Do Realtors Find Clients Homes?

I ran across this video today, and, intrigued by the topic, giggled as I watched this Realtor readily admit that his job description no longer includes finding homes for his clients. He's got a great point- gone are the days when a Realtor will dig through the MLS, searching for the perfect 3/2/2 in the preferred neighborhood of their clients. In fact, that's something that most clients prefer to do on their own these days.

In this video, Frank arrives at an interesting quandary. One of this clients says "If you're not finding me a home, why wouldn't I use a discount real estate company?" Here's the fun part- Frank has no answer. Just that "this is no longer part of my job description."

I want to find Frank's client and hug him. I want to tell him "You get it!! You get that for a lot of people, warm fuzzies are no longer enough, and you are demanding actual value for your dollar!" Just as flat fee MLS listing, or a discount realty, is not for everyone, neither are traditional agents. If you aren't sure what value a traditional agent will be able to bring you when you're searching to buy a house, give discount listing brokerage a call. Because while we won't waste 16 1/2 hours of your time driving you to and from potential homes, we will save you a heck of a lot of money...

Thoughts?? (By the way, ignore the first 30 seconds of this video, where this self conscious Realtor worries if his hair growth treatment is working or not... no, I'm not kidding....)

FSBO or Traditional Agent?

I was over on Trulia.com the other day looking at their Q&A posts. Trulia is a great place to get real estate questions answered, and one poster asked the following question:

Is it a bad idea to try For Sale by Owner for a few weeks before getting an Agent? We're going to be putting our home on the market relatively soon and we are thinking of listing it For Sale by Owner for a few weeks to see what pans out. If we get not bites in a few weeks, then we'll get an agent.

Does anyone see any adverse affect of this aside from losing time? We intend on offering commission to the buying agent. The catalyst for this idea is because we are right up against the margin of room we have of what we think we can get for the house and paying full 6% might take use under where we need to be. We do not plan on posting in MLS while it's under FSBO.

Most of the answers were the traditional agent responses of "No, an agent can sell your home better than you can" kind of thing. What really got me about the answers to this post was that none of them answered the question. The poster asked "Will it hurt to try it?" And the very simple answer is "No, as long as you're not at risk for losing your home to foreclosure, where time is of the absolute essence. Go ahead and give it a shot."

Here's the thing. I of course feel that this guy is wasting his time by not giving his FSBO listing the best shot of success by going ahead and utilizing a flat fee MLS listing for a really low out-of-pocket investment, but that's his business. If he wants to stick a 'for sale by owner' sign out in his yard and see who calls, why not encourage him. Because when he does reach the point of being ready to sign with a Realtor, he'll more than likely think they hung the moon with even very minimal foot traffic.

I'm so frustrated, folks! He doesn't have to choose! He CAN do the 'for sale by owner' thing AND have support if he were to go with a flat fee MLS listing company. But you already know that. Thank goodness.