The overall optimism of sellers in our market is waning. A lot of listings have been languishing for months (85 for six months or longer) while more realistically-priced new listings are picking off buyers. The practice of pricing crazy high and hoping for a miracle is still alive just not as widespread as it was before last year. Some of those who went with this method in 2023 and 2024 failed to sell and their properties are among those still sitting on the MLS. In an appreciating market, like ours was up until 2022, pricing ahead of the trend worked sometimes. Problem is, we are no longer in a rising market and that strategy is not working. Agents and sellers are getting the message and the trend with new listings seems to be headed towards more realistic initial asking prices. Whether this will lead to increasing transaction numbers remains to be seen. We are well behind recent years in closed sales so far this year so I remain pessimistic about activity rising to anywhere near historical levels. The new units closing at The Surf condo downtown Cocoa Beach have propped up the number of closed condo sales making our market look healthier than it really is considering that most of those contracts were signed years ago.
Warning of the day: Transaction (junk) fees. It’s a repeat and longtime readers can skip this. You’ve heard it all before. Nothing has changed and people are still being robbed.
It’s one of my most often repeated messages but there are still consumers who don’t understand what they should expect to pay a real estate broker or how. Brokers and agents are taking advantage of the confusion and profiting from it. I was reading messages on a real estate forum yesterday and someone asked about two buyers’ agents they had interviewed. One was asking for 3% commission PLUS a $425 “administration fee” and the other wanted 2.5% PLUS a $725 fee.
Which is the better deal? Wrong question. One may be better than the other but they are both bad deals for the buyer. Despite the agents’ probable presentation of the fee as a normal and common expense, it is not. Asking a buyer to agree to pay a commission plus a junk fee is proof that those agents are putting their own interests before the client’s. The fee is one they owe their broker and it is no different than the agent’s MLS fees, a cost of doing business. Those agents have the freedom to work at a brokerage that doesn’t charge transaction fees or that keeps them low so that clients don’t wind up being asked to pay them. Hundreds of thousands of real estate agents in the US never charge a fee on top of the commission. They and their brokerages manage to thrive without resorting to what amounts to an auto-gratuity of a few hundred dollars slipped on their clients’ tab on a deal that they already made thousands on. Adding insult to injury, many if not most agents who engage in this odorous practice pitch the fee as “non-negotiable”. Don’t pay it and don’t leave your car keys unwatched around any agent who tries to get you to agree to one. If asked to pay one, ask the agent if you should include an extra $92 for the current quarter’s MLS dues. I mean, why not?
For those who may not have noticed, this is a warning that the speed limit through downtown Cocoa Beach and to the south end of town is now 30 MPH and there is a speed bump on southbound A1A at south 1st St. and northbound at 20th St. Cops are out and are willing to write you an invitation should you not be able to stay close to 30. You’ve been warned.
Write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license, all that jive
I can't drive 55
_Sammy Hagar
