Price war among realtors starts to heat up

I have to say that I am amazed at how this topicis even being discussed. The thought of ANYONE being able to advertise on someone elses web site is almost comuinist. if the realtors have an association and pay into such an assosciation, (MLS) who or what gives the right for just ANYBODY to walk up and simply advertise on there web site ( MLS).That is another comunist move on behalf of our government, and its pathetic divisions to control everything we do and say! when will enough be enough! its is clear that someone dont like the fact that everything the realtors association in onatario, not to mention canada, has accomplished over the years. To my understanding a realtor now adays has to go to college for approx 2 years, they also have to upgrade and take continued education through out there entire career. these fly by night provate for sales company, who have no experience, or education, are behind this! Common sence people... you cant buy gas for 50 cents any more. You get what you pay for , plain and simple! For those that dont know it... the realtors association donted millions of dollars to chairites annualy.

To bad you didn't take the first offer Ross 422K I wonder why it went sideways? (Didn't appraise?).

Perhaps you wouldn't listen to your Realtor and price it right in the first place.

There will always be somebody out thier reducing thier price for services, you get what you pay for.

It is well known that a good chunk of real estate law suits involve FSBO (for sale by owner).

Don't worry about that funny odour we just had the carpets cleaned, oh those circles on the basement floor, yeah we had tomatoe plants growing there.

Or Oh yea we've been to the bank and are preapproved.

Or holy cow....we've been robbed! Either literally, or figuratively, oops we priced it wrong.

You get what you pay for or in this case you don't get what you may have gotten. For every success storey about selling privately there are 10 where people get screwed. Of course you don't hear about those ones.

The realtors of canada...will simply fix this little bump in the road. The MLS...will either be shut down, or there will be a sustantial fee for its use. The scum bags that are trying to undermind all of the other members are weak and not of any quality. The proof is in the facts...the one guy admits to being hated for stabbing all his brothers and sisters in the back! perhaps its time that the people running certain associations will not be voted back in next year...this is udder bull, a professional association should not have to allow such bull, and have the right to suspend such members for such actions. Common sence would tell you that you cant sell a house for $109. if you want to sell private then do..so and leave the realtors of canada out of it!. take for example for one second... if you are at your job today, and I walk in and say to your boss, i will do you job for less...resulting in you ,to loose your job or take a cut in pay....I bet that you would not like it very much! Think before you leap! Most privates have something to hide...I have been a house inspector for 22 years!

I see there are a few Real Estate agents trying to defend their ridiculous fees. They don't do anything other then pay to have it advertised, drive to each location, which they write off as a tax deduction while they sit home and watch TV and wait for the phone call and then they tell you they work for the seller, then they come back with a 10% or more lower price that they promised they could get. They're sales people untrustworthy as far as i'm concerned. It's time they gave people a break because they don't deserve the comission they charge for the work they do, i don't care how much they try to defnd themselves. Say $10,000 on a $200,000 home, imagine how hard an how long a roofer or any demanding trade has to work to earn that kind of money, while a Real Estate agent is lying on the sofa waiting for the call. Go to property guys .com, they have all the paperwork to research and make your salesafe and legal as much as any agent for a fraction of the cost.

This is what homeowners will face if they do flat fee without the realtor invloved.
1) Pay the lawyer up front for drafting an agreement of purchase and sale.-Seller pays regardless of the deal coming to fruition
2) Pay the lawyer per hour for each and every call made and every change that is made to an offer
When you work full service with the realtor you do not apy anything until the transaction closes
3) The buyer is not going to want to pay a lawyer up front to draft an offer or look at an offer
Who is actually going to have the offer drafted
2) Allowing strange people into your home without knowing their real motive
3) trying to save the same commission that the buyer is trying to save
4) trying to sell the home at true market value when the buyer is trying to buy the home for a discounted price
5) Not being able to properly follow up because the seller now sounds desperate
6) Not having an impartial 3rd parted to deflate the emotions of both parties
7) not having the skills to negotiate a fair deal for yourself
6) paying extra money to advertise , structure a proper feature sheet and pay for the printing
7) waiting around for someone to look at the house who does not show up and does not call to cancel
8) How do you know that they are qualified to buy the house before they come to see it-seller can not ask these questions
9) The listing agent does not have to give out any information to a person who calls
10) The buyer will not be honest with the seller if they do not want to buy the house
11) Seller does not have accurate information on pricing the house
12) The seller does not know how to prepare the house for sale to maximize the selling price
13) The seller has to be home for every showing
14) The seller is not always available to take a call
15) The seller does not know what information they have to divulge and what is private information
16) The buyer and seller do not have the ability to negotiate back and forth to make the deal work
17) The seller does not have websites to post the lisitng on
18) Returning potential buyer calls in a timely manner to make an appointment
19) no one to explain merits and weaknesses of clauses
20) dealing with potential multiple offers
21) Advising other people that your property is for sale
21) inability to assist a buyer with financing
22) advise on inspections
23) who hold the deposit
The list goes on

Agents do not have it easy-They can work for moonths and years witht he same people until the right property comes along. Some sellers are very difficult to work with and agnets have to be very diplomatic.
Agnets must take courses every 2 years in order to have their licensed renewed.

For Sale By owners will always be For Sale By Owners and this in the long run will not have the impact that the Real Esate and public perceive.

History has proven that discount agents go by the wayside. Look at Savvy Realty in Toronto that offered 3.5%. They closed there dooss in 1999.

You get what you pay for-go discount with an agent you get discounted service regardless of what they tell you. If an agent has 5 lsitings at 5% and a seller gets a discounted commission from the same agent-which listings is the agent going to put full attention.

real estate agents are rogues,they have access to repos,buddies with mortgage brokers,home inspectors and the like,all pissin in the same pot.The reason private sales are so slow,is that when realtors pass your property with clients to look at their properties,and the clients ask,what is that house like,all they have to say is,oh I think that house flooded a few years ago,or oh I heard that house has mold,or a thousand other simple lies that are more than adequate to put off any of their clients from buying a private listing!!i HAVE A REALTOR LISTED HOUSE NEXT TO MINE,AND THAT HOUSE HAS HAD SHOWINGS,BUT NONE HAVE EVER SEEN MY SIGN OUTSIDE AND PHONED OR COME AROUND LATER!!.i WOULD LOVE TO HEAR WHAT THE REALTORS TELL THEM WHEN THEY SHOW THE PROPERTY NEXT DOOR and people obviously will inquire about mine!!!Anyone know realtors that dont own multiple homes,oh but they NEVER compete with their llients,they cry!!yeah..Realtors probably com free ,property guys etc,as they can wheel and deal properties without disclosure,hell its probably realtors that started these companies!!shocking I know,but think about it people!.Lastly ,why do you think there are no fixer uppers in Alberta,I wonder who hoovers them up and sells them to their builder buddies,for a nice little backhander.There is no job like a realtor,the oppotunities are endless.Lot of female realtors??ask what there hubbys do,tend to there rentals,and oversee the builders fixing up their flippers,they make me sick with their wining.

I have been a Realtor for 20 plus years and find that most people that try to sell their own homes eventually end up with a Realtor. They find it extremely time consuming, expensive to advertise, the Buyers "just love" the house and never call. They are insulted by the Buyers when the offer does come because the Buyer does not want to pay full price since they are not paying commission...and the list goes on. The home inspection reveals some issues that neither party wants to deal with. The Relator is the "buffer" in many of these situations and navigates between all parties to bring the sale to a sure close. There are some really hardworking Realtors in the industry and there are already lots of "private" web sites. Realtor.ca is OUR ADVERTISING web site to the public to attract a buyer for your house. Use your own site to attract your buyer if you want to sell your own home. I have paid dearly to become a Realtor in good standing. Enjoy the impending law suits, there will always be experienced Sellers and Buyers but that is not the norm.

Does anyone ever read what they type?
We have spell checks and grammar fixers and still these posts read like inmate rants.
No watt eye mean peeple?

How can you stay in business charging only $109 per listing? Even $1k wouldn't cut it. You would have to do massive volume to stay in business and earn a living for your self, and Canada, unlike the U.S. does not have that kind of resale and housing volume. Top agents in Canada only do about 20-25 deals per year.

I have been involved in many sales with and without agents.
In many cases, agents are not needed. Often their
commission is enough to get in the way of an agreement.

I had property stolen during a real estate agency open
house. I had to file suit against the thief to get compensation
for the theft. The agency did not help me.

I did not have problems with dishonest sellers or criminals
during private sales. If some one is worried about a home
invasion, there are security guards, ec.

I am glad some agents are supposedly concerned about
potential problems with flat fee or private sales. I would
love to have MSN contact me to help me find out
whether my complaint about a real estate agent was
in fact even investigated. I can't even get that info.

Real estate agents are the scourge of society all of them are the same when it gets down to the niity gritty . the times are changing and there little rane of terror will soon be over. I will never use one again i have bought and sold with out them with a way less hastle

Oh,Yes and they must drive a Lexus,Mercedes,Cadillac to show off.

Let's face it, the Internet has changed the real estate industry for the better.

I now own my fourth home. My third home I sold myself using a private listing web site (www.grapevine.ca) - no muss, no fuss! It was worth the little bit of effort to save more than $11,000 in real estate commissions. Sure, I paid some legal fees -- they would have had to be paid anyway.

We bought our current home using a realtor, with no added value whatsoever! We found the house, she unlocked the door, showed us one other, we made the offer, she did a little paperwork, and bingo bango, a nice commission was paid to the realtors, $17,850! Not bad for the equivalent of a days work! Did she mention that planes fly overhead? Were the vendors telling the truth when they reported 'they never had any water leaks/damage' just because they were dealing with a realtor? No, I don't think so! (Yes, we had a home inspection.)

It's buyer beware whether you're paying an overpriced pencil pusher or on your own. I'll take the latter and my change ($$$), thank you!

Agents commissions & services are over valued to say the least.Marketing a property in this age of information & charging literally tens of thousands of dollars to do so is absurd & antiquated.The internet & access to information has revolutionized many industries & real estate is another example.The value that agents claim to bring to the table is simply not there.Reading several previous doomsday comments from obvious frustrated agents claiming lawsuits will be in abundance is scare mongering at it's best.When was the last time a realtor claimed responsibility for any of the scenarios they claim they do such as "room measurements & that little leak that happened several years ago".Agents disclaim responsibility for everything.Read their own feature sheets...they dont even claim the pictures to be accurate!Quite frankly its the lawyer charging several hundred dollars to close the deal that is responsible for many of these things & not the realtor.Thats why you sign a multi page listing agreement that is full of fine print & disclaimers when you list with a realtor.Find an effective complete marketing service such as privaterealestate.ca or bythe owner.com which incorporates both marketing services & full legal assistance & save your equity & maintain control of the sale.This is the future of real estate.

WOW!!!! I sold my house in October and it was incredible. In this market an agent asking to lower the price is probably just incompetent. We sold our house in 3 days THANKS TO THE REAL ESTATE AGENT!!!! 3 DAYS!!! Got what i asked for and paid 2 percent commisions. Great experience.

MLS STANDS FOR MANY LAZY SALESPEOPLE!
BUT TO THINK YOU ARE GOING TO GET "FULL VALUE" AT $109 IS NOT REALISTIC! DISCOUNT COMMISSIONS HAVE COME AND GONE FOR THE ENTIRE TIME I'VE BEEN IN THE B'NESS. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AT WALLMART, SAFEWAY AND WITH YOUR REALTOR.

Where else do you, as a consumer, pay someone so much for so little? Here's an EXAMPLE. If a realtor sells your house for $375K instead of the $425K you deserve, you would pay realtor commissions of $18,750 vs $21,250. Divide that by half, which you pay to each realtor - buyer and seller - and they get $9,375 vs $10,625.
When you take into account all the fees that a realtor must pay to their brokerage, the difference in commission for your realtor between a selling price of $425K and $375K is pretty minimal. So what is the motivation for a realtor? To list at a price that will take weeks or maybe months of work, which costs the realtor time and money, or to list at a price that ensure a quick sale in days or a week, and then move on to the next house? I know, they're all professional and they'll all do what you want, but they're human and they're in business to make money.
So, in conclusion, the problem is not the realtors themselves, it's the commission scheme. We - globally - need to come up with a better way that will ensure these people make appropriate pay for the work they do, but doesn't rob us blind when our houses don't even make it onto MLS before it sells.
C'mon CREA - you better solve this problem before we solve it for you!

Funny how the only people who seem to go off the defensive are the people who are realtors. If you think that someone with a 400 000 dollar home should have to pay 20 000 to for someone just to sell is absolutely outrageous. Half the realtors you deal with are under educated and aren't even qualified to do an appraisal so what makes them anymore qualified to sell your home when you can do it yourself or someone that charges a low flat rate?. A qualified lawyer is all you need and they would most definitley be cheaper than 5%. The only reason the Realtors are upest by this, is their large yearly incomes will soon be extinct!

I'm with the folks who don't want to pay the fees... in my market it is 7% on the first $100K and 3% on the balance. When the homes were selling in the $100K range in a down market I could see those fees. However, the homes have steadily increased and the service has decreased. As the others have said... Realtors will tell you to discount... a discount of $25K (above $100K) would mean that their fees decrease by a whopping $750... I'm out $25K, they are out $375 or thereabout after the split with the firm. The sad part is that the majority of Realtors would rather you discount than actively sell your property.

The majority of Realtors in my market will also refuse to show a FSBO home to their clients. I have always offered "consideration" but was disgusted with one Realtor who refused to even show the place to INTERESTED clients without me signing a full legal document....I ended up contacting her client directly to tell her that I was happy to show my home and work with her... she told me that she was interested in my home but that the Realtor said I was uninterested.

I don't hire salespeople who discount for my company, why would I hire a salesperson to discount my home? And yes, I have also bought privately wihtout incident. The days of the "old fashioned realtor" are numbered.

If you don't want to pay realtor fees, then don't use them.
If you want to use them , then use them.
Nobody is forcing any buyer or seller to use.

K.