Browse Forums Real Estate Who Should the Real Estate Agent be Working For? 4May 04, 2006 9:40 am Bob Ward is a director of Lot 109 Pty Limited, a real estate agent training and public relations consultancy. Subscribe to free monthly e-mail newsletter, "The Lot 109 Letter", at http://www.lot109.com.au Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 5Jun 26, 2006 2:58 pm Wayne www.alphamortgagesolutions.com.au info@alphamortgagesolutions.com.au Contact us for a free consultation for advice on how to structure your loan for maximum benefit Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 6Jun 27, 2006 6:00 pm dream Buyer or Seller? We are curently selling our house and the real estate is all over what the buyer wants and is less listening to us the seller. The seller is the one paying his commision so what is up with that? Legally he is the Vendor's agent. However he has legal and ethical obligations to the buyer Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 7Jan 16, 2007 1:50 pm I think you have to be careful whether you are the buyer or the seller, and protect yourself and make the best informed decisions you can. I've notices lately that, increasingly, there are services that help protect the seller (which I think is an area that has been somewhat ignored to date). There are now "Sellers Advocacy" services that look after the seller (just like Buyers Advocacy), and there are site like www.sellmycastle.com.au which are helping people to find the best agent who is offering the best comission, experience, local knowledge etc in their area. There is also a ranking system on this website, where users score the agent they used, which helps eliminate any agents that may not be meeting their obligations. Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 8Jan 16, 2007 5:46 pm Most definately the vendor !!!!!!!!!!!! They should be gunning to get the seller the best price. At the same time, a reputable and respectable realtor will give good advice to the vendor and give them realistic expectations. When we were selling our house, we signed a 90 day contract with the realtor (who was great by the way) during which we could not list with anyone else. Fair enough too. If the house didn't sell within the period, then we could take our business elsewhere. If you are dissatisfied with the level of service, threaten to pull the property from the market.
At the end of the day, you are the owner and you MUST agree to the price. If you feel you are getting a less than fair price, then stick to your guns and don't sell. Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 9Jan 18, 2007 3:13 pm Hi everyone,
I have just joined this forum today and have really enjoyed reading everyone's views and most importantly experiences on Real Estate. I am assisting my parent's with selling their residential property and was hoping to gather as much info as I can regarding how the whole commission, marketing thing works in terms of costs. If the property say i.e. was sold for 500,000, what would the estimated percentage of comission for the agent be? Would this be negotiable between you and the RE Agent? (Ray White) When signing an agreement between you and the agent, how long would you be stuck in a contract for i.e. aprrox 6 months? Lastly, are the marketing fees etc. seperate costs from the commission the RE Agent receives? I have so many more questions but I think I'll stop right here for now. Would appreciate any advice. Thanks peeps Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 10Jan 18, 2007 7:11 pm I have being through selling a number of my homes, units, farming property's and most agents seem to be the same.
Generally it would be around $1500 + 3% of the final selling price, and agents might drop the commission a little (last house I sold was 3% down to 2.75%) There are an ever increasing number of agents who will do a set commission rate, ie homes between $200,000 and $300,000 all you will pay is $5000, however I don't like this method as then the agent may not be interested in increasing the price of your home because they get paid the same amount one way or another. You will find most agents will lock you into a 90 day period in which you may not sell with another agent. Lastly the agents I have being with charge on top of commission for marketing. This is the experience I have had with agents, and may be different to others, but I hope I have being able to assist you Feel free to ask more question! Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 11Jan 18, 2007 9:09 pm In some areas of Sydney, the commission can be as low as 1%. It's probably low as the house prices are high, so the end commission is the same. 1% of $600,000 = $6,000, still above the $5,000 fixed price you mentioned.
I don't think having the commission based on sale price makes the agents work any harder. I am sure they would rather close the sale for a lower price than miss out on the sale for the sake of 1% of an extra $10,000 (=$100). I don't think that the agents would be negotiable on their commission, but you may find one that generally has a low commission rate. They will normally quote you a separate fixed fee for marketing. Typical contract is for 3 months. Good luck and remember, don't trust the agent one bit. They work to look after themselves and get the commission, not to look after you. Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 12Jan 19, 2007 9:30 am Thanks so much for all your replies. This information is very useful and would be good for me to have in your mind before appointing an agent.
I requested for a free market appraisal on the Ray White website and got a call back that same day. He asked me to provide him with some brief information of the house etc. I told him I MAY be interested to sell the property and currently meeting with different RE Agents to compare. He immediateley suggested we auction our house which I thought was weird because he hasn't even seen the house, and secondly he hasn't asked what my preference is. I told him ... no..no I would prefer to list it for sale, as I'm in no rush. Why did he suggest to put it up for auction? Are the houses sold easier this way? It's funny that I feel this way but the Real Estate Agent is the enemy to me lol. I think I just can't handle the thought of getting ripped off or played. Anyway, I won't be signing anything with any agent until I'm content. Thanks guys for all your advice Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 14Jan 19, 2007 10:57 am Hi Liya.
Adverting/ marketing included; for sale sign (standard sign- not a special one featuring information on home/ photos) , internet, local newspaper, pamphlets etc. Jamie Re: Who should the real estate be working for? 16Apr 04, 2007 2:04 pm Sorry for dragging up an old thread, what have people paid in the way of commission to real estate in different parts of Australia? auctions are bad 17Apr 21, 2007 6:52 pm Liya Thanks so much for all your replies. This information is very useful and would be good for me to have in your mind before appointing an agent. I requested for a free market appraisal on the Ray White website and got a call back that same day. He asked me to provide him with some brief information of the house etc. I told him I MAY be interested to sell the property and currently meeting with different RE Agents to compare. He immediateley suggested we auction our house which I thought was weird because he hasn't even seen the house, and secondly he hasn't asked what my preference is. I told him ... no..no I would prefer to list it for sale, as I'm in no rush. Why did he suggest to put it up for auction? Are the houses sold easier this way? It's funny that I feel this way but the Real Estate Agent is the enemy to me lol. I think I just can't handle the thought of getting ripped off or played. Anyway, I won't be signing anything with any agent until I'm content. Thanks guys for all your advice Very smart move! Yeah, this "auction" thing, is really a construct of the real estate industry used to rush a sale. The Real Estates are interested in one thing and one thing only, that is seller's big fat commissions from sales. That is their #1 concern. The auction is just a show, pushing the buyers and sellers coming to an agreed price in a much shorter time frame than may necessarily have been wanted from both the buyer and sellers, as the agents just want the commissions, and they want them now! I found this really insightful blog really putting the Real Estate industry underneath a fine tooth comb http://www.australianrealestateblog.com.au and learnt a huge amount about real estate agencies in Australia. Having read a lot of the material from this blog, I'll definitely be keeping real estate agents at arms length in any transactions. I had a similar issue with my fridge not too long ago. It wasn't the same model, but the symptoms were pretty much the same: the compressor would start and then stop… 3 9471 Okay sorry silly me, my wife has solves the mystery for me. It’s because the labels on the ports are all wrongly positioned by the builder hence it confuses me. 2 1639 I've been with Metronest for a few months now. They are building my house, and I wanted to share my experience with you… 0 1646 |