[LapsangGuzzler]

I disagree with this. My agent basically had to always be on-call to send me listings that we could go see and offer to place calls at odd hours so we get everything scheduled since houses move so fast now.

My agent basically picked up all of that admin for me and I never once questioned his commission. Buying a house is basically a part-time job for the buyer now and being able to respond instantly is so important.

The job has changed, just like all jobs have, but good agents get shit done because the market is so competitive. Real estate is a very high-turnover industry with little long-term stability for those that don’t absolutely kill it.

[runako]

The issue here is the pricing is consistent, while each transaction is different. You wanted high-touch service in a fast-moving market, great. But another buyer who does not want or need that service still has to pay for it.

An approach used by other service providers is hourly billing. Realtors could even offer distinct service packages like accountants ($XXXX to prepare taxes). A reason they don't is because the line items or hourly rates would be absurdly high to generate the same level of fees they get today.

[Sodman]

Ok but you could replace the "Sending notifications about new listings in real time" duty by subscribing to zillow/redfin etc with specific filters... for free. It's hard to make the argument that that's worth 6% of a of half million dollar purchase? I agree it's a part time job to be a buyer in this market, but I don't think the buyer's agent really makes that job much easier in my experience.

"Answers a call at any time of the day" is definitely a great nice to have, but I suspect that puts your particular agent in the top 10% of the field. Most agents I have used will just let all phone calls go to voicemail and then text back or call you back hours or days later. YMMV a lot on this one.

[LapsangGuzzler]

Yeah, but a crucial part of getting those listings from him involved talking through the ways in which the house might have problems that weren’t disclosed, etc. Home listings are ads and it’s great to have someone who knows how to call BS when I don’t. There are so many tricks in home listings that can trip buyers up and that’s not an easily Googleable problem.

As far as agents you’ve worked with, that’s partially on you for choosing to work with bad people. I had several agents and I wasn’t afraid to drop them when I found the one that worked for me. Given that 87% of agents quit in the first 5 years, I definitely suspect my agent was top of his field, which is why he got my business.

[Sodman]

I think "bad people" is relative here though. The incentive structure is entirely misaligned. As mentioned elsewhere in the comments here, agents' best strategy for the highest possible payout is trying to close as many deals as possible, not taking the extra time to find each person the ideal perfect fit house (volume over value-add quality). It sounds like you found an agent who went the extra mile to get your business, which is great for you! But I suspect that there are other, less buyer-friendly agents out there out-earning your agent because they just drop the "difficult" customers and work with the easiest-to-close folks to get more overall commission.

Given that, my personal strategy when buying was to just do as much of the legwork as possible myself, rather than risk leaving due diligence to somebody whose financial incentives are not aligned with my own. My agent essentially ended up mostly relegated to docusign-forwarding duties.

[criddell]

I've never spoken to or met the realtor I used to buy the house I live in now. He didn't even come to the closing. He was paid the standard commission for signing some paperwork.

We bought from a builder and they insisted we be represented by a realtor or they wouldn't sell to us.

[voisin]

Well, I am not saying there is no work. I am saying the work load has decreased substantially. Everything you mention is something they had to do during previous markets too.

[LapsangGuzzler]

This just is not true. The amount of admin work per deal has perhaps come down, but agents work with much higher volume because deals fall through so fast now.

We looked at almost 2 dozen houses compared to my parents that looked at 2 houses in 2004.