Hey Brokers! Now that you're starving, are you asking sellers to lower their asking price?

Boo-frickin-hoo.

BOO-FRICKIN'-HOO!!!!!!

Great link. The comments alone are priceless!!

What amazes me is considering the economy, most brokers don't blame sellers for asking too much or buyers for "low balling" or even banks for not lending, no, they are actually blaming the so called "parasites" in their industry. It seems to me that with 20% of brokers doing 90 percent of the transactions, this 10% remaining is a rather small slice of the cake any broker would literally fvck each other over so he doesn't have to share this left over. Working in a real estate office at the moment must be an awful experience of back stabbing, false smiling and nickel and diming. Any broker want to confirm?

"Working in a real estate office at the moment must be an awful experience of back stabbing, false smiling and nickel and diming."

It was ALWAYS that way, so it's not much of a change.

30years, why do you continue working in a RE office? I really appreciate your posts. It is strange, though, to see a broker with that level on broker hate.

My business really has very little to do with what the firm does. It's a 7 block commute, which is very inportant to me.. They let me do pretty much whatever I want. I actually enjoy having "younger" brokers around asking questions if they are intelligent (why do you think my desk is next to Ali's?). I take up an inordinate amount of space with my crap (files from 30 years, etc.). I've been friends with the owner for over 20 years. I would go nuts if I worked alone out of my house. They don't have a huge "reputation" so I can structure deals in ways I never could at a large brokerage house. I've sat at the same desk for almost 20 years, so there's an awful lot of people who know where to reach me (like, REO depts who haven't needed me in a dozen years, but now are starting to), and often just walk into the office when they are in the neighborhood (there are guys who own substantial blocks of unsold shares who I see at random intervals when the just "show up" out of the blue at the office. There aren't too many people in the office, so the amount of numskulls I have to interact with on a daily basis is rather small. I have a better financial deal than any other place offers ("off the rack" - who knows what I could get if I shopped around) and if I moved I'd probably have to go following some "rules" of the new office.

30Years, that sounds like a truly ideal setup. I'm genuinely jealous!

Good for you, 30yrs, & thank you for sharing with us numbskulls ;-)

I think that pretty much answers the question.

Its not really fair to blame unrealistic prices on brokers - wouldn't we all agree that sellers have been just as unrealistic as brokers?

Well, Village, considering that a lot of brokers used their commission to snatch up a lot of properties and jack up prices, i think their should share the blame.

Sorry - I don't think we should blame real estate investors ... people can do what they like with their own damn money. If buying pressure pushes up prices - well, thats a free market at work. Now selling pressure has pushed markets down. That's how it works.

If free market means a 500% increase in 10 years, then your free market sucks!

"Its not really fair to blame unrealistic prices on brokers - wouldn't we all agree that sellers have been just as unrealistic as brokers?"

On face value, that sounds right, but you have to remember that an awful lot of brokers "buy" listings by telling the seller they can get them an unrealistically high price to get the listing, preying on the seller's greed. Now, you can say "well, then it's the seller's greed which does it", but I think you have to share the blame.

Way back when things were changing from mostly "open listings" to more "exclusive listings" (this must have been late 80's / early 90's?), there was a panel discussion sponsored by the now defunct "Downtown Broker's Association". Among other owners of firms, Barbara Corcoran was on the panel. I vividly remember the question being asked "What to you do if the Seller wants too much? Do you turn down the exclusive or do you take it anyway?" and Bab's answer was "As long as you get a long enough exclusive so that when they have to sell and drop the price you still have the listing."