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Real estate question

CDeacMan

Ishmael Smith
Joined
Mar 22, 2011
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Morgantown, WV
Need some help from real estate experts. My wife and I are going to be selling our house but haven’t listed yet. Someone we know asked to look at it and now wants to make an offer. Their agent came to us and said she can’t tell us the offer but did offer to represent us in this transaction (and of course take a commission). Obviously this just fell in this agents lap and now wants to hit us up for a commission even though she didn’t do anything for us (buyers should have just come to us but here we are). So how can we keep ourselves protected without having to involve this agent on our side? Not sure why she felt she couldn’t tell us what they want to offer, but probably because she’s trying to get the commission for herself
 
Do you have a lawyer? Maybe he/she can represent you for less than the 3% sellers commission.
 
Was thinking we’d get an attorney to just review the offer terms so it’s unclear why this agent felt like she couldn’t deal directly with us
 
charge your idiot friend 5% more for involving an agent and then let the agent do both sides of the transaction
 
I think you got it right the first time. She wants the entire commission.

Or maybe she doesn't have an offer and wants the listing.
 
Need some help from real estate experts. My wife and I are going to be selling our house but haven’t listed yet. Someone we know asked to look at it and now wants to make an offer. Their agent came to us and said she can’t tell us the offer but did offer to represent us in this transaction (and of course take a commission). Obviously this just fell in this agents lap and now wants to hit us up for a commission even though she didn’t do anything for us (buyers should have just come to us but here we are). So how can we keep ourselves protected without having to involve this agent on our side? Not sure why she felt she couldn’t tell us what they want to offer, but probably because she’s trying to get the commission for herself

Do you have a selling price in mind? Tell her she can have your listing if she gets you at least 5% more that that.
 
Everything is negotiable in Real Estate. Tell her that if she wants to represent you in this transaction, then the buyer will have to pay all commissions (or some significant portion of them). Otherwise, she can wait until you have listed the property and deal with you and/or your representation then. Agents get little to no commission from the actual buyer, they split commission with the seller. That's why she is trying to get you on the hook... she doesn't have anything in her contract guaranteeing payment at this point.
 
always annoyed me that a buyer's real estate agent is compensated as a percentage of the sale, thus is incentivized to push for a higher sale price


since you're going to sell your home and engage a lawyer anyways, I'd probably bring them in now and have them hash it out with the broker and buyer's lawyer and, if you accept this first offer, go without a realtor
 
Tell her no way. I assume that your friends had already signed an exclusive right to represent so they were kind of locked in and there's not much they can do at this point. But it is her job to present any and all offers that her clients wish to make and she is not living up to her end of the representation if she does not do so. She's probably expecting a 6% commission if she can represent both parties. Offer to co-broke and give her the 3% she would have gotten anyway. If she plays hardball, go directly to your friends and let them know that she obviously doesn't have their best interests in mind. 3% to 6% of a $500,000 to $1,500,000 sale (just throwing a number out) is real money and should be treated as such.

Your problem is you might not really know what your house is worth, so you can go into this without representation and risk missing the price, high or low, and cost yourself a lot of money by accepting too low of a price, or having an unrealistic expectation of price and losing a stress-free sale because you don't like your friends' aggressive broker. So you really have to be careful with what you know about the market.
 
always annoyed me that a buyer's real estate agent is compensated as a percentage of the sale, thus is incentivized to push for a higher sale price


since you're going to sell your home and engage a lawyer anyways, I'd probably bring them in now and have them hash it out with the broker and buyer's lawyer and, if you accept this first offer, go without a realtor

Higher price for the buyer's broker won't matter most of the time. They need volume. losing a sale over a small difference of opinion in price isn't worth it to them when they have to go find their clients another house. They're also in a referral business so they have to go to bat for their client.
 
Yes you are right that the buyers have an exclusive right with their agent. We just asked them to put together an offer which we just received. It’s a little lower than what would what I want, but in a reasonable range. They threw in an extra term that is we as sellers would pay the buyers agent 3% on the sale price. This is where I don’t get this industry. Why would we agree to pay that? Would that be standard in this case? She has done nothing for us. Could we just counter for a higher price and say no to the commission or does that kill the deal for the buyers agent?
 
Your advantage here is if you accept the offer and pay her 3% you're saving half the commission. She earned that by bringing you a buyer. You just have to weigh whether that has any value to you compared with what you might get listing the home with a listing agent or by owner. You can always counter at a higher price or leaving out the commission entirely, but the broker is going to find a way to get paid, Because she has a contract with the buyers. Co-brokerage is likely the path of least resistance. Just balance your home's value with what you're saving by only paying a 3% commission instead of 6% and consider that in your counter offer.

That's the basics. Your situation may be more complex, or perhaps not. Please don't base your entire decision on my comments.
 
Yes you are right that the buyers have an exclusive right with their agent. We just asked them to put together an offer which we just received. It’s a little lower than what would what I want, but in a reasonable range. They threw in an extra term that is we as sellers would pay the buyers agent 3% on the sale price. This is where I don’t get this industry. Why would we agree to pay that? Would that be standard in this case? She has done nothing for us. Could we just counter for a higher price and say no to the commission or does that kill the deal for the buyers agent?

None of that offer makes any sense for you.

Counter. An ethical agent has to take the offer to the buyer.
 
So is 3% we would pay the only commission the agent would make on this? Or is that already splitting the commission and the buyers are paying something as well?
 
So is 3% we would pay the only commission the agent would make on this? Or is that already splitting the commission and the buyers are paying something as well?

You’re not obligated to pay any commission.
 
I realize that, but I’m asking for an opinion as to whether in this case the 3% being asked for from us is all the agent would be getting or would the buyers also likely be paying something to their agent?
 
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