Does Everyone Think They Can Negotiate EVERYTHING?

What's with people these days? I just don't get it. When you go to the doctor, do you tell him once he has done whatever it is that he is doing, that you want him to take a 50% pay cut? Do you walk into Nordstroms and find a dress you really like and when they ring it up, tell the sales person that you don't want to pay full price for the dress so could they please take whatever they were supposed to get in commission off the price of the dress? NEVER HAPPENS!

So why to me, more often than not lately. Is my driving all over town (with gas at $4 a gallon), the money I spend to keep my real estate license active, cost for continuing education which I am required to take, monthly office fees, and MY TIME, not worth them money I am compensated as a Real Estate Agent? It's not like I close on a house every day of the week with a 5 or 6 thousand dollar commission on each - if that were the case, everyone would be a real estate agent.

But for some reason, the last 2 buyers I have been working with, are asking me to cut my commission to get them a better deal on an already outstanding deal on a home purchase. Now I realize that a home purchase is a huge expense, and everyone wants to get the best deal they can on it. But the reason they found the house in the first place is because a REAL ESTATE AGENT listed it in the multiple listing service, and then a REAL ESTATE AGENT pulled it up and showed it to them.

This whole system of listing and selling homes is set up to bring buyers and sellers together, who otherwise would not have found eachother. That's why sellers pay commission - so that they can get someone to buy their home. Selling agents pay out tons of money to advertise and promote the homes they list. The buyers don't pay ANYTHING.... No up front costs, no hourly rate, no nothing. We drive them around - sometimes to over 100 different homes over a period of MONTHS.

And it doesn't end there! Once a buyer decides on a house, as an agent, we have to research taxes, utilities, the neighborhood, CC&R's, and whatever other specific questions the buyers have about the property, then we have to negotiate a price (that can take days and even weeks), and it doesn't end there. We have to coordinate inspections, appraisals, title work, make sure paperwork is in order and complete, schedule and attend the final walk through, schedule the closing, attend the closing, help get utilities switched over, and that is just what happens on an "easy closing". The list gets 3 times as long if a problem arises.

So for some reason, people think that all of that time and effort is not worth the paycheck that we get once the deal closes. And again, we get paid NOTHING if the deal doesn't close. And that happens - we get all the way to closing, having completed everything on the list, and the deal falls apart..... weeks of work and no paycheck.

So if I can gain anything from this you-know-what-session, it is that anyone who reads it will have a new appreciation for their real estate agent - and NOT ASK THEM TO CUT THEIR COMMISSION.... we have to feed our families too!