Personally, I find it does take too much time for too little reward. Often deals only work by using coupons limited to "one per customer" more than once. And posts like this one make it unlikely that you find ECB items in stock, throwing off your elaborate deal calculations.
You could easily sew or knit a cover, or stick a sock (or Baby Legs) over the glass if you're that concerned about slipping. Shouldn't be difficult at all...
You could easily sew or knit a cover, or stick a sock (or Baby Legs) over the glass if you're that concerned about slipping. Shouldn't be difficult at all...
One of my parents is a real estate agent, and I can say she works hard to earn what she can.
There are several problems with the discount realties.
First, the lower rates they advertise are only one sided unless the other agent agrees to lower their rates as well. After that, they do not do anything for the buyer or seller, having the other agent fill out forms and do everything that the discount broker should be doing. They also circumvent some of the fees that individual agents have by listing all their buys and sells as a single "agent" on multiple listing services instead of paying for individual agents. Then, in the end, they take half of the reduced rate, despite doing almost nothing besides allowing access to a multiple listing service.
I do agree that a commission system based on the amount of time required to get a house bought or sold, with come costs paid in advance, would be a much better system. For one thing, think about the cost of gas required to show a person several houses. There have been cases where a person has basically used my mother as almost a cab service, asking to be picked up in one location, looking at one or two houses, then telling her to drop him/her off at a totally different location. They never ended up buying a house. Then, some picky home buyers and sellers take years to actually decide on what house they want, forcing my mother to drive them to each one. Some buyers and sellers are just irrational about the prices they expect. The negotiations between buyer and seller can be long and arduous.
Then, keep in mind that most people reading these articles have a do it yourself perspective. For many other people, they would be completely lost in the real estate search. Real estate agents provide a guide through the system. For many other people, the realtor has to expend far many more hours and energy to get the deal set up.
All in all, there are good and bad realtors, just as there are good and bad people. A good realtor makes sure everything is worked through the system correctly. He or she handles the negotiations and a great deal of interpersonal communication that would drive me and I would hazard many other people crazy. The high commission is partially due to the large numbers of people who take a great deal of time to decide. Not everyone can take to do it yourself attitude.
Sorry about the rambling nature of this comment. Its a bit late, and I'm not completely coherent.
I sold my oil stock to loan money to my sister for the down payment on her house. The mistake was not buying the stock again as she made monthly payments back to me. Oh, and I'm so boring. I never buy more with my credit card than I can pay off at the end of the month. I only missed one rent payment in 30
years.
In my opinion the simple life can be lived almost anywhere - the rural life you depict had many plusses - but not modern medicine, I would guess - or lots of books or movies around - musical instruments? the native kind - And other amenities. But then I have never bankrupted myself to own a house I couldn't really afford - or worked at a job I hated just because of the $ - altho I have had to work. I have just never thought that way. If jeans cost 1/2 of my salary -I would do without! It's a matter of choices - the city could have meant education, exposure to a wider world, too. It's just how you look at things...Even in California, I found my "rural" year to be a bit more restricted that my usual city life. Even though I loved the walks on the beach.
My friend and I talked about the exact same thing recently. He is also traveling around Southeast Asia and he is currently in Bali. He said that people used to work way less when they worked off the land, and they were happy. Anyway, here's a story he wrote:
The six percent has tradionally broken down like this - 3% to buyer's agent and 3% to seller's agent, more or less. The structure might be different depending on the brokers and their arrangement, but for the sake of argument let's say it's split 50-50. Of that 3%, let's say half of that goes to the principal broker, who runs the agent's real estate office, and half of that goes to the agent. Again, this might be different per agency, but the principal broker is really on the hook if something goes wrong because of the agent, and they generally get a cut of the agent's slice of the pie. Also, agents are self employed, so taxes are a little higher than for a W2 earner.
Now, let's say the listing price of a home is $200,000, you offer $190,000, and the owner counters with $195,000. 1.5% of $190,000 is $2850, and 1.5% of $195,000 is $2925.
Five or ten grand is a lot of money to most people in terms of selling price - it could make or break a loan. But ask yourself, if the difference in commission is really that minimal, $75, is it necessarily in the agent's interst to fully advocate for your price, or is it to move a unit?
Another way to think of it is, how many home sales would it take for an agent to cover monthly expenses at home, for continuing education and licensing, and for paying desk, office and NAR fees? Lately, that question hasn't come up due to high home prices, but things work in cycles.
One of the comments hit it right on the head - agents offer some layer of protection through the transaction. Sure you could find a home on your own, and maybe fill out a form you printed from the internet, but if you've never done it before, be careful.
Broker's have known for years that the 6% would someday erode, but NAR has advocated it as they should. It's no different that the AARP fighting for octogenarians to keep their driver's licenses without periodic testing, or any for other lobby advocating for the intersts of their clients.
Sure there will be a reduction in commission rates over time because of this ruling, but there is a floor. Everybody has got to eat, and a lot of hands want a slice of that commission pie. Real estate already works on feast or famine, let's see who stored something for the inclement winter.
Actually, we replaced all our Avent bottles with the Gerber gentle flow bottles. They're BPA free and you can get them at Walgreens. All of the Avent nipples, rings and tops are interchangeable!
Found a nice site - easystockalerts.com. It will keep you updated on any breaking news on the stocks you own. See the news before it even appears on the web.
If you own stocks then you can't afford to get news later than everyone else. Try easystockalerts.com for a week and you'll see what I mean. There is no fee and no spam...
At what speed or rpm is considered best for gas saving while driving our freeways. I us cruise controll when possible and try to set it at around 60(sometimes up to 64 - I know I'm breaking the law when the limit is 60). I drive a Saturn Vue and am passed by many long haul truckers.
There are so many who search for a blood sugar answer, but the answers vary according to the individual metabolism, activity and diet. I would recommend that those with blood sugar problems review the diabetes materials posted on the Internet by Life Extension Foundation. They are quite interesting.
I agree with Meg. I am planning on buying my first house in the next year or two and I have a real hard time swallowing the 6% commission structure. As a frugal DIYer I'm happy to sift through listings, drive around, and negotiate for myself. So all the realtors will really do for me is unlock doors, draw up documents, and sit with me at closing.
On an even playing ground this service would be equivalent to about 10 hours with a lawyer ($2000?) and 10 hours with a security guard ($300?), or $2,300. A 6% commission on a $300k house is $18,000! That's an outrageous upcharge.
I'm sure some people benefit more from what realtors do, just as some people benefit from what full-service stock brokers do. Full-service brokers have their place in any marketplace. But I'm happy the NAR guild-monopoly is being disrupted. I don't like being forced to pay for a higher level of service than I want.
You may be interested in the Ace modular building units which can be used as a standalone unit or component of a larger structure. It is compact for transportation and storage, easily assembled/dissassembled with hand tools on site, and can be configured (both interior space and exterior windows/doors) for many applications. Go to www.aceamericas.com
Of course, there is always the stay home with your children and nurse them from the tap (breastfeeding) plan. [duck]
Personally, had my kids taken a bottle, I think I would have sprung for the glass bottles and reused the jam jars elsewhere for the breakage concern you raised.
It's true that the whole commission structure for real estate brokers is a bit shaky, but good agents do locate, investigate and coordinate property purchases for buyers and should be compensated for their work. The problem is that nobody wants to pay an upfront fee to a buyer broker because they don't know how they are going to perform. If we do away with the commission structure, you would not have buyer brokers leaving you to deal directly with the seller's broker who has no fiduciary responsibility to you whatsoever. You would then need to hire a lawyer to protect you in the transaction (which is actually common practice in many cases.)
If you are willing to do the searching yourself, cool – don’t hire a buyer broker. But don’t think for a second that the listing agent won’t take both sides of the commission when you approach them off the street. In the end, no money is saved by you not having a buyer broker – in most cases, the listing fee is rolled into the property price to begin with.
In the end, real estate brokerages come in all shapes and sizes to fit a diverse marketplace. As mentioned in the article, there are discount investment trading firms for the DIY and there are cheap real estate agents that charge much less for the DIY property buyer. There’s room for both. I started investing with a discount brokerage house years ago, and as time progressed, I found the need for the advice and other services of a larger investment brokerage. The challenge was finding a good one.
The last point to consider is that using a licensed brokerage offers you some protection under the states real estate commission. In Arizona, there is a fund set aside to remedy situations that are not resolved by the brokerages involved. Rarely do issues get this far, but it is nice to know it’s there.
My guess is that Smuckers is just as concerned about having glass splinters in their jam jars as any manufacturer would be about having them in their baby bottles. Also, in the unlikely event that you did whack the rim and knock off a splinter without knowing it, I think the nipple would be a pretty safe barrier to prevent even a very small splinter from getting through.
Cool idea! Especially since babies do tend to be VERY opinionated when it comes to nipples, so this is great for one who has already gotten hooked on Avent.
Personally, I find it does take too much time for too little reward. Often deals only work by using coupons limited to "one per customer" more than once. And posts like this one make it unlikely that you find ECB items in stock, throwing off your elaborate deal calculations.
You could always sew or knit a bottle cover, or even just stick a sock over it. Should be easy enough.
You could easily sew or knit a cover, or stick a sock (or Baby Legs) over the glass if you're that concerned about slipping. Shouldn't be difficult at all...
You could easily sew or knit a cover, or stick a sock (or Baby Legs) over the glass if you're that concerned about slipping. Shouldn't be difficult at all...
One of my parents is a real estate agent, and I can say she works hard to earn what she can.
There are several problems with the discount realties.
First, the lower rates they advertise are only one sided unless the other agent agrees to lower their rates as well. After that, they do not do anything for the buyer or seller, having the other agent fill out forms and do everything that the discount broker should be doing. They also circumvent some of the fees that individual agents have by listing all their buys and sells as a single "agent" on multiple listing services instead of paying for individual agents. Then, in the end, they take half of the reduced rate, despite doing almost nothing besides allowing access to a multiple listing service.
I do agree that a commission system based on the amount of time required to get a house bought or sold, with come costs paid in advance, would be a much better system. For one thing, think about the cost of gas required to show a person several houses. There have been cases where a person has basically used my mother as almost a cab service, asking to be picked up in one location, looking at one or two houses, then telling her to drop him/her off at a totally different location. They never ended up buying a house. Then, some picky home buyers and sellers take years to actually decide on what house they want, forcing my mother to drive them to each one. Some buyers and sellers are just irrational about the prices they expect. The negotiations between buyer and seller can be long and arduous.
Then, keep in mind that most people reading these articles have a do it yourself perspective. For many other people, they would be completely lost in the real estate search. Real estate agents provide a guide through the system. For many other people, the realtor has to expend far many more hours and energy to get the deal set up.
All in all, there are good and bad realtors, just as there are good and bad people. A good realtor makes sure everything is worked through the system correctly. He or she handles the negotiations and a great deal of interpersonal communication that would drive me and I would hazard many other people crazy. The high commission is partially due to the large numbers of people who take a great deal of time to decide. Not everyone can take to do it yourself attitude.
Sorry about the rambling nature of this comment. Its a bit late, and I'm not completely coherent.
Just out of curiosity, how in the world does adobe work in the wet climate of Thailand? I've never seen it used except in dry climates.
Just out of curiosity, how in the world does adobe work in the wet climate of Thailand? I've never seen it used except in dry climates.
I sold my oil stock to loan money to my sister for the down payment on her house. The mistake was not buying the stock again as she made monthly payments back to me. Oh, and I'm so boring. I never buy more with my credit card than I can pay off at the end of the month. I only missed one rent payment in 30
years.
In my opinion the simple life can be lived almost anywhere - the rural life you depict had many plusses - but not modern medicine, I would guess - or lots of books or movies around - musical instruments? the native kind - And other amenities. But then I have never bankrupted myself to own a house I couldn't really afford - or worked at a job I hated just because of the $ - altho I have had to work. I have just never thought that way. If jeans cost 1/2 of my salary -I would do without! It's a matter of choices - the city could have meant education, exposure to a wider world, too. It's just how you look at things...Even in California, I found my "rural" year to be a bit more restricted that my usual city life. Even though I loved the walks on the beach.
My friend and I talked about the exact same thing recently. He is also traveling around Southeast Asia and he is currently in Bali. He said that people used to work way less when they worked off the land, and they were happy. Anyway, here's a story he wrote:
http://baglady.dreamhosters.com/2008/05/14/where-can-i-find-a-magical-mo...
The six percent has tradionally broken down like this - 3% to buyer's agent and 3% to seller's agent, more or less. The structure might be different depending on the brokers and their arrangement, but for the sake of argument let's say it's split 50-50. Of that 3%, let's say half of that goes to the principal broker, who runs the agent's real estate office, and half of that goes to the agent. Again, this might be different per agency, but the principal broker is really on the hook if something goes wrong because of the agent, and they generally get a cut of the agent's slice of the pie. Also, agents are self employed, so taxes are a little higher than for a W2 earner.
Now, let's say the listing price of a home is $200,000, you offer $190,000, and the owner counters with $195,000. 1.5% of $190,000 is $2850, and 1.5% of $195,000 is $2925.
Five or ten grand is a lot of money to most people in terms of selling price - it could make or break a loan. But ask yourself, if the difference in commission is really that minimal, $75, is it necessarily in the agent's interst to fully advocate for your price, or is it to move a unit?
Another way to think of it is, how many home sales would it take for an agent to cover monthly expenses at home, for continuing education and licensing, and for paying desk, office and NAR fees? Lately, that question hasn't come up due to high home prices, but things work in cycles.
One of the comments hit it right on the head - agents offer some layer of protection through the transaction. Sure you could find a home on your own, and maybe fill out a form you printed from the internet, but if you've never done it before, be careful.
Broker's have known for years that the 6% would someday erode, but NAR has advocated it as they should. It's no different that the AARP fighting for octogenarians to keep their driver's licenses without periodic testing, or any for other lobby advocating for the intersts of their clients.
Sure there will be a reduction in commission rates over time because of this ruling, but there is a floor. Everybody has got to eat, and a lot of hands want a slice of that commission pie. Real estate already works on feast or famine, let's see who stored something for the inclement winter.
When I bought my house, the real estate agent did nothing but forward a MLS site that I could use to search the listing and drive me around.
Buyer agent: How can we rely on the real estate agents that barely know us to "guess" what houses we'd like to buy/live in?
Seller agent: What else do they do other than taking a few photos, posting the house in the MLS, and sitting the open house?
That's something young people these days ignore or forget.
We don't work/live just for a great shinny car that eats up gas, a big house with a huge mortgage, or the latest iPhone/iPod.
Actually, we replaced all our Avent bottles with the Gerber gentle flow bottles. They're BPA free and you can get them at Walgreens. All of the Avent nipples, rings and tops are interchangeable!
Found a nice site - easystockalerts.com. It will keep you updated on any breaking news on the stocks you own. See the news before it even appears on the web.
If you own stocks then you can't afford to get news later than everyone else. Try easystockalerts.com for a week and you'll see what I mean. There is no fee and no spam...
Here is an angry person with too much speed, road rage in the making!
At what speed or rpm is considered best for gas saving while driving our freeways. I us cruise controll when possible and try to set it at around 60(sometimes up to 64 - I know I'm breaking the law when the limit is 60). I drive a Saturn Vue and am passed by many long haul truckers.
There are so many who search for a blood sugar answer, but the answers vary according to the individual metabolism, activity and diet. I would recommend that those with blood sugar problems review the diabetes materials posted on the Internet by Life Extension Foundation. They are quite interesting.
I agree with Meg. I am planning on buying my first house in the next year or two and I have a real hard time swallowing the 6% commission structure. As a frugal DIYer I'm happy to sift through listings, drive around, and negotiate for myself. So all the realtors will really do for me is unlock doors, draw up documents, and sit with me at closing.
On an even playing ground this service would be equivalent to about 10 hours with a lawyer ($2000?) and 10 hours with a security guard ($300?), or $2,300. A 6% commission on a $300k house is $18,000! That's an outrageous upcharge.
I'm sure some people benefit more from what realtors do, just as some people benefit from what full-service stock brokers do. Full-service brokers have their place in any marketplace. But I'm happy the NAR guild-monopoly is being disrupted. I don't like being forced to pay for a higher level of service than I want.
Nice photo. :)
You may be interested in the Ace modular building units which can be used as a standalone unit or component of a larger structure. It is compact for transportation and storage, easily assembled/dissassembled with hand tools on site, and can be configured (both interior space and exterior windows/doors) for many applications. Go to www.aceamericas.com
Of course, there is always the stay home with your children and nurse them from the tap (breastfeeding) plan. [duck]
Personally, had my kids taken a bottle, I think I would have sprung for the glass bottles and reused the jam jars elsewhere for the breakage concern you raised.
It's true that the whole commission structure for real estate brokers is a bit shaky, but good agents do locate, investigate and coordinate property purchases for buyers and should be compensated for their work. The problem is that nobody wants to pay an upfront fee to a buyer broker because they don't know how they are going to perform. If we do away with the commission structure, you would not have buyer brokers leaving you to deal directly with the seller's broker who has no fiduciary responsibility to you whatsoever. You would then need to hire a lawyer to protect you in the transaction (which is actually common practice in many cases.)
If you are willing to do the searching yourself, cool – don’t hire a buyer broker. But don’t think for a second that the listing agent won’t take both sides of the commission when you approach them off the street. In the end, no money is saved by you not having a buyer broker – in most cases, the listing fee is rolled into the property price to begin with.
In the end, real estate brokerages come in all shapes and sizes to fit a diverse marketplace. As mentioned in the article, there are discount investment trading firms for the DIY and there are cheap real estate agents that charge much less for the DIY property buyer. There’s room for both. I started investing with a discount brokerage house years ago, and as time progressed, I found the need for the advice and other services of a larger investment brokerage. The challenge was finding a good one.
The last point to consider is that using a licensed brokerage offers you some protection under the states real estate commission. In Arizona, there is a fund set aside to remedy situations that are not resolved by the brokerages involved. Rarely do issues get this far, but it is nice to know it’s there.
My guess is that Smuckers is just as concerned about having glass splinters in their jam jars as any manufacturer would be about having them in their baby bottles. Also, in the unlikely event that you did whack the rim and knock off a splinter without knowing it, I think the nipple would be a pretty safe barrier to prevent even a very small splinter from getting through.
Cool idea! Especially since babies do tend to be VERY opinionated when it comes to nipples, so this is great for one who has already gotten hooked on Avent.