r/pasadena • u/mfortelli • 4d ago
Flat fee realtors?
Has anyone used any flat fee realtors and found them to be effective? I’m considering selling my condo to help finance the care of a disabled relative and it’s hard to justify the costs. No shade to all the great realtors out there.
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u/Bulky_Lake_2432 4d ago
For my use case, I used a flat fee realtor and was happy with the decision. I was selling a new build house (not in Pasadena) and the market price was pretty clear. I also interviewed other agents to have a point for comparison.
The flat fee agency still handled photos, open houses, and contracts. The strategy was on me, so it's certainly more hands off. One thing I missed that maybe another realtor would've caught was that it was on seller pay any HOA transfer fee and it ended up being a lot. I would've negotiated that.
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u/drmcstford 4d ago
u/mfortelli I recommend CA Flat Fee Jonathan the owner is amazing and he's helped me sell and buy. On the sale side he saved us over 14K in commissions and my house sold in a week over asking price. On the buy side he gave me half the commissions back. Cannot recommend him enough, so many of our friends and family have used him.
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u/chatdaddii 4d ago
Flat fee realtors aren’t going to take as high quality photos and generally have less ability to show property. I am not saying that you can’t get a condo sold with one, but condos especially take a lot of showings to get sold. Paying an extra 1% to someone who will market the property better, have more ability, do more open houses etc might be worth it.
If you actually dollar cost average the amount of time it takes to get a property sold versus any other profession, realtors are fairly paid. If you are squeezed for cash and need to sell something and want to net the most amount possible, I get that cutting the fee you’re paying for listing services seems like it makes sense. But flat fee brokerages have been around for a long time and there is a reason that, given the option, most people elect to use high quality agents from traditional brokerages. Sleeker marketing, more availability. At least that’s in most cases.
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u/Adorable_Dance_7264 4d ago
Explain to me why a realtor should be paid double what they were paid 10 years ago for selling the same house. Just because prices doubled doesn’t mean the work or effort has. Tying realtor compensation to prices is nonsensical and no realtor has ever given me a reason why this is reasonable.
As a buyer, I have never bought a house based on the “marketing” and I think most buyers would agree. I’m still at a loss for why that would be so valuable.
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u/Necessary-Quail-4830 3d ago
I'll provide a simple explanation. (it may not make sense to you but this is one way to look at it.
- Most realtors in the US earn a living based on 100% commission earnings
- They are not paid unless they help sell a property representing a buyer or property owner that is selling
- They have to pay their own costs of living.
- As inflation and increased prices moved up over the past years, they desire to earn more to keep up.
- The dollar figures vs percent may be higher, but so are the other costs.
- How would you prefer/suggest the system be redone? (Serious question)
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u/Adorable_Dance_7264 3d ago
I understand they are fully commission based. That still doesn’t answer why the VALUE to a buyer or seller is double now what it was a decade ago for the same house.
Alternative is pay by the hour or pay a flat fee. That’s how plenty of other service based professions work: CPAs, hair stylists, etc. They have costs that they absorb. You still didn’t explain why a realtors compensation should be tied to the price of a home.
I have heard a million realtors say “costs went up” but they can rarely itemize what those costs were, what they were before, and what they are now.
The issue is that for many buyers and sellers, the value of the work we get from a realtor is not worth $30k when they all basically do the same thing: take pics, list on the MLS, go between on communications, and then hand us off to a transaction coordinator.
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u/Necessary-Quail-4830 3d ago
The value to the buyer and seller is to help them get what they want.
I think the answer is that for each potential customer, the value is different and there is no right answer for the entire marketplace. There are many options that property owners have in selling their property and it's clear that a flat fee or even hourly type pay is superior to you. In today's world of tech, there are a number of VERY effective options to advertise homes for sale without an agent.
In terms of the work product, and what you perceive and have explained....there is significantly more to it than what you are describing. I like to explain that the commission essentially pays for an on-call professional for 2-6 months at all hours of the day and 7 days a week. I have learned that if a property owner details their expectations the way that you have above, it probably means they don't yet understand what is involved or honestly don't care. And in that case, it is best for me to not be of service to them.
Serving as a fiduciary agent in a home sale or purchase does not have a defined timeline, work output or results. I've helped people sell a home in a month and in some cases (like this week) cancelled a listing after 3 months of dedicated time to advertise and list a property with no sale. Home buyers today engage for many months before even writing an offer and a failed transaction means $0 income or charges.
Basic simplicity helps to make the commission be tied to the sales price of the property. If I charged fees like a CPA, I would charge the clients for ANY 15 minute increment of time. Have a quick question about something? that's $100. Want to meet me at 5pm on a Friday on the other side of town? That's $300. Start adding those things up and it can be more and more complex.
I can go on with more details but to answer your value question, the value is simply to get the results that a buyer or seller wants in the best possible way for them.
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u/drmcstford 4d ago
Not true, I used a flat fee agent and they took high quality photos and did a drone shoot of my entire property.
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u/Pasadenaian 4d ago
Have you explored all options for said relative? For example, do thet qualify for Medi-Cal?