I, personally, used a flat fee realtor and pocketed commission (2.5%) that seller provided (minus flat fee), technically, saving ~2.1% of the home price.
I’m just sick of realtors who are taking in total ~15 BILLION per year in Canada alone - ah how great it is to take % on market where average price is $650,000. It’s fucked up. They are not that helpful to pay so much.
There’s certainly something to be said about the inflated price of homes. It used to be that when houses were $200-250, that 3% was a fairly reasonable fee for all the leg work a realtor should be doing (there’s a lot of backend paperwork done in the office). But I’ll agree now that houses are stupid expensive, it’s excessive. It’s also important to remember that the entire real estate industry is purely commission, no one gets paid unless houses sell (everyone from agents, transaction coordinators, title reps, escrow people, etc). My wife is an agent, and when houses aren’t selling, she isn’t making anything, and she works her ass off.
I, personally, used a flat fee realtor and pocketed commission (2.5%) that seller provided (minus flat fee), technically, saving ~2.1% of the home price. I’m just sick of realtors who are taking in total ~15 BILLION per year in Canada alone - ah how great it is to take % on market where average price is $650,000. It’s fucked up. They are not that helpful to pay so much.
There’s certainly something to be said about the inflated price of homes. It used to be that when houses were $200-250, that 3% was a fairly reasonable fee for all the leg work a realtor should be doing (there’s a lot of backend paperwork done in the office). But I’ll agree now that houses are stupid expensive, it’s excessive. It’s also important to remember that the entire real estate industry is purely commission, no one gets paid unless houses sell (everyone from agents, transaction coordinators, title reps, escrow people, etc). My wife is an agent, and when houses aren’t selling, she isn’t making anything, and she works her ass off.