Caleb Yamanaka's Q&A

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Can I build multiple layers of graphs in the Local Info charts area?  I wanted to compare various zipcodes in my area (to embed in another site) and can only seem to get only one chart line for the graph.Thank you for your help.

Hi LC,Just dropping in to see what's going on these days in the forums.

These are the Zillow threads I miss.  Keep them coming. 

home sold 8/13/2009 for $970,000 last list price was $1,000,000

On local mls and Public Record Data this property is listed as sold 7/29/2009 at $1,850,000

"My agent on my second home purchase wasn't willing to "publicly" do the transaction for 5%, so after the close he sent us a check for the 1%, his rationale for that was that he didn't want other agents to know he took less of a commish since they can see that on a some report."This is illegal!  I think Gregorio is correct on that.  I'm not sure of the law in your area, but in Hawaii an Agent cannot pay commission for a real estate transaction, which is what this description sounds like.  Any sort of "rebate" should have been reflected in the HUD-1. 

my two cents on reducing commission is that it is a broker's decision period.  i know many companies that have a policy of not negotiating commission and that is a choice.  it is part of their business model.  whether or not you agree with the policy is not relevent, because 1 transaction every 15 years is not going to make or break a company, but chaning the policy to appease one client could be a slippery slope that some brokerages just don't want to venture onto.although i do not think the phrase "you get what you pay for" is a catch all.  it is relevent in 90% of the residential transactions that you see today.  there are many very adequate brokerages out there that practice commission reduction or rebating, but amongst them are many very inadequate agents and brokerages.  those that have been around for awhile and practice a policy of not negotiating their commissions tend to have a higher standing in their industry (purely anecdotal) and in many cases are much more professional and easier to work with (on the transaction, professional to professional side).

There is no possible way to prove your 3% will outperform my 2% except for dollars in our pockets and is a poor example of determining value. excellent point jkonstant.  just for the record the 2 highest recorded sales on the Big Island this year $11,300,000 and $14,700,000 did not pay the usual 3% commission split.  I severly doubt that either Buyer or Seller received sub-standard representation.

The link you provided has nothing to do with your earlier point and has nothing to do with what you seem to have gleaned from that thread.one specific broker was stating he wouldn't take less than 3%, because "you get what you pay for", and thus no one else should either, even though some realtors stated they would take the 2% if that was what was in the seller's contract.In the thread that you referenced the Broker arguing for the 3% stated more then once that if the Buyer had signed an Exclusive Buyer's Agreement with the Agent and had agreed to pay the 3% then the Buyer should pay the 3%.  He also stated in that thread that if there was no agreement signed then the Buyer should not pay the 3% and the Buyer's Agent should just accept the 2% which was the commission split.