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I personally feel agents are not worth their communal 6%. Especially with home prices dropping 20%, it is ridiculous to have up to 8% in transaction fees for basically doing what anyone can do. I understand what they bring to the table in terms of benefit and value, but 3% each? With everyone and their dog being an agent these days, the overall service has dropped BIG time. I wonder what would happen if maybe the standard fees were cut in half- say 3%. Maybe that would weed out mediocre agents, leaving more business for the good ones so they can make the same or more money, while saving the client thousands. Just a thought…

1. I agree, there are many agents out there that are not worth their commission! TOTALLY AGREE and as a Realtor, I hate it more than you! It’s a slap in the face to the industry and profession.

2. Commissions are not set or Standard, for an agent to merely state that the commission is set or standard is a direct violation or real estate laws and is punishable by law.

3. A good agent is worth far more than the commission they charge, usually. Agents perform many behind the scenes tasks that make purchasing a home seem VERY SIMPLE! The simplest things in life are made simple by highly organized, studied and throughout processes. Simple things in business do not just happen like magic.

4. Bad agents should be reported to their Brokers. If the broker doesn’t want to respond and correct the agent, then the ENTIRE BROKERAGE needs to be reported to TREC. I am a broker and I demand quality from myself and my agents. I do not run a brokerage to gain as many agents as possible, I operate to gain quality agents. I rather have an office of 10 quality agents over an office of 100 wild basket cases running around town getting me into legal trouble!

5. When it comes to buying a home, an agent is paid by the seller. (why?) The seller wants to get his home sold ASAP and wants as many people(agents) onboard to sell their home. The commission that the seller pays the listing agent is split with the buyers agent. That buyers agent has worked, searched ,negotiated and educated the buyer for months before closing his/her deal. If the commission is $5000, that is then split with the broker, the agent then pockets about $3500. That $3500 is for months worth of time, gas and counseling. That isn’t big money!

6. For Sellers, sellers pay a commission to have the home marketed effectively, tremendously and professionally. Not only does the commission pay for marketing, it also pays for the agents’ time in negotiating and counseling the sellers on each offer and counseling on marketing and listing strategy. On average in Dallas, it takes about 2 months to sell a home. Once that commission is split as above, the listing agent walks with $3500 for 2 months worth of work, time and MONEY(the listing agents spends hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to join website, search engines and networks to list and market their clients homes.

7. Picking the right agent for you is crucial. Agents are not a “1 agents fits All” agreement. Work with one that you can comfortably speak to and feel comfortable dealing with. If an agent acts as if they are too good to deal with you, then let them move on.
Don’t let them boss you around or force you into doing anything you don’t want to do.
Don’t choose an agent just because he/she is with a big brokerage. The big brokerage, means very little to NOTHING, when it comes to the agents performance with your deal.
Don’t choose an agent that doesn’t respond to your calls or emails within 8 hours. But,expecting an instant response or less than 4 hour response is unrealistic from a qualified, quality agent. Quality agents have schedules, timelines and organization, thus they will return your call promptly within their organized methods. An agent who can pick up the call instantly is GREAT! But if they don’t, don’t throw them out the door. Now if you have to call 5 times and no response for 24 hours, then maybe its time to have a serious talk with them!

8. Don’t deal with AGENTS or Loan Officers or anyone else in life that is always trying to make up a sneaky way to do business!! FRAUD IS FRAUD! BS is BS! People don’t get busted for $5 frauds in 1 transaction, they get busted for MILLIONS of Dollars over Thousands of transactions. Meaning, you may get away with it for now, but not forever!
If its questionable or doesn’t make since, QUESTION IT and ask for DOCUMENTS LEGAL PROOF that such an action is legal and in good faith. Many dirt bags are out there to make a dollar and they don’t care who gets caught in the rapture of the collapse. They just want the fast dollar! If you meet this person, RUN! I follow this advice in life and business!

9. Real Estate isn’t rocket science, but it also isn’t simple math or negotiations. It is highly documented with legal and binding agreements for long terms. Real Estate contracts are no simple matter to general public who doesn’t practice real estate daily. That being said, even if you are a DOCTOR, LAWYER, ROCKET SCIENTIST, ENGINEER, BUSINESS OWNER , don’t think due to the fact you are highly educated and experienced in your field, that you can easily tackle a real estate transaction. A lawyer can tell a doctor how to operate, a Rocket Scientist cant tell a Structural Engineer how to build a building…so none of the above can tell a educated, experience real estate professional how to properly facilitate a real estate deal from list to close. Even most real estate agents wont list/sell their own homes due to all the legalities involved.

10. “DO IT YOURSELFERS”- your educated, you seen the late night TV shows, it looks simple, I can put a stick in the ground and put my house on some websites and I can read, thus I can do it myself. Maybe so, more than likely not.
You more than likely cant because you have another JOB and responsibilities. You simply do not have the time and real estate contract knowledge to handle the transaction. Its like saying “ I can do my own heart surgery. I have a razor, alcohol, Band-Aids and internet instructions… plus I watch ER! “

Sorry for the long comment, but I was compelled for some reason.

Not all agents are bad, but not enough of them are GREAT!
…coming from a BROKER!

J , you are right on the money.
As soon as the credit came out, so did the quick, unthought-threw schemes to use it.

People claimed to be able to use the credit for down payment. This doesnt work due to:
1. The tax payer must ammend their tax return and wait for the refund. That could take up to 4 months to come back…not in time for a downpayment
2. you can only FILE the credit IF YOU ACTUALLY CLOSED ON A HOME. You cant Falsify a FEDERAL IRS document and say you closed on a home , when in actuality you havent! in order to use it as a down payment, you would have to lie to the IRS and say you already bought the house.

In order for this credit to be used as a down payment the following must be done..(for the record, this is not something i advice, but is the only way the credit can be used as a down payment)

Find someone or some company to loan you $8000 based on your first time home buyer tax credit.
That person or biz will give you the $8000 for the down payment. More than likely there will be INTEREST changes or administrative charges.
Once you close on the home, file your income tax ammendment and add the first-time home buyers credit. Then pray to god you dont owe any back taxes, child support, student loans or state/government aid or money!!!
if you dont owe any of the above, then you will get your money in 6 weeks at the soonest, more like 4 months!
If you dont get your money, then be ready to pay that person who loaned you the money some stiff interest and fees!

as for the person loaning you the money, they will have to be ready to realize not getting that money for 4 months or losing it to unforeseen debts from the homebuyer!!!!

Thanks for that info J.
Like I outlined in #9…someone from another professon isnt fully capable of doing another profession, merely due to your education in your own profession.

Im a Real Estate broker, not a loan officer or Mortgage broker. The 2 are different in function and detail. J’s post shows the detailed knowledge of a person in the lending industry. A real estate agent cant tell a loan officer how to write a loan!

and to add, I own a tax preparation business. I knew from common sense from my tax prep biz, that the schemes of using the $8000 as a down payment DOES NOT MAKE SENSE and is a TRICKY AREA TO PLAY WITH!

I have clients and other agent and even some loan officers who come to me and ask, ” Can you ammend my clients tax returns for the first time homebuyer credit?, I ask them ” have they closed?” their response, ” NO, they will close in 30 days”. I tell me time and time again, “NO, I can not put a date in the future on the form, it will not accept it and it is fraud”!
THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT LOAN/HOME will CLOSE!!!!!!

SA – I agree with you. The schemes will start coming and buyers will be/are confused. That is why I posted. Even the copy from Candy’s original post is a little misleading. There are a lot of potential buyers that think this is their ticket to a “free” down payment. You and other good agents fully understand that this is not the intention of the tax credit.

In the end, if someone can’t scrape together 3.5% to put down on a home, they should not be buying one.

maybe SA should spend more time on her/ his clients than writing a book about top 10 reasons an agent, which doesn’t teach us anything new or noteworthy.