FYI: I am currently selling my home and am in search of a new home to buy. I REFUSE to sign up for a realtors website in order to view their listings. If your website forces a buyer to sign up and send you his/her information, you are losing buyers! If you have a home I want to look at, I'll contact you. Otherwise, why do you need my information?

Just some good advice for you realtors out there.

More advice, stop charging 6%. I am NOT using a realtor for that same reason. The cheapest I've found is 4%, and I do not see the sense in that. I have all of the contracts and disclosures I need, so your putting me in the MLS, newspaper, and posting signs is not worth 4%. 2% yes, 4%, no. Mortgage Brokers charge 2% and they have to split their fees like you do, so your 4% and 6% is just plain greedy. Not only that, but their is a WHOLE lot more work involved in a mortgage than in the real estate. So I'm lost as to why realtors feel they can charge so much money, for far less work.

Again, just friendly advice for those of you in Florida. More buyers and sellers are catching on, hiring lawyers, and are shifting away from using realtors.

More advice, LISTEN to your buyers needs! I don't know how many times I told my previous realtors (when I first bought this house) what I wanted, yet they sent me in the wrong direction. I was sent to the ghetto for one house, sent to houses without fenced yards (requirement), or sent me to ONLY their listings. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB. The realtor that found this house for me did NOT list this, but she listened and got it right on the VERY first try! Now that's a good realtor! Still won't use her to list my home though, because I'm not giving a realtor $14K of my money to do what I can do for about $500.

Good luck realtors, and change your websites! I'm sure I'm not the only buyer that refuses to give you their personal information just to search your listings.

smccurdy1@cfl.rr.com if you think you have a good rebuttal to anything said here.

I don't require people to register for MLS use, our local multiple listing service has this requirement. There's no way around it to get all updated MLS listings, the same we get as real estate agents. This is the Northern Illinois MLS so this is simply how it is. I can offer a small sampling of the MLS without registration but instead of a buyer seeing all 10 homes that might be available in the MLS (just using this as an example), there might only be 2 without registration. I wish I could offer full MLS search without forcing registration, but I can't & we're all in the same boat here in my area.

As for your grievance with listing fees I don't want to get involved with that in this forum and that's your opinion & maybe that's how it's going in your area. And I've worked with many buyers that have been unhappy with their previous agent not listening to them. I've never had that problem, although once in a while I'll get a client who just doesn't understand why I can't find them a beautiful home when they can only afford $100,000 & the average home price is $250,000. IOW, if there is a home available for $100,000 it's a handyman special. Then I have to make the decision to stop working with that buyer if they're simply unreasonable.

I have been invited to become a mortgage broker along with selling real estate, which I've refused to do. With showing & listing appointments, writing up & presenting contracts, handling all contract negotiations & changes, delivering earnest money, handling phone calls, going to closings, taking photos, attending inspections, meeting appraisers, constant marketing & keeping up with past clients & sphere of influence, etc., I don't have the time nor the inclination to pre-approve people and take the loan application.

Also, most mortgage brokers work as a team. There is the loan officer, the loan processor(s) & the underwriter(s). The loan officer I use the most works mainly out of his office, not having to make appointments driving clients around. Clients go to him. He takes the application & turns the paperwork over to the processor. The reason I use him the most is because he does have the courtesy to keep me informed of what is happening, so he goes the step beyond with follow-up. Most don't. If I want to form a "team" to help me I have to pay them out of my own pocket. I don't know one loan officer who has to do this. In fact, the loan officers I know all say that they wouldn't want to be real estate agents.

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.

I agree with most of what you said. As Exclusive Buyer Brokers, we don't have listings, so there isn't a problem with that part of our service. Also, we really do enjoy the feedback from visitors on this page Denver MLS no hassle, no registration. The only reason I see using a sign-up now is if a site isn't very high in the serps, where you need to grab every lead you can.

My initial reaction to your post was to simply move on and let the agents respond if they were motivated to do so. But, I think hearing from someone who is not a REALTOR might be beneficial.

I don't know what business you are in, of course, but there are very few successful businesses today that do not subscribe to the practice of establishing and maintaining good long-term customer relationships.

That is the objective real estate agents are pursuing with their websites. You have taken the time to find their website, and you are taking them up on their offer to search MLS listings. They assume, then, that you are someone they could establish a relationship with. They do pay for the privilege of providing the public with free access to the local MLS listings, so they are providing a service.

I can understand why you don't see the need to hire a REALTOR. And, certainly there are a fair number of REALTORS who operate in a mode of hit and run, I will only show my own listings, and I'll send a buyer to any dog I'm trying to move rather than to homes that meet their requirements.

An educated consumer, however, would weed out those type of REALTORS, and establish a relationship with one of the many good ones. You said

"If you have a home I want to look at, I'll contact you."

And, there's your problem right there. The best way to use real estate services is to select the REALTOR you trust. That person can show you any home, whether they are the listing agent or not.

As to whether you can sell your home as effectively as a REALTOR, guess that's just a difference of opinion. In my experience, selling and buying homes is a lot of work. I don't know how you have time to be home everytime someone wants a showing, etc. And, a real estate transaction is usually pretty emotionally charged. My experience has been that working with a good agent, the negotiations are much more successful than if I tried to do it myself. My Irish temper can get in the way sometimes!

I wish you the best of success completing your real estate transactions on your own. And, in truth, I'm not sure the good real estate agents will be sorry to lose your business. REALTORS who don't believe in running a hit-and-run real estate practice aren't interested in hit-and-run clients.

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Kathleen Allardyce
Visit our BRER Real Estate Marketing Blog
Real Estate Marketing
Point 2 Agent Partner

Kathleen,

You said it better than I could & you're not an agent. Thanks! You reminded me that not only do I pay my annual MLS dues but I also pay an additional $600 annually just to offer the MLS search on my website & I have no control on the registration process.

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.

-Of course, typically, a listing agent only gets half of that 6%; the selling agent gets the other 3%. Who says 6% is set in stone? Smart agents will adjust their commission rates at the bargaining table to make a deal work when stubborn sellers and buyers are at an impasse. I've used that cushion many times to work a dying deal. Commission rates are negotiable all the way to the closing table with the right agent—relax and use it to your advantage.

-When agents from other big companies are roaming through the MLS putting together listings to show a client, guess what? The 4% listings don't make the first cut. That adds up and means less traffic to your doorstep—you want good traffic, you gotta pay for it.

-What about listings that expire that an agent markets & never makes a dime on because a greedy seller insists on setting the price too high?

-What about the time, effort, gas money, bought lunches, screaming kids and smelly dogs agents put up with for the tire-kickers that disappear after countless wasted days of torture.

When I was a kid I used to swear at the prices I had to pay for those little plastic airplane models. Surely, it couldn’t cost more than a buck to get it to the shelves. So yea I swiped a few in my time to get back at them for reaming me; I didn’t understand marketing and I didn’t understand shrinkage.

Head on over to www.forsalebyowner.com

Input from the buyer/seller sector is always welcome. Thanks for taking the time smccurdy.

smccurdy has a hostility towards Realtors that is evidenced in his/her previous postings/rants on this forum. I'm not sure why but if you read through his previous posts I think it stems from the percentage commission paid by a seller to the real estate brokerages involved in the transacton. smccurdy is a mortgage "professional" who apparently doesn't like the fact that the Realtors commission is typically higher than a mortgage brokers. If you read his previous posts, Realtors are untrustworthy and greedy yet it doesn't stop smccurdy from trying to solicit referrals from us or from trying to exchange links with Realtors.

BTW smccurdy, you can visit my website and search the mls without registering so if you're thinking of moving to the Hudson Valley, NY area let me know as there are a couple of real estate agents up here who I'd love to refer someone like you to

Pretty scathing post. But the lack of information shows. I have originated loans for 3 years now. I have never made less than 3% on a file, which of course is split with my broker. The YSP does not show on a HUD if it is a warehouse loan. It does not mean the LO is not getting money on the back. The percentage charged by the agents is just available for all to see. As a licensed real estate agent I can say there is a comparable amount of work involved in the sale of a home. The work is just not as easy to see or appreciate as a mortgage app. is.
Basica

Silly me. It was late & I didn't notice that he already had 18 posts here! I wouldn't have spent so much time replying to him - LOL!

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Southwest Chicago Suburbs Real Estate is an affordable area with close access to downtown Chicago. Money Magazine says that Orland Park real estate is one of the best places to live in the U.S. Next door you can find Tinley Park homes for sale and get Orland Park amenities at a more affordable price.