Why do real estate agents make so much money?

because some are stupid enough to use them.

it's not as if they help, either, they are just there to get something for nothing, and they snap up any bargains for themselves.

What are you talking about..they get 3% which then they have to give some to the realty they work for and most are independent contractors so advertising/gas driving people around and all the things that have to do with their business come out of their pocket.

Next time please know what you are talking about before you post something stupid.

I think getting a percentage of the sale is ridiculous. I think they should get a flat fee of say $1000.00. At the most $3000. I mean, they want SIX PERCENT of the value of a house, they had nothing to do with the value of the house, only the sale.

and they split it with the other broker for the other party, Buyer or seller.

EACH side, seller's agent and buyer's agent, get 3%. Insane. You must be a realt-whore.

another one that does not know what he is talking about...jeez...

Because they're good at selling, you can put an ad in the paper for your house yourself if you like.
But you will never get as many prospects as if you use a real estate agent.
The problem with a real estate agent is, they may sell your house for less than you want.
Simply because its taking to long and they want to get paid something, this is the catch.
They'll tell you it wont sell above blah blah, but if you waited 6 months you would probably get that.
They scam both the seller and buyer.

Then they should be fairly reimbursed for the gas and advertising etc. It's a job you go to school for 6 months for. Not even doctors make $5000 for what, 50 hours of work?

No I am not but there is a lot that goes into being a realtor and they don't make that much money.

Figure it out. $100,000 home. They get 6000. A portion of that goes to the agency for the desk space. If there is another broker they split that with them so they are left with 3000, a percentage goes to the agency. Now expenses for handling the house because again they are subcontractors. Our house has been on the market for a year and a half. We have had an open house once a month every month. Realtor is here from 11:00 to 4:30. That is a lot of time and not getting paid.

Fairly reimbursed by who....??? They are independent contractors. You want to be an agent you have to handle the expenditures. What don't you get about this??

In this market they aren't making shit.

OK..you guys are horses asses. I am bored and you are stupid. I am going now to a thread that interests me.

Ok, so it's 3%. I sold my dad's house for him, it wasn't all that hard. Sale price was about $200k, and we had agreed to pay me 2% since the buyer didn't use an agent. I made $4000 and all it took was time and it was a bit of a pain to show the apartments. What made the sale is that I kept calling the one interested guy and lowering the price until we got it right. I had about half the people who set up a date to look at the place not even show up. It was a big hassle but $4000 was a huge amount of money regardless. It took me 2 months of full time office work to make that much.

And that was just one house and it was your dad. Now try hundreds of houses and hundreds of phone calls and hundreds of buyers and hundreds of sellers. See if you want to work for a flat fee and then give part of it to the agency and hope you have enough to cover your expenses to sell the house. Have you guys taken an economics class. You need to get some knowledge. And if you are so for a flat fee why did you take 4000 from your father. That was pretty shitty.

Because he's my father, and because I saved him 1%, and because I had a bunch of credit card debt to settle and he was more than happy to help with that. I'm not saying it's EASY work, I am just saying it should be a flat fee. Getting a percentage of the home's sale price is not justifiable. It gouges the buyer and the seller for the agent's benefit. I did not propose a super low flat fee, I said somewhere around 1-2k per agent seems fair. They don't work THAT hard. I know what the work entails since I did the sale myself. There were weeks and even months when I did nothing except repost in CL and keep the sign visible and updated, etc., answer emails and calls.

I hope you have an accident on the way and DIE

Not if they work for themselves you fucking idiot

they getting 6 percent here in missouri

bc of price-fixing...

I gave up my envy as much as I can stand.
My only last hope was that I could get shit out the asshole of Satan and make a run for it, before it licks up its own diarrhea.

Real estate agents here can charge what they want, so it pays to shop around and negotiate always. Dont pay for expensive ads either they will rip you off that way.

I live in a major city and a few of my friends are RE agents....during the BOOM period, they made obscene amounts of money....they freely admitted that it was crazy....maybe in small towns the agents worked hard to make a sale but here condos start around 250K and sold in a matter of a few days if that....hell there were bidding wars that drove prices up to the skies....they all were also into flipping properties themselves cuz they had the inside line on stuff coming on the market....

Now that the bubble popped....they are working harder and many went back to their pre boom jobs....there is a block downtown that had about 9 RE offices on it back then....now its back to 2 with much reduced staffing....

You would not believe the money it cost just to stay an 'active agent' it's all about the money, and lot of them are crooks, shady, shifty, and into all kinds of ponzi scams..the whole reason claimed to even have real estates agent was to 'protect the public' but the reason is really to help cover all the fraud.

our local RE agents are by far the most wealthy occupation in the area.

two of them are the main partners for just over fifteen years.

one of them literally owns half the properties in my street.

both of them have a personal wealth of over ten million.

every time a desperate sale is made on property or equipment they are there to purchase it for a song. they trick the elderly into selling to them cheap.

half the properties in their window are ' agent declares interest' meaning they have

bought it or have arrangements to sell it as a part owner, with no fee cap.

they have subdivisions, and can call on special favours for zone changing to the

properties

they purchase

they are basically despised by the community, even more so as the only employees they ever hire are the most attractve local teenage girls, who last a few months.

here , anyway , it is an occupation where you can cash in on the misfortunes of the

local community and the amount of cash you rake in is relative to how ruthless and

devious you are willing to be.

You are an idiot. Real estate agents make as much as any other hourly paid job.

In Missouri, 6% is standard but not set...You can agree to any commission the realtor and sellers want.

If using 6%
3% to Buyers Agent
3% to Sellers Agent

Average cost in Southwest Missouri:
-Depending on Broker, you pay an average of 30% of your 3% off the top.
-Ad space in newspapers and Homes magazines average 400 a month
-Desk/Office fees average 100 a month
-Board of Realtors annual dues of 350, monthly dues of 45
-Key rentals/renewals 25 a month and 235 a year
-License Renewal and Continuing Education 200 a year
-Outrageous cell phone bills
-Gas driving buyers all over creation, sometimes for months at a time
-Open houses, realtor tours, luncheons vary depending on length of listing
-Advertising yourself varies by agent, but around 300 a month
-Don't forget about the taxes that aren't held out of that 3%
-Errors and Commission insurance 50 per sale
And all of these costs are on blind faith you will close a deal, if they don't close you are out all expenses with nothing in return...Every client is a gamble!!!

Just like any business, the better you are the more you sale and the more you make...Many profit 30,000 a year while a select few will be in 6 figures.

It is a costly and VERY time consuming profession!!!