines are, and any major issues I see with the property or any potential problems. Since I designed everything I built when I ran a construction company I have a pretty fair idea what they are when I see them. Not to mention we discuss extensively what they want in a house and why.

There’s a pretty lengthy list of value good realtors add. All of them save clients time, which is the most valuable thing any of us have.

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anything, the 200k home probably requires a lot more work to match up a buyer and a seller.

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That doesn’t make sense….there are exponentially fewer buyers who can afford a million dollar house vs a $200k one.

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You think its the same amount of work between those 2 price points?

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If a realtor is doing their job, yes. A house is a house and the same steps should be taken to sell a house regardless of the actual value of the house (not list price). If priced properly, the house will sell timely and the cost associated to do that will be minimal.

The main reason a realtor would have to do more work is generally self inflicted due to the list price being way to high and greed. Realtors and sellers both understand that listing the house for top dollar will take more time to move and will require more showings, open houses, staging, etc. Generally the 200k houses do not have wildly varrying comps and price adjustments aren't near as big as 1M listings so the opportunity to be greedy is less.

Bottom line is, you either price a house to sell or you price a house to eventually sell at a reduced price, hoping that the time spent to get the extra bucks was worth cost of open houses / showings / double mortgages / rent / or delay to move on to the next one. Also, its not the sellers fault for thinking their house is worth way more than it is and demanding the realtor list the house at what they think it should be or what they need it to be because the realtor has a choice to take on the client or not. If they are a true realtor, they will talk reasonable expectations with the seller and if the seller disagrees, the realtor will walk away. Unfortunately there are too many bad realtors out there who will say and do anything to get a client in hopes of cashing in big.

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while the million dollar homes have a smaller pool of potential buyers, those buyers will typically have lots of cash, great credit, no tax liens and other garbage that need to be cleaned up, etc

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Y’all operate in a fantasy world

True they are better off financially, but that also brings its own set of issues. Lots of non-W2 employees, business owners, so you have the issue of actual income vs reported income, complex tax issues, debt owed for child support/past marriages, etc. Last two aren’t related to non-W2 status, but you get the idea.

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Not ALWAYS the case, but it's also not ALWAYS worth 5x the commission.

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I’ll admit most transactions are easy, but that evens out with the ones that are difficult and the time that takes to get resolved, not to mention never being off the clock.
If it was so easy everyone should jump in and do it.

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They probably don't have past foreclosures, bankruptcies, credit card judgments, etc

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They do, not as often, but they’re in there.

On the buyer’s side the paperwork is roughly the same regardless of the transaction amount. Higher end clients tend to see more houses and take a lot longer before buying. Took over 2 years for one of mine.

It’s the sellers side where the clients can be exponentially more needy. They want more advertising and exposure. A billboard costs a lot more than an open house, and the client doesn’t pay for that.

I had one that didn’t sell in 90 days, it was priced too high, but they wouldn’t listen. Everything I spent on that was cost of doing business. They put it with another realtor and as far as I know it hadn’t had a single showing. They’re close to where I suggested pricing it 6 months ago, but with the market shifting it’s probably 50k less on a price to sell now than I had it then. Can’t tell really cause almost nothing is moving in that range right now.