QUOTE (outtolunch @ Feb 10 2010, 10:22 AM)
This is certainly a tough one to pick sides on. While not a REIN member or a realtor I have certainly used realtors over the years for many of my investments...and not for others. I've found that a realtor can absolutely save me money AND find me great properties, but I've certainly seen my fair share of realtors who aren't worth a cent.
Example - a friend who is not real estate saavy wanted to complete a private transaction, essentially a house swap, she gets a bigger house and the other couple downsizes, pretty easy. However, she had no clue about the paper work or putting together an offer, etc. She contacted a realtor, asked for a price (house was around $285) to do up the offer and conditions....came back with $4000 flat rate. This I have a problem with, it's a joke - I set her up with an offer and a lawyer, took me 15 mintues to do all the upfront paper work and it was smooth as silk - not $4k worth of work. The general public is far too uniformed when it comes to real estate - but that is their own fault, it's not rocket science.
With that said, why on earth should anyone here, other than realtors who pay for it, have access to list on the MLS? So you don't want to spend $40K to sell your million dollar property...then don't, it's that simple! You have plenty of options for sellling your own home so do it. Learn how to market effectively, spend the money to develop your own website, build your own database, spend money on ads in the paper, billboards, tv, radio, etc, no one is holding you back. Now...add up the time it will take to do all this, plus show the house over and over and add it to the marketing costs and web hosting etc and see what the number is (don't forget to put a value on your time AND add the cost of holding that property for longer than expected, each month you pay X amount to hold) and see if it is less than the $40k.
As a small business owner and long time investor it is not worth my time (in most cases) to do all of this, nor do I actively market myself on a monthly basis, so my choice is pretty simple. Do I like paying for this??? Of course not...but I certainly don't expect to get something JUST BECAUSE...but then again, that is the way of the world these days - entitlement has run rampant!!
If you owned a successful business and spent years marketing and thousands, maybe millions, on website development should everyone have cheap access to your service and/or website simply b/c you were successful??
Rant over, just one mans opinion
Great post.
However your friend contacted an expert and got expert advice. That is part of the $4,000 flat rate she was quoted. Takes 15 minutes to draw up a contract if you know what you're looking for but you know the risks if you draw one up poorly. You might pay a plumber $400 to come and fix a $20 part... but they're an expert and know what to look for so we justify it. You might pay a lawyer $5,000 to handle your case and all they are doing is talking on the phone and reading. But we justify it because they have a law degree so they must be doing hard work. I'm having a tough time understanding why realtors - experts in their own field - don't get the same respect.