Flat fee real estate agents - home buying

[wolverine41]

Has anyone else had any experience with using a flat fee real estate agent?

We used one to sell our house last year in a hot market and saved 6-7k. We are in a different area now, but on the buying end.  Most pay you a rebate and split the commission, and in exchange you do most of house hunting yourself. For example on a 800K home, the usual 3% buyer agent commission is split 1.5% to them and 1.5% to you (for a rebate of 12K -- not bad).

IMO, real estate agents aren't worth the money they get paid (especially on high priced homes), given the advancement of zillow and other technology that makes the process much easier for the general public.

[adventure]

wolverine41 wrote:

IMO, real estate agents aren’t worth the money they get paid (especially on high priced homes), given the advancement of zillow and other technology that makes the process much easier for the general public.

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Like taxi cabs, I don't see this trade as needed in society.

[Zaphod]

Im shocked that anyone would use a realtor to identify houses with all the obvious conflicts and lack of personal knowledge that would entail. Last 3 houses I bought they were simply intermediaries of paperwork. Dont know if I'll use one next time.

[morrislynch]

Hi there, According to me we should ask to our friends and coworkers for real estate agents that who they hired for buying their house last time. Last year when my friend hired moving company New York city and professional real estate agent helped him in buying new property in a budget.

[MPMD]

morrislynch wrote:

Hi there, According to me we should ask to our friends and coworkers for real estate agents that who they hired for buying their house last time. Last year when my friend hired moving company New York city and professional real estate agent helped him in buying new property in a budget.

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The issue there is that your friends are not really doing quality control in most cases.

If the agent took you out in their Jeep and you found a house you loved after a few days you love them.

I got a referral on an agent and she was absolutely terrible. I have known multiple people who just stepped into the job and started doing well b/c a) they are hot, b) they have family/friend connections who give them huge listings. One person has $2M x 2 listing from her family right after starting as an agent. She's an awesome person don't get me wrong, but this was handed to her. If she sold both these houses next month she'd get, what, $100k in commission?

I agree that this profession is in serious danger of a paradigm shift in the future. If I were a residential agent making big bucks I would be going for FIRE very quickly. I think it's absolutely nuts for these "high end" agents to expect to continue making money in the decades to come.

[StarTrekDoc]

And that's why they protect their turf by not showing flat fee homes.   The easiest/broadest way to combat this with long term effectiveness is using Redfin.   It's now large enough that agents cannot afford to ignore their presence and offers.

Has anyone tried to make an offer directly to a listing agent and be successful?  It's rare.  The listing agent will insist on a representative buyer's agent and will feed that to the seller very hard -- especially in a competitive market. --- hence Redfin.

Plus, if you use their website, really should give them a fighting chance to represent your offer.

[djohnflatfeecfp]

We just bought using Zillow. Found the house on Zillow, made an offer, pulled in a title office and a real estate attorney. On the selling end we used a realtor as we wanted to get out quickly in a neighborhood with lots of homes suddenly on the market. I think our selling realtor was pissed we found a home to buy without her and no commission for her, however, she could have scoured Zillow instead of just relying on what other realtors had listed. The flat fee concept in realty will thin out some of the realtor herd of those who may not really be earning their commission.