Uh oh, is MLSlistings.com trying to get fancy on us?
Not too very long ago, it seems to me, few for-sale homes one found on MLSlistings.com had extensive narrative descriptions included. Now, thanks to the slow market, sometimes the listing agent goes on for paragraph after paragraph about all the features of the home. Well, except for apparently the MLS has no paragraph-break function, so the long descriptions read like this one:
Nicely Landscaped Front Yard. Sweeping Front Lawn on Large Corner Lot. Formal Entry Leads to Living Room with Gleaming Wood Floors and Cozy Wood Burning Fireplace. Step Down to the Spacious Dining Room with Tile Floor, Garden Window & French Doors to Side Patio. You Will Love the Gourmet Kitchen with Granite Counters, Wood Cabinets, Built in Appliances & Pantry. Upstairs Master Bedroom Suite Addition With Large Bedroom and Beautifully Updated Master Bathroom. Convenient Upstairs Inside Laundry Adjacent to Master. Additional Laundry Inside the One Car Garage. Down Stairs Master with Sliding Glass Door to Rear Patio and Large Closet with Custom Woodwork. Master Bath Updated with Custom Tile. Two Large Additional Bedrooms with Large Closets are Great for Den, Guests or Growing Family. Hall Bathroom is Updated with Wood Cabinets and Custom Tile Floors, Counters and Tub Surround. Additional Interior Amenities Include Wood Floors in Living Room, Entry, Down Stairs Bedrooms and Hall, Double Pane Windows, Sculpture Ceilings, Six Panel Interior Doors, Custom Closet Doors, Crown Molding Custom Built in Cabinetry and More. Landscaped Rear Yard is an Entertainers Dream with Patio, Built In Pool, Spa and Wet Bar. 2,084 Square Feet of Elegant Living Space on a 6,970 Square Foot Lot. Home Warranty Included.
Can you believe how many capital letters were used there? It gives me a repetitive stress injury just thinking about typing that. It’s from a listing on Tioga Way in San Jose’s Willow Glen, MLS number 80815689.
But anyway, now in addition to having lengthy descriptions, today I found animation in an MLS posting! Scrolling, oversize, multi-color type. I know - big deal. BUT — We don’t really need the calm, legible, publicly accessible MLS site to get all out of hand, with sellers and agents deciding that what it really takes to sell a home in this market is scrolling colored type with flashing smiley-face icons attached. (I made up the icons — didn’t find any of those yet.) The MLS number of the San Jose property with the gussied-up description is 80812906, if you want to see it.
Do any of you use eBay? (Stupid question.) Have you ever clicked on an eBay seller’s item or web site and found the resulting page so full of bizarre-o, ornate fonts and day-glo colors and animated doo-dads that you fled from the site and decided you’d rather drive to Target on a Saturday afternoon for whatever it is you wanted to buy? Please, REInfolink, don’t let the MLSlistings.com pages get all eBay on us. (I perhaps should not pick on eBay sellers so much. A lot of people who post on the Babycenter.com bulletin boards are just as flagrant, as another example. Perhaps some of you real-estate-loving moms will have seen that stuff too.)
By the way, I am going on vacation and won’t be back until July 9. Keep an eye on the local inventory, and when I get back we can discuss the trends.
Hi Sue,
Those of us who post properties on the MLS don’t see all that extra info that the public see’s. There is a section where we can embellish more for the general public. Agents use a slightly smaller page, we have to be more effective with the space the MLS provides (Since we use so many abbreviated terms). It doesn’t seem from my point of view that there is that much to crow about. I think you just might be suffering from over exposure to our tools. You are doing it daily like us agents. We just want to cut to the chase. You may be getting to that point.
Your vaction timing might in this case be really good timing! I have to get away from “look at my listing bombardments” too. Some of the various personalities/agents can sometimes drive you to drink!
As far as the public site, most buyers search maybe 2 to 3 times in a lifetime. So unless they are the analytical type alot of them enjoy the flourishing vocabulary it strokes their ego’s a little bit especially if they bought the place. Personally I’d save the wildly detailed stuff for the brochure at the door. And honestly. The borders of Willow Glen are wildy exaggerated in my book. That property is more on the border of Cambrian to me. I think Bob is just rtying to get people emotionally involved with his add. Hehe I guess your reaction wasn’t the one he had in mind! Enjoy your break I will be going to my “in the middle of nowhere” place myself pretty soon.
On a final thought when people are about to make one of biggest purchases in their lives and either move in or bring a new family into being I have a humble point of view. It’s not about the money. If they are investor’s it is. But if I want to see them ever again as clients I can’t view it as about my commission. It’s about their investment.
Actually, what I see on the MLS can be pretty funny. As a would-be homebuyer keeping an obsessive eye on the MLS (and on Redfin) it never fails to shock me how many listings have spelling errors, bad grammar, misused (or missing) punctuation, or even utterly incorrect words (such as “double paint windows”).
I mean, people use agents (and agents get five figures for about 24 hours of actual work) because they’re supposed to be professional researchers with razor-sharp eyes for details, right? If an agent can’t even bother with a spell checker, what else are they neglecting?
Well if you are referring to my last post. Somehow this morning I just had time to try to make my point.
I can’t find a spell checker in this blog! lol And as far as pay in concerned since you mention you are a “would be home buyer”. I think you might want to take into consideration a few things. Real Estate agents are self employed. Not withstanding your cynicism, which is deserved in some cases. Imagine how many people they must talk to before they actually land a deal. I hope you know these days it’s in the several hundreds. I think you would be surprised how much work is done just to find a client, let alone satisfy them, search for weeks or months or even sometimes years. We don’t get survival checks from the banks or from HOA’s.
You have to be a mind reader sometimes.
But best of luck to you in search. I hope you are working with an agent you can trust. It is a two way street.
Olaf, you can either use the Firefox web browser (which has a built-in spellcheck) or write the MLS text in Word and spell check it before copying it and pasting it in to the MLS web site. Just a suggestion.
Olaf the fact that it takes self employed real estate agents countless tries before they land a deal, is in no way representative of the value that real estate agent provides to the consumer. Consumers don’t care that its a competitive business (I don’t). When a consumer looks at the value provided by the current real estate system- it doesn’t add up. Commissions need to get cut in half, minimum
Michelle,
On that point. Buyer beware.
Let me see if I am clear on your point. For example; if a decent, “ethical”, licensed / experienced agent gets the client an ”ethical” mortgage broker to interview and pre qualify them for a loan. And then works with the mortgage broker during the course of the transaction being that the programs that the lenders offer are constantly changing and often being discontinued, spends 1 to 3 to 6 months counseling/shopping with a buyer, including previewing properties before showing them to the client to make sure that the sellers listing lives up to the seller hype, before chauffeuring the client from property to property and ultimately finding them candidate homes to submit offers contracts on. (And by the way at this point the client can walk away from the agent at any point in this process for any reason whatsoever, and frankly although rare so can the agent). Anyway the agent negotiates the best possible offer contract for the client, and succeeds in getting the offer accepted (not all offers are accepted, in that case repeat the process again). Ensures the sellers have legal title to the property.. Follows their fiduciary responsibility to both buyer, and seller. Protects their legal interests in the property they purchase, Follows the entire process all the way through escrow (3 to 6 weeks average). Knowing at any point in the transaction that nearly anything can happen to kill it. Even at that point there is no guarantee they will get paid or that the client will get their home. Pays the Broker (who has the ultimate legal responsibility that the transaction and contract execution was performed promptly and legally), who’s cut varies anywhere from 10% to 50%. From which the broker pays lease costs, over head, salaried employees, insurance, taxes and so on.
Then, the agent in good standing, who maintains their annual license requirements as set by the California Department of Real Estate so that they understand the finer points of real estate law. The agent, an independent contractor, who pays their taxes, auto and medical insurance association fee’s the dues so they can get access to all the homes with that special code key only Realtors have (which allows them to put food on the table and a roof over their own heads and so on) and sometimes also pays an assistant. After all that, after the deal is done. And the agent gets paid. Follows up with the buyer and makes sure the property is living up to expectations. Often providing a special house warming gift, varying from small token gifts to a washer and dryer for example. Provides any additional assistance they can including recommending contractors if and when necessary (Admittedly optional). And so on. For this you want to cut in half a commission that varies an average of 2 to 3% and that doesn’t include the brokers 10 to 50% yet that I spoke about earlier. If you still think their fee should be cut in half.
Remember the old adage “you get what you pay for”. Unless of course your experience with a past agent didn’t include what I’ve stated above, in which case you should have interviewed more than one agent. If you are talking about the abnormal market of two years ago. O.K. I agree any idiot could buy and sell homes then. But not today. Those days are gone. Remember you buying a house, not some factory produced item. Every home/client is different. Each situation requires flexible mind and has a whole new set of variables. It takes a good agent to be able to respond and apply every skill they have in their tool box to please each side of the transaction. The commission may seem high if that is the only thing you see. And for some agents I can understand your point a view. In which case I humbly suggest you blame that agent not all agents. Painting a group of people with a broad brush is not only unfair to the group it is unfair to yourself.
Something to keep in mind is also the cost of the house. Paying 5% on a $750K house is very different than justifying paying 5% on a 1.5 million dollar house (for the same amount of work, right?)
Whatever. Ryan concurred with my point. Very few industries can withstand a sales commission based on transaction dollar amt anymore. First stock brokerage fees went out the door in favor of the flat rate, travel agents, car dealerships etc. Real estate will be the next to see flat rate services. It is already happening and would have happened faster if not for the MLS monopoly but that is starting to crack too with the recent ruling that MLS must post to online services.
The reason it is so hard for real estate agents to make it is because it is a high paying industry with no barriers to entry. Those facts provide no value to the consumer.
I know what you mean about the neon letters -kinda EBAY style–just take a look
at 2319 Price Wy/Willow Glen MLS: 80812906.
That one kills my eyes!
I agree with the other poster who said Willow Glen prices are inflated. The house on Price (which is sell pending)is asking 980K. It’s only 1700sq ft. Schools are OK..not the greatest. That’s completely insane.
I agree with Michelle - I think RE agents are kinda on the way out. After this housing crisis shakes out only a RE agents will survive.
Now the consumer can get COMPs online, MLS services, a rebate on the commisions (from Zip Realty/Redfin) etc.
We went to an open house and the agent, who was one of those flat-rate services, told us if we bought the house they’d share the commission with us. Very competitive out there right now!
Ryan said:
>
The type of people who buy and sell 1.5+ million dollar houses. need and will pay for a negotiator who can negotiate 100k in the direction they need. Thats what makes it worth their wild. An agent who makes a flat fee has neither the inclination or desire to bother harder. You are viewing this scenerio through a tunnel. Imagine buying a home with an agent who doesn’t really care what you pay? Do you want fries with that?
Olaf,
That’s where referrals come in handy. Either that or stick with a percentage and lower it. Paying 5% on a 1.5 million dollar house just makes me feel ill. As prices increase, buyers feel stuck - they can’t move because they lose too much money in the transaction.
Something has to change. It’s nice to see online alternatives popping up.
“and the agent, who was one of those flat-rate services, told us if we bought the house they’d share the commission with us.”
There are a lot of bad agents out there, find yourself a good one and you will save lots of headaches and money. This agent, is known as a double ender, a discount one at that. First tip that an agent is possibly unethical, when they suggest a double end deal, - would you hire a same prosecutor to defend yourself? As far as not using an agent, that is almost as bad as using a bad one, its one of the most (or can be) complex transaction you will make in your life, why would you try to save 10k selling for 500k house, when a decent agent gets you 550k? or more if there is a bozo realtor on the other end.
Eddie,
You pegged it.
Ryan we don’t usually make 5% We usually split that. When you represent a client who is using us to sell a house, then buy a house through us we have more lee way in the commission and we can cut it. Rememember you can negotiate your commission with the agent. It never hurts to ask. But. Remember, the more of a pain in the butt a client is, the greater the likelyhood that won’t happen. Find an agent you trust and TRUST them. We are not all bad people like many seem to assume we are.
Olaf/Eddie -
I do see your point. However, buyers nowadays have access to CMA’s, reviews of reputable house inspectors etc, and most are pretty savvy already (thanks to the WEB.)
I still see *most* RE agents on the way out though. Perhaps there will be a market for RE agents for the multi-million dollar homes. If money is no object & the buyer/seller simply doesn’t have the time to market/preview the homes there will be a demand there.
I did get burned from a TOP RE agent here in SV on our last transaction. This person had TONS of stellar recommendations and experience too. That has left a sour taste in my mouth. I think when it comes to buying a house, the only person who is truly looking out for yourself is yourself.
Realtors always have that commission in the back of their minds. I was just speaking to the branch manager at a loan company & he was complaining to me how many RE agents out there don’t want to touch short sales (they have to wait of course for their commission!) and as a result advise their clients to ban them too. He said it’s really sad–he named off quite a few short sale transactions where the buyers got a smokin’ deal.
Yes, the majority of short sales don’t sell but a buyer can get lucky & score a deal.
Jill,
You are right. Many agents have their commissions in the back of their mind. And don’t take it the wrong way, but I’m sure you have your paycheck in the back of your mind after a long week or month of work too.
As far as short sales are concerned. Many of us are showing short sales. It’s a matter of customer service There are people who would ordinarily not be able to get into a home these days. And for the few of us who get it, it is a beautiful thing to see a new family get started in a home. Take it from me, I hold these things in very high regards. I’m very careful to take care of their best interests. Later, when it’s done. I enjoy getting payed so I can also live.
However, it is unfortunately true most agents are not looking out for short sales. And it’s too bad. There are some screaming deals out there.
I’ve written extensively about that in my summer news letter.
But there are many very specific details about that market that a buyer needs to know. Credit of the buyer and down payment are still critical and oodles of patience. These transactions take 4 times more work/time than an ordinary transaction. And often the lender will reduce commissions. The seller is stressed also. So a good agent has to help them from there predicament. The bank owned and short market will begin to taper off near the very end of the year according to my sources and opinion. Then you can look at a slow painful rise in interest rates. As loan requirements loosen up. It’s a complex market. The tools you are using on the internet are great and can also be MISSLEADING. If you don’t really know the big picture you can make the mistake of your life. If you are willing to make the largest investment in your life (for most people)based on a few websites than you are braver than me. You will still need some assistance. Some adds will convince you that you are doing the right thing and that they will help you with the little details for a low cost. Most will be scams, or way overpriced services or worse bad services that leave you holding the bag. So let me give you the best basic advice that I’m sure you’ve heard before.
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS don’t get me wrong I wish you the best of luck if you want to do the whole thing yourself. I’m sure you’ve heard the brain surgery analogy. One slip and your terminal.
Jill,
One of the reasons that agents may steer clear of short sales is that in some instances the bank won’t pay commissions on the sale, or decide to cut the commission drastically especially if the home sells at a steep discount. I have heard from a few agents who got screwed out of most or all of their commissions short sales.
I certainly don’t mind working harder for a sale, or waiting longer for a commission check. But I wouldn’t work for free…would you?
That’s why I would NOT use a agent for a short sale. It’s pointless.
Olaf,
I totally agree with you - for selling a house. I would not sell a house on my own - no way. I know of many people in my neighborhood that has used the flat rate services for selling & have been successful and very happy with their services.
This will be my 3rd house purchase here in San Jose so I know what to expect. I can understand the first time buyer needing a good, trustworthy RE agent to help them out. For me buying a home, using an agent , isn’t really needed. I was born & raised here for more than 4 decades. I probably know more about the neighborhoods than most agents I have encountered. Netherless we have an agent picked out & will most likely use her.
Wow… this thread really got going!
As has been mentioned, the real estate agents don’t see the same thing that is presented to the general public on MLSlistings.com. When we enter our listings into the system, there is a whole other field for “Internet” presentation. Think of most current agents as being at the same level of sophistication regarding sight design as more technical folks were in 1995.
Remember all the pages with 400 animated gifs? The flashing text? The scrolling text? The embedded audio that COULD NOT BE TURNED OFF!?
Once agents figured out they could cram HTML into that internet field, and then figured out what HTML was, we were all doomed!
R
Jill, Just a quick note.
You can’t prove they got the best deal that they could of. And I can’t prove they didn’t. But statistically Realtors negotiate better deals for the client on both sides. And that usually makes up for any percieved costs in commissions. I say usually. You believe you are the exception. And I have no right to say that you can’t beat the odds. But I can honestly tell you knowing what I know. I wouldn’t transact any property without a qualified one. And I’m being 100% honest about that. Just interview a few to separate the clowns from the pack.
Caveat emptor. Or: You know the phrase : a fool and thier money are soon parted.
Olaf, are you familiar with the studies done by economist Steven Levitt?
“Agents are often better informed than the clients who hire them and may exploit this informational advantage. Real-estate agents, who know much more about the housing market than the typical homeowner, are one example. Because real estate agents receive only a small share of the incremental profit when a house sells for a higher value, there is an incentive for them to convince their clients to sell their houses too cheaply and too quickly. We test these predictions by comparing home sales in which real estate agents are hired by others to sell a home to instances in which a real estate agent sells his or her own home. In the former case, the agent has distorted incentives; in the latter case, the agent wants to pursue the first-best. Consistent with the theory, we find homes owned by real estate agents sell for about 3.7 percent more than other houses and stay on the market about 9.5 days longer, even after controlling for a wide range of housing characteristics. Situations in which the agent’s informational advantage is larger lead to even greater distortions. Other possible explanations, such as a lower effort on the part of agent when serving clients, lower discount rates on the part of agents, or unobserved differences in housing quality, appear less likely to account for the observed differences.”
http://home.uchicago.edu/~syverson/realestate.pdf
Hi Ryan,
No I haven’t but it is an accurate description of the worse kind of agents. I have seen them. But I feel the need to explain that there are these types of people in all businesses.
I’m sure you have seen car repair shops pull a number or two over someone before. It takes all kinds to make the world go around, otherwise where would we get fertilizer from!?
Personally, I am actively telling my clients unless they HAVE to sell wait until next year. I also tell them to interview the agent they choose in fact, interview 3 of them. Check their DRE records its public. All you need is their full name or their DRE number. You can even check to see if they have any pending litigation in their county. In Santa Clara you can dig around in here http://www.sccaseinfo.org/ The point is some clients want a cutthroat negotiator and don’t care who gets pounded. The agent is also doing the same thing. They may not want to work with some clients either. (I do logic I don’t do cutthroat). It’s a two way street. I suppose through all my rambling on this thread what I’m really trying to do is explain that you really need to check the qualifications of the professionals you hire, in any situation. Not just RE agents. You need to find people from a network you trust, your friends, or you co workers. But qualify these referrals get them from people who care whether you live or die.
Happily, I have the honor of knowing some of the best people I search for their business. I also have the misfortune of meeting some real pieces of work. I bypass these agents’ properties and don’t even show them to clients.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Treat me honestly and courteously and I will return it in kind.
The industry is changing, there’s no doubt about that. Web companies such as Trulia, Redfin, and the one I work for, Neighborcity.com, all offer services that were only previously offered by agents. The internet has gone a long ay to empower al types of buyers. This doesn’t mean you wont need an agent to buy a house. What it does mean, is that buyer and sellers will have a greater capacity to make informed decisions.