Hacker News Reader

Comment by jakderrida | Hacker News Reader

While my mom is a mortgage agent that always had access to MLS (which she shares with me), I'd argue some realtors (my realtor I've known since I was 4) are worth the 5% without MLS. She has like 4 assistants managing everything in the background that are so well-trained that I didn't even need to mention updating my converted Single to a Multi-family because they somehow figured it out and just did it. She also seems to conjure an army of prospective buyers to show up on the day she schedules and twice blew my expectations away. I was just joking that my multi-family was worth over $300k and she got $312k somehow. So there are realtors that are worth the cost, but she's kind of a rare exception to the norm.

View on HN

> an army of prospective buyers to show up on the day

that's what i hate about realtors. in germany they will gladly invite a hundred interested people for a flat and by that make searching for an appartment a huge waste of time. it's easier for them and probably a nice ego stroke.

My question was always where the hell she finds all these people and always manages to achieve a rather large premium to my somewhat rigorously estimated value based on all the comparables I find on BrightMLS. They're obviously not getting a great deal. All 3 sales were also Philadelphia suburbs, which is not a lucrative market for speculative gentrification. The only major spike in values in the past 25 years was during COVID with like a single massive 80% jump because in a world where pandemics are real, urban market plummeted. But you'd think this army of buyers would see the name and say, "Screw that! I'm not going to Diane's open houses ever again."

it's easier than you'd think. all it takes is a market with large demand and desperation.

Now imagine a world where realtor fees are 1% instead of 6%. On a 300k house, that's 15k you don't pay to the realtor. In this world, your realtor doesn't bring you an extra 12k from the buyer, but you still come ahead. And the buyer pays less too.

That's a win win world for everyone (except the realtor, who are redundant middlemen in the internet eta).

First off, I'm not opposed to such a world in general. However, you, like the other replier, failed to read how my $300k number was intended as a joke about my optimism. Thus, it makes more sense to conclude my estimates (made with both a degree in Finance and access to BrightMLS comparables to rigorously draw my conclusions) was obviously far lower than $300k and your numbers don't really make much sense. Remember, also, that I'm really only defending her ability to achieve those kinds of results and justify the 5% number. In general, you don't get a team of well-trained professionals diligently finding every possible angle to ensure you get a higher value and an army of prospective buyers. In fact, it's rather rare and it's really the only case where 5% is justified. Had I sold it privately, I'd expect far less than the price I'd joke about wanting.

Unless you did an experiment with different realtors, you have no idea if someone else besides the realtor (since you have known since 4) would have found you the $300k.

I have no doubt that there is a range of talent for realtors, just like SWEs. The problem is the 6%. Why doesn't your realtor get 10% and everyone else get 1%? The system is rigged.

>Unless you did an experiment with different realtors, you have no idea if someone else besides the realtor (since you have known since 4) would have found you the $300k.

Neither do you. Am I to believe you know more about one of the houses I owned than I do? Again, I'm all for lifting the fixed commissions. I'm just saying there does exist exceptions that I would still pay 5% for. Although, like I said, her operation isn't just some aspiring salesman acting slick. It's a team of about 4 professionals under her that go over every single angle to prepare it for the market. She's not even that persuasive or talkative. All they do are value-added services, which is how it should be. I wouldn't even know how to update the records to classify it a multi-family, yet they do it all automatically.

So she got you $12k over asking, but cost you $15k+. That math doesn't support your conclusion.

Again, $300k+ was a joke I made to her. So, obviously, my estimates were far lower and the price she achieved exceeded your estimated premium. Unless you think my joke was that a $297k property was worth $3k more, in which case I'd ask you to devote more thought to your conclusions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com