Just ask any traditional realtor what he / she likes to give part of their commission back to their house buying clients in the form of a real estate discount and you just put a stick in a horny nest. Most big brand name real estate companies continue to do business in the traditional way and get away with offering real estate discounts to their home buying clients.
One of the biggest reasons traditional agents get rid of not offering discounts is because most home buyers are not very well informed about buyer discounts. How do they work where the money comes from, will a discount affect the price they have to pay for the next home, or are they even legal in the first place? While there is no law on the books in any state that says real estate agents must offer a discount. Home buyers should at least know that they exist and have some basic knowledge of how discounts work so they can make an informed decision when it comes to using an agent that offers a discount or one that does not Dallas Home Buyers.
To be honest, just the word discount sounds cheap. For me, it collects photos of my dad mailing in a discounted form so he can get two dollars back on a Pennzoil case. And there’s nothing wrong with that. A penny saved is a penny earned.
But discounts give home buyers far more than just a few dollars left. A good discount on home buyers can add thousands of dollars to the price of your next home purchase. Discounts for home buyers can range from half or one percent to as much as two percent of the home purchase price. The discount offered by my company (New Market Realty, Inc.) is 1.5%. So when buying a $ 300,000 home, my buyer customers will receive a check and lower the price of their new home by $ 4,500. Now that’s the money that any home buyer should want to get back!
But it has been very slow for real estate companies offering discounts. Even with non-traditional real estate companies that advertise heavily online, they still represent only a fraction of the $ 61 billion in commissions paid last year in the U.S. real estate market. Discounting transactions accounted for only 2 percent of home sales, according to the results of a survey released this summer (2005) by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The controversy surrounding discounts has the National Association Of Realtors having a buyer-beware attitude. Mr. Stevens, the current president of the NAR, has been quoted as saying “In some sense, you get what you pay for.” Mr. Stevens has also been quoted as saying that buying a home is “a big deal not to work with an expert.” Well, Mr. Stevens. I personally don’t feel like realtors should try to scare home buyers back into the dark ages of traditional real estate. I also want my readers to notice that I am a paying subscriber, a member of good standing, licensed Realtor®. I also consider myself an expert in the sales process and home sales.
Just for the record. All real estate agents under the rules of the NAR and state law are required to take and pass a state test to receive a real estate license. And all real estate agents must take state required continuing education classes to keep their real estate license and to keep abreast of real estate practices in their state.
For Mr. Stevens or any traditional real estate agent for the purpose of implying or implying that a real estate agent offering buyer discounts or listing housing for a fixed fee is anything less than an expert than a traditional real estate agent is nothing but a cheap shot and a pitiful attempts to scare home buyers and sellers into believing that they will receive poorer service and poor real estate market knowledge.
Traditional realtors love to use the word discounts. It is their way of lowering the innovative ways that we so-called discounting partners have found to save real estate consumers (buyers and sellers) thousands of dollars on a single real estate transaction.
The discount process is very simple. In any real estate transaction, there is a buyer and a seller. A listing agent works with the seller and a buyer’s agent works with the buyer. The party / person who pays all commission in a real estate transaction is the home seller. Buyers never pay a commission. Now that we’ve covered it, how to go through some basic elements of buying a home.
When working as a buyer agent, I never worry about the commission a listing agent has charged a seller to list their home. It just doesn’t matter. 3%, 4% or 6% I don’t care. The only thing I’m worried about when it comes to commissions is how much this listing agent will pay me out of the 3%, 4% or 6% they charge the home seller.