[ferentchak]

I can see some of the expertise coming into play on the selling side.

Can you give me a few examples of what kinds of value one gets while buying?

From what I can tell the main service that my realtor offered when I buying my place was access to the MLS. We found the houses we wanted to look at and he gave us access. Dollars per hour he was doing very well working with me, although I might be an exception.

[toomuchtodo]

In my most recent homebuying experience, my realtor was able to point out several facts about the house based on the surrounding market that saved me about $40k. It also helps that I don't pay for the realtor on the buy side.

What's your argument against a good realtor who saves you any amount when it's coming out of the seller's fee?

Edit: By the time you've come to visit a home you're buying, the seller has already agreed to the commission percentage with their agent. The money is already spent.

[ferentchak]

The money from the seller isn't free. For example there is a chance that I could get them to sell the house to me for less than what I am buying it for. If for example the seller met me half way on those fees that's a decent amount off of cash.

When I was buying my home the loan person I worked with is family so she helped me more than my realtor. Looked into neighborhoods for me etc. It could be that they were looking out for me more than normal.

I am in a market where houses sell instantly, more or less you look at a house and make an offer within out 24 hours or else it's gone. Which is crazy but the realtor didn't even get much of a chance to look into things here for us.

[wavefunction]

Yes, your loan person was definitely going far beyond what service any normal customer would receive from their loan person.

[ferentchak]

I'll make sure and call her and tell her I love her!

[hkmurakami]

You're surely paying for the realtor in a pass through fashion on the sale price of the home.

[jasode]

>Can you give me a few examples of what kinds of value one gets while buying?

If a buyer is unfamiliar with the area (e.g. job relocation), a competent agent can point out the desirable & the unpublicized undesirable aspects of particular neighborhoods. The agent knows the area intimately and that knowledge can be worth paying for to avoid buying the wrong house.

If I'm living in the same house for 20 years and I see a house right down the street from me go up sale that would be perfect for my elderly parents so I could keep an eye on them, I wouldn't need a buyer's agent since I would already know more about that house/neighborhood than any agent would.

[notyourday]

> If a buyer is unfamiliar with the area (e.g. job relocation), a competent agent can point out the desirable & the unpublicized undesirable aspects of particular neighborhoods.

This is just utter rubbish. Buyer's agent has absolutely no incentives to publicize undesirable aspects as the agent is still paid half of the commission on the sale price which means that the agent has all the incentives to inflate the price.

But lets pretend that this is the exclusively buyers agent? Well, the thing is - if this buyer's agent is not working for buyers only brokerage he or she is still going to be not on a right side because the brokerage needs cooperation of the sellers agents. In fact, the customer of a buyers agent is seller's agent, NOT the buyer. Even worse, where a buyer can do 2-3 transaction via agent ( unlikely really but possible ) the agents that represent the other side are likely to do dozens of transactions with him or her.

It is even worse for the buyer only brokerages ( they do exist but they are super rare ).

This entire agent industry needs to be destroyed.

[dgfgfdagasdfgfa]

Seems like an awful large price to pay for some low-quality, fear-mongering, dog whistling. Seems like a great way to encourage people to spend more than they want to!