The tech stock world is ablaze today with the initial stock offering (IPO) of the real estate website Zillow. Exceeding the pricing expectations anticipated, the investment world is watching.

First thing monday I missed a call from one of my pals at Zillow. Every other month or so, a sales person from Zillow contacts me about their latest “whiz bang” program for agents. As an agent, I see Zillow for what it really is; an ADVERTISING COMPANY!

There are lots of other advertising company’s out there…Trulia, HomeGain, and more. Then there’s the local paper & their websites. All funded and supported by ads.

While these can all be decent sites to check out, they have major limitation. The best source for information on the real estate market is still the MLS (multiple listing service). Instead of a cross section of homes, it has everything on the market. Instead of being updated daily, weekly or monthly; its updated in ‘real time’ and instead of homes that are “under contract” and just awaiting their closing date, the MLS updates those homes too.

The only seeming drawback of the MLS is that a person has to contact an industry professional to have access. Is that really a problem? No obligation or fees to have a professional with experience in finding, inspecting, insuring, buying, negotiating, writing contracts on homes, with a rolodex full of other resources. Not a bad deal!
St Louis real estate is our specialty! If you’re looking for real estate anywhere in the St Louis, MO area, including St Louis City, St Louis County, St Charles, Ballwin, Chesterfield, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, or one of the other areas we serve, simply click the “Search St Louis Real Estate” link at the top or bottom of this page to begin your home search now.

Home buyers are often nervous.

They should be. There’s a lot of factors involved and often times an overwhelming amount of details to consider.

A good professional buyer’s agent with relevant experience can make a huge difference in the end result.

That begs a question: how much should a buyer pay for this service?

Historically, the buyer’s agent has been paid by the seller. Commission to sell the home covers the listing agent and the buyer’s agent, split based on the listing agreement and published in the MLS.

Some of the giant real estate corporations are starting to break away from what has been a successful system for Realtor compensation. These corporations, often housing less experienced agents, are charging fees to the buyer at closing.

Last month, I experienced this for the first time. An agent with absolutely no experience in the given market charged her buyer’s an extra $500 on top of the commission paid by the seller. What was most frustrating for our agents was that the buyer’s agent had to be ‘baby-sat’ throughout the entire transaction. We work with many agents that are astute and competent, seeing them charge extra wouldn’t be nearly as hard to swallow.

The interesting thing is that many prospective home buyers don’t even know how a buyer’s agent is compensated, so seeing the ‘big corporate bonus’ isn’t as much of a suprise as it is to the agents.

Big corporations are a relatively new phenomenon in the real estate world. These corporations are building themselves up by adding income streams to the traditional real estate model to add to their bottom lines. Charging large fees to new agents and selling signs and other materials for a profit are things that typically don’t happen with smaller “boutique” REALTORS.
Word to the buyer: stick with the tradition and look for an agent with plenty of experience in your market BEFORE you pay a fee!

St Louis real estate is our specialty! If you’re looking for real estate anywhere in the St Louis, MO area, including St Louis City, St Louis County, St Charles, Ballwin, Chesterfield, Kirkwood, Webster Groves, or one of the other areas we serve, simply click the “Search St Louis Real Estate” link at the top or bottom of this page to begin your home search now.