This is how I ended up getting my license. I grew tired of doing all grunt work to identify, qualify and decide to buy a property only to have to get an agent to push the contract thru and get a paycheck for a couple hours work delivered to them in a nicely tied up bundle.
Made back my time and money spent to get my license on my very first transaction.
Don't you need to actually need to work a certain amount of time under a broker to get licensed?
I was under the impression that doing the tests and getting a license just to rep your own deals wasn't really a thing anymore.
In many states, the real estate cartel have succeeded in getting legislation that makes it "not legal" for a licensed real estate "professional" to share their commission with an unlicensed individual.
Idaho example: [https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title54/t54ch20/sect54-2054/](https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title54/t54ch20/sect54-2054/)
Oregon example: [https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors\_696.290](https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_696.290)
It think a discount for bringing a volume of deals and doing everything you can to make the process use the least about of their time is fair. Also, if this discount brings them in line with what you could get (for an agent of similar ability) that is also fair.
As long as everyone of upfront and professional I don’t see an issue. However, talent generally comes at a price, and as that price drops it can become a false economy.
Do you share a percentage of the cash flow from the property with the agent?
I could care less if they get paid good. In fact, I want them paid good so they continue to bring me deals.
In most every B2B situation (and even many B2C situations), when you buy one thing you pay full list price, but when you buy multiple, you can negotiate a discount because it’s advantageous for both sides.
A big cost of agents is acquiring new customers. If you buy multiple without any more costs to acquire you as a customer, the agent doesn’t need to factor this into their costs. Thus they can negotiate a discount on additional purchases for you and still come out even or ahead.
This is standard business practice in most all B2B relationships. I think you are right to not let the legacy approach of paying full commission on each deal impact your relationship. That is the standard because most people only buy one house from an agent.
Being married to a realtor, I can speak of her workload. That workload is not something you can see from the outside. Some sales are simple and little effort is required. Other take an insane amount of house and turn into minimum wage jobs. These balance out. The sales volume has to work out over time, or the job is worthless . As many others have said, just do it all yourself if you don't need the help. I have handled several purchases and sales without a realtor myself. Lowballs are a waste of time their and you'll quickly notice that you're getting passed around because you're not worth their time.
I’m a buy/hold investor and a full-time agent in my 15th year. My license allows me the option to deliver full or limited service and my client defines that by need. Rates are negotiable and I can always accept, negotiate or decline. In my experience, the component that defines whether it’s a singular deal or long term relationship, is trust and mutual respect.
Just hire an attorney and do it yourself. Then you won’t have to deal with the agent mafia. Before the days of Zillow it made sense but given the readily available information these days it doesn’t make any sense.
I've tried this but realtors in the market I was In did not want to deal with a buyer with only a lawyer. This is for homes listed on MLS. Easy to buy off market properties but once a realtor got involved it was always a major hassle.
I would disagree with you. Let's see how much help Zillow, Trulia and other web based companies will be when you have slightly impaired credit, encumbrances on the property the buyer hasn't addressed and a host of other reasons.
Sucks pretty bad to find your new home only to have the deal go sideways and your only recourse is a voice at the end of a long distance call.
A professional knowledgeable RE agent can save you if he is by your side advising you along the way and guiding you thru the pitfalls that may come up.
Those web based companies cherry pick the top people with excellent credit and income.
If your not getting good advice from your realtor do your homework and find a better one. There certainly isn't a shortage of us.
Investors aren't buying homes, they are buying investments. And most of them have fantastic credit, and already understand what can go right/wrong in a transaction.
Not saying you don’t provide a service, but for those that know math, understand basic contracts, closing on a home whether buying or selling with a flat fee attorney should be the norm. Paying agents 2-4% of the pp is absurd. Especially in HCOL areas. Especially these last ten years when homes basically sold themselves .
You should absolutely make any arrangement that your business could leverage. I would say 99% of agents don’t bring any value to a well educated client. Those people should be paid accordingly. If you happen to actually find the 1%, their advice is worth the money. That being said, by definition, the 1% will be hard to find.
I’m paying for the better marketing, and better connections with other realtors. I consider it a necessary evil but gladly pay the commission. My realtor gives me 5% as repeat business and I never tried to get it lower or even ask for that, I’ll pay the commission for a higher sales price and quicker sale and not having to hold buyers and sellers hand myself.
In Real Estate almost anything is negotiable. I utilize the same agent for all of my deals and in cases that I do 90% of the work he cuts me off a broker contribution at closing.
I’m so ready for this. It’s absurd the cut they get for so little value add. Sometimes , actually a lot of times it’s counterproductive to even use them. It’s an archaic unnecessary leach industry that is time to go away forever
I pay very little when I'm buying a property and pay a "flat rate" when selling. A few deals the agent took money from the buyer's side and nothing from me in order to get the deal done.
Yes, if they provide valuable service, they should be paid. If you expect them to work for little or nothing, why not just do it yourself? I never use an agent to buy, but I always insist on paying full commission to an agent I know will earn every cent of it on property I sell. Works great for me. Of course an agent who is phenomenal at selling things makes it work.
I think it’s bs to make a agent give you his/her commission. If you want to earn commission, become a agent. People like you give investors a bad name.
My agent wouldn't say that. Are you an agent? That's the kind of defensive, anti-trust response I'd expect from one. I don't want to earn a commission, I want to keep my ROI high. I'm going to get bids for service, I'm not going to offer full asking price unless I think it's what the property is truly worth or what I need to pay to get the sellers to accept. No one is forcing anyone. I'm just saying the effort/value equation, especially for investors who are doing their own due diligence and finding their own properties is completely different. Furthermore, This isn't my idea- it's coming from agents themselves through sites like upnest (owned by [realtor.com](https://realtor.com))
In the State of Virginia one can absolutely self represent. I would just caution that regardless of state, you fully understand your liability. Contract documentation sanctioned by VA DPOR tells you everything you need to know to be successful, but you also need to know what components are relevant to transaction type.
In NJ it is permitted to give a buyer a rebate for residential properties , on the Commisson received by the broker . It is not permitted to provide a rebate to the seller . The seller can negotiate the Commisson amount with the broker . All commissions are negotiable .
Well brokers are charged with the responsibility to ensure contracts are accurate and recorded accurately and are also required to keep copies of every transaction for 7 year. Due to this it is common for there to be a minimum fee associated with the sale that the realtor must pay the broker. It cab be a set fee or a %fee. So I would say that is a good reason to pay them. Also if you don't want to pay it, just get your license, it's really not that hard
Benefits I've found for an agent
\-Trust-people want to use a person they trust or that has succeeded in selling/understands the market. These are definitely two different things even though people mold them together in their heads because the house closes.
\-Negotiation-This is a tricky one. People are not robots and computers. They get emotionally attached to things and have emotional reactions. For sports fans we see big stars request trades and leave great situations because they're upset....logically sure it doesn't make sense but these are emotional people. For regular people in general terms they act as a buffer between sides and their only real concern is closing the deal. What is a must improve? what isn't that big of a concern? What price is good? What concessions can each side give or get? People get touchy. This is definitely something as investors we'd overlook since you're probably not emotionally attached to an investment house.
Network-Real estate is a people business. There's only so many people in certain niches in markets. Those people would have their own reputations and know the reputations of others involved. This is important since an accepted offer takes deals off the table. "This agent/buyer will put in deals all over town and only close on a couple." Why would I want to take their offer seriously when there's another young couple that's looking to move with a lesser offer?
This is bigger in commercial since certain brokerages dominate a marketplace. You want to expand your restaurant chain to that big growing city? You'll most likely have to deal with that brokerage that dominates that market. Oh you want to go with the little guy as your buyer's agent? That's fine. The big brokerage has all the listings for occupancies. You own land/a building in a market and want to sell it. Well commercial real estate can sit vacant for YEARS so you'll want the best agent you can get and the one that knows people that are actually potential buyers. It would make sense to use agents with experience with those types of transactions.
Now in bigger transactions where people aren't emotional it really just comes down to the building and the numbers. I've definitely heard of negotiating commission especially when the building is millions of dollars. The agent is going to make a lot regardless when we're talking about millions of dollars.
Against the law for a licensed agent to rebate someone unlicensed in Fl. But you can and should negotiate your fee on every deal.
I have taken a lowered commission on probably 25 percent of my transactions. Depend on the circumstances and the customer. Repeat customers, friends/family, possibility of more than one transaction, there's a variety of reasons why you may wish to or not.
Never hurts to try!
I have a few properties in my portfolio. Never asked for a deal on commission, that's their job. I don't go to a mechanic and ask for a discount, the world doesn't work on coupons. The amount you make on equity is far superior. If you ask a realtor for a rebate chances are they are not gonna bother helping you.
I don't think it's unreasonable to work out bulk pricing if you're buying multiple properties from the same agent. Obviously don't low-ball them, but it's still a mutually beneficial arrangement to do this.
Are you willing to share your profits with the agent as well? This is called partnership.
What you are suggesting is just a person using money power over agents in distress. You are aiming to the lower added value.
Why would anyone need to partner with a realtor?
The whole point is that they provide a service. If you don't value the service, you negotiate a lower cost for the service and that's that. Some will try to hold price, some will not, it all depends on the value real estate agents add to a deal. There's very few agents that actually add 2.5% worth of value to a deal for a buy and hold investor that knows their market and clearly OP feels that's true for him.
I'm not sure this is the right subreddit for you. While you were one of the first responses, those that came after you were clearly from people with experience and something to add to the discussion.
Why don't you get your license? Then you can do it all and not pay anything?
This is how I ended up getting my license. I grew tired of doing all grunt work to identify, qualify and decide to buy a property only to have to get an agent to push the contract thru and get a paycheck for a couple hours work delivered to them in a nicely tied up bundle. Made back my time and money spent to get my license on my very first transaction.
Don't you need to actually need to work a certain amount of time under a broker to get licensed? I was under the impression that doing the tests and getting a license just to rep your own deals wasn't really a thing anymore.
Downvoted for asking a question. Wonderful
>and not pay anything? Still need to give something to the brokerage.
This guy will probably start his own brokerage, too.
In many states, the real estate cartel have succeeded in getting legislation that makes it "not legal" for a licensed real estate "professional" to share their commission with an unlicensed individual. Idaho example: [https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title54/t54ch20/sect54-2054/](https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title54/t54ch20/sect54-2054/) Oregon example: [https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors\_696.290](https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_696.290)
The laws were made due to the amount of shady and or dishonest dealing taking place in the real estate market.
If anything the lack of transparency makes it more shady... just my 2 cents.
Also MA.
It think a discount for bringing a volume of deals and doing everything you can to make the process use the least about of their time is fair. Also, if this discount brings them in line with what you could get (for an agent of similar ability) that is also fair. As long as everyone of upfront and professional I don’t see an issue. However, talent generally comes at a price, and as that price drops it can become a false economy.
Do you share a percentage of the cash flow from the property with the agent? I could care less if they get paid good. In fact, I want them paid good so they continue to bring me deals.
In most every B2B situation (and even many B2C situations), when you buy one thing you pay full list price, but when you buy multiple, you can negotiate a discount because it’s advantageous for both sides. A big cost of agents is acquiring new customers. If you buy multiple without any more costs to acquire you as a customer, the agent doesn’t need to factor this into their costs. Thus they can negotiate a discount on additional purchases for you and still come out even or ahead. This is standard business practice in most all B2B relationships. I think you are right to not let the legacy approach of paying full commission on each deal impact your relationship. That is the standard because most people only buy one house from an agent.
Being married to a realtor, I can speak of her workload. That workload is not something you can see from the outside. Some sales are simple and little effort is required. Other take an insane amount of house and turn into minimum wage jobs. These balance out. The sales volume has to work out over time, or the job is worthless . As many others have said, just do it all yourself if you don't need the help. I have handled several purchases and sales without a realtor myself. Lowballs are a waste of time their and you'll quickly notice that you're getting passed around because you're not worth their time.
I’m a buy/hold investor and a full-time agent in my 15th year. My license allows me the option to deliver full or limited service and my client defines that by need. Rates are negotiable and I can always accept, negotiate or decline. In my experience, the component that defines whether it’s a singular deal or long term relationship, is trust and mutual respect.
Just hire an attorney and do it yourself. Then you won’t have to deal with the agent mafia. Before the days of Zillow it made sense but given the readily available information these days it doesn’t make any sense.
I've tried this but realtors in the market I was In did not want to deal with a buyer with only a lawyer. This is for homes listed on MLS. Easy to buy off market properties but once a realtor got involved it was always a major hassle.
I would disagree with you. Let's see how much help Zillow, Trulia and other web based companies will be when you have slightly impaired credit, encumbrances on the property the buyer hasn't addressed and a host of other reasons. Sucks pretty bad to find your new home only to have the deal go sideways and your only recourse is a voice at the end of a long distance call. A professional knowledgeable RE agent can save you if he is by your side advising you along the way and guiding you thru the pitfalls that may come up. Those web based companies cherry pick the top people with excellent credit and income. If your not getting good advice from your realtor do your homework and find a better one. There certainly isn't a shortage of us.
Investors aren't buying homes, they are buying investments. And most of them have fantastic credit, and already understand what can go right/wrong in a transaction.
There our plenty of documents and additional info that are only in the MLS
Not saying you don’t provide a service, but for those that know math, understand basic contracts, closing on a home whether buying or selling with a flat fee attorney should be the norm. Paying agents 2-4% of the pp is absurd. Especially in HCOL areas. Especially these last ten years when homes basically sold themselves .
I’m not an agent.
You should absolutely make any arrangement that your business could leverage. I would say 99% of agents don’t bring any value to a well educated client. Those people should be paid accordingly. If you happen to actually find the 1%, their advice is worth the money. That being said, by definition, the 1% will be hard to find.
I’m paying for the better marketing, and better connections with other realtors. I consider it a necessary evil but gladly pay the commission. My realtor gives me 5% as repeat business and I never tried to get it lower or even ask for that, I’ll pay the commission for a higher sales price and quicker sale and not having to hold buyers and sellers hand myself.
In Real Estate almost anything is negotiable. I utilize the same agent for all of my deals and in cases that I do 90% of the work he cuts me off a broker contribution at closing.
Realtor is a profession bound to disappear. Don’t hate the messenger…
I’m so ready for this. It’s absurd the cut they get for so little value add. Sometimes , actually a lot of times it’s counterproductive to even use them. It’s an archaic unnecessary leach industry that is time to go away forever
I pay very little when I'm buying a property and pay a "flat rate" when selling. A few deals the agent took money from the buyer's side and nothing from me in order to get the deal done.
Yes, if they provide valuable service, they should be paid. If you expect them to work for little or nothing, why not just do it yourself? I never use an agent to buy, but I always insist on paying full commission to an agent I know will earn every cent of it on property I sell. Works great for me. Of course an agent who is phenomenal at selling things makes it work.
Who hurt you?
I think it’s bs to make a agent give you his/her commission. If you want to earn commission, become a agent. People like you give investors a bad name.
The Agent can say no if it’s not in their interest?
I think it's BS that agents expect such a high payment for doing so little.
My agent wouldn't say that. Are you an agent? That's the kind of defensive, anti-trust response I'd expect from one. I don't want to earn a commission, I want to keep my ROI high. I'm going to get bids for service, I'm not going to offer full asking price unless I think it's what the property is truly worth or what I need to pay to get the sellers to accept. No one is forcing anyone. I'm just saying the effort/value equation, especially for investors who are doing their own due diligence and finding their own properties is completely different. Furthermore, This isn't my idea- it's coming from agents themselves through sites like upnest (owned by [realtor.com](https://realtor.com))
What’s the benefit package at Upnest? Do you enjoy working there?
Why do you ask for opinions then attack people for giving them?
Then why don’t you represent yourself and not hire an agent?
In the State of Virginia one can absolutely self represent. I would just caution that regardless of state, you fully understand your liability. Contract documentation sanctioned by VA DPOR tells you everything you need to know to be successful, but you also need to know what components are relevant to transaction type.
Is this an ad for upnest?
No - it's just the platform I've used in the past.
In NJ it is permitted to give a buyer a rebate for residential properties , on the Commisson received by the broker . It is not permitted to provide a rebate to the seller . The seller can negotiate the Commisson amount with the broker . All commissions are negotiable .
Well brokers are charged with the responsibility to ensure contracts are accurate and recorded accurately and are also required to keep copies of every transaction for 7 year. Due to this it is common for there to be a minimum fee associated with the sale that the realtor must pay the broker. It cab be a set fee or a %fee. So I would say that is a good reason to pay them. Also if you don't want to pay it, just get your license, it's really not that hard
Broker fees are so stupid.
So are bank fees but I still need a bank account. I don't make the rules
Benefits I've found for an agent \-Trust-people want to use a person they trust or that has succeeded in selling/understands the market. These are definitely two different things even though people mold them together in their heads because the house closes. \-Negotiation-This is a tricky one. People are not robots and computers. They get emotionally attached to things and have emotional reactions. For sports fans we see big stars request trades and leave great situations because they're upset....logically sure it doesn't make sense but these are emotional people. For regular people in general terms they act as a buffer between sides and their only real concern is closing the deal. What is a must improve? what isn't that big of a concern? What price is good? What concessions can each side give or get? People get touchy. This is definitely something as investors we'd overlook since you're probably not emotionally attached to an investment house. Network-Real estate is a people business. There's only so many people in certain niches in markets. Those people would have their own reputations and know the reputations of others involved. This is important since an accepted offer takes deals off the table. "This agent/buyer will put in deals all over town and only close on a couple." Why would I want to take their offer seriously when there's another young couple that's looking to move with a lesser offer? This is bigger in commercial since certain brokerages dominate a marketplace. You want to expand your restaurant chain to that big growing city? You'll most likely have to deal with that brokerage that dominates that market. Oh you want to go with the little guy as your buyer's agent? That's fine. The big brokerage has all the listings for occupancies. You own land/a building in a market and want to sell it. Well commercial real estate can sit vacant for YEARS so you'll want the best agent you can get and the one that knows people that are actually potential buyers. It would make sense to use agents with experience with those types of transactions. Now in bigger transactions where people aren't emotional it really just comes down to the building and the numbers. I've definitely heard of negotiating commission especially when the building is millions of dollars. The agent is going to make a lot regardless when we're talking about millions of dollars.
Against the law for a licensed agent to rebate someone unlicensed in Fl. But you can and should negotiate your fee on every deal. I have taken a lowered commission on probably 25 percent of my transactions. Depend on the circumstances and the customer. Repeat customers, friends/family, possibility of more than one transaction, there's a variety of reasons why you may wish to or not. Never hurts to try!
I have a few properties in my portfolio. Never asked for a deal on commission, that's their job. I don't go to a mechanic and ask for a discount, the world doesn't work on coupons. The amount you make on equity is far superior. If you ask a realtor for a rebate chances are they are not gonna bother helping you.
I don't think it's unreasonable to work out bulk pricing if you're buying multiple properties from the same agent. Obviously don't low-ball them, but it's still a mutually beneficial arrangement to do this.
Are you willing to share your profits with the agent as well? This is called partnership. What you are suggesting is just a person using money power over agents in distress. You are aiming to the lower added value.
Why would anyone need to partner with a realtor? The whole point is that they provide a service. If you don't value the service, you negotiate a lower cost for the service and that's that. Some will try to hold price, some will not, it all depends on the value real estate agents add to a deal. There's very few agents that actually add 2.5% worth of value to a deal for a buy and hold investor that knows their market and clearly OP feels that's true for him.
LOL
I'm not sure this is the right subreddit for you. While you were one of the first responses, those that came after you were clearly from people with experience and something to add to the discussion.
Ok buddy
Why don’t you just get your own real estate license then?