The hot topic in real estate industry is whether the commissions that real estate agents charge for their services are fair. For many years agents assisted buyers and sellers in facilitating purchases and sales of real estate. It is a valuable service and the one that consumers cannot do without. Real estate brokers are trained professionals that deal fairly and ethically with all parties, since they are regulated by department of licensing and other professional organizations and government laws. Having a real estate broker represent you in a purchase or sale is like having an attorney represent you in court. Real estate professionals make sure that everything is done according to laws that regulate purchase and sale of real estate. They are responsible for knowing the requirements and regulations and guiding clients to ensure a fair deal and disclosing possible pitfalls and potential problems to avoid. Real estate agents are responsible for marketing properties that they sell and generating buyers.
In the past, Multiple Listing Service information was only accessible to real estate brokers and was in a form of a book. Agents would review this book for new listings and show them to the clients. It was perceived that agents were doing a lot of advertisement and that’s why they were worth the commissions they were charging. Lately, Multiple Listing Service became available to general public for searching the properties and even posting your home for sale without using an agent. This service is much cheaper than listing with a broker, but there is no marketing provided, other than Multiple Listing Service distributing information of the home for sale to all real estate web sites that agree to the rules and regulations set. Suddenly, new homes for sale could be visible on very many websites online without any special knowledge or skills of a seller. This change forced many agents that did not know how to market and sell a home go to really low commissions. They started buying clients through lower fees, without providing much service to even justify the lower fees. Customers however felt the pressure on their own incomes and did not understand why in the midst of decreasing incomes from middle income families agents would keep charging high commissions.
