Real Estate Crash thread

[Toadman]

What is the environmental footprint a new vehicle and disposing of an old one vs the relative difference between driving the two vehicles. Probably favors keeping the old.

I am not looking at the enviro impact equation. I'm looking at the Toadman pocketbook impact, and it's pretty brutal. Sticking with the current 15 yo rig for now. Though it's probably going to cost me some coin on some engine repairs here before winter really sets in.

On the home front, there are 4 full custom million plu$ builds going on within 2 blocks of me. Seems like those that have the cash are still full speed ahead.

[climberevan]

Re: new vs old cars. I was just discussing this with my SO today as we drove in her 2011 car. Even my 2004 Element gets the same or better milage compared with new (non hybrid) mini-suvs. Shit, my sister's high school Honda Civic got 40mpg.

I'm keeping my old cars until they die. New cars are just not worth the cost (environmental or otherwise).

[summit]

I'm gonna keep my 25mpg subie until it is uneconomical to repair. I do miss a real offroad capable vehicle and high ride height, but not enough to prematurely switch vehicles.

Only 26% of active brokers make $100k a year or more compared to 38% of the general public.

What percent of active brokers are full time when you are making that comparison?

[yeahman]

I'm keeping my old cars until they die. New cars are just not worth the cost (environmental or otherwise).

So true. All the cars in our family are 10+ years old. Fuck the car companies and all these rubes asking crazy prices for used. They won't get a dime from me.

[lowsparkco]

I'm gonna keep my 25mpg subie until it is uneconomical to repair. I do miss a real offroad capable vehicle and high ride height, but not enough to prematurely switch vehicles.



What percent of active brokers are full time when you are making that comparison?

Stats are hard to validate. There’s a lot of fluff out there due to the industry being so marketing driven.

According to this article 49% are full-time and 22% are part-time. Don’t know how they account for the other 29%.

I think you can assume that all 10% of brokers that make over $150k a year are full-time. No matter what you’re selling it’s a lot of work to close $150k of commission in a year. Highest individual commission I’ve worked on was $48k as .02 of a $2.5M commercial building and it it took 18 months to close. So, that’s still only 20% of full time agents albeit those numbers are hard to qualify.

https://www.thewarrengroup.com/2020/...%20this%20year.

[goldenboy]

^^^ It would be fascinating for me to see what other agents actually net. I know there are agents that gross way more than me, but by the time you add up what they spend on their full time assistant, mailers, magazines, newspaper ads, videos, personal coaching and more, they might not take home all that much. They say the best way to make money in real estate is to make money off of agents, and I think that's true. There are a million shiny objects out there that agents spend money on.

I don't think the public has a good understanding that agents don't actually get that commission check, either. Their brokerage does, and then they take their cut. A new agent at the local Sotheby's is only going to get 50%, and that's after corporate Sotheby's takes their 7% first. That $30K you think the agent is getting for a $1M sale at 3% can be under 14K for the agent, depending on their arrangement.

[lowsparkco]

^^^ It would be fascinating for me to see what other agents actually net. I know there are agents that gross way more than me, but by the time you add up what they spend on their full time assistant, mailers, magazines, newspaper ads, videos, personal coaching and more, they might not take home all that much. They say the best way to make money in real estate is to make money off of agents, and I think that's true. There are a million shiny objects out there that agents spend money on.

I don't think the public has a good understanding that agents don't actually get that commission check, either. Their brokerage does, and then they take their cut. A new agent at the local Sotheby's is only going to get 50%, and that's after corporate Sotheby's takes their 7% first. That $30K you think the agent is getting for a $1M sale at 3% can be under 14K for the agent, depending on their arrangement.

It’s kind of sad that the backbone of the law suit is really that agents are resistant and generally bad at talking about our compensation.

It’s a complicated situation and we haven’t really scratched the surface of the real issues, but what’s clear is there’s a lot of resentment and little appreciation for what we contribute. That alone is pretty sad.

If you ever want to bounce numbers I’m an open book, although it sounds like we employ similar strategies. I can tell you first hand, it’s easy to get in over your head with a big budget. I watched a partner nearly lose his mind.

[heckacali]

An acquaintance is a realtor in SF and has moved up to the $3m+ properties on average.

Her most recent mailing boasted about listing a house at $4.1m, and offer accepted for $4.8m in 17 hours with a 14 day close.

Doesn't that mean she priced it too low, and did virtually zero work to sell this property? Wtf.

[liv2ski]

I still think it needs to be a flat fee business model rather than a percentage of the sale.

[Joey Joe Joe Junior Shabadoo]

I still think it needs to be a flat fee business model rather than a percentage of the sale.

Who determines the flat fee?



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[liv2ski]

Agents

[ötzi]

"Flat fee" one-size-fits-all pricing won't work but a negotiable lump-sum payment could, and you could make it competitive that way.

[shroom]

we could negotiate the peasants out of the market

[goldenboy]

There are plenty of flat fee brokerages out there if that's what you're into. My brother owns an assist-to-sell brokerage in Denver as one example. Beyond that, commissions are always negotiable, so if you want to tell your agent "I want to pay $X instead of X%", there isn't anything stopping you/them.

[Kevo]

There are plenty of flat fee brokerages out there if that's what you're into. My brother owns an assist-to-sell brokerage in Denver as one example. Beyond that, commissions are always negotiable, so if you want to tell your agent "I want to pay $X instead of X%", there isn't anything stopping you/them.

I had a good experience using your brother to sell a house.

I still had to give a full commission to the buyer's agent to be competitive.

When I bought that house I negotiated with the buyers agent and split his commission. I found the house, he just represented me in the sale.

[XXX-er]

I'm pretty sure the vendor is still in charge as to what they tell their agent to list at or what price they will sell for, but

if RE agents were of absolutely no use and people could sell their own RE

how do agents still exist ?

[yeahman]

how do agents still exist ?

They exist because it's the largest financial transaction most people will ever make, and a good agent will still usually make you or save you more than they cost you.

[Meadow Skipper]

Wapo article.
Real estate industry trembles over commissions on home sales

[rideit]

They exist because it's the largest financial transaction most people will ever make, and a good agent will still usually make you or save you more than they cost you.

Yup, it’s like a good accountant. Sure, you may think you are savvy enough to know all of the deductions, deferments, etc, etc…but you most certainly don’t.

Good accounting firms have other accountants check their work as a matter of routine, what chance do you have unless your shit is really simple?
(This only applies to very good accountants and RE agents, of course)

[Ted Striker]

All forms of social are slathering over this as the death of the buyers' agent. What they're not getting is that buying a house would be like buying a car from a dealership. They hold all the cards, and grind people on the TruCoat every day for a living.

[Bunion 2020]

All the Realtors I have used were people I knew, all I knew before they became agents. My initial agent was a friend from the ski area, super smart lady who is worth millions now.
In my experiences the vig has been worth the cost.

[dan_pdx]

I mean, in my limited experience, that's what it's like even with a buyer's agent. We went through three agents trying to buy during the pandemic, the last one was the best of the lot but still set us up with a yes-man inspector whose primary focus was making sure the sale went through. We were the idiots buying remote during COVID, and he definitely didn't represent the house accurately

[liv2ski]

In my experiences the vig has been worth the cost.

Agreed, buyers agents should be worth the money paid to them as they have a bunch to do in getting you into a home. The listing agents are worth not so much from my experience. $10k in comp should cover it at the most unless you require all sorts of fancy advertising in destination magazines.

[schuss]

None of the buyers agents my wife and I have ever used have been useful at all. My first one actively fucked me over in terms of being asleep at the wheel on some stuff. I know of some now, but would have loved a flat fee option.

[liv2ski]

The interesting thing in my small town, is about 5 listing agents get 80% of the listings. Average sales price is $3.5M. Even at 1% that is $35k and I know they charge more.
A few years ago I tried an experiment offering listing properties for 1% or $20k max in the local paper where they all advertise. 0 takers after 6 months. I was amazed.