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Comment by coldcode | Hacker News Reader

I just sold my house for a ridiculous number. My realtor got 50 people to tour the house in a single weekend, and 5 places offers and I took the one 10% over the asking price. It's not a mansion or anything, and not in some high tech city, but nice area and a bit of land. The 6% commission is not really that much. Just prepping the house took all of my energy; trying to do marketing as well would have been too much.

Like many things you can do everything yourself, or contract to others to do the things you are not good at, or don't have time for. Arguing realtors are useless is like saying accountants are useless, or lawyers are useless. I also did not re-roof my house. But of course you could get terrible accountants, lawyers or roofers, and you could possibly be terrible at stuff yourself. Some people think programmers are useless and some are, but that's not sufficient to try writing it yourself if you aren't one.

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>The 6% commission is not really that much.

Sure, because you (or your agent) managed to sell 10% more than asking price.

Try re-evaluating this 6% if all offers were 85-90% of asking price, and confirm that it is not really that much.

They're saying that that's the whole point of the realtor. Obviously hiring a crappy realtor that can't find buyers that actually want your house is bad.

Personally I don't believe that an agent finds people that want to buy, one may have more contacts than another, but it is not like the sale goes over or under asked price because an agent is so much better than another, either the initial evaluation (asking price) was underestimated by roughly 10% or the local market allowed a 10% over valuation.

A good agent (as opposed to a bad one) will help (a lot) in a number of other things (bureaucracy, managing and dealing with the details, counsel - if needed - about other professionals such as lawyers and technicians, possibly help in finding a suitable contractor for renovation works, and similar) but they won't be able to raise or lower the price sensibly, the price is mainly due to the market (locally and at that exact moment).

But who determines the asking price? Not hard to claim success if the realtor themselves sets the bar.

To add onto this, many buying realtors will not show a house to their client that is for sale by owner. They know they won't get their cut of the commission so they leave it out of the options. They will only visit if their client specifically finds it and brings it to them.

Always trips me up hearing about how house sales work in the US. Soo inefficient and many people involved that need their fees.

And is the inspection done after, by the buyer?? Why isn't it done by the seller and included in the ad? That's mandatory here. Sounds like a recipe for disaster and conflicts.

It's done by the buyer, since it gives them the option to forgo it if they so please.

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