Central Ohio Real Estate Market News

18 responses so far ↓

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  New Plymouth Real Estate // March 30, 2008 at 11:53 pm

  Your dead right.
  Here in new zealand our market has dropped considerably. We now have buyers waisting our time. we put them in our car. drive them around for a few hours show them 10 houses, then to find out tommorrow they have bought off someone else leaving you both out of pocket and feeling used.

  We as real estate agents only get paid for a property transaction that we do.
  There is alot of things that we do behind the scenes that you dont see. And we do everything for free. Untill we sell the house. So if the house doesnt sell, once again we are out of pocket.

  This is a good post and brings alot of thought to the way we do charge our fees.

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  Susan Gruenling // March 31, 2008 at 6:15 pm

  Unfortunately there are Realtors that are not professional and have little integrity, so they give the industry a bad name. As you know, depending on whether we are working with Buyers or Sellers we do a lot more work than you have mentioned in your article. It takes time to create flyers and postcards and update the listing on realtor.com and all of the other sites it will appear. We spend time negotiating the contract, are present during inspections and then spend time reading through the reports and all other documents, we are there at the Title company for the signing, we may also hold open house, call and/or email other agents for feedback after a showing, taut the property at Realtor marketing sessions, preview homes for clients and research those particular neighborhoods, build a personal property website or slide show presentation and the list goes on and on. I think that if a client has a better understanding of how our time and efforts are spent in helping them that they will see value in hiring a professional full time Realtor.

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  elainereese // March 31, 2008 at 6:51 pm

  Wow! all the way from New Zealand! Didn’t know I had such far reaching effect. Thanks for stopping by.

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  elainereese // March 31, 2008 at 7:04 pm

  Susan, you’re absolutely right about the time spent doing the functions you mentioned. However, those are functions we perform for clients who have decided to hire us.

  My briefer version was more directed to those folks who have not made a commitment to an agent NOR do they necessisarily intend to.

  For instance, those sellers who plan to sell their home themselves, but want to get free comps or free advice on fixing up the home for sale. I’m wondering if they would still ask, if they knew they had to pay for it.

  A good example are garden centers who do a landscape design. They charge for that design (their expertise & knowledge) because they know that the homeowner might just take their design and do the work themselves and may not even buy the plants from the center.

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  cggarb // April 2, 2008 at 7:19 pm

  As a lawyer, I gave out my share of free advice. Not a ton, but quite a few “wasted” free hour consultations.

  As a consumer of a real estate agent’s services, I’d actually prefer to pay for only the services I use.

  Not to hijack the thread, but when I was living in San Diego during the last few overheated years, I often contemplated pitching a sliding scale the next time I sold - a nominal fee for simply getting a deal signed (this was during the days of multiple, above-list offers on day 1), with a percentage increasing rapidly as the price passed up our target.

  I never had the chance to hear what an agent would think of my idea, since a relo package handled my sale.

  Thanks for the great blog, btw. It was a great resource when we moved to Ohio. (Sorry the same relo sent us to a different buyer’s agent).

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  elainereese // April 2, 2008 at 10:53 pm

  cggarb:
  Glad the blog helped … even tho the relo folks forced you to use their own agent. Maybe you can “make it up to me” by mentioning my name to someone else.

  Welcome to Ohio!

  Regarding your sliding scale idea, agents must follow the procedure (business model) put into place by their broker.

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  TeamKlemm // April 25, 2008 at 10:42 pm

  This is a great topic Elaine! My husband and I formed a team and in the past we had buyer agents working for us. At one time, we had given great consideration to charging a “Transaction” fee to buyers. We thought we would charge a buyer(s) $200 for our services and IF they purchased a property, the $200 would be credited towards the purchase price of the home. If they never bought or went somewhere else, we would keep the fee for our expenses.

  Even tough we never put this plan into action we still believe it is an awesome idea! We can’t help but feel it would weed out the looky loos and it would create a lot more client loyalty. We believe people wouldn’t have too many objections if we could create the value of our services. Since we had buyer agents who did NOTHING but work with buyers, we felt we had a pretty marketable product (more personal attention, negotiation specialists, not worring about sellers, ect) and it would be a product people would be willing to oay for. And in reality, they would be charged anything for the service, provided the actually bought something.

  Hmmmm….the more I write about this, the more I think we should pick this idea up for another look! lol!

  –Lisa

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  Jay Valento // April 27, 2008 at 12:36 pm

  I’d like to charge by the hour. With gas at $4.19 a gallon in Southern California….maybe we can start a trend.

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  elainereese // April 27, 2008 at 9:16 pm

  Jay… I hear that! Unbelievable to have to pay $4.19! Some companies - pizza delivery, landscapers, etc - are charging a fuel surcharge. Are they doing that in your area?

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  arretx // May 12, 2008 at 1:30 am

  I believe asking for a fee for tasks that are ultimately designed to improve the ability that the client has to make an educated decision is akin to charging for chips at a mexican restaurant.

  Some things just have to be given away for free in order to prove your value. Just like the time I’ve given to responding to this. While I would love to charge a fee to offer my advice, unless my advice proves to be worth anything, there’s little or no chance you’d agree to pay me for it, so billing you up front would only hurt the possibility of future contact. If however, I invited you to visit my site at jongriffith.com and asked you to offer your opinion on an article or two on my blog, I believe you might only do so if it’s clear that the value traded is the testimony of our experiences as REALTORS®.

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  elainereese // May 12, 2008 at 9:35 am

  Thank you for your comments Jon.

  I’m not questioning providing clients with the information they need to make a decision, just people who have no intention of becoming clients.

  To continue with your chips analogy, what do you think would happen if you walked into a restaurant and asked for your FREE chips but DID NOT WANT to be seated so you could order dinner or drinks? Restaurants only give you the free chips when you MAKE A COMMITMENT to order drinks or a meal. If you just want the chips, so you can walk back out the door, I’m sure you’ll be charged. That’s why some of them have their chips available for sale in bags.

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  TeamKlemm // May 12, 2008 at 7:24 pm

  Great point Elaine! I prefer to think of my services as any professional would. If you visit a Doctor, you are there to gather information (such as “What is wrong with me”) and they charge a fee to determine what is wrong, if they operate on you or not. Same with an attorney. You rarely get a free consultation. You are charged just to sit down and speak with them to see if they want to represent you and if you want them to represent you.

  As a professional who works on straight comission, my TIME is a valuable comodity (not to mention my gas, lunch tab, ect). I feel I should be compensated for my time.

  I believe the problem we have is there are many incompetant Realtors out there that make one think “There is no way I would pay up front”. If more Realtors were truly professionals, we could demand, and receive, compensation for our time. Unfortunatly, this industry is so run amuck with part timers or people just “doing real estate” as a hobby, the real professionals get a bad rap.

  Just my .02 cents
  –Lisa

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  elainereese // May 12, 2008 at 8:25 pm

  As we know, those chips aren’t free. Their cost is covered in the P&L price of the drinks and meals. There’s no such thing as a free lunch! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

  I don’t think buyers or sellers should base their selection of a Realtor® on a mere CMA spreadsheet. Rather they should Google the agent’s name to verify the agent has a strong presence on the Internet (important to sellers) and they should talk to friends and co-workers to see who they used and how satisfied they were with the agent’s performance.

  We do that type of research when selecting Dr’s and attorneys and it should be done for agents as well.

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  Jon Griffiith // September 13, 2008 at 1:14 am

  I think the point at which someone makes a commitment to cover the costs of chips at a restaurant could be debated.

  Is it when they sit down, or is it after they order something? Here’s an interesting twist. What if you sat down with someone for dinner at that restaurant (you being a doctor, on call) and you were called away between the time you sat down and were served chips and when the waitress came to take your order. Would leaving constitute a breach of any unspoken contract? Probably not. Perhaps the restaurant might be peeved that they spent chips on you if they found out you picked up a quick bite on the way to the ER.

  I personally wouldn’t want the added headache of billing. It’s enough to need a cost tracking system in place. The last thing I want is a collection issue. I am in this business to build long-term rewarding relationships who trade more than just a commodity.

  Good points though. However, I think technology will never trump the need for face to face contact with clients. I love technology, but there’s something very personal about putting pen to paper and shaking their hand.

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  Elaine Reese // September 13, 2008 at 8:09 am

  Jon, good point on the billing operation. That would add further to our costs unless we ask for the check at the time services were performed. (home inspectors do this).

  The relationship aspect of this job is what makes this industry unique. I truly enjoy the hugs at closing!

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  Tisha L. // September 14, 2008 at 3:15 pm

  I know every Realtor wants to get paid upfront for their time. Any agent that tells you they don’t, they are not being realistic. Some of these agents are scared to admit online (where buyers and sellers can read it) that they are not reaping the best benefit from real estate. If majority of Realtors started this, you would have plenty that would love to promote themselves as a no upfront fee Realtor. Which makes the decision to charge up front hard to implement. People should pay for services initially and get a credit at closing. We have families that are depending on us to bring home the bacon. If we are waiting on some of these buyers that know they are wasting our time, our families pay the price. A buyer brokerage agreement doesn’t make them loyal either.

  The same goes for sellers. They like to list knowing you will pay for the marketing of THEIR home. Just because we can write this off on taxes, doesn’t mean we are made out of money. Georgia contracts have made the seller aware that they may be charged for advertising paid for by the Realtor. Especially from terminating the contract early. I charge a fee of $500 to terminate a contract. I think this is a fair charge to take the listing off the market.

  We all love what we do. We need to make being a Realtor just as significant to the community as lawyers and doctors.

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  Elaine Reese // September 14, 2008 at 7:37 pm

  Tisha, I think you hit on a key point in that if most, but not all, agents charged an upfront retainer, then there would be those that would say that they don’t.

  Perhaps, also if the clients had to Pay-as-you-Go, like a monthly fee, then they would be more likely to price the home realistically for a quicker sale. Or buyers wouldn’t ask to see 50 homes then decide that they will continue to rent. It’s a touchy subject but one that might change perceptions of what we do.

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  TeamKlemm // September 14, 2008 at 10:58 pm

  Unfortunately, at least in the area I work, there aren’t enough Realtors who have the backbone to price a property at market value or seek a fair comission let alone have a minimum fee. Anytime I go head to head with other agents for a listing I ALWAYS have to battle the “Well, I had one Realtor say they would do it for 5% and another that would do it for 4%” arguement. Agents are so QUICK to cut their comission or over price a property just to get a sign in the yard and that house sits and sits and sits…..it is a DISSERVICE to the seller!! DUH! As much as I love the ideas in this post, I can’t see it happening……unless I just do it myself! lol! Sometimes I feel like I am the only one out there getting 6% and sticking to my guns when it comes to market value pricing anyway! Why not this too! Maybe I will start a trend! lol!
  –Lisa

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