patrick.net

It probably depends what you rely on your realtor for. For us, as long as they know how to use a key to open a door and email us boilerplate paperwork, that's all we really need. No offense, but I believe monkeys are trainable to perform these tasks.

camping says

It probably depends what you rely on your realtor for. For us, as long as they know how to use a key to open a door and email us boilerplate paperwork, that’s all we really need. No offense, but I believe monkeys are trainable to perform these tasks.

That, and you have to be able to pitch a teevee show to hgtv. I'm not exactly a fan of realtors. Surprised?

Increasing the educational requirements might result in a more ethical culture and an increased sense of professionalism. However, almost everything these days requires classes and a degree, and there are not a lot of professional paths that allow relatively direct entry as real estate does. Not everyone is able to take a couple of years away from work and/or family to get another degree in order to change fields. Many people in the middle of their adult lives cannot or would not take years in order to become a real estate agent. So if you required an associate's degree, you would probably skew the field to younger twentysomethings. That might be OK, if they could manage to be ethical.

I personally think that the change related to realtor jobs should come in terms of payment.
Is it really worth that much to show houses and send boiler plate docs.
I can easily fax my own docs, call up other parties or exchange emails, the only thing I cannot do is to go see houses w/o the keys. So perhaps just like they are: I must put a deposit of lets say 10K and get a membership for x number of months. Visit houses as appropriate, log hours of visits....and so on.
For owner occupied - require them to be there, or they should release me of all charges if they were not there and something went missing.
As an alternative keep the realtors, but have a flat fee for each house show: mileage + a visit, where you get a discount on n-number of shows. Flat fee for writing up paperwork... Nowhere I see this to be thoughsands. Paying a % of sale is just as crazy. Truth be told realtor likely spends less time on a more expensive purchase, as those are specific and have a scarce pool.

On another note: my bf is considering becoming a realtor (he is currently unemployed) for a sheer reason, to help me buy. We happen to know someone else who did it at his work, and they are much happier and said it was worth the investment.