Good for you JR. Telling a buyer why a seller is moving is helping a buyer. Good to know that you do right for your sellers.

Thu Mar 27 2008, 13:47

Hi said:
thats a lot of posts 137

stirring the hornets nest

real estate agents are people too

sounds like banking, brokerage, and real estate not such a promising career choice at the moment.
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I think it would be cool if everybody who thinks Realtors shouldn't exist gave Realtors a shot at telling you why your job is not needed and that you are overpaid! So for all Realtor bashers out there, pony up! What do you do for a living?

...and by the way, you are overpaid and your job isn't important! :)

Wed Mar 26 2008, 21:23

you will need to contact a real estate professional in your area to receive access to this data. The service is owned by the local real estate brokers. it is against the MLS rules for the public to have access to this site - much like any other proprietary information owned by other companies.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 15:30

JR, I understand where your fiduciary loyalty lies. That said, would you make comments to the buyer that you know to be untrue? Such as "they are probably selling this house at a big loss..." I would think that this would come back to haunt you if the buyer had done research or will do research. Not legally, but reputation wise.
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I have no duty to disclose or surmise to a buyer why the seller is moving unless it is a possible short sale. My answer to "why are they moving" is usually, they want a different house, or I don't know.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 15:16

thats a lot of posts 137

stirring the hornets nest

real estate agents are people too

sounds like banking, brokerage, and real estate not such a promising career choice at the moment.

anyways

good luck

Wed Mar 26 2008, 11:17

JR: I also would not give out that information to a customer if they asked. My customers are free to find this out on their own however, and manytimes they do.
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JR, I understand where your fiduciary loyalty lies. That said, would you make comments to the buyer that you know to be untrue? Such as "they are probably selling this house at a big loss..." I would think that this would come back to haunt you if the buyer had done research or will do research. Not legally, but reputation wise.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 10:37

The public wants access to mls and they do not want to talk or deal with a Realtor.
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Sorry, Jack. Sounds like you want me to compile and input this info, but you don't want to give me the opportunity to make a sale and put a roof over my head. As the great philosopher Mick Jagger once said: You can't ways get what you want.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 10:18

A pet peeve of mine was when looking at houses with a Realtor, was knowing details about the house that the Realtor did not know. For example, I would know that the current owner paid $400,000 only 10 months ago, that no permits had been pulled since and that the house is now selling for $460,000. It would bother me to hear the Realtor say something to me like "they are probably selling this house at a big loss because of the market, this is a great price." With this system, the Realtor would know what houses I am interested in and can do the same level of research on them.
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The information you cite is not available on my MLS, unless the listing agent has put it into the private remarks. I can access the public record thru my MLS and find out what the last owner paid, however if you called me and asked about a particular house, I'd have to look up that information myself. Personally I don't keep details such as this memorized for every listing. I also would not give out that information to a customer if they asked. My customers are free to find this out on their own however, and manytimes they do.THis is one of the items I was talking about as a CLIENT LEVEL service. Unless the buyer has signed on as a buyer client, the seller is my client and the buyer is my customer.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 10:16

I think the realtors are missing the point here. The public wants access to mls and they do not want to talk or deal with a Realtor. Willing to pay a small fee to get information.
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Jack, I'm not missing the point here. If you read further down the thread, you'll see that I'm an advocate for full free access, by the public, for VIEWING the MLS. I was just offering up a potential alternative for those agent who feel that allowing the public to view the MLS without them, sounds the death knell for Realtors as a whole. It is, as The_Bayou points out, a compromise.

We actually have something similar now... with our local MLS, I can feed a direct link to a client, that feeds them all of the homes that meet their parameters (ie: room count, price range, location, etc...) and they can change the parameters on an ongoing basis. They see the same MLS sheets that I see, with all the Realtor information, such as Days on Market, prior sales, etc... and the system does allow them to "flag" homes that they want me to know about ... as Interested, Not Interested, and allows a little commentary from them, and I can respond.

This service is totally free, and lasts up to 90 days, and can be renewed at the Realtor/Client's request.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 08:36

Elvis,

That is a great suggestion/compromise. By requiring the perspective buyer to at least contact a Realtor in order to gain access, it gives the Realtor a lead that they would otherwise not have had. Maybe the access code could enable the potential buyer to flag houses for the Realtor to look at.

A pet peeve of mine was when looking at houses with a Realtor, was knowing details about the house that the Realtor did not know. For example, I would know that the current owner paid $400,000 only 10 months ago, that no permits had been pulled since and that the house is now selling for $460,000. It would bother me to hear the Realtor say something to me like "they are probably selling this house at a big loss because of the market, this is a great price." With this system, the Realtor would know what houses I am interested in and can do the same level of research on them.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 07:15

I think the realtors are missing the point here.
The public wants access to mls and they do not want to talk or deal with a Realtor.
Willing to pay a small fee to get information.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 07:07

There's no question that giving access to your local MLS would reduce the fees that Realtors pay to their local associations.

It could even be accomplished "inclusively" by making it a requisite, that in order to access the MLS, a person would have to contact a Realtor, and get a Realtor-specific "guest code" that was time-limited, and must be updated every 30 days.

That should satisfy those agents who are concerned that they'll be left by the wayside, if MLS access were allowed.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 06:54

Thanks Chris.

One comment though. Don't you think that the MLS portion of the price you pay, $2000 a year, could be reduced if non-realtors were also paying for access to the system. Say, for example, if for every Realtor that was paying for full access, there was a non-realtor paying for a slightly less detailed access (no personal information about the seller such as lock box numbers, hours the home owner works, etc...). If the non-realtors are paying $200 per year for the restricted access, that could reduce your MLS payments by close to that amount (again, assuming the 1:1 ratio and that is nothing more than a plug). There is very little cost in adding additional users to a database. Once the information is input, each additional user is almost all profit.

If "everything that they could ever want is public record and on the internet", you are paying a lot of money just to have it arranged in a desirable format. It sounds like it would be in yours, and other Realtors interest to find a way to decrease the amount you pay for this information, similar to the way investment banks sell their research to non-clients as a way of defraying costs.

Wed Mar 26 2008, 06:35

Jaded answers like Alan's are unhelpful. You must have had a bad experience with a previous Realtor, and I am sorry about that.

The MLS is paid for by Realtors, not the public. That resource exists because of the $2000 or so per year that I am pumping into my association fees, MLS fees, MORE fees, etc. If you want to pay what I and every other Realtor has to pay per year to keep the MLS alive and meaningful, then have at it. You should have full access.

I don't know many people out there who are NON-Realtors who want to pay my yearly fees for the MLS. I know that you didn't think this information was free for Realtors, did you? A "real estate pro" like yourself should be aware of these things.

I can only speak for my market, but Buyers have plenty of access to our MLS and everything that they could ever want is public record and on the internet.

Tue Mar 25 2008, 20:45

It may seem that Realtors want all the power, but consider this. You are a home seller. Everyone who wants access to your information can get it. They are not screened, they can come to your door at any hour of the day or night. All of a sudden, selling your home becomes a nightmare.

Access to the MLS is given to Realtors who are registered and follow a code of ethics. We follow a procedure to gain access to a home. We respect the privacy of the seller. Realtors also do a pre-screening of buyers. Most of the time Realtors try to bring only true buyers to a home.

Open houses are the way that Realtors make available to the public homes that are for sale. Look at local websites for open house announcements. Go on sites such as Realtor.com to view properties and then contact a Realtor to help you gain access. It gives sellers a confidence that they are safe in opening their home to others.

The home buying process is difficult in the best of circumstances. it is emotional to both buy and sell a home. Having a Realtor mediate a sale is both smart and economical. Realtors will negotiate hard for their clients and, in most cases, a fair price and smooth transaction transpires.

Tue Mar 25 2008, 20:33

The real answer is because if everybody could have access then Realtors would lose there power. If people didn't ask them questions, they wouldn't be needed as much and their entire livelyhood would be threatened.

Tue Mar 25 2008, 20:09

I would be happy to pay that nominal fee too!

The normal fee I pay for the MLS is somewhere around $70 per month, not including all the other fees I pay to the local board for this.

This service, with all the exorbitant fees, is available to you. All you need to do is pass the Real Estate exam and start forking over the big bucks like I do.

Sun Mar 23 2008, 21:14

JR,
I have noticed that the Realtor Bashers tend to be loud vocals who profess knowledge, but exhibit clearly by their posts that they do not possess such. Thankfully, these represent the minority.
Deborah

Sun Mar 23 2008, 20:01

My point was to illustrate that you don't understand.
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Judging from a recent thread I participated in regarding agency, I would say you've hit the nail on the head for 90% of the realtor bashers.

Sun Mar 23 2008, 19:51