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I think the thought did come up about some compensation, But the fact is the husband said they did not have enough to give any thing to the RE, So I would take his word for it rather than call him a Liar. Which is what you are debating in your head. Are you sure your a friend?
A friend doesn't have to agree or believe everything another friend says. and if someone buys an expensive home and doesn't have a little bit of money stashed away, they are foolish. Of course they had the money, the husband did not want to put out any money, end of story. I didn't think they should have given the agent 5 or 6k.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PotterGeek
If I found a FSBO on my own, and there was no buyer's agreement signed, and the house was priced accordingingly to reflect no commission (meaning the seller's are passing the savings on to me), I would have no problem purchasing the house. Yes, I would feel badly for the agent, and perhaps at least try to give them a compensation of value they wouldn't have to share with their broker (i.e. high value gift card). But the fact is the agent didn't find them the home and that's a very shady area.
Again, it would have been more of thank you for all she had done in well over the previous year, not full compensation, b/c she did not sell them the home, however this particular agent worked very very hard for this couple, how do I know that? The couple told me this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Austin-Willy
This reminds me of a story of a friend of mine who hired an agent after my friend had found the house they wanted to buy because they were told they needed representation. My friend was very adept and diligent in preparing the contract and taking care of all the negotiation, inspections, loan issues and other matters through closing, and the agent basically was available if needed.
At closing, the agent accepted a full commission!!
Oh and then there was the one where the agent worked up the contract but then basically wasn't involved in anything else through closing. THAT agent accepted full commission too!!!
Can you believe it?! Now tell me, did those agents show any class?
Well it shows some stupidity on your friends part. Why would he or she hire an agent and then write the contract, do the negotiations, and all of that anyway? That makes totally no sense to me at all. If they needed representation, it should have been told to them upfront, how did they write the contract themselves? What you are saying is ridiculous.
I guess I am just uncommon, my cousin dropped off bags and bags of abercrombie and fitch clothing for my kids, very good condition. I sent her a g/c to a nice restaraunt for thinking of us. She certainly wasn't looking for money, but when someone does something nice for me, or works hard for me, i find it kinda cheesy not to thank them in some tangible way, that's all.
Well it shows some stupidity on your friends part. Why would he or she hire an agent and then write the contract, do the negotiations, and all of that anyway? That makes totally no sense to me at all. If they needed representation, it should have been told to them upfront, how did they write the contract themselves? What you are saying is ridiculous.
You should have written this response to your original post. That the agent didn't have the buyer sign a contract shows some stupidity on the agent's part.
And as for the buyer who hired an agent who did nothing but still accepted a full commission, maybe the buyer was a lawyer? Or maybe they just downloaded the Texas Real Estate Commission form contract that is on the internet and that most agents use, with blanks to be filled in? And negotiating is not difficult for many people who work in all kinds of industries.
But you are getting bogged down in the specifics of my hypothetical and missing the larger point, which is that sometimes agents get paid a lot for very little work, and sometimes they don't get paid at all for their work. It goes with the territory. If it wasn't financially rewarding, there would be many fewer agents out there.
But you are getting bogged down in the specifics of my hypothetical and missing the larger point, which is that sometimes agents get paid a lot for very little work, and sometimes they don't get paid at all for their work. It goes with the territory. If it wasn't financially rewarding, there would be many fewer agents out there.
I will agree with you on the above and will add one more thing to it... sometimes agents get paid little for a lot of aggravation and a lot of work - many different scenerios.
But YOU are missing my point, being more of an ethical question on peoples behavior than as a realtor, if I was not a realtor myself, I would still think the same way. If you use up peoples time with the direct intention and implication on utilizing them for whatever it is they do and then you chose not to use them, but still acknowledge that they did a terriffic job, the right thing to do is thank them in some way in a tangible sense. Regardless if that is a gift card or cash.
I will agree with you on the above and will add one more thing to it... sometimes agents get paid little for a lot of aggravation and a lot of work - many different scenerios.
But YOU are missing my point, being more of an ethical question on peoples behavior than as a realtor, if I was not a realtor myself, I would still think the same way. If you use up peoples time with the direct intention and implication on utilizing them for whatever it is they do and then you chose not to use them, but still acknowledge that they did a terriffic job, the right thing to do is thank them in some way in a tangible sense. Regardless if that is a gift card or cash.
I don't disagree with your point, but I was just trying to add some context based on the nature of the commission structure. I guess I should have been more direct by asking whether you agree that it is the right thing to do for agents to turn down a large part of their commission, even without being asked, if they do not play a major role in the transaction.
I don't disagree with your point, but I was just trying to add some context based on the nature of the commission structure. I guess I should have been more direct by asking whether you agree that it is the right thing to do for agents to turn down a large part of their commission, even without being asked, if they do not play a major role in the transaction.
I don't know any broker that would allow this, HOWEVER, I am still miffed as to how an agent can come into a deal and not write a contract, not put together an inspection, not follow up with the sellers (if they are representing them in regard to what needs to be accomplished) etc. As a buyers agent, again, I would expect them to walk the buyer through a lot of things, even though it really isnt their job.
To tell you the truth, If I sold a 200k house and did NOTHING, I would feel pretty bad about taking that amount of money, but you probably already know, that that isnt even my decision...on a side note, I was getting an out of state referral and the agent asked me to give her referral percentage back to her client, rather than her - I would definately do something like that!!!! Whatever I can do for a client within reason I would.
This reminds me of a story of a friend of mine who hired an agent after my friend had found the house they wanted to buy because they were told they needed representation. My friend was very adept and diligent in preparing the contract and taking care of all the negotiation, inspections, loan issues and other matters through closing, and the agent basically was available if needed.
At closing, the agent accepted a full commission!!
Oh and then there was the one where the agent worked up the contract but then basically wasn't involved in anything else through closing. THAT agent accepted full commission too!!!
Can you believe it?! Now tell me, did those agents show any class?
Now, Willie, this has what to do with answering the original question? (Never mind, it's pretty clear what this is about.)
To answer the original question, the OP's friends should have used the agent when purchasing the FSBO, negotiated the commission into the selling price (using the agent for negotiations), and had it paid at closing out of the seller's proceeds.
That it is a FSBO does not mean that the buyers must make the same choice that the seller did, to not use an agent and to be unrepresented. Since they were going to use the agent in other cases, they should have gone ahead and used her in this one. For that matter, if they had done so, they might very well have "had the money", because she might have negotiated a better deal for them.
Now, Willie, this has what to do with answering the original question? (Never mind, it's pretty clear what this is about.)
To answer the original question, the OP's friends should have used the agent when purchasing the FSBO, negotiated the commission into the selling price (using the agent for negotiations), and had it paid at closing out of the seller's proceeds.
That it is a FSBO does not mean that the buyers must make the same choice that the seller did, to not use an agent and to be unrepresented. Since they were going to use the agent in other cases, they should have gone ahead and used her in this one. For that matter, if they had done so, they might very well have "had the money", because she might have negotiated a better deal for them.
Spoken like a true real estate agent. I'm sure that is exactly the answer that the other agent was looking for when they asked the question about whether or not it was ok not to pay a commission. AGENTS UNITE! or something like that.
But I'm a little disappointed in you for not being able to understand the relevance of my prior post.
I don't know any broker that would allow this, HOWEVER, I am still miffed as to how an agent can come into a deal and not write a contract, not put together an inspection, not follow up with the sellers (if they are representing them in regard to what needs to be accomplished) etc. As a buyers agent, again, I would expect them to walk the buyer through a lot of things, even though it really isnt their job.
To tell you the truth, If I sold a 200k house and did NOTHING, I would feel pretty bad about taking that amount of money, but you probably already know, that that isnt even my decision...on a side note, I was getting an out of state referral and the agent asked me to give her referral percentage back to her client, rather than her - I would definately do something like that!!!! Whatever I can do for a client within reason I would.
Believe it or not, but there are lots of people out there who don't really need agents, but they use them anyway. Sometimes the only involvement, as I'm sure you know, is communicating with the other side, particularly once the contract is signed up.
But you are still missing the forest for the trees. While the example is extreme, it highlights the fact that agents sometimes get a lot for not much, and other times they get not much for a lot. And brokers and agents are the ones out there pushing the commission structure.
We have buyer agreements in Virginia that are signed by both agent and buyer (bilateral agreements-binding on both parties) where, in essence, the buyer pledges to do anything they possibly can for the buyer in exchange for the buyer agreeing to exclusively work with the agent for a defined period of time, not only for MLS properties but also for FSBOs. All it really boils down to is a formalization and acknowledgment by both parties that the agent is using all of their skills, knowledge and expertise to get the buyer in a position to make the best and most fully informed decision about the best property for their particular wants and needs and also that the buyer will stay with the agent for that defined period of time and not work with anyone else. What is now being called our knowledge-based economy, where the accumulation of knowledge in a subject has acknowledged value, is the one that real estate agents (the good ones) have already been doing for their entire careers-not necessarily always knowing everything but certainly knowing the best people and places to go to to gather the best information for their client and then aiding their client in wading through all of it to get to a happy conclusion for their search. If you were a teacher and you helped all of your students get to the point in their studies that they get into Ivy League colleges on full tuition would it be fair for the school board to decide not to pay that teacher? Of course not, and that is why they have contracts. I think the Golden Rule applies here. I doubt that a buyer would appreciate being treated that way if the shoe were on the other foot but then again contracts have come into being and have become quite lengthy because handshakes just don't mean what they used to; I am hoping that in the current economic crisis that people will have time to thoughtfully re-examine their value systems.
We have buyer agreements in Virginia that are signed by both agent and buyer (bilateral agreements-binding on both parties) where, in essence, the buyer [I assume you mean the agent] pledges to do anything they possibly can for the buyer in exchange for the buyer agreeing to exclusively work with the agent for a defined period of time, not only for MLS properties but also for FSBOs.
I wonder how a buyer would ever know - or better yet, be able to prove - whether the agent was really doing everything they possibly can. This is such a nebulous obligation that can't be enforced against the agent, yet the buyer's obligation can be objectively measured. If that is the only obligation on the agent, I think the contract is designed to take advantage of consumers. It's pretty obvious to me, but I don't expect any agents to agree.
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