[oomph]

I have been buying real estate for many years. I will take my chances with this guy. It would be an error in judgment to consider this guy a discount broker. He will make a sale in a couple days. I'm an all cash buyer and will bypass the REOs and short sales. There is no mystery to this process: offer, acceptance , escrow, transfer.

The big red flag is to give someone six months exclusive activity and you dont know them at all. Further, bigger offices do not necessarily translate to higher quality. They often translate to higher overhead. There is a time and a place for different strategies. thinking there is only one way is unreasonable.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by oomph

I have been buying real estate for many years. I will take my chances with this guy. It would be an error in judgment to consider this guy a discount broker. He will make a sale in a couple days. I'm an all cash buyer and will bypass the REOs and short sales. There is no mystery to this process: offer, acceptance , escrow, transfer.

The big red flag is to give someone six months exclusive activity and you dont know them at all. Further, bigger offices do not necessarily translate to higher quality. They often translate to higher overhead. There is a time and a place for different strategies. thinking there is only one way is unreasonable.

Anyone who bypasses REOs and Short sales is paying 20 a square foot too much. It is of course your right...but an accountant should be able to do the sums. It is not new and is still very consistent...non-distressed properties run over $20 per SF more than distressed.

I do agree the process seldom has great surprises for an experienced investor. I would note that I still get surprised and I have over 150 transactions.

The six months is a bit much. Most buyer broker agreements are for 30 or 60 days.

Who said bigger offices have higher quality? It is not allowed to make up your own straw man and then shoot it down. I will however assert that the better agents are often associated with the big brokerages. That is a very diferent statement if you think about it.

There are many ways to get to a deficient strategy. One, for instance, is to refuse shorts and REOs, where most of the current money is made.

[Darthfrodo]

Originally Posted by oomph

I contacted a real estate agent and she sent me a contact where she wanted me to give her exclusive right to be the only one to sell me property for six months. Note. I had to contact her twice and wait a couple days for her first response. Next she wanted me to pay her $400.00 as a flat fee for miscellaneous, but unidentified, services she would provide. After reading both these deal killers,, she went on to state if the seller paid less commission, I would make up the difference.

That's called a 'Buyers agency'. I would get a different agent if I were you. What she wants to do is eliminate the chance that you find a house yourself and cut a deal with the selling agent. By you signing that, she gets paid a commission whether you buy through her or not.

The $400?? Most agents have to pay their broker a fee for every closing, I'm guessing she's trying to get you to pay that in advance. In other states it is just paid by the realtor out of their commission since they are getting 3% just for showing you homes. They don't have advertising, or open house expenses with you, just some gas money and some time. They usually don't make you pay as a buyer.

The ridiculous statement that you have to make up the difference if the seller pays less than 3% would make me laugh in her face. That's the type of realtor you want to stay away from because they won't show you properties that pay them less than 3%. She doesn't have your best interests at heart only her profits.

[von949]

The realtor that we used about 18 months ago recent told me a disturbing story. We are Facebook "friends" and he praised my wife and myself on how easy it was for him to work with us.

My wife already had ten homes ready to look at. We looked at all ten, made an offer on two, all in one day. Bank accepted one of the offers, we closed.

Over the summer he showed a family over 80 homes. Eighty homes! Over the course of a month. They didn't put in one single offer. They ended up buying the second house they looked at during the 80 home viewing process from another realtor a month later.

I can understand why realtors are the way they are.


Sent from cell...

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by Darthfrodo

That's called a 'Buyers agency'. I would get a different agent if I were you. What she wants to do is eliminate the chance that you find a house yourself and cut a deal with the selling agent. By you signing that, she gets paid a commission whether you buy through her or not.

Not likely...that is very rare. She does not want to invest time and effort in showing you houses to have you go off and buy one from someone else. I don't use a Buyer Broker's Agreement except in some exceptional cases involving upfront payment and large blocks of time. However they are not inherently bad or anything. Just not customary. Most I have seen are for 30 or 60 days. Six months would be unreasonable

The $400?? Most agents have to pay their broker a fee for every closing, I'm guessing she's trying to get you to pay that in advance. In other states it is just paid by the realtor out of their commission since they are getting 3% just for showing you homes. They don't have advertising, or open house expenses with you, just some gas money and some time. They usually don't make you pay as a buyer.

Ahhh no. There is such a fee but it is separate. About $135 for a transaction here. The admin commission is a fee charged by the brokerage to the client. The brokerage however has no way to actually get the buyer or seller committed to paying the fee. So the gimmick is either the agent gets the client to pay the fee or the agent gets charged it.

The ridiculous statement that you have to make up the difference if the seller pays less than 3% would make me laugh in her face. That's the type of realtor you want to stay away from because they won't show you properties that pay them less than 3%. She doesn't have your best interests at heart only her profits.

I routinely make that arrangement with clients informally with no problem. It comes up if there is a FSBO or two I think the client should see. Half point short we simply eat. At a point short I am going to discuss it with the client and work something out.

[Oldwestgambler]

We never sign a Buyer-broker agreement because we don't want to be stuck with a low grade agent for 6 months or have to pay DOUBLE COMMISSIONS because I got another agent. We ran into that when we started looking and agents that pulled that just didn't get calls returned. I had one lady tell me there was a $1,400 agent fee paid through escrow on top of commission because of property values are down and an agent of her level is worth the fee. BUH HA HA HA. Yeah right, Next!

We ended up with a great agent who sold us two properties. You should always keep the right to change agents if you are not happy with their services. Why in the world would someone sign that with an agent that you have no idea is good or not? If an agent is good, their clients will be loyal. If they have to worry about losing clients, well, maybe there is a reason. Agents will always put a spin on it and try to justify how it benefits the clients. I can't see any benefits to it and I've worked as a real estate agent for years in the past. My clients were loyal without it and appreciated my good service.

[damania]

Originally Posted by Oldwestgambler

We never sign a Buyer-broker agreement because we don't want to be stuck with a low grade agent for 6 months or have to pay DOUBLE COMMISSIONS because I got another agent. We ran into that when we started looking and agents that pulled that just didn't get calls returned. I had one lady tell me there was a $1,400 agent fee paid through escrow on top of commission because of property values are down and an agent of her level is worth the fee. BUH HA HA HA. Yeah right, Next!

what do you think is going on with the $400 document storage fee?

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by damania

what do you think is going on with the $400 document storage fee?

There are no $400 document storage fees.

Any agent who tells you there is one is at the very least lying about the nature of the fee. At worst ripping you off.

[damania]

Originally Posted by lvoc

There are no $400 document storage fees.

Any agent who tells you there is one is at the very least lying about the nature of the fee. At worst ripping you off.

Ok but instead of a 50/50 commission split, what do you think is going on, vis a vis the doc storage fee?

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by damania

Ok but instead of a 50/50 commission split, what do you think is going on, vis a vis the doc storage fee?

The roots of the Nevada admin commission are buried in some legislation that required brokerages to store their documents for some years. But the present fee is simply a commission charged by the brokerage. So the commission is as agreed plus seller and buyer are charged an additional commission by the brokerage on top of the negotiated commission.

I think at this point all of the name brokerages charge an Admin Commission. The desk rental places don't.

Anyone who tells you at this point that it is a "document storage fee" is taking a very large risk. It is reasonably clear that the feds will come after a brokerage for fees charged without providing a service. They call it mortgage fraud. There is even a decision in one appeals circuit that the things, by any name, are illegal. So anyone collecting a "document storage fee" is risking great trouble.

Note that the NV Real Estate Division is pretty much out of commission at this point in time. They collect fees from agents and not much else. It is part of the smaller and more efficient NV government.