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Make sure you steer clear of an agent that just offers you the lowest commission. Chances are if he can't negotiate his own commission, how is he going to negotiate the sale of your home???
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Make sure you steer clear of an agent that just offers you the lowest commission. Chances are if he can't negotiate his own commission, how is he going to negotiate the sale of your home???
Aaaah that tired old argument again
Thought realtors weren't supposed advertise themselves in the forums either.
OP - you could always speak to a discount broker if they operate in your state.
They sell for a flat fee and the property is listed on the MLS.
You'll still need to include 3% buyer's agent commission but the flat fee v 3% of sale price on the selling side might save you a lot of money.
Make sure you price the property well - check out your competition and don't be tempted to price it too high relative to comparable properties. Also make sure you find out what recent sale prices have been in your area.
Last edited by Marka; 02-05-2009 at 04:21 AM..
Reason: edited quote
There's a reason that flat fee brokers never seem to last very long. You get what you pay for. It's true in any profession. There are good Realtors and bad ones. Those of us that are good don't need to negotiate our commissions. Those willing to drop commissions to get business are usually starving for a reason.
In a nutshell: While it is, indeed, an anti-trust violation for all the brokers in an area to get together and decide on a commission that they will all charge, it is NOT an anti-trust violation of a broker to set what rate his or her agents will charge.
For the sake of example, and because the OP used 6%, we'll use that as an example.
Seller pays 6% commission.
3% goes to listing agent's broker.
3% goes to buyer's agent's broker.
If there's no buyer's agent, entire 6% goes to listing agent's broker. If there's no buyer's agent, the listing agent will be doing more of the work of getting the deal to closing, and will be taking on more of the liability.
Each 3% is then divided up between the agent and the broker, depending on their individual arrangement (it could be that the agent gets 50%, it could be they get 95%, it could be something else).
Out of that 3% comes all of the agent's expenses in marketing your home and staying in business (everything from ads to gasoline to websites to the numerous fees that are required to keep one's license active and be on the MLS and all the other hands that are out).
While negotiating for a lower fee, make sure to observe how good the agent is at negotiating for their OWN money (the fee), because that's most likely the best they'll be at negotiating for YOUR money (the sales price of the house and the various conditions of the contract).
In a nutshell: While it is, indeed, an anti-trust violation for all the brokers in an area to get together and decide on a commission that they will all charge, it is NOT an anti-trust violation of a broker to set what rate his or her agents will charge.
That's interesting THL - we found (in fact were TOLD by more than one agent) that no realtors in our area would give buyer's agent discount - and also heard (admittedly we didn't look into it further so it may just have been hearsay) that the local brokers had actually tried to sue a new broker that set up in town and was offering a buyer's agent discount.
We just went to a discount broker in a neighbouring town who did an excellent job for us.
Well, first, what you likely ran into was "market value" pricing - which is to say, prices (for anything) do tend to be relatively close together due to the way the market works naturally. Really annoying to someone who thinks they're owed a deal, but there it is. However, you did find the bargain that you were looking for, you just had to go a bit further afield, so good for you!
It's POSSIBLE that you were in a town where the brokers were all ignorant of or did not care about the fact that the Federal Government could come down on them like a hammer, but more likely that none of the brokers felt obligated to give you the discount that you were looking for. As for you 'hearing" that the local brokers had gotten together to sue a new broker that set up in town and was offering a buyer's agent discount, I would take that with a really large measure of salt. Sue under what statute, for one thing? I can't imagine that an attorney could find a statute that would even come close to fitting.
Well, first, what you likely ran into was "market value" pricing - which is to say, prices (for anything) do tend to be relatively close together due to the way the market works naturally. Really annoying to someone who thinks they're owed a deal, but there it is. However, you did find the bargain that you were looking for, you just had to go a bit further afield, so good for you!
It's POSSIBLE that you were in a town where the brokers were all ignorant of or did not care about the fact that the Federal Government could come down on them like a hammer, but more likely that none of the brokers felt obligated to give you the discount that you were looking for. As for you 'hearing" that the local brokers had gotten together to sue a new broker that set up in town and was offering a buyer's agent discount, I would take that with a really large measure of salt. Sue under what statute, for one thing? I can't imagine that an attorney could find a statute that would even come close to fitting.
Yeah we heard it from several different people actually but weren't really interested enough to find out any more about it - I wouldn't have a clue as to what law/statute etc would have been involved.
Having said that, we are in a pretty small town so I'm sure that any broker coming in and attempting to undercut the established brokers would have had a rough ride!!!!!
Just read the previous post about this being an ancient thread - hope the OP got everything sorted out
If I had contacted a realtor to show me some properties, but was not interested in any of their properties so I had sent them some MLS listings and they showed up with their "super key" are they going to charge me for this service?
If I had contacted a realtor to show me some properties, but was not interested in any of their properties so I had sent them some MLS listings and they showed up with their "super key" are they going to charge me for this service?
That would depend. Did you agree to pay them for their time & effort, regardless of whether you purchased a house? Did you sign some sort of agreement, hiring them in some capacity? Are you going to now purchase that house, and have them do some other work?
And just so you know, it's not a super key, but a Supra key. Supra is one of several companies that make the lockboxes in which we put the house keys.
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