Real Estate Purchase Ethics Question (Nassau: for sale by owner, broker, houses)

[hurrahs80]

Hello,

My wife and I are looking to buy our first home on South Shore Nassau. We have been shown a number of homes - - shown to us by a number of realtors in the areas we are targeting.

The Question:

We liked one house in particular, but we don't want to put an offer on it until the late Fall for a number of personal reasons. The listing broker who showed us the house originally (we have not seen it since) has a contract for that listing which expires at the end of Sept. We also know who the owner is and how to contact them. Thus, would it be unethical to contact that owner after the listing contract has expired in order to make a deal directly with them if they do not have another agent? We would assume it would be most advantageous to them as it would basically be a For Sale By Owner situation.

Comments pro or con?

Thanks

[nancy thereader]

We also know who the owner is and how to contact them. Thus, would it be unethical to contact that owner after the listing contract has expired

I am not even a real estate person and even I think that would be unethical. Don't you?

[Danielle Westbury]

tell the owner now or maybe drop a hint that ur intersted but if he doesnt sell it by that time frame to give u a call.

[totallyfrazzled]

Unless the house is grossly overpriced, it probably will be already sold by late Fall anyway.

Even some of the overpriced houses are moving faster than you'd think. We missed out on one that both we and our buyer agent thought was overpriced for the market, by waiting FOUR DAYS to make an offer. By the time we did, the sellers had accepted an offer (on day 3 after we saw it) and weren't listening to any others.

So we've learned our lesson: He who hesitates will probably lose the house to someone else.

[Teresa1127]

Definitely sounds unethical, but you're certainly not the first person to think of it and no doubt many have acted on the idea.

[totallyfrazzled]

Originally Posted by hurrahs80

H We have been shown a number of homes - - shown to us by a number of realtors in the areas we are targeting.

Also, are these realtors who are showing you houses acting in the capacity of the SELLER'S agent, or on your behalf as a BUYER's agent? Have you signed a buyer agency contract with any of the realtors who are showing you houses, or have you just been calling up listing agents? You should have been given disclosure forms by each agent, so that you know who is actually working for whom when you're looking at houses.

If you saw the house with an agent acting for you (as your buyer agent) then if you end up buying it after the listing, you'll probably still owe your agent a commission. We have a buyer agent (by contract) and our contract with her says "in the event the Buyer enters into a contract to purchase residential property within 60 days after the expiration of this [Buyer Agency] agreement where the Buyer was first introduced to the property by the Broker" , she is still entitled to her commission. I suspect the same applies if an originally-MLS listing a buyer agent shows, later goes FSBO. Some FSBOs agree to pay part or (rarely) all of a buyer agent's commission, but many do not (if that's why they went FSBO.... because they didn't want to pay anyone a commission!).

If you're seeing houses with Seller's agents rather than a Buyer agent of your own, well.... honestly... that's not very smart, because nobody is looking out for your interests at all. All those nice helpful agents are out to get the best deal possible for the Seller, at your expense (literally).

[hurrahs80]

We are talking about a sellers agent with this particular house. It is grossly over-priced, so perhaps it will still be around.

[Elke Mariotti]

Seems to me, you kind of know the answer, or you wouldn't ask...
IMHO definitely dishonest. Besides, how do you know the owner won't renew the listing?

Also IMHO, you'd be much better off using only one Realtor - thus showing that professional respect and in return getting better results. Otherwise you just have to repeat your likes/dislikes, etc. over and over. Unless you are not happy with the Realtor, why use many and waste their time and probably yours - after all, none of them have a chance to really find out what you like/dislike?

By the way, if you're not going to make an offer until late Fall ("personal reasons"), why are you looking now?? If you find that "perfect" home, and the price is right, are you going to tell the owner, that you want the house but are not prepared to go into contract for another several months (and close 2-3 months thereafter) and expect the homeowner to say, no problem, I'll wait as long as it takes??? Would you do that if you wanted to sell your home?

I'd like to suggest that if you're not ready to go to contract, don't waste anybodys time; if you really like that house, then make an offer NOW, while it's available, and see what you can negotiate in terms of closing.
Being upfront usually brings more success than being sneaky.

JMHO

Originally Posted by hurrahs80

Hello,

My wife and I are looking to buy our first home on South Shore Nassau. We have been shown a number of homes - - shown to us by a number of realtors in the areas we are targeting.

The Question:

We liked one house in particular, but we don't want to put an offer on it until the late Fall for a number of personal reasons. The listing broker who showed us the house originally (we have not seen it since) has a contract for that listing which expires at the end of Sept. We also know who the owner is and how to contact them. Thus, would it be unethical to contact that owner after the listing contract has expired in order to make a deal directly with them if they do not have another agent? We would assume it would be most advantageous to them as it would basically be a For Sale By Owner situation.

Comments pro or con?

Thanks

[totallyfrazzled]

Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti

By the way, if you're not going to make an offer until late Fall why are you looking now??

IMHO it is definitely not too early to start looking now (depending on the OP's personal situation) because for a discerning buyer, the odds of finding the right house in less than 3 months are not that great. We've owned 3 houses (all in prime suburban markets) so far, and in 2 out of 3 of them it took us more than 9 months to find what we wanted (the first one, back in the 1970s, took us over a year to find). The fastest we've ever found a house was 6 months and that was in 2002, the last one we bought. And as a realtor you know that once Thanksgiving rolls around, the new-listings market goes into the doldrums and then in December it's dead as a doornail until at least the second week in January.

[DonnaReed]

Originally Posted by hurrahs80

Hello,

My wife and I are looking to buy our first home on South Shore Nassau. We have been shown a number of homes - - shown to us by a number of realtors in the areas we are targeting.

The Question:

We liked one house in particular, but we don't want to put an offer on it until the late Fall for a number of personal reasons. The listing broker who showed us the house originally (we have not seen it since) has a contract for that listing which expires at the end of Sept. We also know who the owner is and how to contact them. Thus, would it be unethical to contact that owner after the listing contract has expired in order to make a deal directly with them if they do not have another agent? We would assume it would be most advantageous to them as it would basically be a For Sale By Owner situation.

Comments pro or con?

Thanks

Personally, if the house were still available once the agent's contract was expired, I would definitely contact the owner.

Once the contract expires, it's expired.

You said you don't want to make an offer now.

What the heck...are you supposed tell an agent and homeowner to renew a contract becausee you'd like to buy a house once the agent's contract is expired?

Whatever...

I would have contacted the owner the day after the that contract expired.