Discount Realtors

[MonkeyMama]

I was just curious if anyone here had a good experience with a discount realtor when selling their home? I keep reading that it is a good idea to never pay full price for a realtor and I cringe at that. When we have home shopped we always can smell the discount realtors a mile away, and can smell the ensuing deal. It's the kind of thing I would never skimp on myself after being on the other side of a transaction with a discount realtor.

But I am writing an article on the subject and wanted to be fair. I was wondering if there were any good stories out there. Alternately, share your bad stories. Just curious to hear more experiences. I am sure there are exceptions to the rule.

There is probably some middle ground too. I mostly am talking about full-service realtors who only take 1%. Bad news! I have heard many good things about skipping the realtor altogether which I know some people are up for. I am more curious about the "full-service at a deal" stories.

[Fern]

In my opinion there is NO real difference between a realtor charing a full 6% commission and one that does the same thing for 4 or 5%. (I negotiated 4.5% commisison when my house was on the market.)

ALL realtors do the following to market your house:
* list it on MLS (you can also do this yourself)
* place ads in local newspapers
* create a little marketing brochure for drop-ins
* host an open house for realtors
* host an open house for potential buyers
* put your listing on the web

What distinguishes certain realtors from others is little extras, like some pay for a buyer's warranty for major appliances so they have peace of mind when buying a property. Another one I know has a phone number listed on the for sale sign which drive-bys can call on their cell and listen to a pre-recorded spiel on your home, which can help them decide they want to see the inside of the place.

Selling real estate is not an art and doesn't require a college degree to do.

The only disadvantage i see in a seller using a discount realtor is that buyers' realtors, upon learning that the seller's realtor has a commission split that's lower than standard, will not show their customers that house first, if there's a choice between that house and one that's being marketed by an agent offering the full split.

Realtors make a disproportionately huge amount of money for the work they do, and this has become increasingly obscene as the value of real estate has risen exponentially in the past 5 years.