Realtor's fee to lease a home (Dallas, Plano: leasing agent, HOA, credit check)

[davekothi]

We are in the process of putting our home up for rental and invited a leasing realtor to come and give us a quote as to what they think our home would lease for. We are OK with the lease price they recommended but questioning the 1 month's fee to lease our home. I always thought this was negotiable but not 100% sure.

Any advice?

[nimbusdog]

Originally Posted by davekothi

We are in the process of putting our home up for rental and invited a leasing realtor to come and give us a quote as to what they think our home would lease for. We are OK with the lease price they recommended but questioning the 1 month's fee to lease our home. I always thought this was negotiable but not 100% sure.

Any advice?

One month is standard. You can try to negotiate, but good luck with that. In the end, it's not a ton of money for the realtor. 50% of that goes to the listing agent and 50% to the buyer's agent. And then the listing/buying agent need to give some part of that commission back to their broken. So unless it's a high-end home,there's really not a lot of money in the transaction for any one person.

[Rakin]

Leasing is a PITA and that 1% is normal. Use Craigs list or a sign in the yard and do it yourself.

Half the fee goes to the agent that brings you the tenant and there is not much money in working leases.

[TurtleCreek80]

Confirming the above. I am a landlord and have always paid the 1 mos rent to my agent, who splits with renter's agent (if there is one). If my unit were not in a high rise, I would put a sign in the yard and do it myself. IF you do it yourself, make sure you have a way to run their credit check. This is something my realtor does and it saves me a lot of heartache knowing my tenant has cash in the bank, steady job, track record of on-time payments.

[nsumner]

It really depends on the rent amount and the area the home is in. If you expect that it would rent fast, you can negotiate that rate. It is true that there is little money made by the Realtors, but there is less work involved in the marketing as well.

Naima

[davekothi]

Thanks all for your reply. The homes in our HOA are leasing and selling in under 2 weeks! Really hot market for whatever it's worth....that said, the leasing agent wants to lease it for $3200 p/m.

[smartaz]

1 month fee seems to be the standard. But there is nothing preventing negotiation with the realtor.

[Abbieisgoingtodallas]

Where is it?

[loves2read]

if homes in your neighborhood are SELLING within 2 weeks why would you want to lease it unless you are moving back to Dallas in near future...

[davekothi]

We live in North/East Plano. I'm leasing the home as I don't need to sell it to buy another home so it will be a good investment property for us. We're planning on moving closer to Addison....around Tollway and Frankford area which is in Dallas but still within the Plano ISD.