Cheapest is not always the best choice!
I was taken with the recent post by Stephen Sharry talking about the dangers of believing the ‘cut rate’ operators are good for the real estate industry. They are a weak link and generally made up of people who do not believe in the value offered by the vast majority of real estate salespeople.
Agents are an easy target in the ‘cost of real estate’ debate especially with so much attention being focused on affordability. Calls for agent’s commission to be cut, miss the point. If the value of an average home ($400,000) improves by 10% in a year, that will put an extra $40,000 in the owners pocket and results in $1,000 extra commission for the agent. It is hardly the agents fault if he/she can achieve a good result for th eseller so why should he/she be penalised.
Good agents should be concerned at the devaluation of their importance in the overall process. Good agents are good negotiators. A poor negotiator will easily miss the opportunity to pick up an extra few thousand dollars for the seller in the negotiations.
Sellers should be more concerned about employing a dud agent who can’t negotiate rather than trying to save a few thousand dollars in the commission when they could be underselling their property by ten of thousands of dollars.
If you pay peanuts you will get monkeys!
October 11th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Bravo Kevin. In life there are people who are good and what they do and deserve to be rewarded. In this particular case it is a financial reward for the agent, but also the valued seller. An agents job is to act on behalf of the seller, so for me…there is no genuine reason to cut an agents commission.
A final thought. Would you pay an experienced, reputable professional more for a service if you thought they would service you better? Absolutely, but in real estate, you don’t even have to do that, at least not until they’ve made you a fist full of money more first. With other industries you may pay for a name, or a reputation, but in real estate, you pay more and receive more when your agent earns it for you.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Thanks Tom and Bravo to you too! Kevin
October 12th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Dear Kevin,
I do believe the negative perception sometimes linked with agents is rapidly disappearing.
Recently I have undertaken the sales registration course through the REIQ. I was pleasantly surprised by the strict curriculum required to pass this course. I certainly make a stance to any negative comments made about modern Real Estate agents. The “standard” set for any agent is incredibly higher than ever before, and so it should be.
I like to say, I am a believer that it’s an evolutionary process and that it will require time to change the minds of the public. But keep doing all the right things, with the right attitudes.
I believe the public want and need to use Real Estate Agents; it’s a matter of knowing they are going to get what they pay for.
“Commission is not an issue, if service is fulfilled”.
Rolland Smith
October 14th, 2007 at 7:11 am
Thanks Rolland. Are you working as an agent?