Real Estate Blog - 60 Minutes - Chipping away at REALTORS 6% commission

Home : Blogs : Mike Mitchell - REALTOR® - St. Clair Shores, MI : Macomb County Real Estate Blog - Mike Mitchell

60 Minutes - Chipping away at REALTORS 6% commission

I think the report by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes was completley unfair and one sided. It was titled " Chipping away at REALTORS 6% commission". She and the owner of a discount broker ripped on full service REALTORS asking what it is we do to earn our commission. This was a 15 minute report and 13 minutes of it was with the discount broker and 2 minutes with the full service agent. The report makes it sound like all we do for a listing is print flyers for the seller to put in a feature sheet box.
I have nothing against discount brokers, I think competition is good, but I also think you get what you pay for. I promote the service that I will provide and it is alot more than putting flyers in a feature sheet box! They mention nothing about an accurate CMA, staging, print marketing, e-marketing, constantly monitoring the market, following up with every lead, not to mention negotiating, facilitating and advicing. I have gone above and beyond for my listings on more than one occasion, one time that comes to mind recently, is when I picked up an expired listing, the seller had already moved out of state, he told me the key would be left under the matt. I went over and picked up the key around 7 p.m. and went inside the house to see what I had to work with, as soon as I opened the door I was almost knocked over by the smell of natural gas. It was so bad I was afraid to turn the lights on, I immediately called my seller and left him a voice mail, I then called the gas company and waited in the driveway until they arrived, I then stayed until the problem was found and repaired, it was around 11 p.m. when I finally got home. My seller did call me back the next day and was very appreciative.
As I said, I'm not knocking those who are discount brokers, but for this report to compare us to book salesmen is absurd. If you haven't seen the 60 minutes report, here is the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/11/60minutes/main2790865_page2.shtml
Shame on you Leslie Stahl and 60 Minutes for not being fair and researching all of the facts before airing your interview.

Posted by Mike Mitchell - REALTOR® - St. Clair Shores, MI on 05/15/2007 09:03 PM

Comments (14)

60 minutes chipping away at realors 6 commission

This post has been included in Michigan Information
Post is included in group: Macomb County Michigan REALTORS®

14 Comments on 60 Minutes - Chipping away at REALTORS 6% commission

MAY

2007

I have added this post to my summary of the discussions at 60 Minutes -- "Et tu, Brutae?"

Keep the conversation alive, and be sure to email CBS with your opinion.

The real shame of it is that NAR worked with CBS on the piece for over a year. CBS had access to all the facts, they just appear to have decided that the facts would not sell airtime.

They did the research. They just didn't share the research with the viewers. In my book that is misrepresentation. REALTORS loose their license over things like that. What will 60 Minutes loose? Nothing they haven't already lost: Credibility.

Thanks Rich, I just finished reading your blog, well done!

Mike

I agree -- I cannot believe how one sided this show was. I think they need to go back to the drawing board and check the facts!

It's really very ignorant of them. Sometimes I think they do not care as long as they have news. They sell news! And unfortunately if its about stuff like this it sells. Whatever happened to responsible journalism. Everything on this news is based on assumptions and you can tell they did not do a good job with thier homework. I may not be a REaltor but I will tell CBS what I think about this.

The get what you pay for argument is weak. If someone gets the listing priced right with a motivated seller and moves the property quickly and saves the seller a point in commission, how did the seller get cheated or shortchanged?

My sister unexpectedly lost her beloved 46 year old husband to a heart attack, leaving her with their children, ages 4 and 8. On the evening of this excruciating loss, her four year old daughter looked up at me and said, " I know pretend. I think this is pretend, and Daddy will be here tomorrow." For every day and every year hence, she has instilled in her children that GUESS WHAT? Life isn't "fair". So the 60 Minutes interview wasn't fair. Life has that tendency. Roll with the tide, and be prepared to compromise, whether it's with commission or with remaining firm with your commission beliefs. I respect the response to the interview- just have difficulty with the "it isn't fair" argument. I prefer that it be considered appalling, or wrong, or stupid.

I never said the sellers were getting cheated or short changed, in fact I said competition is good. The market here in MI is very bad right now, there is a massive oversupply of inventory and yes pricing is crucial and so is marketing.

I don't see how someone can price or market a home they've never even seen as in the piece on 60 Mins

You said they get what they pay for, which infers if they pay less, they get less. That is why I said "shortchanged".

"pricing is crucial and so is marketing"

The only factors that really matter when it comes to selling a house is price and motivation. With close to 85% of all homes sold as a result of inclusion in the MLS, the marketing aspect is a very small part of the picture. Properties that are priced right and sell quickly rarely sell because of marketing.

Laurie -- the reaction to 60 minutes is not about being fair to REALTORs. My objection, which you can read about in A REALTOR's Worth: What 60 Minutes "forgot" to tell you. is that they are not being fair to the consumers. By so boldly representing fiction as fact, they create an expectation in the consumer's mind that will lead the consumer to make potentially faulty conclusions. If you want to know what fictions I am referring to, see this. I think 60 minutes is no longer the New Magazine it once was. It is now "infotainment" used to sell airtime, plain and simple. Why do you think Andy Rooney is on the show? Come to think about it, did you notice his comentary was all about how lovely Lesley Stahl is. If that was not planned to deflect some of the responses from irate viewers, then I don't know what it was. He was essentially saying, "Don't be mad at poor Lesley Stahl, she is just reading what she is told to read, and doesn't she look good doing it? That is all our producers care about, anyway, which is why they told me to read this script during my segment. Things were much better at 60 Minutes when I was 21."

Thanks for the link, Mike. I am going to bite the bullet and watch the segment. The notion that someone could hire Redfin for 1% and have them provide anything which comes even close to the representation they would obtain from me is ludicrous. I am worth every penny and then some.

Just finished watching the piece. I didn't think it was all too terrible. I actually thought the much maligned Re/Max agent wasn't too bad. I hope that the fact checkers will be all over Redfin's claims. Last I recall, they didn't do eight deals a month, let alone one agent doing eight deals a week. Redfin might be able to get away with what they are doing in a market like Seattle, but no way in a place like Michigan, where the average DOM is more like six months rather than six weeks.

MAY

2007

CBS Issues a Partial Retraction has been posted

when will they acknowledge the other misrepresentations, I wonder?

Rich- thanks- what I saw when reading responses on the cbs site was that word "fair", over and over. It just seems that, while accurate, a better word could be used to present a legitimate argument that didn't sound so whiny.

Mike, I missed the show and just had time to read information online. From what I read the report was very one sided and the only ones debating it are the real estate community.

To protect myself, I would make sure no homes are shown without a buyers agent agreement.

I guess, if this is the business model they want to use that's there choice. As to giving money to buyers, that's great as long as it's on the HUD-1. If I was representing the sellers, they would be informed and should ask for commision back. Just don't know how to put that in the MLS.

This blog does not allow anonymous comments