Understanding the Value of a Good Agent

I am a full service broker with 15 years of experience and I wish the so-called experts (“Hands-On Agent: An Endangered Species?” May 16) would get in touch with how real estate is sold in the 1990s, because the ‘70s way of doing business is over.

The last thing my client and I want is someone meeting us at the door and guiding us around the home, pointing at the benefits of the house.

As for open houses for buyers, in today’s marketplace that is like fighting a war armed with bows and arrows. Writer Ilyce Glink needs to check the stats with the National Assn. of Realtors on how many properties are sold off open houses.

The issue she should address is efficiency. Any broker who is working 18-hour days seven days a week is an idiot. Reason: they have no business plan, no schedule, no business maturity and, more important, no life.

The real problem in the marketplace today is that there is no training, it is too easy to receive a real estate license and there are only a few agents out there who really know how to run a business.

VICTOR VASU

Via e-mail

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I am experiencing the agony of a good friend going through the throes of the listing agent doing precious little or nothing to sell a beautiful home.

After reading Glink’s superb article, I am convinced that there should be two levels of commissions for brokers:

(1) Full commission for those who make a true effort to stir the pot and sell.

(2) A commission of less than 1% for those who hold a listing and do little or nothing but wait for a buyer to stumble into their sights.

Fair is fair, right?

BERNARD FRANKEL

Sherman Oaks

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The writer is an attorney.