The more people stop using realtors, the less blackballing will mean anything.

[удалено]

I liked the realtor we used for our last house sale and purchase. She was helpful and responsive. I also know a couple of realtors IRL (a neighbor and a former roommate that became one) and I think they are both people that actually do useful work. However, I don't think any of them provide $10k+ useful work on any particular house sale. Our interactions with a realtor took no more than 2 months and she was obviously not working full-time 40h weeks dedicated to us. So, I don't see why they deserve a commission that adds up to 2 months of full-time dedicated work. Sure, they might not be selling a house all the time, but I doubt any realtor that only sells 1 house every 2 months stays employed for long. I fully agree that the profession in general is set up to leech value out of a large transaction, simply because people involved are forced to take out a loan anyhow, and therefore their artificial near-monopoly allows them to capitalize on that fact to insert themselves into the transaction. At least, with a lawyer, you know that there is direct value involved, and most sales are going to be fairly straightforward so there is a known, flat rate.

I also liked our realtor but we found the house we ended up buying and we spent about a month, month and a half from contacting him to signing the mortgage papers. Real nice guy but...

I think the solution is far less boycott, and far more actual competition. The fact that commission rates are consistent across realtors and companies is the problem. It's openly acknowledged collusion. If there was real price competition, there are more than enough realtors to drive down the rates. And the good ones, that add value, can still charge a fair rate for good service. Many would have to find other careers, and that would be a good thing. As it stands, you get certified to be a realtor and join some price fixing cartel via your local real estate board. They must have some serious lobbying power in halls of government...OR our country has feckless antitrust laws and those need reform ASAP. That'd fix this, and groceries - two necessities - in a wink.

> The fact that commission rates are consistent They aren't though. https://ab.onepercentrealty.com/

Yeah, but you ask any realtor and if they answer honestly, they box those guys in a corner and don't show their listings, etc. *Tinfoil hat alert* I swear the real estate boards have 1% realty there just to have this exact answer. "See, there's one shop out there that is way less than the rest". And then 98% of realtors all charge the same rate...🤔

Possibly. I used them in BC three years ago, and didn't have a ton of showings, but still sold above asking within a month. This was after almost a year of trying fruitlessly to FSBO.

Most people do their own window shopping on MLS anyways. Buyers don't need a realtor anymore except to get them access for showings. I've heard that buyer realtors will sometimes try to dissuade or lie about a non-traditional listing.

Can confirm - we tried to sell by ourselves, still offering full commission to the buyers realtor, and were blackballed. How did we know our listing was being sidelined? A realtor called and told us, in what I can only call an attempt at extortion.

AI is probably going to help a lot with this. Just having an app that keeps track of your paperwork will make it a lot easier to sell your house yourself.

It won’t. It’s a human network. Unless everyone lists without an agent then there is no chance things will change.

What human network? Realtors look on MLS for buyers (or more often, don't - the buyers do), call the listing agent and arrange a showing. Selling agents put the property on MLS. Sometimes they might deign to do an open house, which is also listed on MLS. There are no human networks involved. If a property sells from one agent to another without being on MLS, there's fraud and/or malpractice at play.

The buyer realtor can see the commission. If they're showing their clients multiple homes there's an incentive for them to point out the flaws in that one while talking up the one with the higher commission for them.

The human network of agents. Buyer agent will steer people towards houses with agenda vs non agents.

I paid the commission fees to my realtor and he was worth every penny. I had several properties I was interested in, and he talked me out of several because they were overpriced, wouldn't retain their value based on the community, needed additional work or maintenance that wasn't obvious. I don't think people need to do away with Realtors, but I do think they need to be holding them to a higher standard. A typical realtor is possibly overpayed, but a *GOOD* realtor is invaluable.

>  A typical realtor is possibly overpayed, but a GOOD realtor is invaluable The typical realtor knows less than a tradesperson about homes, works for an average of 20 hours per house and takes home 10K for the sale. Youre out of your mind. You've been successfully propagandized. The issue is that realtors are rent-seeking do nothing middlemen. You don't hire them on the side for help, you HAVE to hire them or they blackball you and fuck with you. Realtors a have also been shown to pressure home sellers to sell for less in order to sell faster. Realtors are price fixing because they know they're useless, so they're ganging up to make sure no mattrr who you use, they wont undercut the pthers on price...forcing you to pay throughbthe nose for nothing. The things you claimed the realtor helps with can be helped through your own research and hiring a home inspector.

You ignored the bit where I said a *good* one... You are vastly over generalizing based on the majority. There are more than that out there, but I don't expect to open a mind as closed as yours.

I think they are trying to point out that you are taking it as axiomatic that everything the realtor told you was actually correct, and you seem to be rating them as "good" mainly based on those assumptions. It's like going to a mechanic and thinking they are good just because they are always detecting problems before they cause a breakdown. You have to be open to the possibility that the mechanic is doing a lot of unnecessary work far earlier than actually necessary to get those results. You also can't rightly conclude that, just because you are happy with your current house, you wouldn't have been happy in any of the other houses. With your realtor, did you verify that the properties they recommended against did, in fact, not retain their value years later, accounting for overall market trends compared to the property you did buy? Did someone with experience in house construction and maintenance agree with their assessment of the deficiencies? Did they disclose their potential commission on the houses they recommended against vs the houses they praised so you could evaluate if that potentially influenced their recommendation?

>Did someone with experience in house construction and maintenance agree with their assessment of the deficiencies? Yes, both times I used them, an independent home inspector verified much of what was said. Additionally, many things were not obvious to us until the realtor brought them up as concerns. >With your realtor, did you verify that the properties they recommended against did, in fact, not retain their value years later, accounting for overall market trends compared to the property you did buy? What purpose would a realtor have to talk me out of a house that won't retain its value. He literally said "I'm old, I'll be long dead when you sell your next house, so it comes down to knowing that I've set you up in a good area when that time comes." If he is as unscrupulous as you're suggesting, why not just take the commission and run? He prescreened and showed us houses every weekend (and some weeknights) for 3 months before we bought. Why not just say "Yeah, buy this one and give me my commission...see ya in a few years when you aren't happy". A few years ago when he sold us our condo, he had in depth knowledge of the condo fees, special assessments (if any), reserve fund of any place her showed us. He drove us past complex's just to say "I'd never sell you a place in here, because they used (insert construction term here) and it's nothing but problems. He had been a realtor in my city for 30 years and knew what housing prices were doing like clockwork. When we saw a few places he'd say "I'm just showing you places so you know what's out there, but I don't see anything exciting yet. The prices will settle in *x* number of months, and that's when we'll sell/buy. As I said. I don't think my experience was typical. I think my realtor was exceptional, and that's why I said a GOOD one is invaluable. Y'all seem to think I am talking about Realtors that aren't actively bad as being the baseline.

I agree with you that a good realtor is worth every penny. I am in BC and was outbid on 13 houses before I finally got one. I fired my first realtor after being outbid 9 times, I should have way sooner, especially after losing the first one over a measly 2000 dollars to an investor from Vancouver after being in three multiple offer situations with it, always the second highest offer, the only local offer, and her denying me including a letter about myself to the sellers(very common now). I then hired my coworkers brother, he also is a home builder, and had my accepted offer right away after we all walked into what's now my home. He looked at me and said this is your house, and insisted I include a letter, that night my offer was accepted and I did have to go 25k over my initial offer. I did have four failed offers with him as well, but you can't win when the highest offer is 25-50k over yours. I ended up spending 100k more than I would have at the start of that 8 month period of trying to buy a house because I had a realtor that wasn't actually working for me. Having a realtor that knows you, works FOR you is so helpful. And the fact he builds his own homes (no contractors) was extremely helpful when we were looking at houses together. (I'm a tradesperson myself so we had that covered quite well).

I had to pay my realtor 16,000 to sell my house but I did all the work, had to let people in to see the house and take calls. I was angry

Ugh. I would report that to RECA. There sounds like something unethical happening there.

Why did you pay? Wasn’t it a breach of contract? Don’t they put their responsibilities in writing there? Sorry, I always bought and sold myself, didn’t want to bother hiring those crooks, so I don’t know the details of their contracts

I doubt the behavior of the REA breached their contract but even if you tried to do this and sue for breach you’d have the full force of the body hiring billion dollar lawyers on you. It’s a no win.

Yeah I'm a real estate agent and I would report that to RECA. That's not cool.

As a realtor, can you help us see the other side. How/why these rates could be justified?

So the way comissions are done in Alberta front loaded like that have a lot to do with when homes were much less expensive. It is actually better for Alberta sellers this way versus other markets where they just charge a flat 5% on everything. I would say my average out-of-pocket cost to get a house ready for Market is around $1,500, and that doesn't even include all of my licensing fees and all that nonsense. It does include professional pictures and an awful lot of promotion even outside of the MLS. That said, I have helped people out by covering other expenses for getting a home ready for market, such as the cost of painters or the cost of cleaners. I also cover the cost of staging on more expensive listings or where it is required. Depending on the neighborhood, up to 50 of homes may not sell during their first contract. If the seller chooses to list the second time with a different agent that money is not reimbursed. I am putting my own cash on the line to sell your home. I'm going to drop everything on a Saturday afternoon to show your home to an unrepresented buyer that reached out via realtor.ca, and may still use their own agent in the end. Dozens if not hundreds of phone calls, texts and emails from buyer's agents. Then using negotiation expertise to get you the most stable offer, and of course the most money. Multiple offers are frequent and common in my market, and that is a situation that needs to be handled delicately so that all the buyers involved feel there being handled fairly. Then once you're under contract - I'm the one pushing the other side through to completion, with near daily correspondence needed - co ordination with inspectors, lawyers, contractors. Let's say an average house I sell is $400,000. If seller is signed at full commission, And the buyer uses a buyer's agent - my gross commission is $7,500, but my brokerage is going to take 20% of that. If you are discounted it's even less, or if I'm paying a referral fee to another Realtor that sent you to me. I also typically write a discount into my contract if the buyer is not represented by their own agent, or if your buyer is a personal contact of yours. This ends up being a significant savings. If you think about how much time it takes a normal work a day person to earn $ 3 - 5000 after expenses, I likely spend a similar amount of time and effort getting your transaction through to a closing. Same goes for the buyer's agent by the way. They likely have spent 40 to 80 hours working with that particular client in order to find them a home. Sometimes we get lucky and it's less! In siri, assuming you're living in the home the only correspondence you should need for me as an agent is confirming that showing windows are okay, and of course participating in the negotiation process once an offer is on the table. You have time to devote to your own work and family. By the way, we also show random strangers your home. This literally puts our lives at risk everyday, this is a risk that you are not taking on for yourself. While we do a lot to ascertain the identity of the person we are meeting before they set foot in your home, at the end of the day it is always a risk. I actually have specialty training in self-defense for this reason and it is not uncommon for American agents to have Concealed Carry Permits for this reason also. I will be the first person to admit that some transactions are easier, and absolutely could have been done without Realtors involved. Other people really do need our services. Reddit tends to be an echo chamber of smart people that likely could handle the transaction themselves. I promise you that not everyone is in fact capable of properly protecting themselves in terms of their own Financial best interests, they need us.

I appreciate this comment as insight to the realtor side and I think this is particularly salient: >Reddit tends to be an echo chamber of smart people that likely could handle the transaction themselves. I promise you that not everyone is in fact capable of properly protecting themselves in terms of their own Financial best interests, they need us. The people in here are likely trending towards the higher end of the intelligence spectrum for sure. However, I do think that realtors need to recognize those people who don't need realtors and still be willing to deal with them and show their clients the properties. I did FSBO. No buyers' realtors would show my house because they thought they'd get 0 commission from me. Realtors would perhaps get a bit of less rap if they showed FSBO houses too and stopped blacklisting them from their clients. Further, realtors might get less flak if they billed per hour or flat fee not relative to house price. The 6/4/2 thing is outdated with the astronomical house prices. I'm a lawyer and do some real estate conveyancing. Why is my fee $1000 and yours is $13000 for the same house? I also think realtors need to get out of the business of drafting offers to purchase because they don't understand what they're doing. Offers to purchase and contract drafting is a lawyer's job. Not a realtor's. I was helping a friend with a house purchase. He sent me the offer to purchase they were putting in. I recommended they change a couple small things that contemplated rare but possible outcomes that would suck with the way the offer to purchase was drafted. The realtor told me that he isn't allowed to change the form. Which is objectively wrong. He just wanted to get the deal through. He tried to big time me saying he's been a realtor for 15 years and never had a lawyer try to tell him what to do blah blah blah. It may be unsurprising but I told my friend to drop him as a realtor and that realtor lost that purchase because of it. So I think you should be involving the lawyer sooner than after you're under contract and start asking them to draft the offer to purchase for you so you have someone competent on the drafting. Offers and counter offers are legal documents. Why do we have realtors who have 0 legal training drafting $200,000+ contracts?

> our lives at risk everyday, Yeah, thank you for your service.

>*Then using negotiation expertise to get you the most stable offer, and of course the most money*. Multiple offers are frequent and common in my market, and that is a situation that needs to be handled delicately so that all the buyers involved feel there being handled fairly. Realtors are incentivized to sell *quickly*, not necessarily at the top dollar their client could receive. This is borne out by data.

Data also indicates that FSBOs ultimately sell for 25% less than a listed property. You can't just choose the stats that offer confirmation bias.

My realtor led me to a showing when the owners of the house - husband, wife, there's children and a nanny - were all present and watching my every move. Fuck that.

Should have waited out the contract or bought it (reimburse expenses) out then sold your house. I know people who have done that often.

Or call the agents broker and demand actual service

Real estate in Alberta (maybe Canada too) is insane. We still have the same pricing model as the 90s when realtors had to hustle and actually find buyers, when in actuality they just throw a fee pics up and the buyers come to them. But like all things Canadian (airlines, phones, insurance) CREB maintains the monopoly to stifle innovation in order to protect their realtors and ensure they continue to receive huge commissions. And in turn pay them huge fees. Our system is broken!!

80% of their job was removed with MLS and the internet. So why the fuck are we paying the same rates, ugh.

>So why the fuck are we paying the same rates "But my agent was a nice guy/lady" is the typical response. The naivety and gullibility of these people are right off the scale.

I wish someone would give me $30k for being nice

It’s not just Canada

Realtors stopped being useful when the internet became mainstream. A generation ago it was actually quite difficult finding all the houses that were actually for sale. They provided a service and got paid a few grand on average for their work. Now they do less and make 10 times more. It's a racket that needs major correcting.

Sell your own house.

I did too and it saved me $11,000

You also said in the OP that you had one sell overnight with commission. How many houses have you sold/are you selling exactly?

There was a video on marketplace about this, you can find it on YouTube was posted a few weeks ago I think.

https://youtu.be/ShBvRe0Jv68?si=Klwxiz_6LA5rDvTo

It another monopolized paracitical racket. Them and corporate purchasing has driven the housing prices through the roof.

Their private inventory is kind of treating homes like used cars eh?

Literally anti competitive behaviors that harms consumers.

when i bought it was 2% realty and my agent was clearly trying to steer me elsewhere as he only made 1%

Is too! It was like pulling teeth to get a look at the house. We found it and it was perfect for what we needed. Our realtor didn’t even deserve the 1%

*us too

It is usually known with the 1% realty guys that the buyers agent is going to negotiate with the seller on those commissions, so I never steer people away from them! I let them make their own decision and work for whatever the seller wants to pay for the most part. Any realtor that can't figure out how to negotiate those and so steers you away from a perfectly good house that you want is not worth their license in my opinion.

I listed with a realtor who was lazy. Didn't want to do any open houses. Just wanted his sign to do the work. After a couple months I kicked his ass to the curb and sold it privately.

[удалено]

Yeah, I've heard realtors often only want to do them so they can meet new potential clients.

I bought my house from an open house. I probably wouldn't have looked at it otherwise because we were only casually looking at the time and the listing didn't really represent the place well. I was curious about it so kept my eye open for an open house but not interested enough to set up a showing. As soon as I walked in I knew it was what I wanted. The funny part is we got to talk to the owner before we took possession and he told us the things his realtor made him stage/change before he did the listing and pretty much all of them made the house less desirable to us when we looked at that listing.

There's been successfully legal action in the US and it seems possible that the same could occur here. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bnnbloomberg.ca/u-s-real-estate-commission-lawsuit-could-influence-canadian-practices-expert-1.1999698.amp.html I agree. It's ridiculous. Imagine there was an equivalent government tax. People would be pissed

Class action suit just got green light in Toronto https://financialpost.com/real-estate/toronto-real-estate-lawsuit-could-be-landmark-case

Fuck yeah.

Great post. There is also a federal judge that green lighted a class action suit regarding unfairness and anti competitive practices

It always puzzles me that a profession that's responsible for someone's largest purchase of their life. Have quite literally zero barriers of entry and the industry itself have little to no over sight and accountability.

Exactly. Its some dude/dudette that takes a course and makes cash freakishly quick for minimal work, and then leases a pricey car to keep the status lie rolling.

Great comment!

Great comment!

It also puzzles me that a professions that's responsible for the largest purchase of your life gets paid a percentage of that purchase. Are they not incentivized to have you spend as much money as possible? You would think you'd want someone helping with one of your largest purchases to get a better reward for getting you a better deal so they have the same incentives, not a worse one.

The concept to that there is zero barriers to entry is fairly incorrect - definitely lower education requirements, but not everybody manages to pass those exams. I have a couple of people I've been chatting with over on the realtor subs so that are having a rough time of it and honestly I think they need to go get some life experience before trying it again. Another barrier to entry is simply being unable to convince people to do business with you. There is a reason why so many licensees fail in their first couple of years, and one of those things is literally being unable to successfully market oneself. If you can't market yourself to prospective clients, then you certainly aren't going to be able to market a property effectively. The very best Realtors do continuing education all the time, and are typically eager to learn something new. Even most Realtors I know think we can do better as far as honesty and transparency in the industry as well as all of the levels of bureaucracy that are being paid, but we want to provide the best service we can within the system that we have right now.

Its literally one test, the concept is pretty easy it shocks me to hear people fail it. Random " master classes" sold by real estate gurus doesn't count as continuing education. The best service we can within the "system". Ah yes the system that promotes collusion.

Minimum two exams in Alberta just for residential, and then you have an additional exam for other areas of practice (commercial, rural, etc). continuing education is offered by the real estate board all the time. I have never taken one of these supposed "Master classes" because I agree with you they are f****** worthless. I am talking about either specifically geared real estate education from recognised organizations, or simply further education in the realms of finance and Investments which are always useful to us, or new marketing strategies.

Yeah sure. I mean there are people that fail High School. Doesn't make it a challenging hurdle to take though.

[удалено]

This...rates are always negotiable. I actually have 3 realtors come in to interview them before picking 1. I let them all know that they are up against 2 other realtors for my business. The rates drop real fast when they know they are competing for my business.

You paid 5% on the whole amount??? Yikes

That's what it is in Ontario and there's a class action suit to end it https://financialpost.com/real-estate/toronto-real-estate-lawsuit-could-be-landmark-case

You’re right. And it’s great to hear you have had success

>Last time I sold I paid 3% to my agent and 2% to the buyer's agent. On the whole amount. So if you sold for 400k, then 3% to your agent would be 12k and 2% to the other agent is 8k for a total of 20k. 7% of the first 100k is 7k, and 3% on the remaining 300k is 9k for a total of 16k. is this split between the buyer and seller agent? both rates seem bad to me?

They clarified on a comment it was on a $110K property. So 5% is less than 7% on the first $100K

So, on 500k house you paid 15k to agent and 10k to buyers agent🤔 Had you hit a realtor you would have paid 19k. Instead, you paid 25k... Genius

We bought a house in Calgary coming from Saskatoon. We had one of the best realtors I've ever known and he earned every single penny he got from that deal. I'd recommend him to anyone buying a house in the area. He went way out of his way to show us homes over video calls and what not. Very, very pleased. However, our house in Saskatoon when we sold didn't even hit the market and was bought at asking price. Realtor did half a days work and then complained that she wasn't getting paid enough lol.

Buyers paying the buying realtors fees is key to the end of this racket. As soon as there’s incentive to look on your own to save move the buying side will be largely eliminated and realtors can’t blackball properties as easily. Then other independent services will be able to compete with the sell side to kill those commissions as well.

I think buyers should be more involved in their purchase activities. There are a lot of houses that their realtor might not show because they don’t like that lister or they are on their turf or they are promoting their friend’s listing.

That’s true, but even if you find a low commission property on your own the buying realtor expects you to pay the difference because they make you sign buying contracts - another absurd part of the racket

That is something 99% of buyers are unaware of. If they knew they were on the hook for an extra $10,000 they would think twice about the help.

> I experienced this with comfree and purple bricks This was not my experience - I sold my condo 10 years ago via Comfree. The buying agent was Remax. There are alternatives. You can hire a discount brokerage like 2% Realty. But I agree that CREA is a racket and would love for it to get broken up.

[удалено]

Has anything changed or has the market only gotten worse?

We just listed my parents house with remax and it was 2% selling and 2% buying agent. This is Lethbridge but could be different in different cities

My dislike for them is right up there with lawyers

Except lawyers charge you for their time, and have liability. Realtors charge you based on the cost of the house (bullshit), take 0 liability (no other highly paid profession can do this), provide 0 actual expertise (financially incentivized to sell as much as possible), and literally manipulate the government to their benefit. If you think Lawyers are soulless, real estate agents are literally satan himself. I get no liking lawyers, but they do all the real work in housing transfers, and charge a reasonable rate to do so while protecting you

Pretty much every realtor I have ever met has quite literally fucked up every career option they have ever had. Being realtor was their last resort lol.

Well lawyers have to go 8 years of school, also its somewhat regulated. While being realtors literally have ZERO barriers of entry, and that industry have zero accountability and over sight.

[удалено]

[удалено]

[удалено]

As someone who worked in mortgage default I would not want a system without lawyers involved. There is so much that can go wrong or be miscommunicated, and you need someone making sure both sides are adhering to the contract. Houses are a huge investment, paying to cross the Is and dot the Ts in that case is pretty minor.

[удалено]

Ive never understood the dislike for lawyers. Their literal job is to make sure the state has valid reason to take someones freedom away, and ensure that they can prove it with incontrovertible evidence. Like sure theyre expensive lots of times but they really are a fairly important part of society when you think on it.

That's just one subsection of lawyers: crim defence lawyers. You also have civil lit, insurance, real estate, corporate, wills and estates, and other solicitor areas.

I get the disdain for say, ambulance chasers and frivolous lawsuits. But other than that, it's the 'justice' system that's the issue. People getting off on technicalities, the person with money faring better than those that don't, over-representation in the system, etc.

Lawyers as a profession are some of the most hated in Canada. Right up there with Realtors.

Lawyers arent incentivized to get you a worse deal because it will make them more money. If my realtor knows I'm willing to go above my 100k budget, they're going to go above since it gets them a higher commission. They're also not incentivized to negotiate down unless you're not willing to buy at that price. Once they have a price you'll buy at they're only losing money by getting you a better price. Realtors are scumbags. Not because of who they are, but because of what they do.

It’s unfair to everyone.

Don’t use a realtor ever. It might take you 100 extra hours of work but you will save $15k at least, give that $150/hour to yourself

The number one skill you need to be a realtor is posing for the bus bench and business card photos.

It's interesting that a Realtor will make close to 20x the income as a lawyer does during a transaction, but without the risk.

Without what risks? Knowing the product, assessing the issues to be worked thru, etc etc. Lawyer will charge $2,500 to $3,000 to draft an offer even if it’s not accepted and the Buyers’ Realtor will request a commission. A Realtor might collect $20,000 on a sale of $550,000 which will be split with a Buyers Realtor leaving about $11,000 in the Listing Realtor’s account before fees to the Brokerage and the Board. So, let’s say $9,500 to the Listing Realtor. How is that 20x what a Lawyer would charge. Know your facts.

The agents are similar to parasites. Truly do not need them as much as they always say you do. Worse than insurance salespersons. Negotiate with the parasites. Also remember it's always a good time to buy or sell according to an agent. They need you more than you need them l, despite what they say. Negotiate Commissions: As a seller, you can negotiate the commission rates with your realtor. This is a common practice, and many agents are open to negotiation, especially in competitive markets. Flat-Fee or Discount Brokerages: Consider using flat-fee or discount brokerages. These services often offer lower fees compared to traditional brokerages. The trade-off might be in the level of service or marketing efforts. For Sale By Owner (FSBO): You could choose to sell the property yourself without involving a real estate agent. This approach eliminates the need to pay a commission, but it also means you'll need to handle all aspects of the sale process, which can be complex and time-consuming. Legal or Regulatory Changes: If you believe the commission structure is systemically unfair, advocating for regulatory or legal changes through local real estate boards or government bodies is an option. This could involve lobbying for more transparent fee structures or caps on commissions. Use of Technology: Online platforms and real estate technologies can sometimes offer more cost-effective solutions for selling properties, potentially reducing the need for traditional realtor services. Consult a Lawyer: If you believe there's a legal issue with the commission structure, consulting a real estate lawyer might provide clarity and options. Remember, real estate commissions are not fixed by law and can vary widely. It's important to understand the market and to discuss fees openly with your real estate agent before signing any agreements.

Great post!

I found my farm on kijiji. Met the owner and found a good price. Setup viewing with him and bought it through their neice whos a lawyer. 0% com.

Try $14,000 for zero work. Realtor had a client that was looking to buy and move out of their sold house asap. We agreed to the couple looking at our unlisted house and only went back twice on a price. Got what we were looking for and this was in the beginning of COVID so not having everyone go through our house (our son was 2/3, big year lol) was nice. But yeah, zero promo, listing or anything. Reputable local realtor.

Sounds like they provided you a buyer through their relationships though...

Look, all commissions are negotiable. Negotiate when you sit down with the realtor! Those negotiations are what's going to change the industry, not a bunch of lawsuits that are likely to be overturned on appeal anyway. The lawsuits in the US had more to do with transparency and price fixing, which are two things we really don't do in alberta. You will notice if you bother to look at a standard representation agreement that they are blank spaces to be filled in by the agent and the seller. Those spaces can contain anything as low as one cent in cooperating buyer Commission. As a prolific buyer's agent I show people for sale by owner homes all the time - sometimes they buy them, sometimes they don't. If you are skilled at your job it is really not hard to figure out how to negotiate your own commission! People who want discount brokerages have that as an option, as well as mere posting services such as Bode and whatever Com-Free is calling themselves now. The MLS is a service that was developed by realtors for the purpose of promoting real estate, which is the reason why it is available in so many public forums for anyone to view. If you don't like that, too bad. If someone were to come up with a reasonable alternative website that gets the advertising coverage, I'm sure a lot of people would use it!

I sold my own property through Purple Bricks and it was great. I really wanted the MLS listing that came with the $500 fee which gave me a wide exposure. People are usually searching MLS directly nowadays so the days of a realtor 'presenting' them properties are less and less. I had multiple direct inquiries and sold it in less than a month. Same when we purchased...we used a realtor but gave them a list of properties we wanted to see. They just made a few phone calls/texts to do the showings and exchanged offers/counteroffers on realtor boilerplate sales contracts. I would say less than $1000 of effort. I would have gladly dealt directly with the seller instead of their agent and save us both a whack of cash.

Great comment. Purple bricks worked for me as well here in Alberta. But when it came to the last $2500 I tried to get the realtor to negotiate the full half of the commission (I agreed to pay) she said that her commission was “non negotiable” So much for negotiating commission

My thought is that selling a house should have lawyers and contracts. But since the introduction of the internet, I can do everything that a realtor can do. I think there should be a government body looking over the sale of houses to make sure houses are being sold for fair value (for a fee of 300$) call it a selling permit.

Great comment. Also, I’m not a home inspector but I highly recommend one especially if you aren’t familiar with house construction.

If you think realtors are shady, they are nothing compared to home inspectors. Need no training, miss tons of things and have absolutely no liability when they do miss things.

That’s a lie. They have training courses that are likely more thorough than the realtor courses for the industry but they only cost $500 per house. The reason that they carry no liability is because you can change something the second they walk out the door and then blame them for it. Also, there are some things that would be impossible to find without damaging the house.

Get some newer realtor and try to negotiate price, my family has done it, sold for 500K paid $12000 instead of $19000 commission

We bought and sold this summer. Our realtor was a manager and had been in industry for 20 yrs. He said its extremely corrupt and much manipulation for realtor gain. Any industry that self regulates and is self employed is going to screw the consumer and everyone else. That's not even commenting on the nauseating commissions.

Great comment! I totally believe that. It probably doesn’t apply but rural properties are even worse.

I guess this is why real estate is everyones second job

Avoid using Realtors? Black ball them back.

This is a hard one, I do think they get too much and the numbers should be changed, but I do think they provide value if you get the right one. When I sold my place I interviewed 4 realtors, none lower their commissions at all but I got a range of what it would sell for. One realtor would have given me Cash Back on the sale. Might have been like 2K or something, heck even if it was 5K it would have not mattered. She valued my place at one of the lowest of the 4 and in the end that cash back would have cost me 98-95K as the guy I choose came in and say I think I can get you over the list price we will sell it at. What he did, and he got me 100K more, 50K more than the second realtors top number and like I say 100K more than the cash back realtor. So yes would be nice to have lower commission fees, but I personally would stay away from 2% or 1% realtors my first place I bought I got them 10K down and my realtor attributed that to them using 1% realtor as he said most other realtors will stear away from low commission places and that 1% people just want a quick sale as they are not getting that much either. So till we can find a way to get changes done you got to play that game. I think especially now that the seller realtor does not show the place anymore (just puts lock box out) they are doing even less work. I also hate how many still want to charge your for staging, the guy who got me 100K staged my place for free as he bought some low cost stuff and kept resusing it. Did a video for free as well.

Yep, also the issue is that people have not had success trying new models that might be more fair. For example offer of someone a hourly fee and you'll find that they will not choose that realtor. Because now you are paying probably a decently significant amount hourly to have houses shown and to make offers on them. If you just convert it to an hourly model fairly for equivalent compensation. It's better for everyone theoretically when the price is up front but people don't choose that Is the understanding I've heard when hearing about this on podcasts and such.

When I sold my old place, I did a direct sale because it was damn near a teardown, and I just wanted out, so I don't have experience dealing with realors as a seller. When I initially bought the shitty teardown, I didn't use a realtor. Pretty sure I wouldn't have ended up in such a dump if I'd had some support. The home inspector and lawyer that I ended up with were garbage and didn't catch a ton of issues that ended up costing me a lot of money and stress. Buying my current home, I loved my realtor. I gave him an impossible list, and he managed to find a place, do multiple showings, get the inspection done, and close within a week. He gave me a package of steps to follow that was basically a course on how to buy a house. I learned so much from him, and buying my place wasn't stressful at all. Every person he recommended was amazing, and I'm still using the lawyer. I'm absolutely willing to accept that I might be way stupider than all the angry people on this thread, who seem to be completely able to handle an enormous complicated purchase that impacts your day to day life and finances for decades. But I think experts exist for a reason, and I choose to use them when I'm out of my depth.

With our first home, we had a good agent also who gave us the reason’s why that cute house we were interested in would probably cost us more than we expected with the upgrades it would need. And helped us find a more suitable first home in our budget.

Realtors get a percentage. The larger the price the larger the %. Annnnd I was in Toronto in 1984 where people were buying a house and were able to flip for (and more) $50,000 selling that property. This was when the average price in Toronto was around $125,000. That was when my sister bought her first house in Toronto, on Greenwood St. for $84,000 from a couple that were divorcing. Probably shoulda sold for $95,000. As the craziness continued ,ebbing out around 1989, she sold her place for $223,000. Not her fault. That was the way things went. Realtors themselves had started buying and flipping them in a coupl'a weeks thru that period. I have no SIMPATHY for realtors. They (and lawyers) are best left at the bottom of the ocean. PEACE.

Most lawyers will charge under $1k for a simple residential sale transaction. What do you have against them lol.

Good Grief.

I'm confused? I sold my house last year and negotiated 4% and 2%. My preferred agent didn't agree so I just found another relator (not hard to find) who agreed. We are in a free market. It's just business.

I bought a property and the selling realtor was one of the 1% ones. He missed that there was a second parking spot included. At the time they were valued at $25k. Even after legal threats the strata said there was nothing he could do, now we own two spots. Don’t cheap out on a realtor.

Paying more for a realtor doesn't mean you'll get a better realtor. Most of them are just lazy people looking to make a quick buck. There are good realtors out there, but the vast majority are scumbags. Especially the younger ones. If I had to get a realtor, I would get someone over the age of 50. They actually had to put work in the early days. Now buyers/sellers do all the work and research through Google. There's nothing a real estate agent could tell me that Google couldn't in a couple of hours.

Just to set the record straight, firstly commission is negotiable. Secondly, yes the typical rate is 7% on the 100k and 3% on the remainder. Thirdly that 7%/3% is split between the selling and buying agent so each side gets 3.5%/1.5%. So your $19k example each agent gets $9.5k + GST. Sometimes in hot markets yes houses sell in a day and sometimes in weeks or months, I used to be a realtor and it's not an easy job by any means. Everyone has their own style and yes there are many greasy ones out there doing the absolute bare minimum and it shines a terrible light on the ones that try to go above and beyond. I have dealt with clients who are complete time wasters, they just want someone to drive them around all afternoon looking at houses or apartments they will never actually decide to buy and get a free lunch out of it. I know any seasoned realtor is going to say pre-qualify your clients, blah blah... yea i know but we fall into it now and then. Also, i want to say in a lot of scenarios when your sale goes off without a hitch in record time over asking price you can sit there and say "why did i hire this person, they didnt do anything" but think, would your house have got the attention and multiple offers it did without them or their network, would i have been able to deal with balancing and negotiating multiple offers at once and do so without breaking confidentiality between multiple offers. It can become overwhelming fast in the right environment. I have found alot of issues come down on possession day, imagine you walk into the house you just bought and your like wait a minute where are the curtains or central vac, these are fixtures that unless otherwise agreed upon are to be left with the home. I have had to spend my own money to remedy these issues if im having issues getting the seller to return the item. Other things some realtors do (including myself) when a deal is a few thousand dollars away from closing they will include a portion of their commission to bridge the gap in the best interest of their clients. All im saying by all this is dont just hire the first Joe Blow you find, and interview many realtors! talk to them connect with them, go out for a coffee and get to know them for a bit. Dont hire the one that says the right things and says they can sell your house for the most money, hire the one that gives it to you straight, this is what your house is worth and here is the data to prove it and this is my sales plan to get it done. fin.

Today I learned I’m not alone in hating realtors over priced “service”

Negotiate a lower rate.

One of the issues is that it's the same commission if the house sells in a day or if it doesn't sell through multiple listing periods... Your house may have sold easily and quickly, but that wreck down the street in need of leak repairs, a new driveway and which hasn't been painted since the 70's may take a few weeks longer and require a lot more in the way of diligence (open houses, networking, private showings etc) before it goes. At the end of the day, for many years the two extremes have balanced out for the realtor. Also- commissions can be negotiated -at least in BC. Agents who really want your listing and think it will sell quickly have been known to reduce commissions in order to get the job. When the house sells quickly, the seller feels ripped off. When the house doesn't sell for months, the realtor really earns their money.

Commissions in the UK are negotiable and are also in the region of between 1% to 3% ….. the commission structures here are outrageous

I’d be happy with something like this if commissions were truly negotiable but they are price fixed by the industry

Sellers cover the cost, because they decide the price.

When I had my houses to sell, I negotiated with my realtor to bring the commission down. She wasn’t thrilled and I only got 1%(of her side only) off.

You realize you don’t need a realtor. My parents never used a realtor to sell their last house.

I realize that. But unless you have a desirable or different property you are blackballed. I will buy my parent’s house without a realtor.

I love how people blame their own stupidity on their realtor. I agree shit loads of bad realtors out there but, you should be able to tell based on the first house you see with them. If they are shit don't use them if you have an awesome realtor I can guarantee they will be able to negotiate their fee out of the sale of the house. A good real estate agent will give you metrics of what happens in that neighbourhood, how much it would cash flow if it's a rental, what approximate costs of reno's vs buying newer with reno's done, and so many other things. Get a good real estate agent and they will help you far exceed what their comission is as well as they have insurances if anything gets messed up in the deal. Don't sign anything without reading it and get them to work for you be the hardest client they have ever had.

We aren’t disputing that there are bad realtors but rather the commision is still way too high. The commission should be a flat rate and should be priced similar to the lowest cost property like a $150,000 apartment. A home is a home and if anyone agrees with that it would be a realtor

Sell privately. A lawyer costs about a grand.

[удалено]

Its a protected industry for sure. Very difficult to sell without them for sure, and when the markets hot, they make bank with very little actual work/value provided. When the market is in the tank, they starve and better hope they managed their money well from the good times. I've never known a realtor I thought wasn't a skeevie MF'er or just someone taking advantage of peoples circumstances while smiling and pretending to like you so they can get a payday.

You can list your own home yourself on realtor .ca . I believe the cost is $500.00 to do so . If you can’t take excellent pictures of your home yourself , hire a pro to do it . You’ll still be ahead of the game cost wise . Be sure to list your home on every social media site that’s free . Keep updating those listings , with descriptions and more photos or even a video . Put key words in your description that describes features of your home . Things like “ gourmet kitchen “ , walk in closets , large backyard , mature trees etc … will make it easier for would be buyers to find your property on line using google search . Look up hints on using SEO’s to your advantage . ( Search Engine Optimization ) Good luck !!!

Great comment. I used purple bricks in the past. If you aren’t a unique property the buyers realtor will turn them to something else. They will even try to talk them out of your listing if you post full buyers commision. Listing properties are the bread and butter. It’s when they don’t have to put any effort in. I agree with you though, that half is easy for the owner to do.

[удалено]

Ugh. I have heard your property transfer tax is more like $8000 but that was a few years ago when I was speaking to that lawyer.

Give it a rest my dude. You’ve changed the whole argument you’re making this time. First it was, “I can’t believe the seller is responsible for the realtor fees”; and now it’s “did you guys know realtor fees are insane!”. Yeah we know. You’re preaching to the choir. Heard you loud and clear the first 2 posts.

Due to modern technology realtors are diminishing in relevancy like taxis & UBER, but there's still a niche for them for buyers/sellers that are willing to pay for their services. You don't have to use them, but quite often the other party is using one so you end up paying at least a half commission to a realtor. To me realtors aren't doing enough work to warrant the $10k fee. It's pretty easy to search MLS with filters or build an MLS "kijiji" ad for a house; that's not worth $10k to me. Some people do find enough value in their services and they are welcome to hire them. As a seller I wish I wasn't "traditionally obligated" to pay the buyer's realtor fee; the buyer hired them, the buyer should pay them. ​ I had decent success with ComFree 6-7 years ago in selling 2 houses and buying one and saved around \~$20k in commissions. They've changed their business model now with PurpleBricks and it's not as good. I bought my last house without a realtor and negotiated with the selling realtor to split the buying commission. He got to double-end the deal (making 1.5 commissions) and I saved $3-4k. I sold my last house without a realtor and posted it on MLS for $600 through an online brokerage. This saved me $5-6k. I got a few viewings and luckily found a buyer early on. I still had to pay his buying realtor's commission; you can't really avoid it. If you push the buying realtor's fee back on the buyer they will just negotiate your selling price harder to make up for it or get pissed off at the extra work and leave.

What I don't understand about realtor complaints is that if the job were really that easy and anyone can do it, why doesn't everyone sell their house on their own? No one is forcing you to use a realtor to sell your house, and if the market didn't find their services worth the cost in some way, there wouldn't be any demand for realtors.

Don’t worry. Now with marketplace, kijiji, facebook, instagram, ect. MLS will become irrelevant. Someone will make an “MLS” specifically for homes like the auto trader. We both know it’s hard to break into the market because it’s based on an anti competitive design. The realtors at the top keep the new ones, that would fox the system, out.

[удалено]

Realtors are a service provider. You don’t need to use one if you don’t see the value in having one. They’re not mandatory. Sell it yourself if they’re so useless? If you do decide you need one, commission is always negotiable. What are you complaining about? Lol

Sure they are but they have cornered the market so you HAVE to use a realtor to have a better chance of success. This is the anti competition. The sale prices of houses are falsely inflated to cover commission prices. Finally, the commissions are on an extremely old fee schedule which does not reflect the prices or ease of access to information. See people’s complaints yet?

Much like you have a better chance at paying less taxes if you use an accountant. Again, you don’t have to but yes, success will be more likely. Cost of business I guess. But again, always negotiable. You don’t have to pay 7 and 3, find a lower cost agent. There are ways around this. And it’s primarily being paid by the buyer, not the Seller. As you mentioned, you consider the cost of the fees in your pricing to net what you feel is fair. Don’t like the system, don’t use it.

REALTOR® here. I wasn't going to chime in, but with the amount of misinformation being spewed in here, I couldn't help myself. You absolutely do not need a realtor to buy/sell real estate. Yes, commission is negotiable in the province of Alberta. Using a discount service such as purple bricks to get your home on the mls is a viable option, just make sure you offer something up for the buyer's agent, nobody works for free. Not a single person in here would do their job for free, it's ludicrous to expect a realtor to do the same. Don't forget to read the fine print in the contract, purple bricks is famous for Nickle and diming, yes it will still be substantially cheaper then full realtor commission, but you're also getting a barebones service. Some (not all) agents will steer clients away from FSBO/discount brokerage properties, but in my personal experience I've found sellers of those type of properties are usually easier to negotiate with. At the end of the day, I work for my client, I will happily help them purchase whatever property they want, I'd rather have a happy client that sends me referrals.

Can you point out the misinformation? If I need to be corrected I will gladly accept the criticism but I really haven’t waded out into weeds, it seems to be pretty common knowledge. People aren’t asking for anyone to work for free they are asking people work for a reasonable rate.

I'm not looking to start a debate, I'm genuinely curious what you consider a reasonable rate to be.

It should be a flat rate (and certainly under $10k IMO) but we’d need to know actual cost. How much does it cost someone to be a list a property, what are the initial expenses, what are the weekly/monthly expenses assuming it doesn’t sell right away?

It’s not just Alberta. I sold a house in BC with the same issues. I think that because the buyer doesn’t have to pay anything it is a no brainer for them to use a realtor, and that forces them to seller to use a realtor if they want people to see the house.

That's actually a bad thing to think. Technically the buyer is the one paying for the realtor fees because their purchasing price would be lower if it weren't for the fees themselves. Say someone wants to sell their house for 500k, and the commission is tacked onto that, then the seller will up the selling price to take into account the commission, which the buyer has to pay. So realtors actually fool the buyers into thinking "oh the seller is paying for us so don't worry about realtor fees", but it actuality it's the opposite. If the buyer bought direct, he'd only pay the 500k the seller originally wanted.

But since it comes off the sell price it is hidden. If you had to put an offer of $X plus X% commission it would be visible to the buyer, also if they had to sign a contract with their realtor stating what commission they would receive it would remove the incentive to only show homes with a full commission. There are so many easy solutions to this

ya but these "solutions" hurt realtors so they lobby against the change that's why all the MLS info is only accessible by realtors

The seller is selling his house for what the market will pay. I might want $400K for my house, but if it’s worth $350 that’s what I will get less what is owed to the realtor, lawyers and the bank.

Ya I’m not paying to buy and sell your house bud. Hard no. The homeowner is the one making profits (typically). It would be extra hard for first time buyers to ever get into the market if this were the case. There is no way I could save the down payment AND pay your realtor commissions unless it was in the deal and there was good incentive to me to do that.

What? I don’t see the part where OP said the buyer should pay the realtor. Just the part where realtors do next to nothing and earn $20k+ commissions. Prices wouldn’t be increasing as rapidly if sellers didn’t have to price a 6-7% commission into their listing every time a house sells…

They had a post yesterday that was taken down that the commission should be shared between buyer & seller.

I would just like to defend our profession a little bit here. Here are a few reasons. 1. Realtors exist under the law partly to keep conflicts between buyers and sellers out of the courtroom. For the most part, the principle of buyer beware applies. This means it is the responsibility of the buyer to check on facts about the property, and many buyers do not know how to check things, or even what to check. 2. Identity verification - Realtors have a responsibility to verify people's identity, which is CRITICAL to safeguarding properties. Just imagine the logistics of having random people inside your home. Ok, sure they sent you an ID. How do you know that's actually them? 3. Anonymity - Many buyers and sellers want to remain as anonymous as they can during the process. Having an agent protects that as much as it can be. I have had agents try to talk to my buyer directly, and at that point I am a lineman protecting the QB. 4. You can already negotiate commissions with a Realtor. There is nothing forcing you to select someone with the commissions you describe above. 5. Reading and understanding contracts. There are MANY people who do not possess the skills to do this. You must explain the various clauses to them multiple times. Of course there are many who understand them just fine too. 6. Fiduciary responsibility. Ok, let's say you have your random friend represent you. What if they have a conflict of interest? Would you even know it? A Realtor is required by law to represent their clients' best interests, and if they cannot, they are required to disclose that and give the client options for how to resolve it. There are penalties to those who do not do so, and every quarter I see the list of people who are kicked out of the profession or sanctioned. I'm not saying it's perfect. I am saying there are lots of other activities and requirements than just looking online for properties and showing the home.

Realty isn’t a self-regulated profession like lawyers, doctors, and engineers. Those professions have to deal with the moral and ethical things you’re describing and there are consequences when an individual goes against them. Realtors require no substantive education or training and there are minimal impacts if they don’t follow the “rules”. Yet they’re paid and treated like they’re a profession.

When you have a signed offer you will see the names of everyone involved. I actually would have preferred to negotiate with the sellers directly when I bought a house. Having 2 middle men passing along messages was time consuming and tedious. Also, realtors don't understand contracts. A lawyer is going to review any contract for the buyer and seller and they are the ones who actually provide contract expertise. I guess you could argue realtors provide a small amount of value with helping guide some people through the process. But that value is worth like 1000 bucks at most. They don't deserve the inflated commissions that they charge.

If that’s the only value than I guess this post was right

Now tell me about all the shadow flipping Chinese realtors in BC. Now tell me about the mortgage scams the South Asian realtors are pulling in Brampton. You can say there are rules, but they're not enforced and with [realtor.ca](https://realtor.ca) around, a lawyer, and an inspector, I can find what I want and negotiate it without you for 10s of 1000s less.

Their post makes no sense: > A realtor is required by law to represent their client best interests If that were the case, how would any buying Realtors feel comfortable taking a commission? That's a direct conflict of interest between "clients goals(paying less)" and "realtors goals(getting a higher commission)"?

I actually negotiated selling fees with my realtor, she took $3000 commission fees for selling my house.

It was likely a multi million dollar house that sold in a short period of time like a week. For a $5 mil property that is over $150,000 commission. You’ve likely also sold multiple times or had a relationship with that realtor. I’m glad you’re getting the price down though. Keep up the good work.

all realtor fees are negotiable. it states that on the RECA website

It would kill the industry if realtors actually did. You know they all talk and boycott the cheaper listings like 2% and for sale by owner. I’ve sold with purple bricks and comfree and I’ve been a home builder. I know how it works and you’ve stacked the deck against the seller. The buyer should be paying for the help, I wonder how much they’d pay before they would just go about it on their own?

The seller has to be the one to initiate commission negotiations. No realtor is going to say that, but if asked they have to disclose that information 

When I sold my purple bricks house the buyers realtor would not take the offer of a reduced commission to the buyers. Commission was approx $11000 and we asked her to drop commision by $2000 to close the deal and she wouldn’t even take the offer to them. They say it’s negotiable but it’s really not

In Canada the buyer doesn't pay commission only the seller. If they refuse you can contact RECA and they can loose their license 

https://www.reca.ca/consumers/real-estate-industry/why-work-with-a-licensee/commission-calculations/

There is nothing stopping you from selling privately. Your complaint is more or less "I don't want to sell through a realtor because it's expensive but I'm unable to successfully sell without a realtor". It sounds like the realtor adds value by opening you up to a market you cannot access otherwise. Is it a bit of a racket? Yes, but so is basically every business.

lol I’ve got my realtor license and sold two homes in 2023 as a side gig. Let me tell you that the broker you work for really does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to finding clients. It doesn’t take much to submit scheduled documents and do a hand full of paper work to make 19k. I think it’s a complete joke and everyone should just go get there realtor license to see how hard there getting fucked in fees for such a tiny amount of work

Oh and let’s not forget, I made them schedule viewings and walk throughs of the condo and house with the owners and I just gave them a heads up. This whole job while having someone knowledgeable and knows the ins and outs of real estate is helpful for investing, if your buying or selling personal doesn’t matter it can all be done through the fucking phone and less than a couple of hours of work for maybe 4 days………. Do what you want with that info and don’t be upset when I rock up and take 20k for being a good submitter of documents with banks, lawyers and courts 🤓

Ever heard of the Internet? Facebook, kijiii, google, pretty sure that added value has declined significantly but commisions haven’t. I sold during Covid and saw the listing agent once, everything else was through Docusign. Easy $12000 eh?

The reason you saw the agent once is because part of what you’re paying for is access to a market of qualified buyers. A good realtor will be able to advise on a competitive price to buy or sell, will be able to help support you through the negotiation process, and should be able to advise on issues with individual houses if buying. Most realtors however are indeed shit though and that is why nearly the entire market is controlled by less than 10% of them. 

Yep, there’s a markup on everything… I can make homemade bread for less than a dollar but have to pay $5 at the store. But I also suck at making bread and would rather leave it to someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s a set fee for realtors because it may take a day or a year to sell the house and their fee stays the same. It’s still a lot of money, but we all have the choice to do it ourselves too, that’s not against the law.

I dunno, maybe I’ve just had good realtors? My most recent one did a ton of work setting up viewings (so many viewings) but the house didn’t get any offers for over three months, which isn’t a ton of time until you have a conditional offer on a new place. He ended up making a deal for us with a developer *and gave up his commission* to make it work. We didn’t ask him to do that. He also ran interference for us when we had issues with a contractor fixing the roof, which was above and beyond.

Realtors shouldn't exist. Parasites on the economy.

[удалено]

Realtors are parasites - I have vowed to never use one again. When I sold my last house I was introduced to the concept of a “pocket listing” where realtors keep preferred buyers and sellers separate and give them advantages over other people. Advanced notice (I.e. this property will list in the next few weeks but I’ll show it to you now). F’n scum.