I am going out on a limb here because I am a real estate agent and I want to let your readers know that not all real estate agents are money hungry mongers. I’m relatively new to the profession, started July 2007, right before the economy started its downward spiral. I went into the profession because I wanted to help people and yes I thought I could make good money. I also have two young children so I wanted a flexible work schedule, so I wanted to be at home when they needed me. I loved all those home improvement, house hunting shows, and property virgin shows. Let me tell you, they make it look so easy. However, I found out that being a realtor is harder than it looks and a lot more expensive. First of all, real estate agents need to go through 60 hrs of training and pass a test to get their initial license and then we have to take continuing classes to keep our license. True, the classes are not overly difficult, but they are expensive and very time consuming. In my case, after I received my initial license, I was paired with a seasoned agent that showed me the ropes for a year, kind of like an internship. I had 3 transactions that year and didn’t come close to breaking even, but I learned a lot. During that year, I was amazed by how much time, stress, and energy each transaction entailed. I also found that I was working 40-60 hrs a week and was on-call 24/7. It is a lot of work. I was never home and I hardly spent anytime with my family. It has been an uphill battle trying to make a name for myself. I am still not there yet, but I am still trying. Have I mentioned how expensive it is to be a real estate agent. The overhead is unbelievable. Half of everything I make goes to my office. Then there’s insurance, training, Realtor dues, MLS fees, lockbox, signs, office supplies, etc…. I actually had to take another job just to stay a real estate agent. I believe I am worth every cent of my commission. I can’t speak for all agents but I do know the agents in my office and I work our butts off to ensure our clients are happy with the sale of their home and/or the purchase of their new home. Regarding your points on real estate agents using their knowledge and experience to manipulate their buyers and sellers. Realtors, adhere to very strict ethical guidelines from NAR (which I applaud) and there’s also Agency Law (equally wonderful) . In addition, I, personally have an office policy and a very strict broker (which I love to work for) to deal with. I love working at my particular office. All the agents that I work with are not in it for extrinsic reasons and are genuinely there to help their clients. Yes, there are agents that are in it for the money, but not all of them. I like to believe that the money mongers tend to weed themselves out eventually-especially when the market goes down. Unfortunatly, they leave a bitter taste in peoples mouth and give all real estate agents a bad reputation. My recommendation to anyone that is buying or selling a house is educate yourself, ask questions, and interview a handful of agents before you decide on one in paticular. Personally, I work primarily on referrals, so it is important for me to do every job well and I will because I one of those good agents.

Sincerely, Bridget

if i am serious about selling my home and i want top price, it’s going to be 5 star hotel quality, 10+ showing condition at all times – and quite frankly, i’ve got better things to do then spend months dusting, vacuuming, etc in hopes that that i will get a higher offer it i keep it on the market longer.

often the first offer is the best because the buyers have likely been waiting for your home to come on the market, they’ve seen a bunch of others and are growing weary of the buying experience. buyers do a lot of searching before spending their money and seeing a home sit around only raises doubts.

think about it, when you see a home that has been on the market for more than 30 days don’t you say to yourself… hmmm, what’s wrong with it? i bet i can talk them down in price since nobody seems to want to buy it… or are you naive enough to think wow, 30 days and no other buyers have seen this gem?

sigh…

I’m pretty sure you’re intentionally misunderstanding, but in case you’re not: if you sell MORE houses at a lower price, you can make a higher salary.

Imagine I have a $100K house. If it takes me 10 hours to sell it at 10% below value, 20 to sell it for fair value, or 30 to sell it for 10% above value.

First case:
Sale Price: $90K
Commission (5%): $4500
Earnings / hour: $450

Second case:
Sale Price: $100K
Commission (5%): $5000
Earnings / hour: $250

Third case:
Sale Price $110K
Commission (5%): $5500
Earnings / hour: $183.33

If I can sell houses quicker, I can sell more. Since I get paid a commission on each sale, this translates to a higher income. Of course, this screws the homeowner who wants to be in the third case, not in the first (since its a difference of $20K for him).

If real estate agens made MORE MONEY by selling a house quickly, the incentive would be too sell as quickly as possible. But since they make more money the higher the sales price, the incentive is to sell as high as possible.

Perhaps you could apologize and retract your statement containing very faulty reasoning.