Broker for owners - benefits / advantages?

Hm, I only read here that the buyer should not be charged - which I completely agree with. However, during our long search we had quite different problems with real estate agents. They were unhelpful 98% of the time, i.e. they hardly knew the properties, had to pass every question on to the seller. Then of course the usual sugarcoating of negative features, not infrequently even brazen lies. Sale only to buyers who take out a loan with their own bank. Mass viewings and a €400 fee to get on a list of interested parties, just to name a few examples of our bad experience. Where no agent was involved, on the other hand, we always had very friendly viewings. I believe sellers also benefit from that.

Therefore, I mean: Anyone who has dealt with an agent as a buyer will not impose that on themselves and the buyer as a seller.

I seem to be an exception. The agent for the new house was flexible, well informed and made efforts to provide missing information. Although I chose a different agent for the sale, even after careful selection... This one was even praised by the interested parties during second viewings.

There are also good brokers, and that is a good thing.
Don’t always take the biggest one in town, they also tend to be careless when it comes to peanuts.
A small one with a good agenda (training) can usually be found online.

There are also good realtors, and that is a good thing.

They undoubtedly exist. And they should be paid, that is not the issue either. But please, the person who benefits from the service should pay for it. And that is primarily the seller, who ultimately hires the realtor. Contrary to the repeatedly stated opinion here, the buyer does NOT have the option to decide for or against the realtor's service. The question of whether to buy or not is different and initially has nothing to do with “he who orders the music pays.” So please keep apples and pears apart, otherwise you get fruit salad. Although healthy, it does not help here [emoji6]

And the often used argument that the market is just like that or regulates itself only applies to a limited extent. Basically, I am a big supporter of free market economy. But there are excesses that need to be curbed to ensure fair competition in the market. In my opinion, we are far beyond leaving the real estate brokerage market to regulate itself. In renting, corresponding measures have already been taken, for good reasons.
What really frightens me personally is that some people seem to have their moral compass seriously distorted: I can only explain it this way, that without batting an eyelid they approve that one can claim services for oneself but let someone else foot the bill. [emoji44] Really sad...

A small one with a good agenda (training) can usually be found on the web.

Perhaps one should put a stop to this, ban the run-of-the-mill chamber of industry and commerce broker license, and protect the realtor profession. Combine it with a proper training as a real estate agent with possibly a specialist qualification on top. I could well imagine that this could help reputable realtors a lot by shifting the ratio between good and bad realtors in favor of the good ones. At the moment, it seems to me that there are far more black sheep...

And to end the post on a positive note. I have also had good experiences. As a tenant, I searched for and found an apartment. And of course, I was happy to pay for this service because I benefited from it.
In the most recent property purchase, however, the benefit to me as a buyer was not measurable. The only “benefit” consisted in learning the price per square meter and the plot number. The realtor was competent, well informed, and friendly and surely of great benefit to the seller as well. I would have just preferred to decide for myself whether these two pieces of information are worth 3.5% plus VAT to me or not. And I did not have that choice, and that is what it is about. So please put away the “that’s just the market” card, because it has nothing to do with the issue. [emoji6]

Yes, then just on the topic: as a seller, I had absolutely no stress selling my house without any loss on the price, only had to choose the buyer and didn’t even have to pay the agent. If every discussion only focuses on the actual core topic, without also considering backgrounds and variations, every topic here would only be 3 answers long. And you could also save yourself a lot of comments regarding morality etc [emoji6]

Oh, did I hit a sore spot there? I was merely writing from my perspective, how it seems to me. You don’t have to see it that way. [emoji6]

My many (?!) moral comments are limited exactly to the one above, so I would be very pleased if you refrained from portraying me as a know-it-all. I am not that, nor do I see myself that way. However, I do have a subjective opinion and only that have I expressed here. I do not claim that everyone shares it or can deal with it. If the latter, that is more the other person’s problem, not mine. [emoji6]

Regarding the content: the discussion can go in all sorts of directions as far as I’m concerned, I actually find that very exciting and refreshing. But arguments should at least somehow relate to each other, otherwise it’s pointless to exchange and discuss anything. That’s why I wrote that my point relates to the distribution of costs, not to the rules of the market, which does not mean that one cannot raise or discuss the latter. Only then I’m out, because for me that’s a different discussion and seems like an evasion to a side issue.

No idea if this helps you now, but at least I wanted to have tried. [emoji4]

And on the topic of brokers when selling. For the reasons you mentioned below, I would probably also use a good broker because a) I would probably be a bad seller, b) I don’t have the time, and c) I also don’t feel like telling many interested parties the same stuff over and over again. Only I would cover the costs for the commission because it is a service I use. To take the topic a step further: can a seller actually prohibit the broker from taking a commission/fee from the buyer? Or are these two separate contracts, meaning what the broker agrees on with the buyer has nothing to do with the seller?!

So in my contract it said that I don't pay anything, but the buyer does. I think you can bind the realtor to this by contract. To be honest, I doubt that you would pay €14,000 (sale price €200,000 7% commission) out of your own pocket. Also, the plan to possibly add this to the purchase price unfortunately only works in exceptional cases, I think.

And then the argument that you suffer losses when selling with a realtor falls flat. Because it doesn't matter whether you set the price lower and the realtor is paid by the buyer, or set a higher price and you pay the realtor. You are then in the same position in this hypothetical case.

Well, and unfortunately the market has to be examined in such a discussion. Because under the current conditions, you can do almost anything.

But we are not that far apart. I also don't think it is fair to have to pay such a price as a buyer for a few "helper tasks." But if the house is listed by a realtor and the current market allows it, I have no choice but to pay or not buy.