Meg

Realtors act like they are working for their clients but this is so far from the truth. Bottom line is they don't care about a buyer or a seller, just as long as they make a sale. (Violation of their "realtor" ethics) How else could you explain a real estate agent working as a buying and selling agent for 1 property? How can you be fighting for the highest and lowest price at the same time? This is like a lawyer working for the prosecution and the defense. Truth is if some one is asking 600,000 for their house at 6% they pay 36,000 in commission. If it sells at 500,000 the commission is 30,000. So the homeowner takes 100,000 dollars less and only pays 6,000 less in commission!!! How is that fair? For a real estate agent it doesn't matter to them if the house sells for 10, 20, or 30,000 less, just as long as they get theirs. On top of it commissions are based on the entire sales price for the house, not the profit after taking out what the owners paid for it. When housing prices were 90,000, or 100,000 okay this made sense. But now that prices are upwards of 1,000,000 in some places they still want 6%!! Totally ridiculous!! Realtors also demand 6%, but forget commissions are negotiable by law and it is considered price fixing, (highly illegal) if say they cannot take less than 6%. I totally agree wil you, realtors are a rip off and more and more people are now realizing this, thank god. - Sun Jul 13 2008, 15:36

either move to another agent or just start looking at homes yourself. Call the agent of the home you may want to see and schedule an appointment. This will give you more barganing power when writing an offer because the seller will not have to pay a fee to your agent. You can always have a real estate lawyer look over the paper work for a fraction of what a real estate commission would be. In this day and age with all the listing posted on the web you certainly can have access to any of the houses your agent would have showed you anyway plus ones that are for sale by owner. - Sun May 25 2008, 10:18

the northwest is the best area. You might pay more for a home there than you would in the other area but it's because it has the best school and best location, and therfore will have the highest re-sale value over time. - Tue May 20 2008, 09:57

NW is most sought after for the views, great schools, nicer neighborhoods, extremely well cared for properties. SW is next, then NE and then SE. I am sure you can find nice houses in all area but remember in real estate it's location, location, location. You can change many things about a house except where it is located. - Tue May 20 2008, 09:50

Maybe set up a audio recorder and tape a couple showings to see what the people say. What the agent says to your agent after a showing isn't either a complete or true description. - Tue May 20 2008, 09:42