Comments on: One Hoboken Realtor May Be More Than Enough

By: Rick Belben

Rick Belben — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:49:21 +0000

A good buyers agent is going to get the best deal for the client. They surely are not going to try to make the sales price higher to earn more. Some buyers want to believe waht they want to believe. No amount of reason is going to change them.

By: Lori Turoff

Lori Turoff — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:14:09 +0000

Ben
Interesting. Maybe you didn’t read my last comment. I happen to agree with r and partially with you, too. There is no question that there are many problems with the current state of affairs and that disincentives and conflicts do arise. The current system was not my design. It’s forced on realtors by the NJ Real Estate Commission. They limit the business models that brokerages in NJ are allowed to follow. You might say they are not the most progressive bunch. As a result, the consumer in NJ has limited choices. Other states, especially out west, have other models. See redfin.com for a great example.

Personally, I would welcome redfin to NJ with open arms. I believe a merit based compensation system would help the competent agents to do even better and eventually the others would have to think about a different line of work. Maybe if all the homeowners, potential home buyers and home sellers in the state wrote their state congressional reps the commission would be forced to change. Until then, we’re all stuck with what they decree.

Thanks for your comments
Lori

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:46:44 +0000

To add to r’s point, a buyer’s agent has many more incentives to do a good job if the buyer is paying the commission. In the current system, the buyer has no legitimate recourse for poor service once a property is picked out (of course, one can switch agents prior to finding the perfect property).

In the system r describes, the buyer can withhold payment or even forgo an agent all together. The later is certainly a very attractive option to motivated buyers, especially with the amount of information and number of listings found on the internet.

Poor argument, Lori. I don’t think I want you negotiating on my behalf…

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:35:20 +0000

I do agree with that. It’s an imperfect model and hopefully, it will have to change or evolve eventually due to the transparency provided by the free exchange of information on the internet.
- Lori

By: r

Thu, 29 May 2008 21:19:52 +0000

They are your numbers.

I’m not accusing any Realtor in Hoboken or elsewhere of not acting in the best interest of the buyer. I’m just pointing out that the economic incentives between the buyer and buyer’s agent are not aligned. It’s a pretty inefficient model, like the retail Stockbroker model before Schwab and E*Trade.