Comments on: Hate High-Rises? Live in a 3-Bedroom Townhouse in River North: 350 W. Huron

By: jenny

jenny — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:30:59 +0000

They are definitely hideous, but they have their own private entrances and several floors of space and are one of the few non-condo options in the neighborhood. No one buys in a town home community because the townhouses are so cool looking. Although, these are particularly ugly and it almost seems like the developer picked the ugliest of all possible designs.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 16:44:03 +0000

I cannot believe anyone looks at the exterior facade of these things and finds them attractive or cool looking. I think they are hideous. Nothing lines up from one level to the next. The bottom half and top half look to me like someone when all mixy-matchy on two sets of plans for two different developments.

I walk by these things every day – – agree the location gets better and better but really had no idea they aren’t real town-homes since this listing. Why didn’t people buy the top and bottom and combine them at least?

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 01:40:38 +0000

Realtor commissions reflect the risk associated with being 100% commissioned and the fact that every deal is unique in regards to time and resources necessary to complete. For every property that sells in a weekend with multiple offers and the Realtor gets $15k check for a few hours work, there is another that sits for several months and may never sell due to maybe an irrational seller. As Gary mentioned, the easy deals wind up paying for the hard deals. Not many people are willing to work for weeks or months and not earn a dime.

If buyers/sellers were willing to take on the risk associated with NOT BUYING or SELLING, Realtors could charge lower prices. Most consumers rather pay the higher commissions as they are only paid if a property is sold versus a lower price that must be paid regardless. Let’s take a typical $500k condo. Buyer’s agent and their brokerage gets 2.5%, so $12,500 on that sale. Most buyers rather implicitly pay that $12,500 through the price of the home only if they actually buy instead of say having to write a personal check for $2500 regardless if they buy a home or not.

Redfin has made waves, but they still aren’t profitable which does not bode well given we’ve had a hot market over the past several years. It doesn’t say much about their model.

By: homedelete

homedelete — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 01:14:20 +0000

Realtors are paid so much because they have to deal with *you*. People for some reason get really irrational when it comes to buying and selling their home; and nearly all of them have completely irrational values of their home. I don’t complain for a minute when I see a realtor earn his or her 5% to 6%. In most cases, they earned it. I don’t necessarily think it’s an outdated model by any stretch of the imagination. the FSBO market is a complete joke, in which FBSO basically means overpriced eclectic crapshack that will sit for years. Those people are generally too cheap to even hire attorneys too. but as they say, the cheapest guy ends up paying the most.

By: Sid V

Sid V — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 00:12:16 +0000

Not sure what your point of confusion is Gary. The discount realtors couldn’t even do those minimal things I outlined. They were an actual liability, I could have FSBO’d far better. You’d think it would be easy enough, but nope. So I moved on. I didn’t hire anyone for “networking” but it seems to have worked out. Embellishment? Fact or fiction? Who knows? Generally it IS mostly just having a clean, well-maintained place, luck and the market. I most certainly didn’t do anything out of “fear”, I just took the “safer” option after plan A did not work out, and guess what, it worked out just fine and was a night and day experience. The most certain thing is that staging had nothing to do with it. Also you are right about it being a buyer driven market which is a big reason discounters have worked out adequately on the buy side, other than perhaps a timid first time buyer who needs handholding I can’t see the need for paying full price there.

By: Gary Lucido

Gary Lucido — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 23:19:07 +0000

Clearly it does not. It’s more work but not twice the work. That’s why I instituted a sliding commission scale.

I believe that the tradition of the seller paying the buyer’s agent originated with the concept of sub-agency, which may still be in practice in some states. Basically, both agents are presumed to be working FOR the seller. In Illinois, that is not the case (might have been years ago) but the compensation has stayed the same.

How much work the buyer’s agent does varies greatly from one buyer to the next. The easy buyers are subsidizing the difficult buyers and the same is true for sellers.

The whole industry is totally screwed up and ripe for change but even the consumer is clinging to the outmoded model out of fear. I alluded to that above. It’s an interesting business school case.

By: jenny

jenny — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 23:02:53 +0000

Ouch. I do not look forward to the day when I have to sell. Does selling a house for $800,000 really cost that much more than selling a place for $400,000? It just feels like sellers are being fleeced. I also don’t understand how the tradition of the buyer’s agent being paid by the seller started. It seems to me that buyers should have to pay a flat fee if they decide to use an agent. My agent helped me with a few paper work type things and went with me to see condos, but I really don’t see why a buyer’s agent should ever make more than a couple thousand. At least the seller’s agents is actually putting effort into marketing a home.

By: anon (tfo)

anon (tfo) — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:48:32 +0000

“6% split between two realtors. OUCH.

So if I sold my place at market ($820k) I’m paying $41,000 for two realtors”

If it were 6%, it’d be $49,200. So, even worse.

By: Gary Lucido

Gary Lucido — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 21:35:31 +0000

“So if I sold my place at market ($820k) I’m paying $41,000 for two realtors. I’m sorry but NOTHING you guys do is worth $41,000 to me.”

We agree. That’s why we do it for substantially less at that price point. And, technically, you can’t really look up the commission. There is a bit of variation.

By: a

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 20:36:46 +0000

“So let me ask you this, Sid, have you ever sold a place above $400K and paid a 5%+ commission? If so, why, when you could have paid less?”

I have always wondered this. Our place is going for about $820k now. For a mental exercise I was curious how much it costs to sell (first time buyer, never sold a place yet). Looked it up, 6% split between two realtors. OUCH.

So if I sold my place at market ($820k) I’m paying $41,000 for two realtors. I’m sorry but NOTHING you guys do is worth $41,000 to me.

That is an entire salary for a year for one person. Ridiculous.