NAR Real Estate Changes

This blog is in response to the new NAR changes coming, if approved:    https://www.nbcnews.com/business/real-estate/national-association-realtors-settlement-changes-rcna143634.    I have something to say about the commissions because we got burned three times in a row recently.

I think it is a good point because from my angle where I lost out on three homes because the Seller's agent would not sell to us because of his/her commission since that would have to be split. Did you ever think of that?

The buyer offers more, but the seller's agent does not accept it, meaning less money for the seller. Why?

Well it is because the seller actually receives less than they would have if our bid was actually accepted in a bidding war (on us from $10,000 to $20,000 less). The seller, of course, never knows about this.

Not only did we give up buying, but because we did, we cannot sell. See the point?

My wife and I were told that we cannot do anything about it or they will sue us. OK, sue us! The agency doesn't care. The seller is hidden. Another tactic they use when you are totally preapproved is to tell you that they require you to use the seller's lender and that the seller can dictate that in CT you must use the financing that they want you to us. I think this goes against the law.

Requiring you to be approved by their lender and then use your lender we are already preapproved on gives them time to sell the property to someone else. What this does is allow the agency to receive more commission money and in particular the agent so that they get both buyer and seller fees and no splits with another party.

However, the seller receives less money than you offered, as he did not know about your offer. The Agent/Agency profits from both the buyer's and seller's commission. It gives them time to sell to the buyer that comes from their agency, receiving both buyer and seller commissions.

So, I think the new changes would help us sell various pieces of real estate because we will be able to fairly buy a property. The splits agents do are not enforced by existing laws, so seller and buyer both lose. The seller winds up selling for less money so the agent can make more money. Besides that the prices are elevated to compensate the splits, being the agents, so buyer and seller lose.

All the tremendous fees hurt the buying and selling of real estate. So no wonder there is a lack of inventory being transacted. If it costs so much to buy and sell, then people just will not sell, not move, and even industries in this country have to jack up the prices because they cannot get people to move to accept better jobs. Most of all, young people cannot make their first purchase.

This is our experienced angle. We owned our home for 40 years, and we would like to sell. Today seller agents are dictating splits, kickbacks, and cozy lender relationships, and that means that you, a buyer, lose out and the seller receives the lower bid or offer for their property and has no idea about your offer. The agent, though, makes more money this way with their own buyer paying less money. This shows in a tight market like Rhode Island.

Something right now is very wrong. Where we are now... we gave up looking to buy or sell our real estate properties.

We bring the properties to the Buyer's agent anyway, so we mostly do the work. The seller is paying more when the realtor is doing less with online services like realtor.com, zillow.com, and redfin.com, and I am sure many other services that are online, as well.

Also, we would gladly pay the agent's fee if they bring us the property rather than us bringing it to them and they simply close the deal.

The easiest way to steal money away from the seller is with the Buyer's agency fee. Don't accept the highest offer and receive both the buyer and seller's fees. The poor seller received less money. For us, we offered $20,000 more.