Real Estate Market monopoly in the US is very deleterious for all of us

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tk3000

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As a buyer, having to deal with Realtors is a noxious experience and completely pointless (no, they play no important role [besides that of making an insane amount of money by what can only defined as a racket operation and a mafia scheme], they are nothing but unnecessary parasites). As a seller, not being able to reach an audience of buyers due to strict monopolistic control of the listing market – Zillow, Redfin, et al, are fully aligned with the NRA and Realtors – makes it virtually impossible for me to sell my own property by not being able to reach any critical mass in terms of prospective buyers.

On top of that, Realtors purport and promote themselves to buyers (and sellers alike) as experts without whom the buyer would not be able to meander through the “complexity” of a real estate transaction. Moreover, as a buyer, Realtors will you help you for free and will create a bond with you as you both go through such a life endeavor; therefore, justifying the insane amount of money Realtor make. Often, buyers (and sometimes sellers alike) feel grateful for the “help” their realtors provided – they don’t realized that they have been used as tool in the realtor’s extortion tool-kit. In reality, Realtors are swindlers and extortionists who use the buyers as a tool to extort large sums of money from the sellers. All along, Realtors maintain their stronghold, artificial and plain and simply illegal monopolistic control of the real estate market by making close to impossible for sellers to list their own property on the mainstream listing platforms.

The NRA (National Realtor Association) spent literally billions of dollars in lobbying the political establishment, attorney generals, and in influence (and sometimes buying) the court system. It all seems to have pan out really well for them till this point; after all, our most important anti-mononpolistic laws and legislations (“The Sherman Act” and the “Clayton Act”) do not apply to them. As far as the NRA and Zillow (fully aligned with the NRA) are concerned, “The Sherman Act” and “The Clayton Act” could very have been written in toilet paper.

Zillow alone controls about 70% of the listing market. It is well established in our court system that any entity which controls 50% or more of a given market is by definition a monopoly. And Zillow not only controls the listing market, but it exercise full monopolistic behavior, power and control to a blatant level -- not only does Zillow fully promote Realtors on its platform, but it also literally hide any fsbo listing in its platform (in effect the only people who knows and look for fsbo listings are Realtors, who will then call you with nasty and nonsensical lies as arguments).

Another mainstay herein is the evaluation or pricing of houses. By and at large, the market conditions play a very important role in the pricing of houses; but so are the features and characteristics of a house in a given area. How can people who knows close to nothing about what goes into building or reforming a house, then determine the price of a house in a given area or neighborhood. People who does not know what a 100amps or a 200amps load center is, know nothing about the difference between structural bricking and brick veneer; knows nothing about the difference between hardwood floor vs lvp floor vs vinyl sheet, etc; and overall know nothing about the labor, quality, type and grade of material that goes into building a house.

On top of that, it seems that often the ones who do the appraisal are realtors as well, and they almost always agree with the price the realtors set for the property. Ultimately, they all scratch each others back – which is very typical of a mafia and criminal organization.

In essence, buyers would benefit immensely from the removal of these parasites out of the picture in any real estate transaction. Without that extortion scheme in place, there would be room for a seller to negotiate a lower price with the buyer. Secondly, once the buyer makes an offer, he/she is in effect put in a trap concocted by reators; the buyer has to pay the earnest money (which in a way makes sense), but the realtors would inflate the earnest money to make sure that in any eventuality the buyer would have too much to lose in case of a mishap. Also, realtors and lenders work in conjunction; making sure that the buy pays the appraisal upfront, and also pay some of the lending costs upfront, the inspection is also paid upfront. In effect, the buyer is put in a trap whereby he/she has to make large outlays of money towards something that he/she does not even known is going to work out; thus, substantially increasing the chances that the buyer would close on the transaction in order to avert a significant financial loss -- which seems very unfair and a sort of predicament for the buyer. On the other hand, by setting up these preconditions the realtors and their partners would be successful in substantially increasing the chances that the transaction would take place, so that they can cash on it quickly (even though it would not be in the best interest of the buyer). All in all, the buyer has everything to loose; and very little to gain with the use realtors.

Concerning the level of expertise of realtors. Realtors passed in a test that any fifth grader could pass by simply studying for a some hours for a week or so. All the paperwork that they so pompously and persistently say is so complicated – and only they with their expertise can help you through the process -- basically consists of a bunch of standardized forms that are fairly simple to understanding and straightforward fill out. Their knowledge and understanding of real estate laws and regulations is extremely rudimentary, they are virtually incapable of writing a single paragraph in a contract. And the contract itself is a standardized contract, the realtors simply fill out the blanks (names, addresses, etc). It is always good to have the contract reviewed by an actual real estate lawyer though (it would cost a tiny fraction of what one would pay for a useless realtor.

Also, along with the contract, and by all means the most important legal instrument in the transfer of ownership in a real estate transaction is the title which a reminiscent of the state issued-titles by the Roman Empire (English common law concerning properties was deeply influenced by the Roman doctrines of possession). The title transfer operation (title search, etc) is performed by a title company and has nothing to do with a realtor. A realtor simply schedule with a title company the date and time whereas the transfer of ownership is going to take place (the title company does all the work concerning the paperwork, payments, etc).

As an analogy, consider the situation whereby your vehicle’s transmission is misbehaving and you go a mechanic who then states that the transmission has a very complicated problem and thus would need to be rebuilt (or replaced), which would cost you about US$5000,00. All the while, in reality, the transmission only needs its transmission fluid replaced -- which someone relatively mechanically inclined (depending on the type of transmission) could do with some basic reading and would cost he/she about US$100,00 to replace the transmission fluid. Woudn’t you say that that mechanic is dishonest, a swindler and is trying to defraud you?

Realtors are by all means needless, irrelevant, unnecessary, illiterate, ignoble and ignominious parasites. They are an integral part of a large scale mafia and a racket scheme and operation.

NOTE: the above article is an evolution of previous write-ups and a paper I wrote in the past. The intent of posting in this forum is to create awareness.
 
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But real estate agents get to use cool words & phrases!

"The Master". The master what? I thought I was the master.

I like "En Suite". Really? How pretentious can you be? It's a bathroom for goodness sake!

"Great HOA" Hoa? Sounds like a city in Indonesia. I've been there. The real estate people are right. It's great!

Paul
Funny-
We once sold a rental and the real estate agent wrote in all the ads "Within walking distance to the freeway." Why, exactly would anyone walk to a freeway? What ya gonna do when you get there? Ain't no buses runnin' on the freeway.
 
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I have a couple relative stories on this subject and I do agree there are very few things of value someone can sell at a good profit margin that they did not make or even own. I have always said if I wanted to get in the reality racket I would never do it where I live now as home prices are low and people keep their homes for a lifetime and often pass them on to children. Instead go to Fla where people go to retire then if lucky live 10 years and back on the market it goes.



Story number one. Where my mom lived and I grew up is on a good road in a small town that lots of people seem to desire. I was backing out of her driveway one day and noticed a small sign I couldn’t read across the street from her house a family I grew up knowing well. The sign was made from a white paper plate attached to a paint stir stick and said house for sale. I kind of laughed thinking maybe a kid did it. the next day I came by again and there were two of the signs and the second said sold. I pulled in my mom and saw Frank out in his yard and went over to say hi. He told me the first sign was out an hour and he had a buyer and that morning they found a lawyer and finalized the paperwork.



Story number two. I had a friend at work that had a house for sale by owner sign he put out and a car stopped and it was a realtor asking to list his house. The guy found out his asking price and told him he could sell his house in one day for that price. He told the guy great sign me up and you tack on whatever profit you want to make that’s what I want to end up with at the closing. The guy came back with a sign and paper work for him to sign and it said 6 months. He told the guy he said one day and told him he should change it to one day like he said he could sell it in. He told him you find the buyer come over and he will sign for one day and that’s how it will work take it or leave it. About a week later he came back with a one day contract and sold his house netting my friend exactly what he wanted. He said the realtor made a nice 3% on the deal for finding a buyer and it didn’t come out my friends share.



So it can be worked around but most people seem to be so used to this system they think they have to do it that way. People trade in used cars all the time for a huge loss just because they don’t know how to sell something or are afraid to.
 
But real estate agents get to use cool words & phrases!

"The Master". The master what? I thought I was the master.

I like "En Suite". Really? How pretentious can you be? It's a bathroom for goodness sake!

"Great HOA" Hoa? Sounds like a city in Indonesia. I've been there. The real estate people are right. It's great!

Paul
Funny-
We once sold a rental and the real estate agent wrote in all the ads "Within walking distance to the freeway." Why, exactly would anyone walk to a freeway? What ya gonna do when you get there? Ain't no buses runnin' on the freeway.


Those cases brings me memories! I have a condo which is in like new condition. It has ceramic tiles, a finished basement with a shower and vanity next to the laundry room. Originally, the condo had only one bathroom but another toilet was added later on. Besides, it had lots of modern upgrades (smart garage door opener, smart light switches, smart thermostat, smart front lock, etc). Moreover, the condo also have a large renovated deck that would cost over $20,000 to build.

A realtor came to visit and look into my condo and tried to convince me that my condo was worth less than one that recently sold – granted this condo that was recently sold was renovated and looked nice too. The point is that my unit have far more important and costly upgrades, and most definitely would worth more (the other unit had no deck, no extra toilet, no ceramic tiles, no smart devices, etc). Basically, he mentioned that kitchen counter top and the kitchen fauce of the other unit of all things as the big differential in value of the other unit. True, the kitchen counter top of the other unit was a little nicer (but it was laminated too, nothing special, and even if it was granite it would make up for the other major improvement my unit had comparatively speaking). The kitchen faucet, it is something that costed me about $150 to upgrade; so, not a major expense really. The thing is that perception do play a role, and people do attach undue value to small things (it is important lesson to learn when selling a house); but the idea that the other unit was worth more than mine was absurd.


Paul, are you a moderator/admin? I made some silly mistakes and typos (I am start to think I am dyslexic), and I can not edit the text. Could you make it possible for me to edit it?
 
Paul, are you a moderator/admin? I made some silly mistakes and typos (I am start to think I am dyslexic), and I can not edit the text. Could you make it possible for me to edit it?
I've adjusted your settings to allow 24 hours to correct the typos.
 
I have a couple relative stories on this subject and I do agree there are very few things of value someone can sell at a good profit margin that they did not make or even own. I have always said if I wanted to get in the reality racket I would never do it where I live now as home prices are low and people keep their homes for a lifetime and often pass them on to children. Instead go to Fla where people go to retire then if lucky live 10 years and back on the market it goes.



Story number one. Where my mom lived and I grew up is on a good road in a small town that lots of people seem to desire. I was backing out of her driveway one day and noticed a small sign I couldn’t read across the street from her house a family I grew up knowing well. The sign was made from a white paper plate attached to a paint stir stick and said house for sale. I kind of laughed thinking maybe a kid did it. the next day I came by again and there were two of the signs and the second said sold. I pulled in my mom and saw Frank out in his yard and went over to say hi. He told me the first sign was out an hour and he had a buyer and that morning they found a lawyer and finalized the paperwork.



Story number two. I had a friend at work that had a house for sale by owner sign he put out and a car stopped and it was a realtor asking to list his house. The guy found out his asking price and told him he could sell his house in one day for that price. He told the guy great sign me up and you tack on whatever profit you want to make that’s what I want to end up with at the closing. The guy came back with a sign and paper work for him to sign and it said 6 months. He told the guy he said one day and told him he should change it to one day like he said he could sell it in. He told him you find the buyer come over and he will sign for one day and that’s how it will work take it or leave it. About a week later he came back with a one day contract and sold his house netting my friend exactly what he wanted. He said the realtor made a nice 3% on the deal for finding a buyer and it didn’t come out my friends share.



So it can be worked around but most people seem to be so used to this system they think they have to do it that way. People trade in used cars all the time for a huge loss just because they don’t know how to sell something or are afraid to.

Sure enough. The situations whereby you can work around it, but these are exceptions to the rule, and it is often due to sheer luck. Also, a fsbo, even it is eventually sold, likely will seat in the market much longer (and you may not be able to afford that).


It is the status quo, and unfortunately people accept the status quo without questioning it. But it is a contrived system, and a long lasting monopoly that is extremely detrimental for sellers (and buyers alike).


Not being able to list your own property on the major online real estate platforms dramatically reduces your chance of selling a property.


As an example, I listed it on facebook market place and even though it will not reach a fraction of the target audience that would be reached via zillow, it is better than nothing. But even so, my listing is often removed with no explanation whatsoever, it simply vanishes; once I find out, I simply repost the listing (which takes time, and a constant battle even for small things). I can only imagine that realtors see it and then flag it for removal.
 
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Paul, are you a moderator/admin? I made some silly mistakes and typos (I am start to think I am dyslexic), and I can not edit the text. Could you make it possible for me to edit it?
Nope.
If you go to the home page and click the drop-down arrow at"Members", the click Registered Members a page will open. On the left is a box with stuff like "Overview", "Most...", etc.
Near the bottom is "Staff Members". Click on it and I'm sure someone from that list will be glad to help. (I think you can send a private message to one of the staff people.)
Paul
 
We took care of it PJB!
 
As an example, I listed it on facebook market place and even though it will not reach a fraction of the target audience that would be reached via zillow, it is better than nothing. But even so, my listing is often removed with no explanation whatsoever, it simply vanishes; once I find out, I simply repost the listing (which takes time, and a constant battle even for small things). I can only imagine that realtors see it and then flag it for removal.
It's amazing how the real estate people will answer the ad just before it disappears. Such a coincidence! (I think not)

Agents can be rude!
Every time I've advertised By Owner & stated "Agents Do Not Call", we get tons of calls from agents & agents showing up. Automatically, they will not get the listing should I decide to list.

If By Owner isn't something you wish to tackle, there are lots of referral places for low cost agents. One is called Clever. I think RedFin & UpNest also do the same.

A sideways way to get your By Owner home on the MLS cheap is said to be a service like ListWithFreedom. I don't know how well it works of if it's a good thing, but might be worth investigating.

Super Cheap Ads-
Two other overlooked low cost ad venues are the free newspapers that one gets delivered weekly. The ad rates for the one we get are super cheap.

The other venue is House of Worship bulletins. You think the people looking down while the priest says the Homily are deep in contemplative thought. Naw! They're checking the ads on the back page of the bulletin.

Paul
 
As a buyer, having to deal with Realtors is a noxious experience and completely pointless (no, they play no important role [besides that of making an insane amount of money by what can only defined as a racket operation and a mafia scheme], they are nothing but unnecessary parasites). As a seller, not being able to reach an audience of buyers due to strict monopolistic control of the listing market – Zillow, Redfin, et al, are fully aligned with the NRA and Realtors – makes it virtually impossible for me to sell my own property by not being able to reach any critical mass in terms of prospective buyers.

On top of that, Realtors purport and promote themselves to buyers (and sellers alike) as experts without whom the buyer would not be able to meander through the “complexity” of a real estate transaction. Moreover, as a buyer, Realtors will you help you for free and will create a bond with you as you both go through such a life endeavor; therefore, justifying the insane amount of money Realtor make. Often, buyers (and sometimes sellers alike) feel grateful for the “help” their realtors provided – they don’t realized that they have been used as tool in the realtor’s extortion tool-kit. In reality, Realtors are swindlers and extortionists who use the buyers as a tool to extort large sums of money from the sellers. All along, Realtors maintain their stronghold, artificial and plain and simply illegal monopolistic control of the real estate market by making close to impossible for sellers to list their own property on the mainstream listing platforms.
check out more at https://mrhomebuyer.ca/
The NRA (National Realtor Association) spent literally billions of dollars in lobbying the political establishment, attorney generals, and in influence (and sometimes buying) the court system. It all seems to have pan out really well for them till this point; after all, our most important anti-mononpolistic laws and legislations (“The Sherman Act” and the “Clayton Act”) do not apply to them. As far as the NRA and Zillow (fully aligned with the NRA) are concerned, “The Sherman Act” and “The Clayton Act” could very have been written in toilet paper.

Zillow alone controls about 70% of the listing market. It is well established in our court system that any entity which controls 50% or more of a given market is by definition a monopoly. And Zillow not only controls the listing market, but it exercise full monopolistic behavior, power and control to a blatant level -- not only does Zillow fully promote Realtors on its platform, but it also literally hide any fsbo listing in its platform (in effect the only people who knows and look for fsbo listings are Realtors, who will then call you with nasty and nonsensical lies as arguments).

Another mainstay herein is the evaluation or pricing of houses. By and at large, the market conditions play a very important role in the pricing of houses; but so are the features and characteristics of a house in a given area. How can people who knows close to nothing about what goes into building or reforming a house, then determine the price of a house in a given area or neighborhood. People who does not know what a 100amps or a 200amps load center is, know nothing about the difference between structural bricking and brick veneer; knows nothing about the difference between hardwood floor vs lvp floor vs vinyl sheet, etc; and overall know nothing about the labor, quality, type and grade of material that goes into building a house.

On top of that, it seems that often the ones who do the appraisal are realtors as well, and they almost always agree with the price the realtors set for the property. Ultimately, they all scratch each others back – which is very typical of a mafia and criminal organization.

In essence, buyers would benefit immensely from the removal of these parasites out of the picture in any real estate transaction. Without that extortion scheme in place, there would be room for a seller to negotiate a lower price with the buyer. Secondly, once the buyer makes an offer, he/she is in effect put in a trap concocted by reators; the buyer has to pay the earnest money (which in a way makes sense), but the realtors would inflate the earnest money to make sure that in any eventuality the buyer would have too much to lose in case of a mishap. Also, realtors and lenders work in conjunction; making sure that the buy pays the appraisal upfront, and also pay some of the lending costs upfront, the inspection is also paid upfront. In effect, the buyer is put in a trap whereby he/she has to make large outlays of money towards something that he/she does not even known is going to work out; thus, substantially increasing the chances that the buyer would close on the transaction in order to avert a significant financial loss -- which seems very unfair and a sort of predicament for the buyer. On the other hand, by setting up these preconditions the realtors and their partners would be successful in substantially increasing the chances that the transaction would take place, so that they can cash on it quickly (even though it would not be in the best interest of the buyer). All in all, the buyer has everything to loose; and very little to gain with the use realtors.

Concerning the level of expertise of realtors. Realtors passed in a test that any fifth grader could pass by simply studying for a some hours for a week or so. All the paperwork that they so pompously and persistently say is so complicated – and only they with their expertise can help you through the process -- basically consists of a bunch of standardized forms that are fairly simple to understanding and straightforward fill out. Their knowledge and understanding of real estate laws and regulations is extremely rudimentary, they are virtually incapable of writing a single paragraph in a contract. And the contract itself is a standardized contract, the realtors simply fill out the blanks (names, addresses, etc). It is always good to have the contract reviewed by an actual real estate lawyer though (it would cost a tiny fraction of what one would pay for a useless realtor.

Also, along with the contract, and by all means the most important legal instrument in the transfer of ownership in a real estate transaction is the title which a reminiscent of the state issued-titles by the Roman Empire (English common law concerning properties was deeply influenced by the Roman doctrines of possession). The title transfer operation (title search, etc) is performed by a title company and has nothing to do with a realtor. A realtor simply schedule with a title company the date and time whereas the transfer of ownership is going to take place (the title company does all the work concerning the paperwork, payments, etc).

As an analogy, consider the situation whereby your vehicle’s transmission is misbehaving and you go a mechanic who then states that the transmission has a very complicated problem and thus would need to be rebuilt (or replaced), which would cost you about US$5000,00. All the while, in reality, the transmission only needs its transmission fluid replaced -- which someone relatively mechanically inclined (depending on the type of transmission) could do with some basic reading and would cost he/she about US$100,00 to replace the transmission fluid. Woudn’t you say that that mechanic is dishonest, a swindler and is trying to defraud you?

Realtors are by all means needless, irrelevant, unnecessary, illiterate, ignoble and ignominious parasites. They are an integral part of a large scale mafia and a racket scheme and operation.

NOTE: the above article is an evolution of previous write-ups and a paper I wrote in the past. The intent of posting in this forum is to create awareness.
The core argument of your post is that realtors are unnecessary middlemen who exploit both buyers and sellers through monopolistic practices, excessive fees, and a falsely inflated sense of importance. You criticize the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for creating an artificial monopoly and controlling major platforms like Zillow, making it difficult for sellers to reach buyers without a realtor. You also argue that realtors are not experts, performing simple tasks like filling out standardized forms, while inflating costs for buyers and sellers to benefit themselves. In essence, you believe that realtors are running a racket and should be removed from the real estate process entirely to make transactions more transparent and cost-effective.
 
The core argument of your post is that realtors are unnecessary middlemen who exploit both buyers and sellers through monopolistic practices, excessive fees, and a falsely inflated sense of importance. You criticize the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for creating an artificial monopoly and controlling major platforms like Zillow, making it difficult for sellers to reach buyers without a realtor. You also argue that realtors are not experts, performing simple tasks like filling out standardized forms, while inflating costs for buyers and sellers to benefit themselves. In essence, you believe that realtors are running a racket and should be removed from the real estate process entirely to make transactions more transparent and cost-effective.

Yeah, that is a good summary of the post.
 
Those cases brings me memories! I have a condo which is in like new condition. It has ceramic tiles, a finished basement with a shower and vanity next to the laundry room. Originally, the condo had only one bathroom but another toilet was added later on. Besides, it had lots of modern upgrades (smart garage door opener, smart light switches, smart thermostat, smart front lock, etc). Moreover, the condo also have a large renovated deck that would cost over $20,000 to build.

A realtor came to visit and look into my condo and tried to convince me that my condo was worth less than one that recently sold – granted this condo that was recently sold was renovated and looked nice too. The point is that my unit have far more important and costly upgrades, and most definitely would worth more (the other unit had no deck, no extra toilet, no ceramic tiles, no smart devices, etc). Basically, he mentioned that kitchen counter top and the kitchen fauce of the other unit of all things as the big differential in value of the other unit. True, the kitchen counter top of the other unit was a little nicer (but it was laminated too, nothing special, and even if it was granite it would make up for the other major improvement my unit had comparatively speaking). The kitchen faucet, it is something that costed me about $150 to upgrade; so, not a major expense really. The thing is that perception do play a role, and people do attach undue value to small things (it is important lesson to learn when selling a house); but the idea that the other unit was worth more than mine was absurd.


Paul, are you a moderator/admin? I made some silly mistakes and typos (I am start to think I am dyslexic), and I can not edit the text. Could you make it possible for me to edit it?
It's sure odd, as you mentioned, about little things meaning so much to buyers. I was trying to sell a house once and painted the walls inside beige. (It was the 80's) I got some offers, not great ones, but some. I painted the walls white. Instantly more & higher offers. Two came from people who previously offered. I guess the white did some marketing magic.

Speaking of real estate; I saw some ads recently for houses that said "3.1 baths" and "3.2 baths". What is a point-one and a point-two? I always figured it was full bath or half bath. But, what do I know from marketing?
 
It's sure odd, as you mentioned, about little things meaning so much to buyers. I was trying to sell a house once and painted the walls inside beige. (It was the 80's) I got some offers, not great ones, but some. I painted the walls white. Instantly more & higher offers. Two came from people who previously offered. I guess the white did some marketing magic.

Speaking of real estate; I saw some ads recently for houses that said "3.1 baths" and "3.2 baths". What is a point-one and a point-two? I always figured it was full bath or half bath. But, what do I know from marketing?


That is kind of funny. There are some psychological factors and maybe some coincidences in your case of the paint color. In some countries, they do some type of spiritual work before selling a house (to get rid of the bad spirits and whatnot). Niceties, like pleasant smells always plays a role in inspiring people to select your house, instead of another similar house. I would imagine that such factors can tip the balance in your favor, but could not be decisive factors for a buyer.

In the past, I heard about ¾ bath which is still not clear to me either. I would image that for something to be classified as a bathroom, it would need to have at least a toilet. Maybe instead of a toilet, one of the “bathrooms” have a urinal (I am just guessing).
 
I've been told a toilet is ¼, a sink is ¼, and a bath or shower is ¼ each. A combo is ½.
 

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