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I am purchasing a home in Pinellas County , and I am using a major real estate firm. The house I decided on is not one of the agents listings . The house was listed by another real estate company. I am Purchasing this home with my VA benefit . I was given a form to initial along with my contract stating that a 295.00 fee will be charged to me at closing as a transaction fee because the company is mandated by the state to hold such records for five years . I asked my VA lender if this was a mandatory fee , and was told that it is not listed on my HUD1 or final closing cost fees. If I initialed this form am I required to pay this Buyers fee.
Not legal advice, but that $295 is pure profit. Brokers fees can be imposed, to the unknowing. It is become a frequent charge to offset some expense. I would not contract with such firms.
Not legal advice, but that $295 is pure profit. Brokers fees can be imposed, to the unknowing. It is become a frequent charge to offset some expense. I would not contract with such firms.
+1 but looks like it's to late for anything for this house..
Did you ask for 3% in closing costs and other pre-paids? Or else you can request to have your Agent compensate you for it. It is not uncommon to ask the Agent to give that back to you in the form of a rebate. It's the cost of doing business.
With your VA loan, are you having to pay a funding fee or do you have a disability that can have that waived?
I am not a fan of all these 'Fees' that are put into contracts, that the Title Companies Charge, or what the loan originator charges. You have to be careful and negotiate each one. To me, if an Agent on both sides is getting 3%, they should absorb some of these. Mainly the transaction fee.
By using a 'Major Company' a lot of those Agents are having to split the commissions with other Agents and the Broker of that company. I personally do not like that either. For example: Agents for major Real Estate Company (insert Keller Williams, ReMax, Caldwell Banker, as an example - I do not know what the splits are just stating companies that do this) works for you and finds you a home for 200K. Commission is split 3% for Buyers Agent/3% for Sellers Agent (although I have seen anywhere from 1.5% to 4%). Each one gets 6K. Now they have to split with thier company at say 70/30 or some even higher at 60/40. At 70/30 that Agent now receives 4200. If they pay the 295 they are down to ~3900. If they have to pay transaction fees of 250.00 and Error and Ommission Fees (40.00) now they are down to 3600. If the average Agent makes 10 transactions a year at the same break down they make 36K per year. Now that same Agent may pay 400 to 1000 a month for Advertising, Desk Fees, etc... You can see where the money goes.
Not bad, not great, it is what it is. It is the cost of doing business for a Real Estate Agent.
One thing that I want to add is that with the major franchise companies the agent will have one of the most important tool which is advertising. Coldwell Banker is the #1 and Remax the #2 and this means world wide exposure and marketing tools for the agent as well as an advanced training program keeping the agents up to date and getting more experience. This all cost money and is not something that is created by people who work for free.
The VA will not allow to pay this amount and the VA also doesn't allow buyers to pay for termite inspection.
Every different loan has their own rules and regulations and your agent should be able to explain it. When you child goes to school there is different charges and some make more sense then others, when you get car ins. You pay certain fees and you may think what the heck and that counts for a lot of other things.
Keep in mind that every office has to pay for employees that don't make commission and many don't make money other than the salary and the office has to pay that from the money they split with commissioned agents....if that money wouldn't come in they wouldn't be able to keep these employees and they are doing a lot of good work like inputting listings on many more agents then the average agent will put them on, prepare ads for the office for the listings, accounting, answering the phone 7 days a week, etc... Most people have no clue just like I didn't have years ago when I was on the other side.
The OP may want to look at his/her own job/work environment and think how that business will be able to exist and what kind of charges are placed on accounts.
AT&T for example had an activation fee of $18 when I started with them for any new bought phone, this week I had to pay $36 so it doubled...why? Probable due to other things in the company making them to increase it so be able to exist...do I like it "no" will I try to get it removed..."yes" but usually it will not be removed...it is called the way of being able to do business.
The government came up with the new banking rules causing banks no longer be able to charge certain fees so what did they do...then increased other fees and interest was lowered and usually mortgage fees have increased to cover the loss on the other side.
In the past couple of years the property taxes went down due to loss of property value...BUt it never went down as much as it should if you compare the value from 2005 and what you paid to what it is right now...why...? Simply because the Counties increased other fees to collect the difference.
Perhaps this makes you understand why offices have to do this to be able to keep doing business ...as Gulfer stated E&O premiums increased and some offices have been sued like Keller Williams in a very sad case of a Fair Housing tester who sued Keller Williams due to an IDX listing being on an agents website and the original agent posted a sentence that was not allowed under the Fair Housing rules. Instead of just punishing the original listing agent the agent from Keller Wiliams was sued due to this listing being shown on his website due to having IDX. The Fair Housing tester made a nice pay check and some are dong this for a living, just checking online to see where they can start a lawsuit for some easy money.
Fair Housing rules are there for a reason so don't get me wrong, but in my opinion they should only have sued the original agent who made the error or did something wrong, not something that was s just automatically populated on another persons/office website and now they are sued for it....they needed their E&O ins. which is now causing their premium to go up and also for other offices to have to pay more since these ins. Companies smell that more lawsuits can come due to that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gulfer
Did you ask for 3% in closing costs and other pre-paids? Or else you can request to have your Agent compensate you for it. It is not uncommon to ask the Agent to give that back to you in the form of a rebate. It's the cost of doing business.
With your VA loan, are you having to pay a funding fee or do you have a disability that can have that waived?
I am not a fan of all these 'Fees' that are put into contracts, that the Title Companies Charge, or what the loan originator charges. You have to be careful and negotiate each one. To me, if an Agent on both sides is getting 3%, they should absorb some of these. Mainly the transaction fee.
By using a 'Major Company' a lot of those Agents are having to split the commissions with other Agents and the Broker of that company. I personally do not like that either. For example: Agents for major Real Estate Company (insert Keller Williams, ReMax, Caldwell Banker, as an example - I do not know what the splits are just stating companies that do this) works for you and finds you a home for 200K. Commission is split 3% for Buyers Agent/3% for Sellers Agent (although I have seen anywhere from 1.5% to 4%). Each one gets 6K. Now they have to split with thier company at say 70/30 or some even higher at 60/40. At 70/30 that Agent now receives 4200. If they pay the 295 they are down to ~3900. If they have to pay transaction fees of 250.00 and Error and Ommission Fees (40.00) now they are down to 3600. If the average Agent makes 10 transactions a year at the same break down they make 36K per year. Now that same Agent may pay 400 to 1000 a month for Advertising, Desk Fees, etc... You can see where the money goes.
Not bad, not great, it is what it is. It is the cost of doing business for a Real Estate Agent.
I am not sure why you'd expect a title company to not charge for their services.
This is NOT a title insurance fee. The OP needs to go back to the realtor and ask why he was charged that fee; and ask for an itemized list of what it covered. Lots of crooks out there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gulfer
Did you ask for 3% in closing costs and other pre-paids? Or else you can request to have your Agent compensate you for it. It is not uncommon to ask the Agent to give that back to you in the form of a rebate. It's the cost of doing business.
With your VA loan, are you having to pay a funding fee or do you have a disability that can have that waived?
I am not a fan of all these 'Fees' that are put into contracts, that the Title Companies Charge, or what the loan originator charges. You have to be careful and negotiate each one. To me, if an Agent on both sides is getting 3%, they should absorb some of these. Mainly the transaction fee.
I have know problem with a Title Company charging fees, they provide a service. I have a HUGE problem with the differences that some charge for the very same service compared to other Title Companies. I understand your significant other works at one, so if I hit a nerve it was unintentional.
I've stated before that I don't want to engage with you on this Forum regardless of what name you sign in under. So please stop commenting on my posts (for the 4th time now).
I have know problem with a Title Company charging fees, they provide a service. I have a HUGE problem with the differences that some charge for the very same service compared to other Title Companies. I understand your significant other works at one, so if I hit a nerve it was unintentional.
No he doesn't...(?), but I have purchased homes many times, and dealt with RE docs, and was never charged this fee by any of the realtors I worked with.
There are many title companies in Tampa, so a buyer can shop around, and ask for their fees. However, in the past we were almost forced to work with one title company because the RE chose it, and we refused specifically because they were asking insane fees, and went with the one we chose based on what they charged for their services in comparison with the rest of the title companies around.
I am not sure why you feel the need to personally attack another poster on this forum just because they made a comment on something you said that was not accurate!? I believe there is an ignore feature here; use it. You must have me confused with someone else.
I have know problem with a Title Company charging fees, they provide a service. I have a HUGE problem with the differences that some charge for the very same service compared to other Title Companies. I understand your significant other works at one, so if I hit a nerve it was unintentional.
I've stated before that I don't want to engage with you on this Forum regardless of what name you sign in under. So please stop commenting on my posts (for the 4th time now).
Are you saying PhotoProIP is algia?
Now you make me curious and did some search....
PhotoProIP has two posts that shows as wife and husband. So, either at least there are two people using this name or one of them is acting like a man and a woman.
WTH has "poverty" to do with the ability to UNDERSTAND math?
Math is something you need to understand, and not everyone is able to understand it! I come from a background that was the opposite of "poverty" and I don't understand math at all. I am math impaired 100%. I had tutors, and brothers who were physics professor's, and none of them can explain it to me in some way that I could understand it passed basic addition and basic multiplication with a calculator. The fractions is where I was lost forever, circa 6th grade. So don't give me this crap about poverty...if someone has the "ability" to understand it they will. My daughter gets it just fine! My husband can do any math related calculation you can imagine, and he didn't even pay much attention in school, his brain picked it up because he has that ability to understand it. Just the other day it took me 40 minutes to understand that 3 times 2/3 makes 2 cups! You put a slash and I am done.
Please stop making these assumptions that "poverty" is related to someone's inability to understand something. Plenty of people with poor backgrounds have done very well for themselves, and are fantastic at mathematics.
It certainly appears to be her. Too much of the same. I didn't want to call attention to her as long as she would just leave my comments alone. A fresh start is good and needed for some. If someone gets banned from a Public Forum like this, you would think they would change the way they communicate.
I could ask a Moderator to check to see what IP address the account is logged in from, but don't want to do that. Again, I just ask that she leaves my comments alone.
What I really don't get is adults lying. Makes me shake me head.
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