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Whose fees get examined? Everyone's, or just R.E. agents?

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Whose fees get examined? Everyone's, or just R.E. agents?

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Bill Keegan, Licensed Real Estate Agent, Martinsville, NJ

Date: August 23, 2007, Number of Replies: 3

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Some people seem to think that only real estate agent fees are questioned & examined. I saw the following in some posts recently; "Do you question your doctors, lawyers or accountants fees like your commissions are questioned? Honestly, the answer will be NO", and "Don't question my doctors, lawyers or accounts fees, unless they do not do the job."

Do we really believe that those other professions don't get questions about their fees? Do none of you question your doctors, lawyers, etc? I certainly do. That doesn't mean that cost is the sole criterion I use for choosing a professional to work for me, but I certainly do ask about prices. If one price appears to be too high, too low, or significantly different from the local "norms" for that service, I want to know why. What do I get for that extra cost? Why are you able to charge less than all yoru competitors? Of course I ask. If the answer is acceptable, great. If not, I don't use them. I also expect that people will ask me about my fee before they hire me to help them with their real estate transactions. How should I expect otherwise? They're about to pay me (my broker, anyway) $25k, $50k, or maybe even more, and should understand what that fee will get them. I'm not afraid of the question, and I'm not insulted that they ask it. It seems to me that every single person you are going to pay for any service should be asked what their fee will be, and what you will get for that fee.

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Gloria Handley Licensed Real Estate Agent, Chandler, AZ

Date: August 23, 2007

"Some people seem to think that only real estate agent fees are questioned...."

Well Bill.... Personally I would never question my Dr. or Attorney about fees. I certainly don't call around asking how much a cortisone shot is for my tennis elbow and bum shoulder.. or how much it would cost for a divorce or a will, or how much an office call and blood work is..... I just ask around and find out who has had a good experience... when you are in pain 99.9% of people will just seek out a licensed professional and never ask about price...... And lets not get in to the whole long thread about Realtor's being required to get more education... we all know that all Realtor's are NOT created equal, but we have nothing in place right now to insure that there is a certain standard that need to be met. Yes, we have our NAR ethics and all of that, but for the most part the general public doesn't know they even exist... And many Realtor's forget that they took an oath to uphold those standards and ethics. I have seen some pretty amazing stuff and I wonder why my partner and I don't have buyer's and seller's lining up to do business with us considering we virtually have Phd's in Real Estate... but we don't.... the very best we can get are ABR's.GRI's and CRS's and e-Pro's etc etc. and the general public doesn't have a clue what those are... The issue to me is that if more people thought we were more than just glorified car salesmen we wouldn't be in this mess and right now I have more to worry about than a few bucks in commission.

I work in Metro Phoenix and we have been damaged beyond belief by what has happened. I knew in 2005 that we were in for serious trouble. Our wages are low but homes doubled in price in less than 6 months. Builders refused to allow a co-broke and people actually bought homes that didn't fit their needs just because they had a "winning" number.. (None of my buyer's thank goodness got in to any of those awful loans because I have a very good lender that thinks beyond an "overage" and a paycheck)

Anyway, my time is up for RT tonight... and I understand what you are saying, but we have a long way to go before we, as Realtor/Professionals, don't have to deal with what we are worth.

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Suzanne Kunda

Date: August 23, 2007

I completely agree and think your view is well stated. If you cannot justify your fee and thoroughly explain why you are charging the amount you have stated - then you may not be 'worth' that fee!

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Don Sutton Licensed Real Estate Agent, Edmonton

Date: August 28, 2007

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Yes, people will ask how much for other services but how many others are asked to reduce whatever they charge for that service. Asking what the fee is, is not the same as asking them to reduce it.

If you are on trial for your life and you have a choice of a lawyer who gets 90% of his clients off, or one who gets only 60% of his clients off but charges less, which one would you go with?

Same scenario, would you ask the 90% lawyer to reduce his fee? Most likely not. But people will ask that of Realtors all the time. The question then becomes why do they ask us to reduce it?

1 of the reasons is because so many are willing to reduce it when asked. Which also means they were lying when they were asked what their fee was at the beginning.

And if you think that the seller is not going to tell all his friends that you reduced your fee, think again.

So where does that leave you? Now all his friends know that what you say and what you do are two different things? Not a good way to start a relationship.

DonSutton@EdmontonRealEstateAgent.com

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