patrick.net

YesYNot says

If a diy seller could enter their house in the MLS & the average diy buyer could access it freely, then Realtors would have to compete for business. People who want to pay a Realtor could do so. Others could do it themselves.

I thought so too when I started to work at BuyOwner. The more deals I did the more it blew my mind how many things can go wrong in a real estate transaction. I compiled a list for my presentation book that had about twenty things on the buyers side and twenty on the sellers side and the list was growing! I'll try to find it.

Right you as a seller you want to provide any time access to anyone who wants to your home.

You as a buyer want to give a seller access to your driver’s license and credit information to determine if you can really buy prior to entering the property.

By the way before starting this a couple of take 4-6 hours of self-defense training classes to know how to spot and deal with suspicious and or violent characters.

Housing Prices Are Cratering says

So you want me to give a guy like you depicted in the picture below access to my house? Not a chance.

There's plenty of Realtors who are willing to meet the buyer's agent at the property if you don't want to use a lock box. But then you'll have two shady characters alone in your house doing God knows what on your bed. :)

Like it or not you are shooting yourself in the foot BIG TIME if you don't give unrestricted access to your home. Like someone else mentioned, experienced Realtors know when circumstances aren't ideal. Only the desperate ones waste their time with unmotivated buyers and sellers and no COMBO lockbox or any other restrictive conditions or stupid broker remarks like "don't use the toilet" is the writing on the wall. Life's too short...

Also, these days if you don't demand a 3 bureau credit report from the buyer you're going to be very sorry. Forget about pre-qualifications or pre-approvals. They're worthless to a seller. It's only so a buyer's agent knows they're dealing with someone willing to jump through their hoop and to get them hooked up with their mortgage broker. Don't sign anything or take anyone seriously until you see an up to date credit report. When I hear FHA it makes my skin crawl too. But these are the times we live in.

GraooGra says

The only problem is that I don’t have an access to the expanded MLS information and in the short sale situations they only want to talk to a Realtor. BTW it is sometimes difficult to get a hold of the sales agent if you are not a Realtor. They don’t pick up their phones. Also I cannot get a key code to the vacant properties. What else do I need? I have a lender. I can get an inspector and a title company on my own. I started to think why shouldn’t I do it on my own?

That's the benefits of being licensed. Expanded MLS and lockbox codes. The benefit of being a broker is you can list your own properties. Once you're licensed MLS access will cost you $200-800 depending on where you live. For example in Florida it's most expensive because you will be forced to join the local state and National Association of Realtors paying each of them their fee in addition to MLS access. How's that for a racket!

If you're not good with school convince your spouse, relative or someone close to you to get licensed then work as their assistant. However if you stick to it you'll eventually succeed. The tests are hard but in most states you can keep taking the test (for a fee) until you pass. I saw a Haitian who barely spoke English pass on their first try. I've trained offices in Miami where they don't speak a lick of English and they had to use a translator. Somehow they passed even before there was a test in Spanish as there is now.

Also, I have always said, “There is Really NO such thing as a Buyer’s Agent”. Why? Because Buyers Agents are paid a percentage of the sales price and the higher the sales price, the more money the Buyer’s Agent makes. The Buyer’s Agent will Always pretend like they are there to protect the Buyer, they will point out obvious flaws with the properties that anyone with ½ a brain can read in the remarks or see for themselves to try to gain the Buyers confidence. Once they know they have the buyer’s confidence, they will not be completely honest on how low the property should sell for. They will always opt to push for the higher sales price.
I’ve had several RE Agents get angry with me when I told them how much I want to bid and some have basically told me, “Well if the sellers would sell that low, I would snatch it up for that price and flip the property for a profit.” A few times I saw the properties I asked the Agents to submit a bid for sell for less than what I tried to get the real estate agent to write the contract for. Later I found out Real Estate Agents bought the properties for themselves and they did flip the properties for their own profits.
If “Buyers Agents” really existed the system would work something like this: Based on ACCURATE CMA’s, the Buyers Agent will get .5% in addition to his 3% commission for every 5% Below the CMA the property sells for. If the property sells for 5% more than the CMA value, the Buyer’s Agents gets .5% deducted from his commission.

Just because you've attended 4 years of college 3 years of law school and passed the bar to call yourself an attorney does not make you someone I'd hire to handle even a simple matter. Just as I would not go to LegalZoom and attempt to handle the matter on my own without training. 90% of flying a plane is like driving a bus, the pilots are paid the big bucks for their experience, training and ability for the 10% of the time a higher skill set is needed. So to, most jackasses can do 90% of the REALTORS job, it's the 10% do it yourselfers will never be able to do that represent their biggest value to the transaction. Chances are you will never need a seat belt or an air bag, try to buy a new car without one. It's only the day you need them that you appreciate them being part of the auto.

I agree with EconPete's main post.
Also, I have always said, “There is Really NO such thing as a Buyer’s Agent”. Why? Because Buyers Agents are paid a percentage of the sales price and the higher the sales price, the more money the Buyer’s Agent makes. The Buyer’s Agent will Always pretend like they are there to protect the Buyer, they will point out obvious flaws with the properties that anyone with ½ a brain can read in the remarks or see for themselves to try to gain the Buyers confidence. Once they know they have the buyer’s confidence, they will not be completely honest on how low the property should sell for. They will always opt to push for the higher sales price.
Years ago I’ve had several RE Agents get angry with me when I told them how much I want to bid and some have basically told me, “Well if the sellers would sell that low, I would snatch it up for that price and flip the property for a profit.” A few times I saw the properties I asked the Agents to submit a bid for sell for less than what I tried to get the real estate agent to write the contract for. Later I found out Real Estate Agents bought the properties for themselves and they did flip the properties for their own profits.
If “Buyers Agents” really existed the system would work something like this: Based on ACCURATE CMA’s, the Buyers Agent will get .5% in addition to his 3% commission for every 5% Below the CMA value the property sells for. If the property sells for 5% more than the CMA value, the Buyer’s Agents gets .5% deducted from his commission.

CBM says

RE: What it takes to get a real estate license....as a consumer who would hire a REALTOR you probably want someone who treats their profession as a career and not a part time hobby.

Exactly.

That's why we hired a real-estate lawyer with a three-year JD graduate degree to look after our legal interests on two out of the last three properties we sold (we used a company provided Realtor(TM) for the third because that way my relocation package covered all the transaction costs including commissions plus a gross-up to cover income taxes on that benefit versus nothing for any other home sale method).

A REALTOR® is defined as

A real estate agent is a REALTOR® when he or she is a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, The Voice for Real Estate® -- the world's largest professional association.

http://www.realtor.com/Basics/AllAbout/Realtors/WhatIs.asp?source=web

A REALTOR® doesn't fight for anything. They just pay their tithe to the NAR(R), which allows them to claim superiority over all of the non-members. They also agree to uphold a code of ethics, but that seems to be a sham.

The NAR® is a typical trade group that charges membership fees, lobbies for laws that benefit the industry at the expense of others, spends millions on adverts, hires an 'economist' to give official economic prognostications that benefit the industry, and gives car rental discounts at Hertz.

Everyone knows that. We need an encore. How about encouraging them to sky dive without a parachute. Geronimo!

As a counterpoint to all this animosity towards real estate agents....

After 9+ years, we're buying again. While I think there is a good slide in prices to come, we simply waited thru enough of the zaniness and back on the other side now. We have good income and FICO...we have been quite purposefully renting and are now on our 3rd house. The current owner of this house is getting re-married and will move back here - so our choices were to look for another rental (rents up about 10% the past couple years here in San Fran area) or buy.

We judged the least of our pain to be buying right now (we had a HORRIBLE landlord for the first 5 of those rental years). Tho prices haven't dropped quite as much as hoped (maybe 20% around here from peak), but the 3% mortgage rates today are simply helping the monthly nut a lot.

Anyhow, we had some complex last contingencies to drop before the house transaction moves forward (based on appraisal, pest and home inspection done last week). Our agent, a totally buttoned up lady down the street, has been available via email and phone every single day for a week to discuss these issues and sort them thru. She set up the Pest and Home Inspectors - and they were both total pros. She set us up with an insurance agent - and that ins agent beat the pasts off AAA and GEICO (both of whom I contacted) in price for homeowners.

Further, both last nite and the nite before we had thorny issues to overcome with the sellers and we had conversations about it at 10PM.

Truly, this lady gets the bronze start for efforts and is earning every bit of the 1.5-2.0% she gets from this transaction from the sellers (no agent makes 3%; that's generally shared with the agency). She's every bit as good as she advertised herself to be to us.