From: "Ivan cejas" 
Newsgroups: alt.real-estate
Subject: Re: real estate "pros"
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 12:09:21 -0500

Not every broker or R.E. Agent insists in the 6%. Myself I many times agree
on 4% and the way to do the equation about the $100.00 per our is not truly
accurate or representative of the truth. The truth is that to become license
it takes anyone around $2000.00 between state fees and time needed to
complete the course, then you must attand all of these seminars and classes
to get up to date and you must also pay your association fees, Lock Boxes,
Signs, place adds on the paper to advertise YOUR home answer the phone, make
appointments, screen buyers credit, etc, etc, etc.... Listen, in this life
everything has a price and be certain that most agents and brokers out there
do earn their living rightly and fairly. There my be a bad apple here and
there but that happens in every professional area you go into. Take this for
example. Last week I had to go to see my doctor because I got a small fish
spine stuck in my throat and the doctor sat me down in the chair and took
about 20 minutes to get this spine out from my throat the bill was $485.00
(Yes.! $485.00 for 20 minutes. That is the equivalent to $1455.00 per hour)
What were my options? Doctors pay lots of money to become license
practitioners and got to pay insurance, their share of profits etc, etc,
etc. Another good example is your income tax and regular sales tax; most
people pay around 15 to 20% tax and no one like it but that is what it takes
to maintain our Govt. And it doesn't matter if one complaints. Sale tax is
7% here in Miami and guess what? Everyone has to pay it but since it is
included in the bill, few people notice it.

So to resume my point and with all respect to your opinion; I have to ask
you to do a little more research. It takes a lot of money and efforts to
sell a home and may be your home sells with ease but the next home my be a
lot more difficult and agents don't have a way to judge which are going to
be winners or loosers in terms of time and money spent on advertising so we
just got to do a sort of midway and like I said earlier; many time I charge
4% for a listing and many times the sellers just got to sell quickly and we
list the home for 7 or 8% and it sells fast and at top dollar. Everyone
wins!

Good luck!

================================
Ivan Cejas (Lic. Real Estate Broker.)
Floridian Sun Realty Corp.
Cell. 305-469-2333 / Off. 305-752-2607
Fax. 305-752-2608 / Pgr. 305-201-2921
E-mail: florida771@yahoo.com
================================
"Flatus Elegante"  wrote in message 
news:QhPrd.133826$5K2.108073@attbi_s03...
>
> Now that you've mentioned that "customary" %6
> commission, I'm not sure what that's about.  If I'm
> buying a house for $300k then %6 is $18000.  What is
> it that the various brokers did that's supposedly
> worth that amount of money?  Make a few phone calls?
> Stand around answering questions at an open house?
> Drive prospects around in his/her car?  OK, fine -
> those services have SOME value, no question.
> But even if I choose to pay for those services at
> the preposterous rate of $100/hr it would still take
> four solid 40-hour weeks of such work (actually,
> four and a half weeks) to run up a bill like that.
> Anybody who's dealt with real estate professionals
> knows that they are definitely NOT putting in those
> kinds of hours on most houses.
>
> No, it seems more to be that real estate people
> simply believe that since there's a lot of money on
> the table they are somehow inherently entitled to as
> much as they can grab, so they all collude in chanting
> "Six Percent!  Six Percent!"  in the belief that if
> we hear it often enough we'll just accept it a fact
> of life and not examine it any further.  La Mordita!
>
> Speaking of corruption: how about that MLS?
> Can it be an accident that the real estate PACs
> are consistently in the top 10 when it comes to
> greasing the wheels of Congress?  "Pay no attention
> to that monoply behind the curtain!  These aren't
> the monopolists you're looking for..."  Because,
> of course, that's what the %6 is really about:
> access to the Monopoly Listing Service.  For the