Not necessarily. Im not saying it never works out for the best, because in your case, it obviously did. But IMO, buying a house and letting the selling agent represent you and the seller is akin to suing someone and letting the defense attorney represent you and and the defendant at the same time. There will always be a conflict of interest (although technically, when a listing agent is doing both sides of a deal, they are supposed to act as an intermediare and not favor one side or the other). The main reason to use a buyer's agent, is so you'll always have someone representing you and your interests, regardless of the market you are looking in. This is important especially if the house is overpriced. A buyer's agent can research the market and now what the FMV is and negotiate the price accordingly. A listing agent usually will not come out and admit they have the house priced over market value.
I had a pretty good buyers agent with I bought my house a few years ago. Might need to give her a call sometime this year, as I will most likely be looking to sell it in the near future.
in austin: Luke Graves, Jr. http://www.buyer1austin.com/ send me an email if you want a direct contact. he's a good friend and one of the best and most-trusted in the business.
I don't think that your sample is very representative of the market, I just looked in the Katy area and West Houston and did not get your results. I just know my wife was one of the top 10 individual agents in units sold at her office (which is a large office in West Houston) and this has not been an issue for her.
Your last sentence: When did that start? Next time I'm involved in a transaction, I'll take advantage of that. This way, we can find our next house a lot faster and save our buyer's agent a lot of time. For people who don't need to be led by the hand, the agents on both sides of the equation have a lot less work to do. Maybe 1-2% is a bit low in all cases, but 6% is out of the question. I completely agree with your comments to RocketMan Tex. Your illustration was very appropriate.
via the MLS at Har.com Regardless of how much work is involved, and every deal is different, agents are still responsible for the contract and all the aforementioned fees they pay to be a realtor. 6% is absolutely not out of the question. In fact, it is the going rate and most people who list their homes a) Pay 6% and b) Have no problem doing so.
We've been spending a lot of time on AustinHomeSearch.com. I'm assuming it's the "official" equivalent of HAR.com, since it's provided by the Austin Board of Realtors.
Not to upset the Realtors on this group, but I agree with you in certain situations. The last time I nearly bought a house it was something that I found myself. None of the houses that the realtor sent me via email was something I liked. But I found something and asked her to set it up so I could go see it. In this situation where it was me who pored over HAR.com for days before I found what I wanted, I pretty much did all the legwork. I don't see why she should get 3% of the deal in this case. The money it costs her for her license and upkeep and all that is irrelevant to me. I'm paying her (mainly) for the service she's providing me. I understand part of it is for her education and experience she brings. That's why sites like Redfin.com are becoming more popular. You do most of the legwork. You find the house you want. You use them as a realtor. They handle that part of the paperwork. And they refund 2/3rd of their 3% back to you. Win and win. Except for the local Realtors who probably hates sites like that. There are times for using Realtors but there are other times where a site like that is ideal.
My buyer's agent gave me back 2 percent when I bought my new house. He got almost 3k for just showing up at closing which is more than reasonable.
I meant that 6% is out of the question when the buyer and seller involved are pro-active and do most of the work finding each other. As time goes on and finding houses to buy and finding buyers for those houses becomes easier because of the internet, costs will indeed go down. I guess at this time, it's really an awareness issue and a willingness to assume more responsibility. Sure, there will always be people who are more comfortable with the traditional route and pay 6%. It's possible they will always remain a majority.
I still disagree, unless both the buyers and sellers a) Perform the market research themselves (which only a realtor has access to) b) Negotiate the contract themselves c) Negotiate the repairs (based on inspections) themselves and most importantly d) Assume the liability themselves. Every realtor will tell you that the majority of the work is not finding the house, its the contract, inspections, negotiations and coordinating the closing that comes afterwards. My wife had a deal close today where literally, it took her all of about 2-3 hours to find a home for her buyer that they liked. She has spent almost every day on the phone the last 27 days negotiating and closing the deal.
In that transaction, your wife earned every penny she got. When I bought my first house, my agent earned everything he got. When buying my last house, our agent did almost nothing. When we sell and buy the next time, she will do even less. As you said, every transaction is different, therefore the 6% payment scheme shouldn't fit every transaction. Question: Why can only realtors do market research? Why isn't that info available to everyone?
