Quote from @Michael Brattelli:
@Conrad Cortes You make a few good points but I will play devils advocate for the sake of this discussion. I’ll address your points one by one.
1. MY pay isn’t directly tied to whatever the compensation offered is. I have a buyers agency agreement that is spelled out how and when I will get paid. This is all negotiated with my buyer prior to working with them. Therefore if a particular property is offering less than my rate I am not steering buyers away from properties and it’s a non issue.
2. To your point about sellers opening doors and doing away with buyers agents- say that happens. Now the listing agent is doing a ton more work, are they getting compensated for that extra work now? Are they supposed to be a listing agent and a buyers agent? How could that agent (hired and paid for by the seller) represent both sides and give advice to both sides? Neither side would get proper representation. Some states like mine already have disclosed dual agency which you cannot tell both sides how they should be negotiating or give proper advice/recommendations like you would with just buyer or seller agency.
To your last paragraph I 100% agree. Everyone in here for the most part has a working knowledge of real estate and can navigate most transactions but the average first or even second time homebuyer has absolutely no clue how to navigate any of this.
I appreciate your reply and am interested on your take on mine.
Thanks for keeping the reply in a proffesional manner. I think the problem with a lot of this debate is there's a lot of emotions involved with people trying to justify their proffesion or they have had a bad experience before.
1) I like how you conduct your business. I think that allieviates a lot of what the issue would be, but I think the reason that this has gotten to where it is is ultimately because that is not the "standard". (Yes I know that everything can me negotiated and structured in different ways, and that these things have existed for years). The issue is most agents go the route of telling a buyer that the service is free and that the sellers pay the commision. When a vast majority opperates this way it effectively becomes the 'standard' and the argument of price fixing comes in. (not that I necessarily agree with this argument, I just see how that can be a perception from the general public). Since most buyers agents don't do this, thats why it is seen as obligatory to pay for a buyer's agent when listing a house for sale. I know many listing agents justify a 6 percent commision because they say they have to pay the buyer's agent. Which I fully agree is a true statement, because you would significantly cut out potential offers by saying you are not paying the buyer's agent anything.
This again leads to the counter that if we all did what you do or use a flat fee, then the people who are at the lowest price points who would possibly be in the most need of an agent, simply wont pay for agent since there is a risk that they will have to come out of pocket. So there's pros and cons to changing the system.
I know this is probably a word mess that may not be coherent, but my point isn't that none of these options exist already, the point is that when almost all of the agents are taught to operate in the manner that I mentioned, then it leads us to where we are today. If NAR and brokerages specifically encouraged that all transactions have a pre negotiated buyers rep agreement in addition to an IABS then I think that could also be a solution instead of the flat fee route.
2. And I didnt mean the seller would represent the buyers. I meant that a huge argument that buyer's agents use to justify their cost, is they spend a ton of hours showing properties and opening doors. My proposal was that seller's agents show their own properties, then a buyer can enlist thier own agent to help with the negotiations, opinion about the property, coordination on the transaction, ect. It would be more than just contract writing like a lawyer would provide. (Basically the same thing buyer's agents already do, minus the driving around and searching part).
