(Realtors) Considering selling my house in an unconventional way. (feedback, 2015, appraiser)
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I inspect houses and work with 100 plus Realtors, knowing 30-40 of them well enough to consider friends. My neighborhood sells very fast, and inventory is low in our general area (Raleigh, NC). I really don't want to pay 3.6% to list, and also do not want to fully FSBO. My thought is, email all my agent friends about my house to find the buyer privately. Pay one of my closest agent friends a fee to help with contracts/negotiating.
If I can bring in the buyer, what would be a fair price for the agent that helps me close the deal? They will also be my buyers agent for the next house. any pitfalls you see with this scenario? Thanks!
Not wanting to pay the going rate for the full service offering of local real estate professional was the motivation for some agents to offer things like "discounted" listings that are merely entered in MLS. The record on how effective that sort of thing is is not very clear -- 2 startups charge flat fees for listings, revamping the real estate brokerage model
My gut says that you'll end up upsetting real estate agents with any kind of "mass mailing" -- much smarter to approach one or two agents that you trust and get their feedback on the idea. If they shoot you down at least you do not jeopardize your relationship as an inspector -- if you end up being "blacklisted" by local real estate agents as somebody that wants to hurt their business you can kiss your business goodbye...
How many free inspections would you offer in trade? I mean.... if they're friends...
I think if you fsbo, you will be angering a lot of the people who provide you with business. They will not be upset if you choose one of them. They will understand that.
can you find a flat fee agent to use? we were in the same situation, seller's market where a minimal amount of work is needed to sell anything. Flat fee agents exists here and charge about $5k for a standard package. You're not offending anybody since they are clearly advertised as flat fee. Turned out a number of traditional full service agents were willing to discount their fees once they found out we were talking to the flat fee agent guy.
They probably don't want to pay you $300 for an inspection. Maybe for $100 you could just go to the house and show them how to do their own inspections.
How many free inspections would you offer in trade? I mean.... if they're friends...
I think if you fsbo, you will be angering a lot of the people who provide you with business. They will not be upset if you choose one of them. They will understand that.
Dance with the ones who brought you.
Couldn't agree more. This is the definition of biting the hand that feeds you.
I also think you're being penny wise and pound foolish. Sure you'll save a few thousand on the commission but how many thousands will you lose when you become known as the home inspector who FSBO'ed his house?
Ok, I think I should have added this to the original post:
I fully plan on paying the agent that brings the buyer 2.4% which is the standard here. I just want to avoid the listing fee by seeing if my Realtor friends already have buyers for my house. I would be somewhat doing them a favor as well by keeping it private as the inventory here is ridiculously low (~6000 houses available for well over 1 million people in the area. Constant multiple full price offers).
All I need help with as a seller is the contracts and act as a buffer for negotiations. What is fair for that help? 3.6% is a lot more than a few grand, it is ~17k on my house. I do not need it advertised, I could stick a sign in my yard or post it on Facebook neighborhood page and have it under contract in a week without even adding it to MLS. No open houses, no advertising, buyers agents show the houses here so no dealing with that, and my wife is an appraiser so I don't even need a CMA or sketch done. Just keep us out of trouble on the contracts.
When they are my buyers agent they won't even need to show me houses, I have access like they do. Should be pretty easy money on both sides of the deal.
Last edited by sacredgrooves; 08-22-2016 at 10:32 PM..
How many free inspections would you offer in trade? I mean.... if they're friends...
I think if you fsbo, you will be angering a lot of the people who provide you with business. They will not be upset if you choose one of them. They will understand that.
Some years ago I was the executor of my mother's estate and had to choose from a couple of friends which to use as listing agent. They were both competent, both successful, both friends.
Each had very strong opinions how to market the house and what it would take to sell at full price. (People weren't paying over listing price in those days.)
One friend obviously did not like the house (it was a normal house, very clean, but not "executive" quality like she lived in and tended to sell). She recited numerous things "necessary" to sell (I think she must have meant "quick sell" so that she could get on to bigger and better deals). It would have cost several thousand to bring the house up to her standards.
The other friend was more down-to-earth (he owned a successful brokerage with numerous agents), found the house charming and tried to get me not to list the house at all, but rather to buy out my sibling's portion and have the property managed. This agent emphasized "I will be happy to sell the house, but you will get a stepped-up-basis and this will be a money-maker for you. You can be the landlord or we can manage the property for you. Buy it!" I chose not to do that for personal reasons.
So when I asked what I needed to do to ready the house for sale, he suggested trimming hedges, mow as necessary for open houses, neaten up the garage and vacuum, period. He was adamant that I didn't need to paint, didn't need to remove the ugly green indoor carpet in the kitchen, etc. Just arrange what was left of my Mom's furniture (not much) and leave it at that. He obviously loved the little house.
I chose for him to list, and ultimately we got full price for the house at the top of that market. (I did sweeten the pot on the buying side and that really was the most effective thing, in my opinion. There was some minor roof repairs to be made, but that was expected, and he got it done inexpensively.)
The morale of this story is that there may not be the understanding among agents that you suggested. I sent flowers to my other friend and explained my reasoning as nicely as possible, but she was angry not to have been chosen as listing agent and that was the last time we ever spoke.
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