Letters to the Editor: Most realtors are honest and hardworking. Stop making us look like snake oil salesmen

To the editor: I’ve been a realtor for 24 years. I work hard at it. I don’t make millions of dollars or drive a Bentley. My job has afforded me a good living and a mostly enjoyable career. (“Realtor rules just changed dramatically. Here’s what buyers and sellers can expect,” March 19)

Like any business, real estate changes constantly. Forms, laws and rules are always being added or updated. We keep up, we change, we grow.

With the changes to the commission rules, we are entering a new world, and we will make it work. However, I take offense at the idea that agents steer their clients to homes with higher commissions.

I have never done this and never would. I have, in fact, shown properties with extremely low commission splits when they are the homes my clients want.

In addition, commissions have always been negotiable. I have never met an agent who hasn’t helped a buyer using their own compensation. We do not get paid unless we close a sale, which can take months or even years.

Most realtors I know care about their clients and are genuinely trying to get them into the homes they love. But many articles about the commission changes make us seem like snake oil salesmen, and I object to that.

Cindy Nexon, Agoura Hills

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To the editor: Under new rules (awaiting court approval), listing brokers may not post commissions offered to selling brokers. Purportedly this could reduce selling costs, and sellers would offer their homes at lower prices.

But given that housing affordability is a major national issue, does a formerly $1-million home going for $975,000 under the new rules really become affordable?

Little attention has been given to a downside of the proposed measure: Large brokerages that already have a pool of buyers and sellers could hog their listings and in some cases arrange a sale to a bottom feeder, who might promise a future turnaround listing to the same brokerage. Small, independent brokers who review available listings daily and beat the town down to find the best buyer and highest price for the seller could be virtually excluded from an offering if they do not know what they will get — if anything — for their work.

I hope the court can understand that the game is better when more players are encouraged to try out.

Ken Hense, Los Angeles