The Twin Cities real estate market is awash in personal tragedies brought on by the collapse in the housing market over the past 4+ years. Thousands of people have been affected by the 20%+ drop in prices that have left the market back at levels seen in the very early 2000’s. Therefore, I find it interesting when I read stories or hear people tell me how Realtors charge too much to sell a house or are making so much money.
As I wrote back in February, full-time Realtors make on average less than $40,000 per year with no benefits and are leaving the industry in droves – Number of Twin Cities Realtors Declines
Financial Impact
Over the past week I’ve been working on finding a home for a buyer who is looking for a short sale or bank owned property in Dakota County. One thing that is interesting is how many properties I see that are owned by an Agent. In Minnesota, a real estate agent must disclose in MLS when they are owner of a property for sale. I decided to do some research to see exactly how prevalent this was and the numbers were quite large.
- There are currently 222 active homes in the Twin Cities that are on the market as short sales and marked as an “agent owner”.
- There are currently 30 homes in a “pending” status as a short sale with an agent owner.
- Since January 1, 2009 there have been an additional 267 homes in the Twin Cities that have sold as a short sale that were agent owned.
Conclusion
I’ve talked before about how consumers might be better served by finding a full-time Realtor who is successfully selling homes today vs. hiring a part-time agent, Uncle Joe or a friend of a friend. Now it looks as though asking about whether a Realtor has their own financial ship in order might be an additional question one might want to inquire about before entrusting such a large financial transaction.
