The last two personal residences I sold were without a realtor. Of course, that's because we happened to know folks looking for what we had. That saved us (or the buyer, depending on the contract) several thousands. The realtor's only value is the number of eyeballs they get to look at your house. Also, I think the title search lawyers are soon to be out of jobs with lexis and other legal resources the average joe can now use himself.

Checked the WATE site and couldn't find the article (probably not published yet). Be interested in reading it.

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SayUncle
Can't we all just get a long gun?

And their exclusive control of the MLS is pretty much their last "value-add" for sellers (well, that and showings). But investing a little extra time and effort doing your own research can save you big. And your mortgage company will help facilitate the transaction in the end, because they want every i dotted and every t crossed.

Honestly, the title company seems to be a lot more thorough than the mortgage company. When you go to close on a property, there are sometimes details that materialize in discussions which the mortgage company fails to outline up front.

But by comparison, in my first home purchasing experience, my realtor fell down on major details. I mean, like neglecting to mention when I needed to have insurance. Like neglecting to tell me about PMI. Like telling me that a FHA certification was pretty much the same thing as a home inspection. Like not having the correct amount to bring on the cashier's check for the closing, and then telling me a figure that was wrong.

This was Crye-Leike, by the way. I wouldn't use them to broker the sale of a birdcage. Yes, ladies & gents, CRYE-LEIKE. Don't use them. They suck.

And selling that house a few years later? Jumping Jesus. The wrong choice of realtor can lead to big, unpredicted expenses. Ever tried to insure a vacant home?

I did wind up with a good realtor -- one who found the right buyer and wound up making the sale of my house a break-even.

It seems to me that Realtors ought to re-think how they do business in the "information age" and if nothing else would appreciate working with better informed buyers and sellers.

What do you think? Are Realtors becoming obsolete?

I read that zillow.com was started by the same guy that started Expedia, and I think we all know what happened to the business of travel once Expedia got in the game.

I think that the business of buying & selling real estate has been in such a boom (involving fantastic sums of lucre) that it's been an incentive for a lot of sharks have gotten into the game. I don't know if it makes the better ones even better, or it makes them worse. I haven't traded enough in property to know all of the ins and outs. That said, I have been screwed royally a couple of times, though, and I can certainly point out some royally incompetent realtors who were involved.

They don't like their monopoly threatened. And if their stranglehold on information is stopped, then their perceived value will drop accordingly.

____________________________

If we heard mortar shells, we'd cuss more in our songs and cut down on guitar solos

Oren Incandenza quote:

The only good reasons to watch local TV news are (a) to get a weather report and (b) to feel better about yourself.

Too funny... I laughed out loud!

I think smart realtors are adapting.  We attempted to sell by owner awhile back and just couldn't deal with the volume of calls and showings.  Plus, I am not a salesman and tend to talk too much.  After we found the house we were going to buy (random drive-by of an open house), we decided to use a realtor to sell our house and help negotiate on the one we were buying.  Our realtor gave us a pretty sizeable discount and sold our house within about 3 weeks, but only because the people who bought it went on vacation for a week.  After each potential buyer looked at our house, he either administered directly, or got their realtor to administer a survey asking what they liked/didn't like, etc.

That same realtor has a mobile office, including laptop with internet access, fax machine, and printer, all in the back of his vehicle.  He could download codes to his realtor key when needed, research, download and print documents, send and receive faxes, etc.  We did the initial negotiation in the McDonald's parking lot on Topside Road (South Knoxville).  He embraced the internet as a tool to assist himself and his clients.

 YMMV