It’s been more than six years since my last blog post!
A little update about us. My wife Stephanie and I that have been working together in Real Estate created our own real estate agency named Makishima Realty. I am currently in the processing of re-branding everything, including this blog post. It actually took a bit of doing trying to get back into Word Press as I’ve forgotten which e-mail I used to access this site.
In any case, the real estate industry continues to evolve. With the creation of virtual agencies (office-less agency like us) and the expansion on the internet, we were expected to see a revolution in the real estate industry. But big moves like Purple Brick with their super low commission structure has failed and retreated, and it’s more like a minor evolution that has happened. Obviously, Zillow has become a significant force in the industry combined with Redfin and Trulia where we believe most people will begin their real estate search. Power to the people!
The commission structure which held the 3% for listing agent and 3% for the selling agent (total 6%) has crumbled away and now the norm is 5% and for higher cost homes, as low as 4% (2%/2%). When the commission was low, some agents won’t show the property to their customer because the agent won’t benefit, but with all the listings showing up on Zillow, there’s no hiding any more and well “2% is much better than nothing” has become the norm. With the lower commission structure and the marketing power of Zillow, the traditional real estate agencies would be difficult to keep operating in their same high-overhead ways.
The real estate market is HOT now with houses getting multiple offers and selling as soon as it hits the market. COVID-19 hasn’t really dampened the market, but the low interest rate and low inventory is driving the house price up like mad. This would be a good time to sell your home, but there is a bit of a bubble so if you are buying, you may want to hold off a bit–although the prices may just simply continue to rise…
James Makishima
