newsflash
The article below is something that brasses me off. There is no need to do this type of thing by the REN. The REN is there to help the agents out and try and make the process of selling through the different agencies fair and just but by doing this is not fair on the consumer. In my eyes when I see this sort of thing going on where there is a minimum fee bought upon for a service makes me very angry.
Real Estate is a service industry. Yes there is quite large differences within the Real Estate industry when it comes to commissions payable upon a sale. Some are 4% some are as low as 1% and some just work on a fixed price. All these commisions are payable whether the property sells in two hours or two years. BUt by setting a minimum for a service is not right in my mind. I do not know what makes the REN justify themselves doing this.
I believe that if you use a Real Estate agent they should be able to, no matter what they are going to charge you, provide you with the best service possible by using all the tools possible to them. I also strongly believe that there are some companies that provide better service than others. And in some of these cases the amount of commission paid has something to do with it. But I will say that there are some very good agents out there who charge 1% and some good ones who charge 4%. You have to do your homework on the agent and the company to see if what your going to be paying is worth what your going to recieve in service and professionability from your agent.
Please read this article below which come from the NZ Herald website which points out something that quite frankly makes me puzzled.
The Commerce Commission has warned Christchurch real estate co-operative the Real Estate Network Ltd (REN) that its members risk breaching the Commerce Act for price fixing.
REN, which represented the majority of licensed residential real estate agents in and around Christchurch, offered a network listings service allowing member agents to share the details of sole agency properties with other members.
REN passed a bylaw last June introducing a minimum commission provision, under which vendors could only use the network listings service if the fee to the selling agent was 40 per cent of the commission originally negotiated with the listing agent.
A minimum fee of $3000 would apply if the negotiated fee came to less than $3000.
REN suspended the bylaw when told of the Commerce Commission investigation.
The commission considered that the by-law was an agreement between competitors that fixed, controlled or maintained a price, that was the fee payable by a listing agent to a selling agent on the sale of a property.
“As some vendors’ commissions are less than $3000 in total, setting a minimum commission may lead to agents increasing the commissions charged to vendors,” said commission director of competition Deborah Battell.
The commission considered a warning appropriate as the bylaw was only in place for a matter of weeks, and REN co-operated.
“The Commission will continue to monitor behaviour in the real estate industry and will recommence investigations if any further concerns are raised about possible price fixing,” Ms Battell said.